CFO salary · base, bonus and package, 2026
What a CFO earns, in base, bonus and package
A CFO salary in 2026 runs from £132,500 to £220,500, with a median of £176,500, on Robert Half’s national figures for a permanent chief financial officer.
In London, Robert Half puts the median at £240,000.
Glassdoor’s UK median, as reported by FD Capital, is £161,241.
Company size and sector move the number more than the title does.
Base is only part of the package: bonus, pension, employer’s National Insurance and often equity sit on top.
When you hire a CFO through us, we send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
How a brief runswhat we undertake
- 01Brief30-MINUTE SCOPING CALLDay 0
- 02Shortlist of 3–5VETTED · RATE BENCHMARK · IR35After the brief
- 03InterviewsYOU MEET THE SHORTLISTYour diary
- 04Scoped startFIRST-MONTH OUTCOMES AGREEDYou set the date
- 05Fractional, interim and permanentIR35 POSITION SET OUTOn every brief
Shortlist3–5
In the press
Fast Company 16 leaders on when fractional C-suite hires make sense · 24 Jun 2026
Leaders disagree on when a fractional hire makes sense and when a seat needs a full-time owner. Read it before you commit to a permanent finance chief and the salary that goes with one.
15 minutes · video or phone
Book 15 minutes to hire a CFO
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with CFO candidates, their day rates and availability.
- 0115 minutes, video or phone
- 02We scope the role and the days a week
- 03A shortlist of 3–5 after the call
- 04Fractional, interim and permanent briefs
Pick a day that suits · live availability
On the board · last 3 months
CFO roles jobs on the board
CFO roles on the board
How fractional recruitment agencies compare is set out in one place, including how we work: a CFO brief and a shortlist of three to five.
01/ the cross
Where a permanent hire becomes cheaper.
Move the day rate and the days a week: the rising line is a month of part-week cost, the flat line a permanent hire’s month. Where they cross, the seat should go full-time.
At 4.7 days a week a permanent hire costs less.
Our arithmetic. Permanent a month = the salary ÷ 12 plus 15% employer NI, plus the 30% search fee spread over 12 months — the calculator’s inputs. Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for each step.
Permanent = the £176,500 Robert Half 2026 median salary. The full calculator below adds the months, the totals and the currency tabs.
- The fractional CFO at 2 days a week never passes permanent inside 24 months.
- Interim passes permanent at month 8.
Our arithmetic, cumulative. Permanent = the salary’s 30% search fee in month 0, then salary ÷ 12 plus 15% employer NI each month. Interim = the midpoint of the published interim band (£1,100 a day, FD Capital 2026) × 5 days × 4.33 weeks. Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for each month.
02/ the role
What a CFO does, and what sets the pay
A chief financial officer runs the finance function and sits on the executive team: financial strategy, planning, reporting, cash, risk, tax, funding and investor relations.
Robert Half’s description of the seat adds banking covenants and mergers and acquisitions.
For the full remit, see what a CFO does.
Most permanent CFOs are qualified accountants.
Robert Half’s description of the seat asks for the ACA or an equivalent; the ACA is the ICAEW’s chartered accountancy qualification.
Company size sets the pay first.
Robert Walters puts a CFO in a medium enterprise (50 to 250 staff, Commerce & Industry) at £120,000–£190,000, and in a large enterprise (250+ staff) at £190,000–£300,000.
ScaleWithCFO, a fractional CFO firm, publishes base salary by stage: £80,000–£120,000 at seed, £120,000–£180,000 in a growth business, £160,000–£250,000 in the mid-market and £250,000–£400,000+ at large or listed companies.
Sector comes next.
Robert Walters puts the top of the range at £364,000 in Banking & Financial Services, with Commerce & Industry topping out at £300,000.
Robert Half’s median for a financial services CFO is £177,500, against £176,500 across all sectors.
