Finance Director Job Description Template

This page provides a Finance Director job description you can copy and adapt, together with 2026 UK salary benchmarks and practical guidance on specifying the role. It is written as a working tool rather than an explainer. If you are still deciding whether the seat you need is a Finance Director rather than a Head of Finance or a Financial Controller, start with whether your business needs an FD — appointing at the wrong level is a more expensive error than any specification failure. The role is placed through our Finance Director recruitment practice.

Before you write: four decisions

Board position. Will this person be a statutory director, filed at Companies House and carrying directors’ duties, or an executive reporting to the board without a seat? Candidates read this as the clearest signal of the role’s standing, and the legal consequences differ regardless of what either does day to day. The Institute of Directors sets out what board membership entails.

What sits beneath. An FD inheriting a Financial Controller and a functioning team is doing a different job from one inheriting a bookkeeper. Describe the function as it is, not as you would like it to sound.

The corporate remit. Fundraising, transactions, lender relationships, investor reporting — how much of this is real and imminent? This is what separates an FD role from a Head of Finance role, and it determines the candidate profile more than anything else.

Trajectory. A settled board seat in an established private company, or a role expected to grow into CFO as the business scales? Ambition is a filter, and stating it attracts the right people.

The job description template

Adapt the text below; square brackets mark what to change.

Job title: Finance Director
Reports to: [Managing Director / CEO / the Board]
Direct reports: [e.g. Financial Controller, Management Accountant, FP&A Manager]
Board position: [statutory director / executive, attending board]
Location: [location and hybrid pattern]
Salary: [range] plus [bonus, equity, pension, benefits]

Purpose of the role. To lead the finance function of [business] and provide the financial leadership the board requires: owning financial strategy, capital and funding, the integrity of reporting, and the commercial challenge that improves decisions.

Key responsibilities. Own financial strategy and the long-range plan, working with [the CEO / the board] on the direction of the business. Own the budget and forecasting cycle, and the assumptions behind them. Present financial performance and outlook to the board, with commentary the board can act on. Own the relationship with [the bank / lenders / investors], including covenant reporting and facility management. Lead the finance workstream on [fundraising / acquisitions / disposals / exit preparation] as they arise. Provide commercial challenge on pricing, investment, contracts and major decisions. Own the integrity of financial reporting and the control environment, and the statutory accounts and audit relationship [where no Financial Controller sits beneath]. Lead, structure and develop the finance function so that it scales with the business. Own tax compliance and planning with external advisers. Manage risk, insurance and [where relevant] regulatory obligations. [Add as relevant: multi-entity consolidation, international operations, regulatory reporting in an FCA-authorised firm, systems change, IT or legal oversight.]

Person specification — essential. Qualified accountant — ACA, ACCA or CIMA — with post-qualification experience at Finance Director, Head of Finance or equivalent level. Proven ownership of a finance function, including the people. Demonstrable commercial impact: a decision changed, a margin improved, an investment reshaped. Experience of an external financial relationship — bank, lender, investor or auditor — owned rather than supported. Able to present to and be challenged by a board. Comfortable being hands-on: in a business of this size the FD leads and does.

Person specification — desirable. Experience in [sector]. Transaction experience — fundraising, acquisition or exit. Group or multi-entity experience. [Regulated environment experience.] Systems implementation. First-time FDs [will / will not] be considered — state this, because it materially affects who applies.

Success in the first twelve months. [Adapt:] The board receives a monthly pack it relies on, with a forecast that holds up. The [bank / investor] relationship is owned and managed proactively. The finance function has a structure, a development plan and clear accountability. [The funding process is completed / the business is measurably readier for a transaction.] [The CEO] spends materially less time on finance than before the appointment.

Finance Director salary benchmarks 2026

Bonuses of 20–40% are standard, and equity or long-term incentives are close to universal in investor-backed businesses — frequently the largest component over a hold period. Two premiums cut across the table: regulated-firm experience adds 10–15%, and genuine transaction experience lifts the upper bands materially. Fuller detail is in our Finance Director salary guide and the wider salary guides.

Writing the advert

The specification is internal; the advert is a sales document, and at this level the strongest candidates are employed and not looking. Four things improve response. Lead with the proposition — the business, the stage, what makes the role interesting — before the duties. Be specific about the state of play: “we are eighteen months from a sale process and the reporting is not ready” attracts the people who find that energising and filters those who want a tidy inheritance. Name the trajectory if there is one; the prospect of growing into a CFO seat is the single most attractive feature you can offer. And state the salary range, because withholding it costs applications from exactly the experienced candidates who will not speculate.

Common specification mistakes

Describing a Head of Finance role as an FD role. The commonest error, and it produces an appointment that under-delivers or a person who leaves. If there is no genuine board, capital or transaction work, you are describing a Head of Finance and will get better value hiring one.

The shopping list. Every finance responsibility the business has ever needed, at director level, on one salary. Write the role that exists.

Silence on the board question. Whether the appointment carries a statutory directorship is material and candidates will ask. Say so.

Understating the hands-on element. In businesses under about £40m the FD frequently builds the model, writes the board pack and does the bank presentation personally. Candidates from larger organisations may not expect that, and the mismatch surfaces in month two.

And an idealised description of the finance function. Whatever is broken will be discovered in week one. Describing it honestly attracts the people who fix things.

Assessing candidates against the specification

Four areas map to the sections above, and each needs a specific test. Strategic and commercial judgement — ask for a commercial decision they changed, in full: what the business intended, what they found, who they convinced, what happened. External capability — a funding process they led or a lender relationship they owned; this is where first-time FDs are weakest and where interviews most often fail to probe. Leadership — a function they built, someone they developed, someone they moved on. Technical credibility — how they satisfy themselves the numbers are right when they did not prepare them. Our FD interview questions guide sets out the full sequence including the scenarios that expose judgement, and what boards look for in an FD covers the assessment from the board’s side.

Frequently asked questions

Does a Finance Director have to be a qualified accountant? In UK practice, almost always — ACA, ACCA or CIMA is the market standard, and the qualification matters for credibility with auditors, lenders and the team. Does the FD have to be on the board? No, though the title implies it; where they are not, say so clearly. What is the difference between an FD and a CFO? Largely convention — FD is the British term, CFO the American one, with CFO more common in listed, PE-backed and international businesses; our guide to FD versus CFO covers it. Should we consider a first-time FD? Often yes, and it is good value where the business can support the development — riskier where the immediate demands are a fundraise or a transaction. How long does a search take? Six to twelve weeks to offer, plus notice periods that run to three or six months at this level. Can the role be fractional? Frequently — see fractional FD if the board-level need is real but not full time.