Finance salaries by level in 2027: IC to VP, from 1,032 job postings

The median US Director of Finance job posting lists a $212,000 salary midpoint heading into 2027. The biggest jump on the whole finance ladder is the $56,000 step from Manager or Controller ($156,000) to Director, according to Aleph's 2027 Finance Hiring Index of 1,032 live US finance job postings.

Below Director, pay climbs steadily: $87,000 for an individual contributor, $125,000 for a senior IC and $156,000 for a manager or controller. Above it, VP and Head of Finance postings list $255,000. These are posted ranges, so they show what employers are offering, not what people end up accepting.

Bottom line: Expect about $212,000 for a US Director of Finance, $156,000 for a Controller or finance manager and $255,000 for a VP of Finance, as median posted midpoints. The Manager-to-Director promotion is worth more than any other step, and function and location can move each figure by 10% to 25%.

Finance salary by level: the 2027 ladder

Median posted pay rises at every level, and the Director step is the largest. This is the full ladder, with the median years of experience employers ask for at each level:

From Aleph's 2027 Finance Hiring Index: 1,032 US finance job postings from 511 companies on Greenhouse, Ashby and Lever, all live on October 1, 2026. Pay figures are the median midpoint of the posted salary range, across the 781 postings with a usable annual range.

We use medians throughout. A small number of very high ranges pulls the average up, so the median is the better guide to what a typical posting offers.

How much does a Director of Finance make?

A US Director of Finance posting lists a median midpoint of $212,000. The figure barely changes across finance functions at this level: Director of FP&A postings list $213,500 and Director of Accounting postings $212,000, so the two career tracks almost meet here. Tax and treasury directors post a little higher, at $226,395, though on a small sample of 11 postings.

Director is also where employers start asking for much more experience. The median requirement jumps from 6 years at Manager to 9.75 years at Director, the biggest experience step on the ladder. If you are a manager wondering why the next promotion feels so far away, that's the gap employers are pricing: a director owns decisions and a whole function rather than one workstream.

Two things move a director's offer the most:

• Location. Bay Area postings run 23% above the national median for the same level, so a Bay Area director role lands around $261,000. Chicago postings run 10% below, which puts a comparable role near $191,000.
• AI requirements. Director postings that require the hire to use AI list a median $230,400, against $200,000 for those that don't, a $30,400 gap. AI-requiring roles cluster in the Bay Area, so part of that gap is location, not the skill alone. For where those requirements show up, see which finance jobs require AI skills.

How much does a controller make?

Manager and Controller postings list a median midpoint of $156,000. By function, accounting managers and controllers post $155,000 and FP&A managers $165,250, so a finance manager on the planning side typically sees about $10,000 more than a controller at the same level.

This is also the most common level to hire for. Manager and Controller roles make up 34% of all postings, the single largest group, and accounting accounts for 56% of all openings. Companies need people to close the books every month, and the US labor market for accountants is tight: the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook projects about 115,300 openings for accountants and auditors each year through 2035.

How much does a VP of Finance make?

VP and Head of Finance postings list a median midpoint of $255,000, another $43,000 above Director. That step comes with almost no extra experience: VP postings ask for a median 10 years against 9.75 at Director. What separates the two is scope, such as owning the whole finance function, the board relationship or fundraising, rather than time served.

VP pay varies more by function than any other level. General finance and leadership roles, typically the VP of Finance who runs everything, post $303,750 on 14 postings. VP of FP&A postings list $240,000 and VP of Accounting $218,750, both on small samples. If you are the most senior finance person at a growing company, the general finance figure is the closer benchmark.

Does FP&A pay more than accounting at each level?

Yes, at most levels. Across all levels the median FP&A posting lists $160,000 against $134,000 for accounting. The gap is widest at Senior IC, where FP&A posts $140,000 and accounting $114,000, a $26,000 difference. The two meet at Director and split again at VP. If you price a senior FP&A role off a blended finance benchmark, you'll land well below what other companies are posting.

Which cities and industries pay finance roles the most?

The Bay Area pays the most, and New York sits right at the national median. Measured against the national median for the same level, finance postings run:

• Bay Area: 23% above
• New York: at the median
• Remote or US-wide: 2% below
• Washington, DC area: 2% below
• Los Angeles and Orange County: 3% below
• Chicago: 10% below
• Boston: 12% below
• Rest of the US: 17% below

By industry, finance roles at AI companies post the highest pay, 23% above the national median for their level, followed by financial services (8% above) and software and internet (6% above). Hardware and energy sit at the median, while health and life sciences (6% below), services and real estate (11% below) and consumer and media (12% below) trail. Location explains much of the AI-company premium: outside the Bay Area, AI companies post 9% below the national median, while inside it they lead at 31% above.

