Retention risk is the defining Australian finance hiring trend of 2026, with 52% of finance professionals saying they would leave their current role today regardless of a counter-offer. Roles are also being redesigned rather than refilled: 81% pause to reassess before replacing a resignation.
Where the data comes from
I run a quarterly State of the Market report built from live data gathered across hundreds of Australian finance professionals on retention, hiring and AI adoption, plus a yearly salary guide. The Q2 2026 edition polled over 350 finance professionals on retention, hiring patience, team rebuilding and AI adoption. Every number on this page comes from that survey or from searches I have run. Where I do not have data, I have left the section out rather than borrow someone else's.
Trend one: retention risk is the story of 2026
The headline number is uncomfortable if you employ finance people. 52% of finance professionals across Australia said they would walk away from their current role today, regardless of what their employer offered to keep them. That last clause is the important part. This is not a pay problem you can counter-offer your way out of. Half the function has already decided, and money is not the lever.
Read alongside a quiet advertised market, that produces a strange shape: few visible roles, and a very large number of people willing to move for the right one. It is a market that rewards approach over advertisement, on both sides. 2025 was already tough for jobseekers, with heavy competition for fewer roles, longer interview processes and constant talk of budget constraints. The scarcity is in good roles, not in good people. The cuts behind that are measurable: a survey I ran towards the back end of 2025 found 55% of businesses had made headcount cuts of some kind in finance over the preceding 24 months. The partial exception is the VC-backed end of the market. Around 80% of VC investment goes to tech, fintech and deep tech, and businesses holding that capital are forced to hire and grow, which shelters them from broader market factors more than most.
Trend two: roles are being redesigned, not refilled
This is the biggest structural change and the least discussed. 81% of finance leaders now pause to reassess a role before replacing a resignation, with only 5% replacing like-for-like immediately. Almost nobody just backfills any more. The seat gets rethought, and often the scope changes materially before anyone is approached.
The companion behaviour is interim cover. 48% of businesses are using interim cover while continuing a permanent search for senior finance roles. Those two findings belong together: if you refuse to compromise on the permanent hire, you need the seat covered while you hold that line. The practical effect is longer, better-considered searches with someone competent in the chair, rather than a rushed replacement.
Where a role does not come back, watch where the work goes. Removing one senior finance role saves north of $200,000 immediately on paper, which is why it kept happening across every sector rather than only in tech.[1] The work itself splits in two directions. The strategic half moves up and gets absorbed by a CEO or COO on top of the day job, being board reporting, capital allocation and investor relations. The day to day moves down and is rehired at a lower salary point as a Finance Business Partner, a Senior Accountant or a Senior Analyst. The saving is real on the first budget line and the cost shows up later, in the decisions nobody senior is close enough to make.
| How finance roles used to be filled | How they are filled in 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| When someone resigns | Backfill like for like, usually within weeks. Only 5% of leaders still do this immediately. | Pause and reassess the seat first. 81% of finance leaders now do this before replacing anyone. |
| Covering the gap | Spread the work across the team and compress the search to close the gap faster. | Interim cover while the permanent search continues. 48% of businesses now do exactly that. |
| Reaching candidates | Advertise and measure response. A poor signal when candidates are applying a level down. | Direct approach into a mapped network. Where 52% would move today, the good ones are not reading ads. |
If interim cover during a permanent search is the decision in front of you, I set out when it is the right call and what it costs.
Trend three: AI is inside the function now, not next to it
86% of finance teams are engaging with AI in some form, with one-third having moved past experimentation into active implementation or full business as usual. That is a real adoption curve, not a survey artefact. What it changes for hiring is the skill mix you should be screening for, particularly at the first finance hire level.
The practical version looks unglamorous. An Australian scale-up controller refreshes their board pack every Monday with a single instruction, then checks revenue, cash and ARR against Xero and adds commentary, which removes the manual rebuild entirely. That is the shape of useful AI in finance: it collapses preparation time, it does not replace judgement. The rule worth holding a candidate to is that AI produces a first draft, not a final answer, and a qualified person checks every number and signs off anything reaching a board, investor, auditor, client or regulator, so accountability stays human.
