Finance director job description: duties, skills and template

A finance director job description sets out what the person who runs a company's finance function will own: planning and budgets, reporting and controls, cash, risk, and the finance team. A good one also says who the role reports to, which decisions it makes, and what success looks like in the first year, so the right senior finance people apply and the wrong ones self-select out.

TL;DR

• A finance director owns budgeting, forecasting, reporting, controls, cash flow and the finance team, and advises the CEO or CFO on decisions.
• A strong finance director job description has six parts: role summary, reporting line, responsibilities, skills, qualifications, and pay and benefits.
• Most finance director roles ask for a degree in finance or accounting, a CPA, ACA, ACCA or CIMA, and 7 to 10 years of experience with team leadership.
• A finance director runs the finance function from the inside. A CFO usually faces investors, lenders and the board, and a controller runs accounting and the close.
• BLS puts the median pay for financial managers at $166,570 (May 2025), with 10% job growth expected from 2025 to 2035.
• Scope the role to your company type: a scaleup, a mid-market firm, an enterprise division and a nonprofit need different duties.
• Test every skill you list with a finance test, an Excel modeling task and a structured interview, then compare candidates on scores.

What does a finance director do?

A finance director leads the finance function and makes sure the business has accurate numbers, enough cash and a plan it can afford. The role sits above the controller and finance managers, and reports to the CEO, the managing director or, in larger groups, the CFO.

Day to day, the work falls into five areas:

• Planning and budgets: Builds the annual budget and rolling forecasts with department heads, then tracks spend against them.
• Reporting: Owns monthly, quarterly and annual reporting for leadership and the board, in line with GAAP or IFRS.
• Controls and compliance: Sets internal controls, runs the audit, and keeps tax and regulatory filings on time.
• Cash and risk: Manages cash flow, banking relationships, working capital and financial risk.
• People: Hires, leads and develops the finance team, including controllers, accountants and analysts.

In smaller companies the finance director often covers HR, IT and office operations too. In UK companies, the title is often a board seat and close to what a US company calls a CFO, so check which version you mean before you write the posting.

What should a finance director job description include?

A finance director job description should include six parts: a role summary, the reporting line and team size, the main responsibilities, the required skills, the qualifications and experience, and the pay, benefits and work setup. Most postings that rank today stop at a duty list. The reporting line and first-year goals are what senior candidates look for first.

1. Role summary: Two or three sentences on why the role exists now (growth, a fundraise, a new ERP, an audit issue).
2. Reporting line and team: Who the finance director reports to and how many people report in.
3. Responsibilities: Six to nine duties, written as outcomes, not tasks.
4. Skills: The technical and leadership skills you will test.
5. Qualifications: Degree, professional certification and years of experience, with "required" and "preferred" kept separate.
6. Pay and setup: Salary range, bonus, equity, location and hybrid rules. Some US states and cities require a pay range in the posting.

If you need the short version, start from the director of finance job description template and add the reporting line and goals from this guide.

Finance director job description template

Copy this finance director job description template and replace the bracketed parts. Keep the duties you can test and cut the ones that do not apply to your business.

Job title: Finance Director

Reports to: [CEO / Managing Director / CFO]. Direct reports: [Financial Controller, FP&A Manager, X accountants]

Role summary: [Company] is looking for a finance director to lead our finance team as we [grow into new markets / prepare for a funding round / move to a new ERP]. You will own budgeting, forecasting, reporting and controls, keep cash and risk in check, and give the leadership team the numbers they need to make decisions.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the annual budget and monthly rolling forecast with department heads.
• Deliver accurate monthly management accounts and quarterly board reporting within [X] working days of month end.
• Set and test internal controls, and run the annual external audit.
• Manage cash flow, working capital, banking relationships and covenants.
• Build financial models for pricing, hiring plans and investment decisions.
• Keep tax, payroll and regulatory filings accurate and on time.
• Choose and improve finance systems, including the ERP and reporting tools.
• Hire, coach and lead a team of [X], and set clear goals for each person.
• Work with sales, operations and HR leaders on targets, headcount and spend.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in accounting, finance or economics.
• CPA, ACA, ACCA or CIMA qualification.
• [7 to 10] years in finance, including [3+] years leading a team.
• Strong knowledge of [GAAP / IFRS], audit and internal controls.
• Advanced Excel and financial modeling, plus experience with [NetSuite / SAP / Oracle].
• Clear communicator who can explain numbers to people outside finance.

Nice to have:

• Experience in [industry], with fundraising, M&A or an ERP rollout.
• An MBA.

What we offer: [Salary range], [bonus], [equity], [benefits], [location and hybrid policy].

[Company] is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applicants of every background.

What skills and qualifications should a finance director have?

