Finance director salary · base, bonus and package, 2026
What a finance director earns, in base, bonus and package
A finance director salary in 2026 runs from £89,750 to £138,000, with a median of £109,500, on Robert Half’s national figures for a permanent FD.
In London, Robert Half puts the median at £149,000.
FD Capital, citing Glassdoor, puts the UK average at £121,145.
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 a car allowance or equity sit on top.
When you hire a finance director 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
15 minutes · video or phone
Book 15 minutes to hire a finance director
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with Finance director 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
Finance director roles jobs on the board
- FractionalSyndicatedFractional Finance Director
Signature Associates · England
est £750/dayEngland - InterimSyndicatedInterim Finance Director
Pragmatic Semiconductor · Cambridge
est £1,400/day5 d/wk - InterimSyndicatedInterim Finance Director
Juro · United Kingdom
£800–£1,000/dayUnited Kingdom - FractionalSyndicatedFractional Finance Directors
PWF Associates Limited · Manchester
est £750/dayManchester
Finance director roles on the board
Fractional recruitment works differently from a permanent search — shorter, scoped by days a week, and priced on the engagement. Send a Finance director brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.
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 3.9 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 £109,500 Robert Half 2026 median salary. The full calculator below adds the months, the totals and the currency tabs.
- The fractional finance director at 2 days a week never passes permanent inside 24 months.
Our arithmetic, cumulative. Permanent = the salary’s 30% search fee in month 0, then salary ÷ 12 plus 15% employer NI each month. No published interim band for this seat, so no interim line. Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for each month.
02/ the role
What an FD does, and what sets the pay
A finance director runs the finance function: reporting, controls, cash, budgets and forecasts, and the finance team.
The ICAEW describes the CFO or FD as the most senior role in the finance function, and the financial controller as a senior role that usually reports to the CFO or FD.
For the full remit, see what a finance director does.
The title covers a wide spread of jobs.
At a small company the FD can be close to a controller’s remit; at a group, a CFO in all but name.
Most FDs are qualified accountants, through the ICAEW’s ACA or the ACCA qualification.
Company size sets the pay first.
Exec Capital’s 2026 guide puts FD base salary at £65,000–£110,000 in a business with revenue below £10m, £100,000–£160,000 at £10m–£50m and £150,000–£250,000 at £50m–£200m, where the FD is typically a board-level role.
Sector comes next.
Robert Half’s national median for a finance director in financial services is £118,750, against £109,500 across all sectors.
FD Capital puts FDs at established banks, insurers and investment managers at £180,000–£350,000 base, growth-stage tech at £120,000–£220,000 (Series B and above), professional services at £90,000–£180,000 and large charities at £70,000–£130,000.
03/ scope
How to set the pay when you hire an FD
1. Scope the seat before the salary
Write down what the role owns: month-end, controls and the audit only, or funding, banks, investors and deals as well.
A seat that faces the board and runs a refinancing is priced nearer a CFO; one that runs the ledger and the team is priced nearer a controller.
2. Choose the route
A permanent appointment suits a business that needs an FD every day: hire a finance director on that basis, or read how finance director recruitment runs.
If the work fits into part of the week, hire a fractional finance director.
If the seat is empty and needs cover now, hire an interim FD.
3. Set base, bonus and benefits together
FD Capital’s 2026 guide puts a typical SME bonus at 15–30% of base, and 40–80% for PE-backed FDs on strong performance.
It names a car allowance of £5,000–£12,000 a year, private healthcare, life assurance and income protection as standard across most FD roles.
4. Agree notice before the offer
FD Capital puts notice periods at 3–6 months for SME FDs and 6–12 months for mid-market and listed roles.
A long notice period protects the business once the FD is in post, and delays the start of the one you are hiring.
Plan the gap.
What we do on a finance 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 finance director 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 finance director: £600–£1,000 a day (FD Capital 2026).
