Finance Director
Job Description

What is a Finance Director?

The role of a Finance Director (FD) is a broad and varied role. It involves managing a business’s internal finance team, ensuring that company budgets, payments and legal obligations are met and managing monthly, quarterly, and annual forecasts.

A Finance Director collaborates with executives and directors of a business to create budgets and coordinate strategy to increase return on investment and profitability. The role is often fast-paced and multi-faceted and requires someone with an analytical and strategic mindset.

We've filled roles like this for

Finance Director Job Description

Here we provide a detailed and focused job description for the role of Finance Director:

Job Description:

As a finance director, you are responsible for making key financial, business related decisions and ensuring that budgets are met across the company. 

The candidate will be an experienced finance director with strong analytical skills, excellent communication skills, leadership ability and strategic thinking. 

Large corporation: Your role is strategic and you will be the finance director for a division rather than for the whole company. 

SME: You’ll have more control across the entire company. 

Finance Director Responsibilities

• To provide strategic financial guidance to ensure that all business objectives are met.
   
• Be a mentor and a leader to all finance staff to ensure they can carry out their responsibilities to the required standard.
   
• Contribute to the company’s overall business objectives and guide on financial strategy.
   
• Develop and monitor the operating budget to ensure financial targets are met and predict future financial trends.
   
• Implement an internal audit programme to ensure that the company complies with all financial and statutory regulations.
   
• Monitor external contracts and suppliers to ensure these are effective and deliver on service agreements.
   
• Develop all necessary policies to ensure sound financial management and control of the business.
   
• Report to management and stakeholders to provide advice and guidance on key business decisions.
   
• Train accounting staff.
   
• Produce financial reports related to budget, account payables, account receivable and expenses.
   
• Analyse market trends and competitors.
   
• Access, manage and minimize risk.

Working Hours

You’ll be scheduled to work 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday and you should be willing to put in some extra time when there are big projects ongoing or deadlines.

Finance Director Skills and Experience

Integral to a business’s finance team, a Finance Director should have:

Skills

• Strategic thinking / analytical mind
• Communication skills
• Negotiation skills
• Commercial & business awareness
• Keen eye for details
• Time conscious
• Problem solving skills
• Teamwork & collaboration skills
• Project management skills
• Sound IT skills

Experience

• Senior level accountancy experience
• Managerial experience
• Knowledge of the industry

Finance Director Qualifications

In order to hire the most suitable candidate for a Finance Director role, they must hold specific qualifications, including:

• A degree in the following fields will be advantageous to start out in your career: Accountancy or finance, economics, mathematics, business studies, management.
   
• Most FD’s will be fully qualified or nearly-qualified accountants. As part of your career progression towards FD, you will be qualified in one of the major six chartered accountancy body qualifications:
   
  • Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)
  • Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA)
  • Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy (CIPFA)
  • Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW)
  • Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (ICAI)
  • Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland (ICAS)

Finance Director Salary

Usually determined by experience, qualifications and company size, a Finance Director in the UK currently earns between:

Trainee: £18k - £25k

Once qualified: £28k - £45k

With several years experience £55k - £100k or even more

Download our salary guide now to benchmark your HR salary.

Where can I advertise a job for a Finance Director?

There are a few major sites that you can advertise on in order to hire a Finance Director. At Four Recruitment however, we work directly with businesses looking to recruit and can advertise job openings on our site. Candidates can visit our site and view our current job listings, then go through us with their application process.
 

How can I recruit for a Finance Director?

We can help you to recruit a qualified and professional Finance Director. You can outsource your hiring and ensure that the most appropriate candidate joins your team. 

If you are interested in having us support your recruitment efforts, contact us today to learn about how we can help.

Let us do the hard work