A finance director needs strong accounting and reporting knowledge, financial planning and modeling skills, cash and risk management, and the leadership to run a team and advise the CEO. Most employers also ask for a finance or accounting degree, a professional certification, and 7 to 10 years of experience.

Technical skills:

• Financial reporting under GAAP or IFRS, and the month-end close
• Budgeting, forecasting and variance analysis
• Financial modeling in Excel or a planning tool
• Cash flow, treasury and working capital management
• Internal controls, audit and tax compliance
• ERP and reporting systems such as NetSuite, SAP or Oracle

Leadership skills:

• Leading and developing a finance team
• Explaining numbers to non-finance leaders and the board
• Making trade-offs under time pressure
• Integrity and sound judgment with sensitive data

O*NET's profile for treasurers and controllers lists Excel, SAP, NetSuite and QuickBooks among the most common tools in the job. Its survey of employers shows an even split: 48% say new hires need a bachelor's degree and 48% say a master's degree. For most finance director roles, a certification and a track record count for more than a second degree.

Key takeaway: Ask for the certification and the leadership experience the role needs, and treat the MBA as a nice to have. A long list of degrees narrows your pool without telling you who can do the work.

How is a finance director different from a CFO or financial controller?

A finance director runs the finance function from the inside, a CFO sets financial strategy and faces investors, lenders and the board, and a financial controller runs accounting, the close and controls. In many mid-market companies the finance director is the most senior finance person, and the controller reports to them.

If the job is mostly about raising money and talking to investors, you are hiring a CFO. Compare the CFO job description and the financial controller job description before you pick a title, so the posting reaches the right level of candidate.

How should the job description change by company type?

A finance director job description should change with the company's stage, because the same title covers very different jobs. A scaleup needs someone who builds systems and prepares for a fundraise. A mid-market firm needs control and forecasting. An enterprise division needs reporting to group, and a nonprofit needs grants and board work.

Senior leadership roles change the same way. For roles the finance director will work with closely, see the managing director job description and, for nonprofits, the executive director job description.

Pro tip: Write the first-year goals into the role summary, for example "close the books in eight working days" or "lead our first external audit". Senior candidates use goals like these to judge whether the job fits them.

How much does a finance director earn?

Finance director pay in the US usually sits between about $120,000 and $170,000 in base salary, before bonus and equity, and rises with company size, industry and location. Figures vary by source because each one defines the role and the pay differently.

• BLS: The BLS financial managers profile reports a median of $166,570 a year in May 2025 for the wider group of financial managers, with about 65,600 openings a year and 10% growth expected from 2025 to 2035.
• Robert Half: The 2026 Salary Guide from Robert Half puts the midpoint starting base salary for a US director of finance at $170,250.
• Indeed: Indeed's employer guide lists an average of $119,870 a year for a director of finance, based on salaries reported on its site.

Put a real range in the posting. Senior candidates compare offers on pay first, and some US states and cities now require a range in the posting.

What should you leave out of a finance director job description?

A finance director job description should leave out long lists of every task in the department, vague phrases like "rockstar" or "fast-paced", hard filters that do not predict performance, and any wording that signals a preference for age, gender or another protected group.

• Every task in the department: Twenty bullets bury the five outcomes that matter. Keep six to nine.
• Years as the only filter: "15+ years" screens out strong people and says nothing about skill. Pair a range with what they must have done.
• Age-coded words: "Recent graduate" or "digital native" can discourage older applicants. The EEOC's guidance on prohibited practices says a job ad that shows a preference for or discourages people in a protected group is illegal, and it gives "recent college graduates" as an example.
• Software you do not use: List the ERP and tools you actually run, not every system the candidate might have seen.

How do you test the skills in the job description?

The skills in a finance director job description are best tested with a short role-based assessment, a practical modeling or reporting task, and a structured interview scored against the same criteria for every candidate. That way each duty in the posting maps to evidence, not to how well someone talks about their resume.

For the interview, agree on the questions and scoring before the first call and use an interview scorecard so every interviewer rates the same things. Ask about real decisions: a forecast that missed, a control that failed, a time they told the CEO no.

The finance function is changing fast, which raises the bar for this hire. According to Gartner's 2025 survey of 183 finance leaders, reported by CFO Dive, 59% of finance teams now use AI, and data literacy and technical skills are the biggest barriers to doing more. Test for systems and data skills, not only accounting knowledge.

Hire your next finance director on proof

Testlify turns your finance director job description into a role-based assessment. Pick from 3,500+ tests, including finance, reporting, Excel modeling and leadership tests, or let the AI test builder create one from your job description in under a minute. Add your own case questions with 25+ question types, keep results fair with 20+ proctoring checks, and get a ranked shortlist before the first interview.

Browse the Testlify test library or see how teams in the financial industry hire with Testlify. You can start a 7-day free trial, no credit card needed.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)