Cost over 12 months
£83,200
104 working days · 2 d/wk · 12 mo · before tax
Fractional costs less over 12 months£75,575
Fractional finance director, 12 months£83,200
Fractional finance director, a month at 2 d/wk£6,928
Permanent finance director, same period£158,775
Fractional finance director, 12 months$110,232
Fractional finance director, a month at 2 d/wk$9,179
Permanent finance director, same period$210,361
Converted from £ at $1.3249 per £1 (Bank of England spot rate), 2 Oct 2026. A conversion, not a US market rate. Source ↗
Fractional finance director, 12 months€97,727
Fractional finance director, a month at 2 d/wk€8,138
Permanent finance director, same period€186,497
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 £109,500 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 finance director’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 · 4 roles · Finance director roles
Engagement
- Fractional2
- Interim2
Days a week
- Stated in the posting1
- Not stated3
Day rate
- Verified rate1
- Estimated (est)3
- Rate not stated0
Work arrangement (as the job feed classifies it)
- Remote1
- Hybrid1
- On-site2
Newest posting on the board: 5 Oct 2026.
Postings per week on this board, last 90 days
4 postings on this board in the last 90 days, counted by the week each was published.
07/ rates by stage
Finance director salary by source, place and company size
Permanent finance director pay as each publisher states it, all 2026. Robert Half publishes starting salary projections (base); Morgan McKinley publishes bands by years (0–3, 3–5, 5+); Exec Capital publishes base by company revenue. Glassdoor and PayScale figures are as reported by FD Capital. Robert Half, Morgan McKinley, Exec Capital 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).
On Robert Half’s £109,500 median, that is £15,675 a year (£104,500 × 15%, our arithmetic).
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.
Add the car allowance and benefits, and the package can run well past the headline salary.
09/ vetting
How we vet finance directors
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify Finance director 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/ finance director salary uk
Finance director salary UK: the national benchmarks side by side
The national figures measure different things.
Robert Half’s finance director salary UK range, £89,750–£138,000 with a median of £109,500, is a starting-salary projection.
Glassdoor’s £121,145, as reported by FD Capital, comes from 2,219 salaries people reported themselves.
PayScale’s £78,432 draws on a broader sample that includes smaller and regional businesses.
For an official view, the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings reports pay for SOC 2020 code 1131, “Financial managers and directors”.
For full-time jobs in 2025 (provisional), the median is £76,447 and the ONS mean is £120,529.
The group is wider than the FD title: it includes financial managers as well as directors, which is why its median sits below the recruiter figures.
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 FD will work.
11/ finance director salary london
Finance director salary London, and the regions
The finance director salary London employers pay sits at the top of every source.
Robert Half puts it at £122,000–£187,750, with a median of £149,000, and a London group FD at £145,250–£221,000.
Glassdoor’s London median, as reported by FD Capital, is £130,009.
Morgan McKinley puts a London FD at £80,000–£170,000 in an SME and £125,000–£200,000 in a large corporate.
Outside London, Morgan McKinley publishes bands for the South East (£90,000–£180,000), the South West (£70,000–£120,000 in an SME, £100,000–£175,000 in a large corporate) and the Northern Home Counties (£95,000–£150,000 in an SME, £90,000–£180,000 in a large corporate).
No source we can cite publishes a figure for each city.
For a role in the Midlands, the North or Scotland, start from Robert Half’s national range and adjust for the size of the business.
12/ average finance director salary
Average finance director salary, and the FD-to-CFO step
FD Capital, citing Glassdoor (February 2026, 2,219 submissions), puts the average finance director salary in the UK at £121,145.
PayScale’s average, also reported by FD Capital, is £78,432.
The ONS mean for financial managers and directors in full-time jobs is £120,529.
The step up to CFO is real but smaller than the title suggests.
Robert Half’s national median for a CFO is £176,500, against £109,500 for a finance director.
FD Capital says that where both titles exist in one organisation, the CFO commands 15–25% more than the FD in total package; in many private companies the titles are used interchangeably.
See CFO salary for the seat above.
13/ the other routes
Salary, day rate or retainer: the other ways to pay for the seat
A permanent salary buys an FD every day, with notice on both sides.
An interim is paid by the day for full-time cover over a fixed period; see interim finance director salary for the day rates.
A fractional FD works part of the week on a day rate or monthly retainer; see fractional finance director salary.
The three are paid on different bases, so compare the total cost for the days you need, not the headline numbers.
14/ questions
Finance director salary FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in a finance director.
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.