Worked example: pricing a senior FP&A hire

Say you're hiring a senior FP&A analyst and want a realistic range. Start with the function, not the blended ladder: the median Senior IC FP&A posting lists $140,000, against $125,000 for all Senior IC roles. Then adjust for where the role sits:

• Remote, US-wide: about 2% below national, so roughly $137,000.
• Boston: about 12% below, so roughly $123,000.
• Bay Area: about 23% above, so roughly $172,000.

Then decide whether the role requires AI. Senior IC postings that require AI list a median $138,200 against $117,500 for those that don't, so an AI-heavy analyst role should sit toward the top of your range. Finally, add bonus and equity on your own terms, because posted ranges don't include them. The point of the exercise: the same title can reasonably carry a spread of nearly $50,000 depending on function, location and skills, which is why a single blended benchmark misprices most roles.

Where are the entry-level finance jobs?

Mostly in accounting. Entry-level roles are scarce overall: individual contributor postings are only 18% of the total, 79% of postings are for senior ICs or above, and just 8% of postings with an experience requirement ask for two years or less. Accounting makes up 61% of IC postings and 42 of the 74 postings that ask for two years or less. Even IC postings that state an experience requirement ask for a median three years. If you're early in your career, accounting is where most of the doors are open, and the ladder above shows what each promotion is worth once you're in.

Why does pay jump so much at Director?

Because Director is the first level where the role is defined by the decisions it owns. Up to Manager, experience requirements rise about a year and a half per promotion and pay rises $31,000 to $38,000 per step. At Director, employers want nearly four more years of experience and pay $56,000 more, because the hire now sets the budget, owns the forecast the CEO presents and manages managers.

The Index also shows why titles matter to employers. A role that sits somewhere between Manager and Director can carry very different pay expectations depending on which title you post it under. Our post on finance team structure covers how teams typically layer these roles as they grow, and the career path to CFO walks through the moves that get people from Controller to the top job.

How do posted salaries compare with survey and government data?

Posted midpoints run higher than broad government averages because the Index skews toward venture-backed tech companies and covers open roles only. The BLS puts the median pay for financial managers at $166,570 in May 2025, a category that spans controllers, treasurers and finance directors across every industry. Our Manager and Controller figure of $156,000 sits just below that, and our Director figure well above it.

Executive compensation surveys add the part postings can't see. Benchmarkit's 2026 finance executive compensation benchmarks report total target compensation and equity for finance leaders, and find a US pay premium of 30% to 50% over EMEA, which is one reason US-only data like the Index runs higher than global surveys. Use survey data for bonus and equity, and posting data for the base range employers advertise.

What do these salary numbers leave out?

Posted ranges are a starting point, not an offer. Keep these limits in mind:

• Bonus and equity aren't included. Posted ranges cover base pay. At Director and VP, bonus and equity can be a large share of the package.
• The sample leans tech. Postings come from companies hiring on Greenhouse, Ashby and Lever, which skew toward venture-backed tech.
• The Bay Area lifts the national median. More than a fifth of postings are Bay Area roles. Outside it, most metros post below the national median, from 2% below in Washington, DC to 17% below in the rest of the US.
• Not every posting shows pay. 23% of postings didn't publish a range. In states that require a range, 88% of finance postings include one, against 46% elsewhere.

How should employers use the finance salary ladder?

Start with the work, then pick the title and price it by function and market. The Index's hiring checklist boils down to four steps:

1. Define three outcomes the hire owns in the first six months. Set the level by decision-making scope, then check that the experience ask fits it.
2. Price by level, function and location. A senior FP&A role, a Bay Area role and a remote role each need a different benchmark from the blended median.
3. Price remote roles close to national rates. Remote and US-wide postings land only 2% below the national median, because a remote role competes with employers everywhere.
4. Publish the range. It's required in a growing number of states, and it saves both sides from interviews that end over pay.

Then build the role into the plan. Our guides to AI tools for headcount planning and tracking the headcount plan against actuals cover how finance teams budget for new roles and catch hiring drift, and the free headcount planning template gives you a starting model.

How should you use it for your next career move?

Benchmark the role you want, not just the title. Compare pay for the same level, function and location, then weigh the scope: what you would own in the first six months and how success is measured. Three practical moves:

• Use the Director step as your negotiation anchor. If a role carries director-level scope under a manager title, the $56,000 gap is the argument for the higher title or the higher range.
• Show what you can do with AI. Bring one example of AI-assisted analysis and explain how you checked the output. Employers that require AI still ask for core finance skills in 88% of those postings.
• Weigh fractional work too. Experienced finance leaders increasingly run several companies at once; our fractional CFO guide covers how that model works.

Plan finance headcount with Aleph

Aleph connects your HRIS, ATS and general ledger to Excel and Google Sheets, so the headcount plan, open roles and actual payroll sit in one model that refreshes on its own. Get the full ladder, the function and location cuts and the hiring checklists in the 2027 Finance Hiring Index, see how the headcount planning solution works, or book a demo to see it on your own data.