Finance Director CV: example, skills and writing tips

Finance director CV example

The example below shows how the advice in this guide fits together. The person, the companies and all the figures are invented: use the structure, not the content, and replace every detail with your own.

Notice what makes this CV useful to a recruiter: the scope comes first (revenue, entities, countries, team), then each line shows what you led, with whom and with what result.

Job title and professional summary

Choose a title that reflects your actual role

Your CV title should state your level of responsibility and, where useful, your context. For example, when it reflects your experience:

Finance Director – mid-sized industrial group
Finance Director – finance transformation and cash management
Group Finance Director – international environment
Finance Director – fast-growing SME
Head of Finance – France and Benelux

Avoid stacking several titles just to multiply keywords. One accurate title, followed by your scope, is easier to read for recruiters and search tools alike.

Finance director, CFO, head of finance: which title fits?

Senior finance titles are used differently from one company, sector and country to another. Use the title you actually held, and let the scope underneath show your level.

Professional summary example: experienced finance director

The professional summary is three to five lines answering three questions: what scope do you lead, with which team, and which areas are you accountable for?

Finance director with 15 years’ experience, including 7 in finance leadership. Responsible for a €150m revenue scope and a finance team of 12: accounting, management accounting, treasury and reporting. Member of the executive committee.

Professional summary example: international scope

Group finance director with 12 years’ experience in international environments. Financial responsibility for 6 European subsidiaries: consolidation, budget, cash management and functional leadership of local finance teams.

Professional summary example: first finance director role

Head of finance with [X] years’ experience in [sector], applying for a first finance director role. Already responsible for budget, monthly reporting to the CEO, cash forecasting and bank relationships for a [scope] business, with a team of [X].

The figures above are illustrative. Replace them with your own and avoid abstract summaries such as “strategic, results-driven finance leader”: without facts, they say nothing about your level.

Finance director CV skills by area

A finance director’s role can span strategy, planning, cash, accounting, control, systems and people. Do not list every possible area: select those you genuinely led and that match the role, and phrase them so a recruiter can see your level of responsibility.

A skills line such as this gives little information:

Finance – Budget – Treasury – Accounting – Management

This one is far more useful:

Budget and rolling forecast · 13-week cash forecasting · Bank financing · Consolidation · ERP transformation · Team of 12

Describing your experience and achievements

At this level, recruiters look for scope, decisions and impact rather than a list of accounting tasks. For each important line, follow this order where possible:

context → your own action → tools or method → scope → result

For example: “In a €120m revenue group (context), I redesigned the closing process (action) with a shared calendar and automated reconciliations (method) across four entities (scope), bringing month-end close from working day 9 to working day 5 (result).” The figures in this sentence are illustrative.

Too vague

Financial management
Budget
Treasury
Reporting
Team management

More informative

Illustrative figures.

Finance director of a €130m revenue group, reporting to the CEO
Led a finance team of 11: accounting, management accounting and treasury
Ran the budget and quarterly forecasts with operational directors
Introduced a 13-week cash forecast and weekly working-capital review
Shortened month-end close from 9 to 5 working days

Add figures when they are accurate, useful and not confidential: revenue of your scope, number of entities and countries, team size, budget, debt or financing raised, closing deadlines, savings. You should be able to explain each one in an interview.

Achievement examples to adapt

Replace [X] and [Y] with your own verified figures, or leave the line out if you cannot support it. Many finance results are collective: state your own contribution precisely.

• Shortened month-end close from [X] to [Y] working days by [redesigning the closing calendar / automating reconciliations].
• Contributed to a [€X] working-capital improvement over [period] through [shorter DSO / inventory reduction / supplier terms], with sales and operations.
• Secured [€X] of financing for [an investment programme / an acquisition], coordinating banks and external advisers.
• Reduced overheads by [X]% over [period] through [contract renegotiation with purchasing / organisation changes].
• Led the finance workstream of an ERP rollout across [X] entities, from process design to go-live.
• Integrated the reporting, treasury and controls of an acquired company within [X] months.

Finance systems: show what you led

For a finance director, systems matter mainly through what you decided, deployed or improved, not through day-to-day use. Name the systems of your environment and your role on them:

SAP FI/CO: finance processes and reporting; finance lead for the rollout
Anaplan: budget and rolling forecast
Power BI: executive committee dashboards (revenue, margin, cash, costs)

This is more informative than:

SAP, Oracle, Anaplan, Power BI, Excel

Depending on your background, this may include an ERP (SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, Sage), consolidation or performance management software (Tagetik, Hyperion, OneStream, Anaplan, Board), business intelligence (Power BI, Tableau) or a treasury management system. Excel can stay, described by its use (financial models, scenarios), but it should not dominate the CV of a finance leader.

Education and qualifications

On your CV, use the format qualification – specialism – institution – year. For an experienced profile, education usually takes less space than your recent roles.

[Degree or qualification] – [finance / accounting / audit]
[Institution] — [year]

Backgrounds vary: business school, master’s degree in finance, accounting or audit, or a professional accounting qualification. Professional bodies differ from country to country, for example ACCA, CIMA or ICAEW in the UK, CPA in the US and Canada, or CA in India. List a professional qualification only if you hold it, and do not present a qualification from one country as equivalent to another country’s.