03/ scope
How to set the pay when you hire a CFO
1. Scope the seat before the salary
Write down what the role owns: reporting and controls only, or funding, investors and deals as well.
A seat that includes a fundraise or a sale needs a candidate who has done one, and the package has to reach them.
2. Choose the route
A permanent appointment suits a business that needs a finance chief every day: hire a CFO on that basis, or read how CFO recruitment runs.
If you need board-level finance for part of the week, hire a fractional CFO.
If the seat is empty and needs cover now, hire an interim CFO.
3. Set base, bonus and equity together
FD Capital’s 2026 guide puts annual bonuses at 20–50% of base at SME and private-company level, and a target of 75–100% of base for listed-company CFOs.
In a growth business, part of the package is often equity: HMRC’s Enterprise Management Incentives are the tax-advantaged share option scheme most smaller companies look at first.
4. Agree notice before the offer
FD Capital says notice periods of 6–12 months are standard for CFO contracts.
A long notice period protects the business once the CFO is in post, and delays the start of the one you are hiring.
Plan the gap.
What we do on a finance-chief brief
We recruit permanent, fractional, interim, part-time and temporary finance leaders, and non-executive directors.
We send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, and every candidate goes through our five-stage vetting first.
Roles on the board are listed on CFO jobs.
04/ the maths
What the seat costs, by the days a week
Move the day rate, the days a week and the months: the totals and the permanent comparison for the period. The curve above shows where a permanent hire becomes the cheaper seat.
The slider runs across the published band for a fractional CFO: £700–£1,400 a day (FD Capital 2026).
Cost over 12 months
£109,200
104 working days · 2 d/wk · 12 mo · before tax
Fractional costs less over 12 months£146,725
Fractional CFO, 12 months£109,200
Fractional CFO, a month at 2 d/wk£9,093
Permanent CFO, same period£255,925
Fractional CFO, 12 months$144,679
Fractional CFO, a month at 2 d/wk$12,047
Permanent CFO, same period$339,075
Converted from £ at $1.3249 per £1 (Bank of England spot rate), 2 Oct 2026. A conversion, not a US market rate. Source ↗
Fractional CFO, 12 months€128,266
Fractional CFO, a month at 2 d/wk€10,681
Permanent CFO, same period€300,610
Converted from £ at €1.1746 per £1 (Bank of England spot rate), 2 Oct 2026. A conversion, not a EU market rate. Source ↗
Our arithmetic, indicative. Permanent = the £176,500 Robert Half 2026 median salary pro rata for the same months, plus 15% employer NI, plus a 30% search fee on the annual base (UK retained search runs 25–35%, Headhunters.co.uk). Excludes pension, bonus and equity.
05/ the week
How a week divides.
The days you buy are yours; the rest of the week goes to other clients. Move the days a week in the calculator above and the week redraws.
Illustration only: one way a fractional CFO’s week can divide at 2 days a week for you. Each block is half a day.
06/ the board
What the board holds.
A read of the roles on the board on this page, counted as they stand: how each is engaged, whether the posting gives the days and the rate, and where the work happens.
On this board, last 90 days · 3 roles · CFO roles
Engagement
- Fractional3
Days a week
- Stated in the posting0
- Not stated3
Day rate
- Verified rate1
- Estimated (est)0
- Rate not stated2
Work arrangement (as the job feed classifies it)
- Remote1
- Hybrid1
- On-site1
Newest posting on the board: 5 Oct 2026.
07/ rates by stage
CFO salary by source, place and company size
Permanent CFO pay as each publisher states it. Robert Half publishes starting salary projections (base); Robert Walters publishes salary ranges from its survey; ScaleWithCFO publishes base pay by company stage. Glassdoor and Morgan McKinley figures are as reported by FD Capital. All are 2026 figures. Robert Half, Robert Walters, Morgan McKinley and FD Capital are recruiters.
08/ economics
What the salary costs the business, beyond the base
A salary is not the whole cost of an employee.
