Head of Finance Career Path: Routes In and Out

Head of Finance is the least standardised senior title in UK finance and, for that reason, the most interesting career question. It can be a Financial Controller with wider scope, a Finance Director without the board seat, or a genuine destination in a business that will never need an FD. Which of those you are stepping into determines whether the role is a platform or a plateau — and most people work that out only after they have accepted it. This guide covers the routes in, what the seat actually requires, and where it leads.

It is written mainly for candidates — Financial Controllers, Finance Managers and FP&A leads weighing a first Head of Finance role, and current Heads of Finance thinking about the next move — though employers designing the role will find the same questions useful. Salary figures are consistent with our published guides and reflect what we see on live assignments; treat them as directional rather than survey results.

Why the title varies so much

Head of Finance exists where a business has outgrown a Financial Controller but has not created a Finance Director role — or has decided it does not want one. That produces three quite different jobs sharing a title, and our guide to what a Head of Finance does sets them out in full. In career terms the distinction that matters is this: does the role own the external relationships and the commercial challenge, or does it own the function?

A Head of Finance who owns the bank, presents to the board and challenges commercial decisions is doing an FD’s job and building an FD’s record. One who owns the close, the team and the audit is building a Financial Controller’s record with a better title — which is entirely respectable, and a weaker platform for the next move than the title suggests.

That is worth establishing before you accept the role rather than eighteen months in. The single most revealing question is who currently owns the bank relationship, and whether it will transfer to you. If it transfers, you are building an FD record and the seat is a platform. If it stays with the CEO or the founder, you are building a Financial Controller record with more scope — which may be exactly what you want, but you should know it going in.

The routes in

From Financial Controller. The most common route by a distance. The gap to close is rarely technical — it is external capability and commercial standing. A Financial Controller who has owned an audit relationship, presented to a board and been involved in a funding conversation is ready; one who has done none of those will find the first year uncomfortable. Our guide to FC versus Head of Finance covers the difference, including how far the two salary ranges overlap.

From Finance Manager. Possible in a smaller business, where the Finance Manager already runs the whole function and the Head of Finance title recognises a widening of scope rather than a change of job. In larger businesses the usual sequence is Finance Manager to Financial Controller first, because the control, audit and statutory ownership that a Head of Finance is assumed to have is built in the FC seat. Our guide to moving from Finance Manager to Financial Controller covers that step. A Finance Manager going straight to Head of Finance should expect to be tested hardest on year-end and audit leadership.

From FP&A or business partnering leadership. Less common and increasingly viable, particularly in businesses where the commercial half of the role dominates. What usually needs adding is control and statutory depth — someone who has never owned a balance sheet or an audit will be exposed at year-end, however strong the planning capability. Our FP&A career path guide covers where that route branches.

From a smaller FD role. A sideways move that is frequently upward in substance: an FD in a £10m business moving to Head of Finance in a £60m one takes on more scale, more team and more complexity, often with more money, in exchange for the title.

From practice, occasionally. Rare and usually via a Financial Controller role first, because the operational and leadership dimensions are what practice does not provide. Senior managers from practice with strong client-facing experience bring the external capability that many FCs lack, but need time running a month-end and a team in industry before the step makes sense. Our guide to moving from practice to in-house covers the first move.

What the seat actually requires

Four capabilities, and the second is where most first-time Heads of Finance are weakest.

Ownership of the function — the close, the controls, the statutory cycle, the team. Assumed rather than tested at interview, but it is the foundation.

External capability — the bank, the auditors, the advisers, and in investor-backed businesses the sponsor. In an FC role these usually sit above you; as Head of Finance they are yours, and there is nobody to escalate to. This is the single biggest adjustment.

Commercial standing — the ability to challenge a commercial decision with evidence and hold the position. Without an FD above you, if you do not do it nobody will.

And leadership of a function rather than a team — structure, development, succession, and deciding what finance should stop doing. Our Head of Finance interview questions guide covers how employers test each, and the Head of Finance job description template shows how they are usually written into the role.

A readiness checklist

Before applying for a first Head of Finance role, it is worth being able to answer yes to most of these:

• Have you led an audit end to end, as the auditors’ main contact?
• Have you presented financial results to a board or leadership team yourself, rather than sending the pack?
• Have you been involved in a bank facility, refinancing or funding conversation?
• Have you challenged a commercial decision with numbers and changed the outcome?
• Have you managed managers, or restructured a team?
• Are you professionally qualified — ICAEW, ACCA or CIMA?

Gaps are normal; the first three are the ones employers probe hardest, and the ones worth closing deliberately in your current role.

