Finance Director Job Description Template

A Finance Director is the board-level leader of a business’s finance function: accountable for financial strategy, funding and capital, the integrity of reporting and the commercial challenge that improves decisions. This page gives you a Finance Director job description you can copy and adapt, together with UK salary benchmarks and practical guidance on specifying the role. It is written as a working tool rather than an explainer; for the background, read what a Finance Director is.

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 drafting failure. FD searches are typically run with our sister firm FD Capital, while Accountancy Capital recruits the qualified finance team beneath the FD; our Finance Director recruitment page explains how the two firms work together.

Before You Write: Four Decisions

• Board position. Will this person be a statutory director, registered at Companies House and carrying directors’ duties, or an executive who reports to the board without a seat? Candidates read this as the clearest signal of the role’s standing, and the legal consequences differ whatever the day-to-day job looks like. See the note on statutory duties below.
• 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 shapes 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.

Finance Director Job Description Template

Role: 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 the board] | Location: [location and hybrid pattern] | Salary: [range — see the benchmarks below] plus [bonus, equity, pension, benefits]

Adapt the text below; square brackets mark what to change. Delete anything that is not genuinely part of the job.

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.]

Reporting lines and key relationships

The FD reports to the CEO or Managing Director and, as a director, to the board as a whole. In investor-backed businesses the FD also works closely with the investor director and, where one exists, the audit committee chair. External relationships include the auditors, the bank or lenders, tax advisers and corporate finance advisers. Internally, the FD typically leads a Financial Controller and the senior finance team; see how to structure a finance team for the layers that sit beneath.

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

• 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.

Our guide to an FD’s first 100 days shows how these objectives usually break down in the opening months.

A Note on Statutory Director Duties

If the FD will be appointed to the board as a statutory director, the job description should say so, because the appointment carries personal legal duties that an executive title does not. The general duties of directors are set out in sections 171 to 177 of the Companies Act 2006: to act within the company’s powers, to promote the success of the company, to exercise independent judgement, to exercise reasonable care, skill and diligence, to avoid conflicts of interest, not to accept benefits from third parties, and to declare interests in proposed transactions. The government’s guidance on running a limited company summarises a director’s responsibilities, and the appointment must be notified to Companies House.

For a Finance Director the duty of reasonable care, skill and diligence is judged partly against the knowledge and experience the director actually has, so a qualified accountant on the board is held to a higher standard on financial matters than a non-finance colleague. Where the company is approaching insolvency, directors must also have regard to the interests of creditors. Candidates at this level will ask about directors’ and officers’ (D&O) insurance and whether the company indemnifies its directors; cover both in the offer. The Institute of Directors publishes practical guidance on board membership. If the FD will attend board meetings without being appointed a director, state that clearly too: it is a legitimate structure, but candidates need to know which one they are being offered.

Finance Director Job Description: Variations

First Finance Director

The most common brief from owner-managed businesses is the first FD, typically at £12m–£25m revenue and often triggered by investment or by an FC already doing FD work without the title or authority. The description should say clearly what the first FD will do that the current FC cannot: usually board presentation, the lender or investor relationship, strategic planning and commercial challenge of the CEO. Without that, the search attracts strong FCs at the top of their current role rather than genuine FDs. Be explicit about how hands-on the role is and whether the FD will inherit an FC or need to hire one. Our comparison of FC vs Finance Director helps decide which hire comes first.

PE-backed Finance Director

For a PE-backed business, add: monthly reporting to the investor in the fund’s format; delivery against the investment case and value-creation plan; covenant compliance and lender reporting; leadership of the finance workstream on bolt-on acquisitions; and exit preparation, including vendor due diligence support. State the stage of the hold period, because an FD joining two years before an exit is doing a different job from one joining at completion. Packages typically include a target bonus of around 20–35% of base and, at some funds, co-investment or management equity. See what PE investors expect from a Finance Director.

Group Finance Director

For a Group FD, typically at £50m+ revenue across several entities, add: group consolidation and group statutory accounts under FRS 102 or IFRS; oversight of subsidiary finance leads and a Group Financial Controller; group treasury, intercompany funding and tax structure; and, where relevant, international operations and currency exposure. Ask for experience leading finance across multiple entities, not just reporting on them. See Group Finance Director recruitment.

Interim and fractional versions

Where the board-level need is real but not full time, a fractional Finance Director on one or two days a week over a capable FC is often the better structure. For an urgent gap, an interim Finance Director can usually be put forward within days. For either, narrow the template to the deliverables for the engagement.

Finance Director Salary Benchmarks

Typical base salary ranges for permanent UK FD roles by business context and region, with interim day rates and fractional retainers for comparison. Treat them as a starting point: sector, complexity and the bonus structure all move the number.

PE-backed FD packages typically include a target bonus of around 20–35% of base, and equity or long-term incentives are common in investor-backed businesses, often the largest component over a hold period. Regulated-firm experience typically adds a premium, and genuine transaction experience lifts the upper bands. The all-in cost of a permanent FD is well above base once employer National Insurance (15% from April 2025), pension and benefits are added; a London FD on a typical package often costs £120,000–£200,000 all-in. See the Finance Director salary guide and our 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 people who find that energising and filters out those who want a tidy inheritance. Name the trajectory if there is one; the prospect of growing into a CFO seat is one of the most attractive features 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; our Head of Finance job description may fit better.
• 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. Candidates from larger organisations may not expect that, and the mismatch surfaces in month two.
• 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.
• A reporting and control list with an FD title. If the job is close, audit and controls, it is a Financial Controller role; compare our Financial Controller job description.

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, and what boards look for in a Finance Director covers the assessment from the board’s side.

FD Searches with FD Capital

Accountancy Capital is one of the five specialist firms of FD Capital Group, alongside FD Capital, Exec Capital, NED Capital and SMF Capital. Permanent, interim and fractional Finance Director and CFO searches are typically run with FD Capital, which specialises in board-level finance appointments. Accountancy Capital then recruits the Financial Controller, Finance Manager and accountants the new FD will lead, so one brief can cover the whole function. Non-executive and audit committee appointments are handled by NED Capital (nedcapital.co.uk).

Whichever firm runs the search, the process starts with a briefing call to test the four decisions above, confirm the salary against current benchmarks and agree what the first twelve months must deliver. Fees are agreed in writing before a search starts. To brief an FD search directly, visit fdcapital.co.uk or call 0204 553 8893 and our recruitment team will route it.

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 the FD is not a statutory director, say so clearly in the job description.

What is the difference between an FD and a CFO?

Largely convention. FD is the British term and 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. It is riskier where the immediate demands are a fundraise or a transaction.

How long does a Finance Director search take?

Typically six to twelve weeks to offer, plus notice periods that often run to three or six months at this level. Interim cover can usually be found within days while the permanent search runs.