FD stands for Finance Director, and in Australia the title covers two different jobs: a functional head reporting to a CFO, or the whole finance function in a business that has never had one. Naming which one fixes the band, the pool and the brief.
The title problem, and why it matters commercially
FD is one of the least standardised titles in Australian finance. In a large business it sits under a CFO and owns reporting, control and a defined slice of the function. In a startup or scale-up it is often the first senior finance hire the business has ever made, doing everything from the model to the board pack, with a title chosen because it sounds right rather than because it maps to a level.
That ambiguity is expensive. Title, salary and value proposition misalignment is one of the cheapest things to fix and one of the most costly to ignore. I saved a client over $25,000 in recruitment costs with a single call, by helping them adjust a Finance Manager job ad's value proposition, title and salary alignment to market conditions. Interviews were booked in four days and a candidate signed soon after. Nothing about the market changed, only the framing.
Do you need an FD, or something else?
Work from the stage, not the org chart you want to have. For early scale startups up to around 20 staff, the finance team does not need to be big, it needs agility , usually led by a hands-on Finance Manager or Financial Controller supported by a bookkeeper or an outsourced accounting firm. At that stage an FD title on the job ad buys you candidates who expect a team, and disappoints the ones who would have been great.
The two hiring moments I work on are the first finance hire, typically a Head of Finance or Financial Controller in a business with roughly 10 to 20 headcount and $5-10M ARR or less, and the first CFO at 50-plus heads and $10M-plus ARR.[1] Most FD searches at startups are really one of those two in disguise. Naming which one you are running fixes the salary band, the candidate pool and the brief in one move.
The single-product-versus-complex distinction is useful here too. A single-product SaaS business often doesn't need a full-time CFO until Series C, running on a more junior Finance Manager or Financial Controller with fractional CFO support for a long time, while complex deep tech businesses like robotics need senior finance sooner.[2] Complexity drives the timing far more than revenue does.
One finance hire does both jobs at first. As you scale, strategic and transactional finance split apart.
| FD in a large business | FD in a startup or scale-up | |
|---|---|---|
| What they own | A defined slice under a CFO: reporting, control and compliance, with a team already in place. | Everything. The model, the close, the board pack and the first hires beneath them, often with no precedent to follow. |
| What to screen for | Depth at comparable scale, technical strength, and a clean track record in similar businesses. | Whether they can think with no playbook, and whether they will do the work themselves in month one without resenting it. |
| What the title should be | Finance Director. It means something specific here. | Usually Head of Finance or Financial Controller, or a genuine first CFO. Naming it right fixes the salary band and the pool. |
How the search actually runs
The brief comes before the job description. The way I work is to sit with founders before the job description is written , crafting a brief that tells the real story of the business, including the actual environment and problems the person will walk into on day one, focused on what they need to build. At this level candidates can read a vague brief instantly, and the strong ones opt out rather than gamble on a role nobody has defined.
Then the search is a mapped approach, not an advert. When I go to market for a senior finance role I am not posting and waiting for applications, I am reaching into a network built on real relationships.[3] Behind that sits a personal network of 30,000-plus accounting and finance professionals across Australia, generating over two million views a year.[4] The benchmarks to hold any firm to: a shortlist in about five working days from the brief, around twenty-two working days from brief to signed, and 85% two-year retention on placements.[5]
The full brief-to-offer sequence for a finance director search, and the questions to ask a firm first, are set out.
What FD recruitment costs
My terms, plainly. Retained search at 18% of total remuneration with a minimum fee of 15%, and a six-month replacement guarantee on every retained placement.[6] For senior finance roles at this stage that typically lands in the region of $40,000 to $50,000.[7] If runway is the constraint, fee timing can flex: deferred payments in line with a raise , staggered fees against onboarding milestones, or fixed pricing for budget certainty.