Where it leads

To Finance Director or CFO. The most common progression, and the seat is a good platform provided the role included the external and commercial dimensions. What typically needs adding is transaction experience — a fundraising, an acquisition, a disposal — which is the credential that most reliably separates FD candidates from Head of Finance candidates. If your role has no transaction in prospect, that is worth addressing deliberately: get involved in the diligence when one arrives, or accept that the move may need to be to a business where one is coming. Our FC to FD guide and route to CFO map the wider progression. The FD role often brings a statutory directorship, with the legal duties set out on gov.uk — a real change in accountability, not just title. Director-level searches across the group are typically run by our sister firm FD Capital.

To a larger Head of Finance role. Frequently better money and more complexity without the board exposure — a legitimate choice, and one many people make deliberately once they have decided a board seat is not what they want.

To Chief Operating Officer. A less common but real exit, usually in owner-managed or investor-backed businesses where the Head of Finance has already taken on operational responsibilities — IT, HR, facilities, supply chain or contract management — because there was nobody else to own them. Where that happens and the business values it, the move to COO can follow naturally. The credential that matters is a record of running something other than finance and improving it; a purely finance-focused Head of Finance rarely makes the jump directly.

To a portfolio or fractional career. Increasingly common at this level. Someone who has run a finance function end to end in a mid-sized business is exactly what smaller businesses buy on a part-week basis, and the transition is covered in our guide to the portfolio FD career. Our fractional Finance Director page explains how those engagements are usually structured. Practically, a portfolio career works best for people with a strong network, at least one anchor client, and the temperament to manage several businesses’ deadlines at once.

Or it stays. The under-discussed outcome. In a business that will never need an FD, Head of Finance is the top of the finance function and can be held for many years. That is a good career if it is chosen; it is a frustrating one if it was assumed to be a stepping stone.

The plateau risk

The honest warning. A Head of Finance in a stable, non-transacting business with no FD above them can accumulate years without accumulating the record that opens the next move. The work is real and often demanding, but if there is no funding, no transaction, no board challenge and no structural change, the CV after four years looks much like it did after one.

Three things worth doing about it, none of which requires leaving. Seek the external exposure deliberately — ask to lead the bank review, present at the board rather than sending the pack. Own a change project: a systems implementation, a restructure, a first consolidation. And benchmark yourself annually against what FD roles are asking for, rather than against your own progress. Our guide to what boards look for in an FD is a useful checklist to measure against.

The people who stall at this level are rarely the ones who lacked capability. More often they assumed the next step would follow from time served rather than from the specific things a board looks for. If you have done all three of the above and the business still offers nothing new, our guide on when to change finance jobs helps frame the decision. A move into an investor-backed business is one of the more reliable ways to gain transaction exposure quickly; a finance career in a PE-backed business sets out what that involves.

What it pays

Taken together, Head of Finance in London typically runs from about £68k to £120k, overlapping heavily with larger Financial Controller roles because scope sets pay more than title does. The first step to FD is often modest — a first FD above a Financial Controller in a £10m–£25m business typically earns £95k–£130k in London — but the ceiling is far higher, with Group FDs of multi-entity businesses at £145k–£205k. That widening range is part of why the transaction credential matters so much. Benchmarks are in our Head of Finance salary guide and FD salary guide. Qualification — ICAEW, ACCA or CIMA — is effectively universal at this level.

For those choosing the portfolio route, a fractional FD working two days a week in London typically earns the equivalent of about £57k–£99k a year from one client, and interim FDs in London typically command £600–£1,100 a day. Several clients together can match or exceed a permanent package, though with less certainty.

For employers: designing a Head of Finance role that attracts the right people

The strongest candidates read a Head of Finance brief for one thing: whether the role is a platform. If you want ambitious people, say clearly who will own the bank and auditor relationships, whether the role attends the board, and what change or transaction is on the horizon. If the honest answer is that the role is primarily about running the function well, say that too — it will attract candidates who want exactly that and stay. Ambiguity attracts the wrong applicants and loses the right ones. Our Head of Finance recruitment page covers how we run these searches; permanent shortlists typically follow within one to two weeks, and fees are agreed in writing before a search starts.

Frequently asked questions

Is Head of Finance more senior than Financial Controller?

Usually, in the sense that a Head of Finance typically reports to the CEO or MD and owns more of the external relationships. But the titles overlap and the pay ranges overlap heavily; what matters is the scope of the specific role.

How long does it take to go from Head of Finance to FD?

There is no fixed timescale. Progression depends far more on whether the role gives you board exposure, external ownership and transaction experience than on years in post.

Do I need to be qualified to become a Head of Finance?

In practice, yes. Almost every Head of Finance appointment we see requires an ICAEW, ACCA or CIMA qualification, and employers rarely make exceptions at this level.

Can a Head of Finance move into a COO role?

Yes, where they have already taken on operational responsibilities beyond finance and improved them. It is more common in owner-managed and investor-backed businesses than in large corporates.

Is a fractional career realistic straight from Head of Finance?

For someone who has run a function end to end, yes — that is precisely what smaller businesses buy. The practical hurdles are winning the first clients and managing an uneven income while the portfolio builds.