There is a sector nuance worth naming. In banking, where credibility and trust are core, those same attributes are often the major resistance to AI implementation. Adoption in a fintech and adoption in a bank are not the same trend, and expecting a candidate from one to have the other's experience is a common screening error.
Trend four: the advertised market is the weakest signal
Job ad volumes are widely used as a market barometer and they are a poor one at senior level. Finance Manager roles have been drying up across Australia on job ad data, and the top end of the market feels quiet, yet searches still close fast when the network is there. I have delivered a shortlist of five met and assessed CFO candidates within six business hours, which does not happen from a job board or a generalist recruiter, it happens when the trust is already earned.
Candidate behaviour compounds this. Candidates have been applying for roles more junior than their previous level, moving CFO to FD, FD to FC and FC to FM, so ad response volume tells you nothing about the quality or fit of who applied. If you are planning headcount off job ad data alone, you are reading the shallowest part of the market and calling it the weather.
If the conclusion you are drawing is that you need a mapped search rather than an advert, the mechanics are set out.
What to do with this if you are hiring in 2026
Three things. Assume your current finance team is at risk and act accordingly, because half of them would leave today regardless of money. Redesign the seat before you refill it, since almost everyone else is, and interim cover buys you the time to do it properly. And hire through approach, not advertisement, because the people you want are in the 52% and they are not reading your ad.
On the search itself, hold whoever runs it to numbers: a shortlist in about five working days from the brief, around twenty-two working days from brief to signed, roughly 75% of shortlisted candidates proceeding to interview, and an 85% two-year retention rate on placements. In a market where a redesigned role costs six months to get right, retention is the only trend number that matters at the end.
One structural number to plan past 2026 with: the number of accounting students at universities has dropped by about 50% over the last ten years, which points to a tight talent pool for finance professionals over the next five to ten years. The market you are hiring in this year may be the loosest one you see for a while.
Common questions
What is the biggest hiring trend in Australian finance in 2026?
Retention risk. In our Q2 2026 State of the Market report of over 350 Australian finance professionals, 52% said they would walk away from their current role today regardless of what their employer offered to keep them. The last part matters most: this is not a problem you counter-offer your way out of. Combined with a quiet advertised market, it produces a market with few visible roles and a very large number of people willing to move for the right one.
Are businesses still backfilling finance roles?
Mostly not. 81% of finance leaders now pause to reassess a role before replacing a resignation, and only 5% replace like-for-like immediately. The seat gets redesigned, often with materially different scope, before anyone is approached. The companion behaviour is interim cover: 48% of businesses use interim cover while continuing a permanent search, which is what lets them hold their standard on the permanent hire instead of settling under time pressure.
How far has AI actually got inside Australian finance teams?
Further than most people assume. 86% of finance teams are engaging with AI in some form, and one-third have moved past experimentation into active implementation or business as usual. The useful version is unglamorous: a scale-up controller refreshing a board pack with one instruction, then checking revenue, cash and ARR against Xero and adding commentary. The rule to hold candidates to is that AI produces a first draft, not a final answer, with a qualified person signing off anything that reaches a board, investor or regulator.
Are job ad volumes a good read on the finance market?
At senior level, no. Finance Manager ads have been drying up and the top end feels quiet, yet well-networked searches still close in days. I have delivered a shortlist of five met and assessed CFO candidates within six business hours, which never comes from a job board. Candidates are also applying a level down, moving CFO to FD and FD to FC, so response volume tells you nothing about fit. Planning headcount off ad data alone reads the shallowest part of the market.
References
- What I have watched across the market over the last two years: senior finance was the biggest cost lever available, and most of the CFO and Head of Finance redundancies I saw happened in that window.