Compare that against the real alternative, which is not a cheaper firm, it is the wrong hire. That costs the fee again, plus six to twelve months where nobody was properly running finance, plus whatever gets rebuilt. For a first senior finance hire in a VC-backed business, that second bill lands on your runway.
Where I am the wrong firm
If you are an ASX-listed or large mature business replacing an FD in an established function with a team beneath them, a large generalist executive search firm will serve you better than I will. I work almost entirely on retained and exclusive assignments in one narrow segment: Australian VC-backed startups and scale-ups making their first senior finance hire or their first CFO hire. That is a deliberate constraint, and it is why I can say on a first call when a mandate is not mine, rather than discovering it at week six.
The pay conversation splits along the same line. In a high-growth business, Series C or PE-backed, a Finance Director base typically sits at $220,000 to $260,000 with equity standard, while an ASX-listed business pays $260,000 to $300,000 under a formal incentive policy.[8] Knowing which market you are hiring in sets the band before the search starts.
If you are unsure which level the role should actually be, the stage-by-stage finance team structure is a faster answer.
Common questions
What is the difference between an FD and a CFO in Australia?
In a large business the FD sits under the CFO and owns reporting, control and a defined slice of the function, while the CFO owns capital, strategy and the board relationship. Move to a startup or scale-up and that line blurs badly, with FD often used for what is really a first senior finance hire. The useful test is stage, not title: the first finance hire typically lands at 10 to 20 headcount and $5-10M ARR or less, and a first CFO at 50-plus heads and $10M-plus ARR.
Does my startup need an FD yet?
Probably not with that title. For early-scale startups up to around 20 staff, the finance function does not need to be big, it needs agility, usually led by a hands-on Finance Manager or Financial Controller supported by a bookkeeper or outsourced accounting firm. Complexity drives timing more than revenue: a single-product SaaS business often doesn't need a full-time CFO until Series C and can lean on a Finance Manager or Financial Controller with fractional CFO support, while complex deep tech such as robotics needs senior finance much sooner.
What does FD recruitment cost?
Our retained search fee is 18% of total remuneration with a 15% minimum, and every retained placement carries a six-month replacement guarantee. For senior finance roles at this stage that typically lands in the region of $40,000 to $50,000. If runway is the constraint, the timing can flex: deferred payments in line with a raise, staggered fees against onboarding milestones, or fixed pricing for budget certainty. Compare it against the cost of the wrong hire rather than a cheaper firm.
Why does the job title matter so much?
Because it sets the salary band, the candidate pool and the expectations in one move, and getting it wrong is expensive in a way that is invisible until the search stalls. I once saved a client over $25,000 by adjusting a job ad's value proposition, title and salary alignment on a single call: interviews were booked in four days and a candidate signed soon after. Nothing about the market changed. An FD title on a role that is really a Financial Controller attracts people who expect a team and puts off the ones who would have thrived.
References
- Our focus at Story Recruitment: the first finance hire in a startup (Head of Finance or Financial Controller, 10 to 20 headcount, $5 to $10M ARR or less) and the first CFO hire (50+ heads, $10M+ ARR).
- A single-product SaaS business often doesn't need a full-time CFO until Series C; the first finance hire is a more junior Finance Manager or Financial Controller relying on fractional CFO support for a long time, while complex deep tech businesses like robotics, and often fintechs, need senior finance sooner.
- How I run a senior finance search: not posting and waiting for applications, but reaching into a network built on real relationships.
- Our Story Recruitment network: 30,000+ accounting and finance professionals across Australia, generating 2 million+ views per year.
- Our Story Recruitment benchmarks: shortlist in about 5 working days from brief, brief-to-signed average around 22 working days, and 85% two-year retention on placements.
- Our Story Recruitment commercial terms: retained search fee of 18% of total remuneration, minimum fee 15%, six-month replacement guarantee on retained placements.
- At Story Recruitment our recruitment fees average $40,000 to $50,000 AUD.
- The full comparison is in my Finance Director salary report, covering high-growth versus ASX-listed businesses.