Finance role
VP Finance Search Firm
No postings. No stacks of resumes. No chasing. You interview a short list.
Financial Headhunters: Hire a VP Finance who manages your cash, board reporting, and operational systems without requiring a massive team to function.
This is what we do all day: recruit accounting, finance, banking and insurance professionals.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire.
Need someone now? Call 305-306-4829.
We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement.
- Vice President of Finance
- SVP Finance
- VP Finance and Administration
- No upfront fee
- Pay only if you hire
- Accounting, finance, banking and insurance
- We reach people who aren’t on job boards
- Replacement terms on standard searches
01
What does this hire really come down to?
A VP Finance succeeds if they translate transaction data into decisions. If your reports do not match your daily operations, you need a person who treats the general ledger as a diagnostic machine instead of a filing system. This person must identify broken accounting processes and present clear data to your board.
Some candidates hide behind large staff structures and fail when they lack that safety net. You need someone who has worked in lean companies where they are both the architect and the bookkeeper. We look for candidates who handle the closing cycle, calculate cost of goods sold, and track working capital without asking others to do the work.
You need a leader who gains the trust of your sales and operations managers. If a VP Finance cannot change the behavior of the people making business decisions, the financial reporting serves no purpose. We find candidates who have cleaned up broken data systems and worked with CEOs to manage periods of rapid growth or restricted cash.
02
What do we check before you see anyone?
- 01Ask how many days the month-end close takes and which specific manual journal entries they removed to speed it up.
- 02Review how they explain a covenant breach to a bank officer and what specific data points they included in the compliance certificate.
- 03Find out how they fixed data mapping issues during an ERP migration and which module they personally set up in the system.
- 04Check how they update cash flow projections when revenue misses budget targets and how they adjust variable spending based on that data.
- 05Ask for a specific example of how they convinced a department head to stop an inefficient spending habit using financial proof.
- 06Ask how they documented a unique accounting policy to prevent an audit finding and which specific audit test they had to explain to external reviewers.
03
Where do we find them?
We approach finance leaders at mid-sized, sponsor-backed firms where they are the most senior financial person on site. We ignore candidates from large, siloed companies who only managed one small piece of a ledger. We find people who are currently frustrated by bureaucratic rules and want the authority to fix broken internal structures.
Effective employees leave current jobs when their firm grows so large that their role becomes overly specialized. We target people who built financial systems from scratch or through periods of rapid acquisition. We look for proof of resilience, such as how they survived a sudden cash crunch or a major shift in business ownership.
04
Which hiring mistakes should you watch for?
- 01Hiring someone who expects a large team to prepare their data and failing to check if they can perform basic closing tasks when the work gets busy.
- 02When hiring, how do you verify that a candidate understands the impact of their accounting work on cash flow, rather than relying solely on their interview communication style?
- 03Believing that a high-profile company on a resume means the candidate can fix broken systems in a lean company where they must act as a one-person department.
05
The search in three steps
- 01We analyze your current reporting systems and determine exactly which accounting duties you keep and which ones the new hire will own.
- 02We call employed finance leaders at similar companies to see who has a track record of fixing real operational problems.
- 03We present people who have been checked against your specific technical tasks so your interviews test how they handle your unique business problems.
In this family
Construction contractors (GCs, CMs, subcontractors)
OpenReal estate developers, owners, REITs and homebuilders
OpenHealthcare providers (hospitals, physician groups, ASCs, senior living, behavioral)
OpenManufacturing and distribution
OpenTechnology and SaaS
OpenPrivate equity backed portfolio companies
OpenFintech and payments
OpenNonprofits and foundations
OpenGovernment contractors
OpenHospitality, restaurants and multi-unit franchise
OpenPublic companies and IPO-bound companies
OpenProfessional services firms (law, architecture/engineering, consulting)
OpenVP Finance, Venture-Backed SaaS (first finance leader)
OpenFinance Leadership
Open
How your VP Finance search runs
How does The Six-Step Search work?
One sequence, from a well-defined seat to a shortlist you can judge.
Search Calibration
We start with a call about the seat, the books, the owners and the people the hire will work with. We learn what the role must fix in the first year and what would make a candidate wrong even if the resume looks right.
You get: A written search brief: scope, must-haves, deal-breakers and the pay range, agreed with you.
Market Mapping
We map the companies and institutions where the right people already work: similar size, similar ownership, similar complexity, in your market and in others.
You get: The target list of companies and institutions we will search, reviewed with you before outreach.
Professional Contact Intelligence
We find direct ways to reach the people on the map. Most are employed and not reading job boards, so reaching them takes real research.
You get: Direct routes to people who are not on job boards, researched for your search.
Persistent Personalized Outreach
We call and write to people individually and follow up. Interest varies, so we discuss the actual opportunity rather than promising a particular response.
You get: One-to-one conversations about your actual role, followed up, never a mass email blast.
Live Candidate Qualification
We speak with every candidate before you do. We check scope, systems, reporting lines, compensation expectations, location and why they would move.
You get: Only candidates we have spoken with, checked on scope, systems, pay, location and motive.
Candidate Intelligence and Process Support
You receive a short written brief on each finalist covering what they have done, where they are thin and what they want. Then we help with interviews, references and the offer.
You get: A short written brief on each finalist, plus help with interviews, references, counteroffer risk and the offer.
Questions people ask
How quickly can you shortlist candidates?
We recruit people who are currently employed and successful in their roles. We deliver the first qualified individuals after our internal check, though we do not set artificial deadlines.
How do we assess fit?
Ask candidates to describe the most difficult reporting error they ever fixed. We provide their technical history so your time is spent testing if they can solve your specific business pain points.
What happens if a candidate gets a counteroffer?
We discover a candidate's real reason for wanting a new job during the first interview. We address the risk of a counteroffer early so it does not interfere with your job offer.
How is confidentiality handled?
We only reveal your identity to candidates after we verify they are truly interested in your business. This keeps your company plans private during the search.
How does the fee structure work?
You pay only if you hire a candidate we introduce. We put all specific terms and costs in a written contract before we start any work.
What is your guarantee?
We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement.
What don't you do?
We do not post your VP Finance job and forward whoever applies. We do not send stacks of unscreened resumes, and we do not recruit outside accounting, finance, banking and insurance.
Start a search
Tell us about the seat.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire.
We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement.
Not ready to start a search?
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What does the published pay data show?
$166,570 national annual median. SOC 11-3031: Financial Managers.
BLS reports VP Finance within a broader occupation. It does not publish separate wages for this exact title, credentials, seniority or industry. Compare the listed SOC duties with your actual role before using this range.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Released 2026-05-15. This is not a separately measured salary for this exact title.
Read the full salary guide