How long does it take to hire a CFO in Australia?

In the searches Tom runs, a first CFO takes about 10 to 14 weeks to an accepted offer, and a first finance hire about 8 to 10 weeks. The notice period comes on top: most strong senior finance candidates are employed and owe four weeks or more.

10 to 14 weeks for a first CFO, 8 to 10 for a first finance hire

For the two hires I work on, the numbers are specific. When the search is retained and the shortlist comes from approaching people who are not looking, a founder should expect 10 to 14 weeks from the first conversation to an accepted offer for the right first CFO. A first finance hire typically takes 8 to 10 weeks from the first conversation to an accepted offer.

The 10-to-14-week range assumes the search is run, not advertised. Most of those weeks go on mapping the market and approaching finance leaders who are not looking. If you want to see what goes into that work, I set out how a retained finance executive search runs step by step.

The five stages of a CFO search, and the one you cannot shorten

A CFO search has five stages, and only the notice period has a fixed length you cannot negotiate.

Scoping the role. The brief: what the business needs from finance now, and what it will need after the next raise. I push founders to hire for the next 24 months, not the next 24 weeks, because a brief written for today produces a CFO you outgrow by Series B. Getting this right is the cheapest week in the process. If you are still unsure the seat is a CFO at all, start with how to hire a CFO.

Sourcing. Mapping the market and approaching people who are not looking. The strongest candidates for senior finance roles are almost always employed, so sourcing is outreach and conversations, not a job board.

Interviewing and assessment. Founder, board and investor meetings, plus whatever case work the role warrants. The finance leadership interview questions I recommend keep this stage tight.

Offer and acceptance. Salary, equity and start date. Know the CFO salary range in Australia before this point, not during it. I cover the counter-offer and the last mile in closing a finance hire.

Notice period. The stage founders forget to count. Most high-quality candidates for senior finance roles are currently employed and have a notice period of four weeks or more. Your 10 to 14 weeks ends at an accepted offer, and the CFO starts after that.

If you cannot wait out a notice period, the answer is usually an interim, not a rushed permanent hire. I explain when an interim CFO makes sense.

What speeds a CFO search up, and what slows it down

The variables that move a CFO search timeline are mostly decisions the founder controls. Four come up in almost every search I run.

The start date. The start date is the variable that costs founders the most. Ask for a start inside four weeks and you lose most of the best candidates, because good people are usually employed and owe four weeks or more, as I wrote in February 2026.^[1] The search does not get faster. The shortlist gets weaker. The one place a short start makes sense is an interim role, where I will screen for candidates who can start on 1 to 2 weeks notice at most.^[2]

Sector specificity. The tighter the brief, the smaller the pool. Deep tech founders often want a CFO with prior experience in the sector, someone who already knows the R&D tax incentive, long commercialisation timelines, government grants and non-standard capital conversations. Requiring deep tech sector experience is a fair ask, but it adds time, and it is worth deciding early which of those is a must and which can be learned. The same tension shows up in a fintech CFO search.

Your own approvals. From Q3 2025 the Australian accounting and finance market noticeably slowed, with approvals taking longer, offers sometimes getting pulled, and candidates waiting weeks for decisions. The market moves in both directions, too: senior roles from $180k+ picked up again in the weeks leading into December 2025, and when that happens the good candidates have options.^[3]

Tom Hunter's view: As I said on Brewed Abroad, “once you get bigger and say you're listed or there's certain compliance requirements, then you've got so many levels of approvals. So you've got to take it to committee, take it to board, do this, do that. Where in startup land, it's often one founder or two or maybe a couple. But generally, the levels of approval are nowhere near as thorough or as many stages so they can pull the trigger pretty quick.” (Brewed Abroad, Episode 26) Get your ducks in a row before you start, “because nothing kills the interest of a candidate than unnecessary delays or indecisions because you're not ready to go.” (Olive Insights, March 2025)

How the search is run. Many CFOs and finance leaders tell me they are frustrated by the usual approach: an abundance of unscreened CVs and calls from various recruiters within two weeks of a role going up, which wastes time and damages trust before a single interview. A specialist CFO recruitment process screens candidates before a founder sees a CV, so your interview weeks are spent on people worth meeting.

Setting a timeline your board will believe

From my own searches, I tell founders to give their board 10 to 14 weeks to an accepted offer, plus the candidate's notice period of four weeks or more.

If you are still working out whether you need the seat at all, start at the guide to hiring finance leaders or browse the rest of the finance recruitment guides.

Common questions

These guides set out how we see it, drawn from the searches we run and the finance leaders we work with. They are general information about the market, not financial, accounting or legal advice, and they are no substitute for advice on your own circumstances.