Finance director pay in Australia depends on which version of the role it is. A Head of Finance version sits at $180k to $240k plus equity, a controller-weighted one at $160k to $200k plus super, and a genuine top seat prices as a CFO.
The title sits in three different places
Finance Director in a UK-influenced business often means what an Australian company would call a CFO. In a large Australian corporate it is a divisional leader reporting to a group CFO. In a startup it is usually a rebadged Head of Finance. Those are three different jobs with three different numbers, and the salary guides that average them together are the reason founders get a figure that does not match anything they see in the market.
I see the same distortion running the other way. Almost every founder I speak to is convinced they need a CFO twelve months before they actually do, and a Head of Finance often gets dressed up in a CFO title to close the gap. Finance Director is the title that usually does the dressing up. Nothing wrong with that, as long as everyone understands the number is set by the mandate, not the word.
Story recruits senior finance for Australian VC-backed startups and scale-ups, and I partner with experienced leaders across senior finance roles in exactly this band: CFO, VP and SVP Finance, Head of Finance, Finance Director and Financial Controller. The useful question is always which of those seats you are actually filling.
The 2026 Australian ranges
These are the base ranges I see land real offers in Australian tech, fintech and deep tech. Superannuation is on top at the compulsory 12% of ordinary time earnings, and equity is on top from this level upward. Where a Director of Finance role sits depends on whether it owns the function, runs a division, or is the top finance seat in the business.
| Which version of the role | 2026 base range and mandate | |
|---|---|---|
| Startup Director of Finance | $180k to $240k + equity | Effectively a Head of Finance. Owns the model, the reporting frameworks and the systems that let you fundraise and scale. The right first senior hire for most Series A businesses. |
| Controller-weighted Director | $160k to $200k + super | Title says Director, mandate is control: close, compliance, clean numbers. Legitimate, but do not pay a leadership premium for it. |
| Top finance seat, effectively CFO | $275k to $325k + equity at late Series A | Carries the board and investor relationship. Series B moves to $325k to $375k, and Series C or pre-IPO to $350k to $500k and up, weighted to equity. |
How to tell which one you are hiring
Ignore the title and look at three things: who the role reports to, whether it owns the model or just the close, and whether it carries the board and investor relationship. A Financial Controller owns accurate, timely reporting. A Head of Finance or Director of Finance owns what the business does with those numbers: the model, the reporting frameworks and the systems that let you fundraise and scale. A CFO leads all of it and carries the board.
There is also a version sitting between the table rows: the quasi-CFO, a Director of Finance carrying part of the top-seat mandate without the full title. On my calls I price that at a base of $230k onwards where the role, the STI and the business alignment are strong, and $250k as the target where they are not. That is the number for a role that is more than a Head of Finance but not yet a CFO.
The environment moves the number as much as the mandate does. Split by company type in my Finance Director salary report, a Finance Director in a high-growth business, Series C or PE-backed, typically sits at a base of $220,000 to $260,000 with equity standard, while an ASX-listed business pays $260,000 to $300,000, more for ASX 100, with long-term incentives on multi-year vesting.
The most expensive mistake at this level is writing one job that is really two. If the brief asks for strategic decision support and month-end close and payroll and reconciliations, you have written a Director of Finance and a bookkeeper stapled together. The structure that works for a business between 10 and 50 staff or $5 to $10 million revenue is a Head of Finance or Financial Controller handling strategic oversight, decision support and governance, with an accounts assistant or bookkeeper managing transactional processing.
If you are working out what sits above and below this role, the finance team structure by stage is set out.
What moves the range
Industry, size and complexity. A finance director in a capital-heavy fintech with multiple entities and a regulator is a different hire to one in a lean services business at the same revenue.
Location. Sydney leads Australia in both the volume of Finance Business Partner roles and pay, driven by demand and cost of living.[1] Melbourne typically follows, then Brisbane and Perth, with the gap narrowing as remote-friendly hiring persists.
Be wary of national benchmarking for this seat. Large providers will not accurately know what a CFO in a deep tech startup in Adelaide earns, or what a Head of Finance in a Series A Sydney fintech is worth.[2] The number you need is for your stage, your city and your actual mandate.
The band gap that costs the most money
There is a cliff between $120k to $140k and the Director of Finance band. A first finance hire at $120k to $140k gets you a senior accountant with a controller title who will execute the work well, but the founder will still be leading the finance function. Around $180k a founder can find an excellent first finance hire capable of significantly advancing the business. That $40k to $60k difference pays for a different job, not a better version of the same person.
Many founders err on the side of under-hiring here, pricing the role against current complexity rather than the complexity twelve months out, and then re-hiring because the first person could not scale. My rule is to hire for the next 24 months, not the next 24 weeks.
The Head of Finance band, which is where most Australian startup Director of Finance roles sit, is broken down.
Finance director or CFO: getting the level right first
When founders ask whether they need a CFO or a Head of Finance, my answer for most, most of the time, is still a Head of Finance. A CFO title on a job that is really function-building attracts candidates who will be bored within a year. Once the step is real, a first-time CFO moving up from a Head of style role can expect $280,000 to $300,000 plus superannuation. The gap between the two is the price of the board and capital mandate, not the title.