Qualifications are useful, but they should not hide what a finance director role is mainly about: leadership, decisions and results.

Making your finance director CV easy to read for ATS

Employers and executive search firms use recruitment software to store and search profiles. The aim is not to “beat” an ATS: it is to make sure your title, scope and areas of responsibility are extracted correctly and easy to find.

• an explicit job title, followed by your scope;
• clearly identifiable employers, sectors and dates;
• experience organised role by role, with scope stated for each;
• areas of responsibility written as text (treasury, budget, consolidation, financing);
• systems named precisely;
• qualifications stated clearly.

“Finance Director – €150m revenue – team of 12 – treasury, reporting and finance transformation” is far more explicit than “Senior finance executive”.

Tailoring your finance director CV to each job

Finance director roles differ widely: some are mainly about cash and financing, others about transformation, growth or group consolidation. Your background does not change, but you can adjust your title, summary, highlighted results and the order of your skills.

Before applying, it helps to see which elements of the job description your CV already covers and which are missing, for example cash management, consolidation or ERP experience. CVReader compares your CV with a job description and highlights the points of correspondence.

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Moving up to finance director

If you are a financial controller or head of finance aiming for a first finance director role, do not change your past job titles. Keep your real title and show how your scope has widened:

• Leadership: team size, direct and functional reporting lines, recruitment.
• Executive exposure: reporting to the CEO, presentations to the executive committee or board.
• Cash and financing: forecasts, bank relationships, financing files you prepared.
• Transformation: projects you led, from closing to systems.

Financial controller with [X] years’ experience, reporting to the CEO of a [scope] business. Responsible for closing, budget and cash forecasting, with a team of [X], and finance lead on [project].

Trained or working in France?

If your finance background is French, a few adjustments make your CV clearer to English-speaking recruiters.

French job titles and terms

“DAF” stands for directeur administratif et financier. In English, Finance Director is usually the clearest translation. In smaller French companies, the role can also cover administration, legal, HR or IT: if that was your case, say so explicitly rather than relying on the word “administratif”.

• CODIR (comité de direction): executive committee.
• Commissaires aux comptes: statutory auditors.
• BFR (besoin en fonds de roulement): working capital requirement.
• Clôture à J+5: month-end close on working day 5.
• ETI, PME: French company size categories; state revenue and headcount instead, which any reader understands.

French qualifications

Keep the French name and add a short explanation:

• DSCG – Diplôme supérieur de comptabilité et de gestion: the advanced French diploma in accounting and management, at master’s level.
• Expertise comptable: the French route to the chartered accountant profession (expert-comptable).
• Business school and university degrees (for example a master’s from a French business school or an IAE, a university management school): give the exact title and specialism.

There is no automatic equivalence between these qualifications and British, American or other ones, so do not present them as equivalent.

Mistakes to avoid and final checklist

Not stating your scope

Revenue, entities, countries and team size are what place you at the right level.

Writing a CV that is too accounting-focused

At this level, strategy, cash, leadership and performance must be visible, not only closing tasks.

Giving no results

A leadership role should show its impact whenever reliable figures exist.

Writing only “financial management”

Specify budget, treasury, financing, management accounting or consolidation.

Leaving out your relationship with the CEO and board

Executive committee membership or regular board reporting can be decisive for the level of the role, if it is real.

Claiming collective results alone

Financing, acquisitions and savings involve several people and advisers: state your own contribution.

Checklist before you apply

• My title states my level and, if useful, my context.
• My scope (revenue, entities, countries, team) appears near the top.
• My summary fits in three to five lines and contains facts, not adjectives.
• Each role shows context, my own actions, scope and, where possible, a result.
• Every figure is accurate, explainable and not confidential.
• Systems are described by what I led or used them for.
• Foreign qualifications keep their original name, with a short explanation and no claimed equivalence.
• I have brought forward what matches the job’s main focus.

Finance director CV: frequently asked questions

What skills should I put on a finance director CV?

Prioritise the areas you genuinely led and that match the role: finance leadership, budget and forecasting, cash and financing, reporting, management accounting, consolidation, internal control, team leadership and transformation projects.

Which figures should I include?

Revenue of your scope, team size, number of entities and countries, budgets, financing, working capital and performance gains give recruiters useful context, provided they are accurate and not confidential.

What is the difference between a finance director and a CFO on a CV?

Usage varies by company and country. CFO usually designates the top finance executive with a strong strategic and investor-facing role; finance director can mean the same or the head of finance of a company or division. Use the title you actually held and let your scope speak.

Should I mention executive committee membership?

Yes, if you are actually a member or attend it regularly. It helps distinguish a finance leadership role from a mainly operational one.

Is a finance director resume different from a finance director CV?

“Resume” is the usual American term; “CV” is used in the UK and much of the world. For a job application, the advice in this guide applies to both.

How long should a finance director CV be?

There is no absolute rule. Experienced finance leaders often use two pages; keep the most space for recent roles and summarise older ones.