The 2026 ranges
These are base ranges for Australian high-growth tech, fintech and deep tech businesses. Equity sits on top in the senior bands and gets heavier at later stages. Treat them as guides rather than gates: a capital-heavy fintech pays at the top of a band for the same title a lean SaaS business fills at the bottom.
| Role | 2026 range and what it buys | |
|---|---|---|
| Senior Accountant | Around $140k + super | Executes well with direction. The right level while the founder or an outsourced firm still steers the function. |
| Finance Manager | $140k to $170k + super | Runs the day to day of a small function. Around $160k is where genuinely capable candidates become reachable. |
| Financial Controller | $160k to $200k + super | Owns the close, compliance and clean numbers. Assumes a bookkeeper or outsourced accounting underneath. |
| VP / Head of Finance | $180k to $240k + equity | Owns the model, the reporting frameworks and the systems that let you fundraise and scale. |
| CFO, late Series A | $275k to $325k + equity | Often a head of finance stepping up. Hungry, has built a function, will grow with the business. |
| CFO, Series B | $325k to $375k + equity | Has raised capital, led a team and sat on a board. The premium is experience rather than title. |
| CFO, Series C+ / pre-IPO | $350k to $500k+, weighted to equity | Public-company ready, with IPO, M&A or secondary experience. Priced to avoid the expensive mistakes. |
The CFO band moves the most across stages, so I broke that one out by funding stage separately here.
Where these numbers come from
There is no formal methodology behind this guide and no expensive report underneath it. The ranges come from conversations, hundreds of them, over years, with hiring managers, CFOs, candidates and finance leaders across Australia.[1] The data is self-sourced, localised and constantly updated, because it comes out of live searches rather than an annual survey cycle.[2]
That is a real limitation and I would rather say so. A conversation-led dataset is narrower than a national survey and it is weighted towards the market I actually work in: Australian startups and scale-ups making a first finance hire or a first CFO hire. Inside that market it is sharper than anything you will buy. Outside it, use something else.
Why the big benchmarking reports miss
The expensive providers have the opposite problem. They have scale and no granularity. They will not know what a finance manager in Warwick earns, or what a financial controller in the Hunter Valley is worth.[3] The same gap shows up at the top of the market: they cannot tell you what a CFO in an Adelaide deep tech startup earns, or what a head of finance in a Series A Sydney fintech is worth.[4]
Those are not edge cases. They are exactly the roles a founder is trying to price, and a national median quietly averages them away. If the guide you are reading cannot distinguish a Series A fintech from a listed manufacturer, it is not answering your question.
How to actually use a salary guide
Get the level right before you get the number right. The most expensive mistake I see is title inflation: a founder decides they need a CFO, writes the job description a CFO would want, then pays a CFO salary for work a head of finance would own. The band follows from the scope, not the other way around.
Then sanity-check the structure. Most of these roles assume support underneath them. A controller at the top of the band with no bookkeeper is a different and much harder job than the same title with transactional work handled elsewhere, and the market prices that difference even when the job ad does not mention it.
I set out how the finance function splits as headcount grows, and which role to add in what order here.
The advice is free, and deliberately so
I give away as much finance market insight as I can, without gatekeeping, through the podcast, the salary guides and the playbooks.[5] In a typical month that includes salary benchmarking so businesses attract the right calibre of candidate, help with ad writing and positioning to improve their pitch to candidates, and introductions to providers who solve problems outside finance hiring entirely.[6]
If you want a read on a specific role, ask. A range on a page is a starting point. What actually decides your search is the level, the structure underneath it and how the role is pitched, and none of that fits in a table.
Common questions
What do finance roles pay in Australia in 2026?
In Australian high-growth businesses in 2026: senior accountant around $140k plus super, finance manager $140k to $170k plus super, financial controller $160k to $200k plus super, VP or head of finance $180k to $240k plus equity, and CFO from $275k to $325k at late Series A rising to $350k to $500k and up at Series C or pre-IPO, weighted increasingly to equity. Ranges vary by sector, business complexity and location.
Where does this salary data come from?
Conversations rather than a formal survey. The ranges are built from hundreds of conversations over years with hiring managers, CFOs, candidates and finance leaders across Australia, and they are updated continuously because they come out of live searches. The trade-off is honest: the dataset is narrower than a national survey and weighted towards Australian startups and scale-ups hiring a first finance leader or first CFO. Inside that market it is sharper than a purchased report. Outside it, use something else.
Why do national salary guides give different numbers?
Because they average across listed companies, mid-market businesses and startups at once, and no real business sits at that average. Large benchmarking providers also lack local granularity: they cannot tell you what a finance manager in Warwick earns, what a financial controller in the Hunter Valley is worth, or what a head of finance in a Series A Sydney fintech commands. Those are exactly the roles founders are trying to price.
How should I use a salary guide when hiring?
Get the level right before the number. Title inflation is the most expensive mistake: deciding you need a CFO, writing the CFO job description, then paying a CFO salary for work a head of finance would own. Then check the structure, because most of these bands assume support underneath the role. A controller with no bookkeeper is a harder job than the same title with transactional work handled elsewhere, and the market prices that difference.
References
- Tom Hunter on his salary guide methodology: no formal methodology or expensive reports, relying instead on conversations, hundreds of them, over years with hiring managers, CFOs, candidates and finance leaders across Australia.
- Story Recruitment salary data is self-sourced, localised and constantly updated through thousands of conversations with founders, CFOs, SVPs of Finance and finance leaders across Australia.
- Tom Hunter on the limits of large benchmarking providers, which do not capture what a Finance Manager in Warwick earns or what a Financial Controller in the Hunter Valley is worth.
- Tom Hunter on the same gap at senior level: large providers cannot say what a CFO in a DeepTech startup in Adelaide earns or what a Head of Finance in a Series A Sydney fintech is worth.
- Tom Hunter's stated approach: give away as much finance market insight as possible, free and without gatekeeping, through the podcast, salary guides, playbooks and TomBot.
- Story Recruitment free support provided to CFOs in a recent month: salary benchmarking to attract the right calibre of candidate, ad writing and positioning support, and introductions to external providers for challenges beyond finance hiring.