Last updated: June 23, 2026
VP of Finance Staffing & Executive Search
A VP of Finance runs the engine room, the close, the forecast, the controls, the team that turns your numbers into decisions. KORE1 runs targeted executive searches that put a proven finance leader in that seat, not a title that reads well on a resume.
Last updated: June 23, 2026
VP of Finance staffing is the targeted executive search and placement of senior finance leaders who run a company’s day-to-day financial operations, the layer that sits between the controller and the CFO. KORE1 recruits proven VPs of Finance who own the close, build the FP&A engine, and keep the books clean enough to raise on, get audited, or sell.
Most companies call us after the search has already gone quiet. The person who can actually run finance for a 200-person business isn’t scrolling job boards on a Tuesday night. They’re heads-down somewhere else, closing the month, and the recruiter notes they never open are stacking up in a folder. Reaching that person takes someone who already knows them.
That part is the whole job. We’ve placed accounting and finance talent since 2005, and a VP of Finance search is where two decades of those relationships earn their keep, because the right name usually comes from a conversation we can already have, not a list we bought last week.
Why a VP of Finance Search Doesn’t Work Like a Normal Hire
A weak accountant costs you a slow close. A weak VP of Finance costs you a year, plus the audit finding nobody saw coming and the controller who quits three months in because the new boss can’t run a meeting. Cash forecasting, controls, hiring, board reporting, all of it routes through this one seat. Get it wrong and you feel it in every monthly package and every line your bank questions. The bill comes due slowly.
The strong ones are also hard to pry loose. A good finance leader is employed, trusted, and halfway to a promotion already. They don’t answer cold pitches, and they don’t move for a title bump. You probably know that, because you’ve likely tried to run this search yourself before calling anyone.
KORE1 has placed finance and technology talent for two decades, and our executive search practice grew straight out of that work. When we open a VP of Finance search, we’re calling people we’ve known for years. A few of them we first placed as senior analysts. We also know the tell, the gap between someone who managed a finance team on the org chart and someone who actually rebuilt one that was on fire.
What a VP of Finance Owns, and Where It Sits Between Controller and CFO
Think of finance leadership as three rungs. The controller owns the books, clean records, a close that lands on time, GAAP-compliant financials. The CFO owns strategy, capital, the board, the story the company tells investors. The VP of Finance owns the middle and the most operational rung of the three, the place where reporting, FP&A, controls, and the finance team all come together and actually run.
It’s an inward, build-and-operate seat. A CFO decides where the company is going financially. The VP of Finance makes sure the machinery gets it there, with numbers the CFO can take to the board without flinching. At a small company one person wears every hat. As the org grows the rungs split, and then they have to move together. Demand for the whole layer keeps climbing, with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projecting financial manager roles to grow much faster than average through 2034.
Most searches break on one bad assumption, that there’s a single VP of Finance you can copy from whatever company hired well last year. There isn’t. The VP who stands up first real FP&A at a Series B is a different animal from the one defending a budget across five business units at a PE-backed manufacturer. Drop the wrong profile into the wrong seat and it shows up by the second board meeting. Every time. If the rung you actually need is a step down, our finance manager staffing practice covers that one.
What Two Decades of Placement Buys You
Our finance placements are still in the seat a year later. For a leader who owns your close and your controls, that’s the number that actually counts.
Founded in 2005. Plenty of the finance VPs we call today are people we first placed as analysts and managers years back.
From Southern California to Texas to the Northeast corridor, plus fully remote finance leadership searches.
IT, engineering, healthcare IT, accounting and finance, digital and creative, HR, biomedical, and light industrial.
What We Screen Every VP of Finance Candidate For
Titles oversell. We verify each of these through scenario interviews, reference checks with people who reported up to the candidate, and a hard look at what their team produced and how clean it was.
The Close & Controls
Can they run a clean, fast monthly close? We get specific on cycle times, the controls they built, and what their last audit actually turned up.
FP&A & Forecasting
Budgets are easy to draw and hard to hit. We look for leaders whose forecasts held up and who can defend a number to a skeptical board.
Team & Process Leadership
A VP of Finance runs people, not just spreadsheets. We dig into who they hired, who they promoted, and who stuck around because of them.
Capital & Stakeholder Fluency
Lenders, auditors, investors, the board. We test for leaders who can sit across from any of them and hold the room without bluffing.
Full-Time VP of Finance or Fractional?
Not every company needs a full-time VP of Finance yet. If you’ve got a strong controller and you mostly need senior judgment a few days a month, a fractional engagement is the smarter spend. There’s no pride to swallow in that. Paying a full exec salary for a seat you only half need is the actual mistake.
