Role overview
"Finance" is three different jobs. Decide which you are actually hiring for before reviewing applicants.
- Controllership / Accounting: closes the books, manages audit, owns systems of record. Detail-oriented. Process-heavy.
- FP&A (Financial Planning & Analysis): builds the model, owns budget vs. actuals, runs forecasts.
- Strategic Finance: works on capital strategy, board materials, fundraising support, business cases.
Lean teams sometimes need someone who can do all three. Be honest about that in the JD — full-stack finance hires are rare and command premium pay.
Job criteria
- Background appropriate to the function (CPA / chartered accountant for controllership; banking / consulting / strategic finance for FP&A and strategic)
- Industry overlap (SaaS, marketplace, hardware, regulated, etc.)
- Stage overlap — Series A finance is not the same as public-company finance
- Strong Excel / Sheets modeling capability — ask for a sample
- Familiarity with the relevant systems (NetSuite, QuickBooks, Xero, Workday, Anaplan, depending on stage)
- For strategic / FP&A: a portfolio of board-grade artifacts they can talk to
What to screen for
- Function clarity. Read the resume for which of the three jobs they have actually done — not which titles they have held.
- Modeling depth. Ask for a model. Resume claims about "built financial model" mean nothing without seeing one.
- Stage match. A controller at a 2,000-person company will likely be miserable at a 30-person one, and vice versa.
- CPA / qualification rigor for controllership-leaning roles.
- Communication quality for FP&A and strategic — most of the job is translating numbers into a story for non-finance people.
Red flags
- "Finance leader" titles with no controllership or FP&A specialization arc
- No model attached / refusal to share a sanitized sample
- Resume describes activities ("managed budget") rather than outputs (variance to plan, savings, forecast accuracy)
- Heavy reliance on consultants or external accountants for activities that should be in-house
- Stage mismatch the candidate is unaware of ("scaled processes" experience that is mostly applicable to far larger companies)
Resume keywords
GAAP, IFRS, month-end close, audit, revenue recognition, ASC 606, controllership, financial reporting, FP&A, budget vs actuals, forecasting, three-statement model, cash forecasting, scenario modeling, board materials, board reporting, NetSuite, QuickBooks, Xero, Workday Adaptive, Anaplan, Mosaic
Interview questions
- Walk me through your last month-end close. What broke, and what did you change?
- Show me a model you built. Why this structure?
- Tell me about a number you got wrong in front of leadership. What happened, and what did you change next time?
- How do you size a hiring plan against a runway constraint?
- We are at <stage / industry>. Where in your career has the work shape been closest, and where is the gap?
- (Strategic / FP&A) Walk me through how you would build the next board deck for our company.