And whichever level you land on, the technical assessment is not the decisive one. A CFO told me about a Head of Finance who left within nine months, despite strong qualifications, because they could not win the CEO's trust or build rapport with operations. The replacement built CEO credibility in their first week and solved a long-standing operations problem in month one, using their first board pack to drive a strategic decision. Same band, entirely different outcome.
If you are deciding between a finance director and a first CFO, the signals that say the CFO seat is real are worth reading first.
What gets paid at this level
Technical capability is the entry ticket, not the differentiator. A finance professional waiting for the founder to specify what is needed is not operating strategically, they are a senior accountant with a more senior title, and that does not work at this level. The premium goes to the person who sees the next version of the role before the conversation is forced on them.
Package, not base
Quote and compare on base plus superannuation, since super is a statutory employer contribution and a base-only comparison across two Australian offers is not a comparison. Bonuses at this level are usually modest and tied to company and individual performance.
Equity is what changes the maths in venture-backed businesses, and it is the component candidates evaluate worst. Present it as a table of economic outcomes tied to your grant structure, across a range of exit scenarios, rather than as a percentage on a page. Structured correctly under the ATO Employee Share Scheme startup concessions, the taxing point can be deferred to the eventual sale. A finance leader will run that maths anyway, so do it for them credibly.
Equity is also where the candidate market is moving. ASX-listed businesses are losing finance director candidates to VC and PE-backed roles on the equity opportunity, and with equity factored in, high-growth total compensation can exceed the ASX equivalent, though the upside does not always eventuate.
Common questions
What does a Director of Finance earn in Australia?
It depends entirely on which version of the role it is. In Australian high-growth businesses in 2026, a startup Director of Finance that is effectively a Head of Finance sits at $180k to $240k base plus equity. A controller-weighted version sits at $160k to $200k plus super. Where the role is the top finance seat and carries the board, it prices as a CFO: $275k to $325k at late Series A, $325k to $375k at Series B, and $350k to $500k and up at Series C or pre-IPO.
Is a Finance Director the same as a CFO?
Sometimes, which is the problem. UK-influenced businesses use Finance Director to mean what an Australian company calls a CFO. Inside a large Australian corporate the same title usually marks a divisional leader sitting under a group CFO. Startups most often use it for a rebadged Head of Finance. Almost every founder is convinced they need a CFO twelve months before they actually do, and a Head of Finance frequently gets dressed up in a bigger title to close that gap.
How do I tell which level I am actually hiring?
Ignore the title and check three things: the reporting line, whether the role owns the model or only the close, and whether the board and investor relationship sits with it. A Financial Controller owns accurate, timely reporting. Move up a rung and a Director or Head of Finance owns what the business does with those numbers, while a CFO leads the function and carries the board. The classic error is writing one job that is really two, pairing strategic decision support with month-end close, payroll and reconciliations.
Why is there such a cliff between $140k and $180k?
Because it is a different job, not a better version of the same one. A first finance hire at $120k to $140k gets you a senior accountant with a controller title who will execute the work well, but the founder still leads the finance function. Around $180k you can find an excellent first finance hire capable of significantly advancing the business. Founders who price against current complexity rather than the complexity twelve months out frequently end up re-hiring.
Should I hire a finance director or a Head of Finance?
In most cases they are the same job under different names, so pick the title your market recognises and price the scope. A better question is whether you need that level at all, or a CFO. My answer to most founders, most of the time, is still a Head of Finance. Watch the opposite risk too, because under-hiring against today's complexity rather than what you will face in twelve months means re-hiring once the person cannot scale.
What should be in a finance director package besides base salary?
Quote and compare on base plus superannuation, since super is a statutory employer contribution and a base-only comparison is not a real comparison. Bonuses at this level are usually modest and performance linked. Equity is what changes the maths in venture-backed businesses, and it should be presented as a table of economic outcomes tied to your grant structure across a range of exit scenarios rather than as a percentage. Structured correctly under the ATO Employee Share Scheme startup concessions, the taxing point can be deferred to the eventual sale.
References
- Our market data at Story Recruitment: Sydney leads Australia in both the volume of Finance Business Partner roles and pay, driven by demand and cost of living.
- Why I benchmark the way I do: large providers will not accurately know what a CFO in a deep tech startup in Adelaide earns or what a Head of Finance in a Series A Sydney fintech is worth, so I fill that gap through direct conversations.
Head of Finance and CFO salaries in Australian startups: the data
Our Startup Finance Salary Database holds 256 sourced salary figures from 104 funded Australian startups: pay bands from the companies' own job ads, and salaries reported for the same role at the same company. Every figure links to its source.
- Head of Finance salaries (9 figures)
- CFO salaries (2 figures)
- Finance salaries in tech startups (170 figures)
- Finance salaries in deep tech startups (37 figures)
- Finance salaries in fintech startups (30 figures)
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.