Head of finance roles in Australian high-growth businesses sit at $180k to $240k plus equity in 2026. It slots between a financial controller at $160k to $200k plus super and a first CFO, starting around $275k to $325k plus equity at late Series A.
The 2026 range
Our 2026 finance leadership salary bands put a VP or head of finance at $180k to $240k plus equity in 2026. That places the role above a financial controller at $160k to $200k plus super, and below a first CFO, which starts around $275k to $325k at late Series A. For most Series A businesses the head of finance is the right first senior hire, and it is the level founders most often get wrong in both directions. Where the package leans on equity, the tax treatment is worth understanding before you make the offer: the ATO sets out how employee share schemes are taxed, including the concessions available to start-ups. The plan mechanics behind that equity line are standard across the market: vesting over four years with a one-year cliff, from an employee pool that typically sits at 10 to 15% of total equity, as set out in our equity and ESOP guide for founders.[1]
Within that band, the offers I actually see accepted cluster tighter than the range suggests. First finance hire roles at this level fill from as low as $180k up to $250k, but the sweet spot where client and candidate meet is $200k to $220k plus super. And the top of the band is a real boundary: at $250k a candidate is in the ballgame of first-time CFOs, competing against people who have held a head of finance or deputy CFO style role before, so the brief has to justify the number.
National benchmarking data will not help you much at this level. The large providers do not know what a head of finance in a Series A Sydney fintech is worth, or what a CFO in an Adelaide deep tech startup earns. Those roles are priced by a small market of people who are actually placing them, and the ranges move faster than an annual survey can track.
| Level | 2026 range and what the mandate actually is | |
|---|---|---|
| Financial Controller | $160k to $200k + super | Owns the integrity of the reporting: the close, compliance and clean numbers. Builds and runs the function. |
| VP / Head of Finance | $180k to $240k + equity | Owns what you do with the numbers: the model, reporting frameworks and the systems that support a raise. Proactive rather than responsive. |
| CFO, late Series A | $275k to $325k + equity | Carries the board and investor relationship as well as the function. Often a head of finance stepping up into the seat. |
If the role you are pricing is really about owning the close and the compliance rather than the model, it is a controller, and I set out that band separately.
What separates a head of finance from a senior accountant
This is the distinction that decides whether the salary is worth paying, and it is behavioural rather than technical. A senior accountant looks for direction and executes well when asked. A head of finance pulls founders into meetings, explains the implications before a decision is made, makes unsolicited recommendations, and actively educates the founder on what the numbers mean.
A finance professional waiting for the founder to specify what they need is not operating strategically. They are a senior accountant with a more senior title, and at head of finance level that does not work. The founders who get the most from this hire look for someone two steps ahead, proactively flagging the risks nobody has considered yet, a behaviour Ben Watiwat, SVP Finance at Immutable, described from the other side of the desk. If you are interviewing and the candidate is only answering questions rather than telling you what you should be thinking about, you have your answer.
The two-jobs-in-one trap
Most high-growth businesses misunderstand what a head of finance is for. They expect strategic oversight while the same person also handles accounts payable, reconciliations, month-end close and payroll. That is not a head of finance role, it is two jobs in one. The brief reads as senior, the salary is priced as senior, and the day to day is mostly transactional.
The structure that works for a business of ten to fifty people, or $5m to $10m revenue, is a head of finance or controller handling strategic oversight, decision support and governance, with an accounts assistant or bookkeeper managing the transactional processing. Pair the senior hire with support underneath and the salary makes sense. Ask one person to do both and you will either lose them within the year or never attract them in the first place.
I set out how the finance function actually splits as headcount grows, and which roles to add in what order.
Why founders get this level wrong
It is rarely carelessness. Founders often cannot assess what good looks like for a first finance hire because they are deep in growth, product and the technology they are building. So the job description gets written on guesswork, sometimes by asking an AI what a head of finance at their stage should cost. The number that comes back is an average across a market the business does not sit in, and the scope is a wish list rather than a role.
The fix costs nothing: decide whether you need someone to build and run the function or to shape what you do with it, and write that down before anyone argues about a number. Every founder I have watched overpay at this level did it because the scope was still vague when the offer went out.
Common questions
How much does a head of finance earn in Australia?
A VP or head of finance sits at roughly $180k to $240k plus equity in Australian high-growth businesses in 2026. It slots between two neighbours: a financial controller below at $160k to $200k plus super, and a first CFO above, starting around $275k to $325k plus equity at late Series A. Where a role lands inside the band depends on whether the mandate is genuinely strategic or largely reporting and compliance with a senior title attached.
What is the difference between a head of finance and a financial controller?
A controller owns the integrity of the numbers: the close, compliance and reporting you can rely on. Everything downstream of those numbers belongs to a head of finance, which means the model, the reporting frameworks and the systems that let you fundraise and scale. Building and running the function is the controller's job; shaping the decisions that come out of it is not, which is why the band sits roughly $20k to $40k higher.
What should I look for in a head of finance interview?
Look for someone who is two steps ahead. A senior accountant waits for direction and executes well when asked. Someone operating at head of finance level will not wait: they pull you into the conversation before a decision is made, explain the implications, make recommendations you did not ask for, and flag risks you had not considered. Watch for a candidate who only answers the questions you put to them rather than telling you what you should be thinking about, because that is usually a level below the title.
Can a head of finance also do the bookkeeping and payroll?
Not sustainably, and expecting it is the most common mistake at this level. A brief that asks for strategic oversight plus accounts payable, reconciliations, month-end close and payroll is two jobs in one. Businesses of ten to fifty people solve this by splitting the work: put a head of finance or controller on the strategic side and hand transactional processing to an accounts assistant or bookkeeper.
Should a Series A startup hire a head of finance or a CFO?
For most Series A businesses the head of finance is the right first senior hire. The CFO mandate, carrying the board and investor relationship alongside the function, usually does not have enough real work in it until later. Hiring a CFO too early means paying $275k and up for work a head of finance would own at $180k to $240k, and the role can look thin to a strong candidate.
References
- Our equity and ESOP guide for founders is written by Alexey Mitko of CoVentures, who built the ESOPs at Eucalyptus.