It flips at some point, though. Once you’re scaling fast, standing up real FP&A, carrying daily ownership of the close, or staring down an audit or a raise, the role needs someone in it every day, because those are the exact weeks where a part-time leader quietly becomes the bottleneck nobody wants to name out loud. One person can’t own the close, the forecast, and the team at that pace and do any of the three well.
We place permanent VPs of Finance through our direct hire practice, and we staff fractional and interim finance leaders when that’s the better call. If you’re honestly on the fence, walk us through where the team sits and what the next two quarters demand, and we’ll point you to the model that fits, even when the honest answer is the one that earns us a smaller fee.
Full-Time VP of Finance
- Fast-scaling or complex operations
- Standing up FP&A and reporting
- Audit, raise, or M&A on the horizon
- Daily ownership of the close
- A finance team that needs a manager
Fractional / Interim
- Strong controller already in place
- Early or pre-scale stage
- Project or transition window
- Budget below a full exec salary
- Strategic guidance, not daily ops
How We Run a VP of Finance Search
Executive searches across the industry tend to run 90 to 120 days. We move quicker because we start from relationships instead of a cold sourcing list, but we won’t force a fit we’d both regret.
Discovery & Scope
We sit down with your CFO, CEO, or founders and nail down what this VP has to fix or build in year one. Real priorities, the team they’re inheriting, the mess in the corner nobody mentions in the JD. Most searches go sideways right here, and most firms skip it. We don’t.
Targeted Executive Search
We go straight to finance leaders with the right stage, industry, and complexity behind them, and we approach them directly. No mass blasts, no listings. Just confidential conversations with people who could do the job and aren’t out looking for it.
Vetting & Shortlist
Every candidate clears scenario interviews, deep reference checks, and a review against your specific year-one goals. You meet three to five finalists worth the calendar time, not a stack of resumes to sort yourself.
Where We Place VPs of Finance
Common Questions About VP of Finance Staffing
How long does it take to hire a VP of Finance through KORE1?
Most VP of Finance searches close in 45 to 75 days, against an industry norm closer to 90 to 120. We start from an active network instead of cold sourcing, and that cuts out the slowest stretch of the whole process. A leadership hire still isn’t where you shave a week to save a week, though. We’d rather take ten extra days and seat someone who’s still running your finance org in five years than hit a date and watch it unwind by the second close.
What does a VP of Finance cost in 2026?
Base pay for a U.S. VP of Finance generally runs about $170,000 to $300,000, and total compensation often pushes past $350,000 to $450,000 once bonus and equity are counted at larger or PE-backed companies. Fractional engagements usually land between $8,000 and $25,000 a month. It swings hard by company size, industry, and metro. For broader context on the role’s market, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics pegs the median wage for financial managers at $161,700 as of May 2024.
What’s the difference between a VP of Finance and a CFO?
A CFO owns financial strategy, capital, and the board relationship. A VP of Finance owns operations, the close, FP&A, controls, and the finance team that runs them day to day. Smaller companies fold both into one person. As they scale, the roles split, and the VP becomes the operator who turns the CFO’s strategy into numbers that hold up. If strategy and capital are the gap you’re filling, that’s our CFO staffing practice instead.
Do we need a VP of Finance or a Controller?
A controller keeps the books clean and closes them on time. A VP of Finance does that and adds forecasting, strategy support, team leadership, and a direct line to the CFO or CEO. If you mainly need accurate, on-time accounting, hire a controller. If you need someone to run finance as a function and partner on decisions, you’ve outgrown the controller seat alone and need the VP. Plenty of companies eventually run both.
Can you run a confidential VP of Finance search?
Yes, and most of ours are confidential to some degree. When you’re replacing a sitting VP or haven’t told the team a search is open, we run the whole thing under NDA. Candidates are approached one at a time, and your company name stays out of the conversation until both sides agree to talk for real. We’ve handled plenty of these where discretion simply wasn’t negotiable.
Do you place interim or fractional finance leaders?
We do. Interim VPs of Finance are common during a leadership gap, an M&A integration, or a stretch where you need an experienced hand while a permanent search runs alongside. Those engagements usually run three to nine months. We also place ongoing fractional finance leadership when you need senior judgment part-time rather than a full seat. Tell us the situation and we’ll size the engagement to it.
How do you actually verify a finance leader’s track record?
References from people who reported up to them, not just the polished list of names they hand over. We ask candidates to walk us through a close they inherited that was a mess, what they changed, and what the audit looked like a year later. A leader who can name the control that failed and what they did about it is telling you something a clean resume never will. Scenario work against your real year-one goals handles the rest.
Ready to Put the Right VP of Finance in the Seat?
The right finance leader compounds quietly for years. The wrong one shows up in every late close and every number your bank questions. Let’s talk through where your finance org sits today and whether KORE1 is the partner to find the person who fixes it.
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