For 2026 to 2027, employer’s National Insurance is 15% on earnings above £5,000 a year (HMRC rates and thresholds).
Under automatic enrolment, the employer must pay at least 3% into a workplace pension on qualifying earnings, and those earnings include bonuses (GOV.UK).
Many schemes pay more.
The bonus is pay too.
HMRC treats a cash bonus as earnings, with PAYE tax and Class 1 National Insurance deducted through payroll, so budget employer’s National Insurance on the bonus as well as the base.
ScaleWithCFO puts the all-in cost of a £180,000 base at £225,000–£250,000 a year, once National Insurance, pension and benefits are added.
Use that as a check on your own budget, not as a rule.
09/ vetting
How we vet CFOs
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify CFO tenure, sector context and stage fit.
SOURCING - 02
Mandate fit
Match to your situation — stage, board dynamics, timing.
MATCHING - 03
Reference deep-dive
We take references ourselves, from recent past clients — real outcomes, not titles.
VERIFY - 04
Shortlist
Three to five candidates with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
SHORTLIST OF 3–5
10/ cfo salary uk
CFO salary UK: the national benchmarks side by side
The three national figures measure different things.
Robert Half’s CFO salary UK range, £132,500–£220,500 with a median of £176,500, is a starting-salary projection built from its own placements and checked against third-party vacancy data.
Glassdoor’s £161,241, as reported by FD Capital, comes from salaries people report themselves.
Robert Walters’ spread, £90,000 to £364,000, covers every region and sector it surveys.
Read any single figure as one view of the market.
The useful question is which band your business sits in: its size, its sector and where the CFO will work.
For an official view, the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings reports employee earnings by occupation.
Its groups are broader than the CFO title, so it describes finance leadership as a whole rather than this seat.
11/ cfo salary london
CFO salary London, and the regions
The CFO salary London employers pay sits at the top of every source.
Robert Half puts it at £180,250–£300,000, with a median of £240,000.
Robert Walters gives a London range of £120,000–£364,000, and Morgan McKinley, as reported by FD Capital, £120,000–£250,000.
ScaleWithCFO puts London base pay at £140,000–£200,000 in a scale-up and £200,000–£280,000 in the mid-market.
Outside London, Robert Walters publishes ranges for the South East & East of England (£140,000–£250,000), the Midlands (£130,000–£300,000), the North (£125,000–£300,000) and Merseyside (£90,000–£220,000).
A Newcastle role sits in its North band.
No source we can cite publishes a figure for each city.
For Edinburgh and Glasgow, ScaleWithCFO’s Scotland & Wales band is the nearest: £100,000–£140,000 base in a scale-up and £140,000–£200,000 in the mid-market.
None of the regional bands covers the South West, so for a Bristol role start from the national range.
12/ chief financial officer salary
Chief financial officer salary at listed companies
At a quoted company, the chief financial officer salary is public when the CFO is a director.
The directors must prepare a directors’ remuneration report for each financial year, and companies applying the UK Corporate Governance Code report against its remuneration section.
Those reports show the whole package, not just base: annual bonus, long-term incentive awards and pension.
FD Capital puts the target bonus for a listed-company CFO at 75–100% of base.
Read the reports of companies of your size and sector before you set a package for a board-level finance chief.
13/ the other routes
Salary, day rate or retainer: the other ways to pay for the seat
A permanent salary buys a finance chief every day, with notice on both sides.
An interim is paid by the day for full-time cover over a fixed period; see interim CFO salary for the day rates.
A fractional finance chief works part of the week on a day rate or monthly retainer; see fractional CFO salary, and fractional CFO cost for what an engagement costs to buy.
The three are paid on different bases, so compare the total cost for the days you need, not the headline numbers.
14/ questions
CFO salary FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in a CFO.
Book 15 minutes · shortlist of 3–5
Bring the brief. We architect the team.
A shortlist of 3–5 with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, after five-stage vetting.
