Four different jobs, one word
Before any number is useful, decide which director you are talking about. These are not seniority variations of each other, they are separate jobs with separate economics.
| Type of director | What it is and how it is paid | |
|---|---|---|
| Non-executive / board director | Fees, not salary | Sits on a board, is not an employee, and is paid director fees per annum for board and committee work. Startup boards often pay nothing and compensate with equity instead. Not comparable to an employee salary. |
| Executive / functional director | Salary + super, sometimes equity | A senior leader below the C-suite running a function, for example a finance director or operations director. This is what most people searching director salary actually mean. |
| Company director of a small business | Salary and/or dividends | An owner-operator who is a director of their own company. What they take is a structural decision, not a market rate, so it should never be read as a benchmark. |
| Professional services director | Salary + bonus, or partner equity | A grade inside consulting, advisory or accounting firms, sitting between associate director and partner. Moving from this level into a commercial role is genuinely difficult. |
The two that get confused most often are the executive director, who is an employee, and the non-executive director, who is not. A non-executive director receives fees for board work rather than a salary, and the two numbers are not comparable in any direction.
Executive director-level pay: what actually drives it
Once you have decided you mean a functional or executive director, which is what most people searching this actually mean, the drivers are the same as at any senior level. Scope, not the word on the business card.
Span and accountability. How many people report in, whether the role carries a budget or a profit and loss, and what it can decide without escalating. A director with a function and a number to hit prices differently to a director of a specialist team.
Sector, size and complexity. These are explicitly what move the ranges in the roles I place, along with location.[1] A director title in a 40-person scale-up and the same title in a listed corporate mean different things and pay differently.
Location. Sydney leads Australia in both role volume and pay, driven by demand and cost of living.[2] National medians understate Sydney and overstate everywhere else.
What is in the package. Australian roles quote base plus superannuation, so compare like for like. From this level upward in venture-backed businesses, equity becomes a real part of the offer, and it should be assessed as a table of economic outcomes tied to the grant structure rather than as a percentage on a page.[3]
Be careful which benchmark you use
Director is exactly the title where national salary datasets break down, because they cannot see scope. Large benchmarking 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.[4] With director the problem is worse, because the dataset is also blending four different jobs before it starts.
The other trap is US sources ranking for Australian searches. American director pay, equity conventions and benefits do not translate to an Australian package quoted on base plus super. If a percentile figure does not name the country, the sector and the company scale, it is not something you can budget against.
The finance director-level bands I stand behind
Story recruits senior finance for Australian VC-backed startups and scale-ups, so these are the director-level equivalents I actually see land offers in 2026. Finance rarely uses the word director in high-growth businesses; the same scope is usually titled Head of Finance, Financial Controller or VP Finance.
A Financial Controller sits at $160k to $200k plus super and a Finance Manager at $140k to $170k plus super, varying by industry, business size and complexity, and location.[1] A VP or Head of Finance sits at $180k to $240k plus equity.[5] Above that, the first genuine executive finance seat is the CFO, at $275k to $325k base plus equity at late Series A.[6]
Story partners with experienced leaders on exactly this band of roles: CFO, VP and SVP Finance, Head of Finance, Finance Director and Financial Controller.[7] If your director title sits in that group, those are the numbers to plan against.
If it is specifically a finance director you are pricing, I broke that title down against the Head of Finance and CFO equivalents here.
A note on getting the level right before the number
The most expensive version of this problem is not paying the wrong amount, it is pricing the wrong level. Founders often err on the side of under-hiring, pricing a role against current complexity rather than the complexity they will have in twelve months, and then re-hiring because the person could not scale.[8] The rule I give founders is to hire for the next 24 months, not the next 24 weeks.[9]
Title inflation runs the other way and costs just as much. Calling a role a director to make it attractive, then paying director money for manager scope, sets an expectation the business cannot meet and usually ends in an exit within the year. Get the level right, and the number follows from it.
For the full set of current Australian finance bands, the salary guide runs through them role by role here.
Common questions
How much does a director earn in Australia?
It depends entirely on which director you mean, and that is not a dodge. Non-executive board directors are paid fees rather than a salary and are not employees. Functional or executive directors are salaried leaders below the C-suite. Company directors of small businesses take a structural decision rather than a market rate. Professional services directors sit on a firm grade between associate director and partner. Averaging those four produces a figure nobody is actually paid.
What is the difference between a director and a C-suite executive?
Scope and accountability, not seniority in name only. A functional director runs a function and usually reports to a C-suite executive, while the C-suite seat carries the whole domain plus the board and investor relationship. In Australian high-growth businesses the finance ladder makes this concrete: Financial Controller at $160k to $200k plus super, VP or Head of Finance at $180k to $240k plus equity, and the first genuine executive seat, the CFO, at $275k to $325k plus equity at late Series A.
Why do director salary figures vary so much online?
Three reasons. The datasets blend four structurally different jobs under one word. They cannot see the variables that actually drive senior pay, which are span of control, profit and loss accountability, sector, company scale and location. And many of the highest-ranking sources are American, where packages, equity conventions and benefits do not translate to an Australian offer quoted on base plus superannuation. Sydney also leads Australia in both role volume and pay, so national medians mislead in both directions.
Should I use a director title to attract a stronger candidate?
Only if the scope is real. Calling a role a director and then paying director money for manager scope sets an expectation the business cannot meet, and it usually ends in an exit within the year. The opposite error is more common and more expensive: under-hiring by pricing the role against current complexity rather than the complexity you will have in twelve months, then re-hiring because the person could not scale. Hire for the next 24 months, not the next 24 weeks.
References
- Story Recruitment market data: current ranges of $140-170k plus super for a Finance Manager and $160-200k plus super for a Financial Controller, varying by industry, business size and complexity, and location.
- Story Recruitment market data: Sydney leads Australia in both the volume of Finance Business Partner roles and pay, driven by demand and cost of living.
- Story Recruitment guidance on presenting equity offers as a table of economic outcomes tied to the founder's grant structure, showing a range of exit scenarios.
- Tom Hunter on benchmarking: 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, a gap he fills through direct conversations.
- Story Recruitment 2026 finance leadership salary bands: VP / Head of Finance $180-240k plus equity.
- Story Recruitment 2026 finance leadership salary bands: late Series A CFO $275-325k plus equity.
- Story Recruitment partners with experienced leaders for senior finance roles including CFO, VP/SVP Finance, Head of Finance, Finance Director and Financial Controller.
- Tom Hunter on first finance hires: founders often err on the side of under-hiring, pricing the role against current complexity rather than anticipated complexity in 12 months, which leads to re-hiring because the initial hire could not scale.
- Tom Hunter's rule for finance hiring: hire for the next 24 months, not the next 24 weeks.