VP Finance & FP&A Leadership Roles
You are the bridge between the numbers and the decisions. As a VP Finance or senior FP&A leader, you translate performance, risk, and opportunity into clear choices for the CEO, board, and operators. This page is for leaders who want their next move to be closer to strategy, ownership, and impact—without losing the hands‑on connection to the model and the data.
Why VP Finance & FP&A Leaders Talk To Me
Most VP Finance and FP&A leaders I speak with are already the “go‑to” person for budgets, forecasts, and board packs—but they want more say in the agenda, not just the slide deck.
Common questions:
- Is my next move a broader VP Finance role, a Head of FP&A seat, or a path toward CFO?
- Do I want to stay where I am the smartest person in the room—or move somewhere that really stretches me?
- Should my next chapter be with a VC‑backed startup, a PE‑backed platform, or a more established growth company?
My role is to map your experience across budgeting, forecasting, strategic finance, and business partnering into specific options that fit your risk tolerance, compensation goals, and desired level of visibility with investors and boards.
What You Actually Do For A Business
Job descriptions often reduce VP Finance and FP&A leaders to “own budgets and forecasts.” In real life, the best ones:
- Own the full planning cycle—annual budget, reforecasts, and long‑range plans—and make sure they connect to reality on the ground.
- Build and maintain driver‑based models that let leadership test scenarios before committing to big hiring, capex, or go‑to‑market bets.
- Turn raw data into clear narratives: what happened, why it happened, and what leadership should do next.
- Partner daily with Sales, Operations, Product, and HR to align numbers with actual execution.
- Support the CEO and CFO with fundraising models, board materials, and strategic decision support.
You are not just forecasting the future—you are giving the business a way to choose which future it wants and what it will cost to get there.
Example: VP Finance In A High‑Growth Company
Imagine a business doubling every 18–24 months. The board wants growth, the CEO wants runway, and department heads want headcount. Without a strong VP Finance / FP&A leader, everyone is negotiating from anecdotes.
A strong VP Finance or Head of FP&A steps in and:
- Builds a driver‑based model that links pipeline, conversion, pricing, churn, and hiring to revenue and margin.
- Runs scenarios—“If we hire this many reps,” “If we open this new market,” “If we change pricing”—and shows the impact on runway, EBITDA, and valuation.
- Creates a monthly operating cadence where leaders see performance versus plan, understand variances, and agree on corrective actions.
- Prepares crisp board‑ready insights that anticipate questions and give investors confidence.
Suddenly, the CEO is not arguing anecdotes; they are making calls with a clear view of risk and trade‑offs.
VP Finance vs CFO: Where You Sit
Titles vary by company, but the distinction usually looks like this:
- VP Finance / Head of FP&A – Owns financial operations and internal performance management: budgeting, forecasting, reporting, analysis, and often team leadership for finance and FP&A. They execute and operationalize the financial strategy and keep the business on course day‑to‑day.
- CFO – Owns overall financial strategy and external stakeholders: investors, lenders, M&A, capital structure, and long‑term value creation. They set the direction and are accountable to the board and owners.
I work with both, but this page is focused on people whose core strength is strategic planning, modeling, and partnering with the business—and who may or may not ultimately want the CFO seat.
FP&A Leaders As Strategic Partners
Modern FP&A leaders are not just “Excel ninjas.” The best ones act as internal consultants and deal partners:
- They lead the annual budget and long‑term plan, but keep it alive with rolling forecasts and scenario planning.
- They build dashboards and KPIs that help non‑finance leaders make daily decisions, not just hit quarterly targets.
- They own business cases for pricing, new products, headcount, and investments—and follow through to see if the ROI actually showed up.
- They tell the story behind the numbers in a way that operators, founders, and boards can act on.
If that is how you already operate, you are in the right place.
Established VP Finance Leaders Looking For The “Right” Next Step
If you are already in a VP Finance or senior FP&A role, the key question usually is not “Can I get another job?” It is:
- Do I want more complexity (multi‑entity, global, PE‑backed), more strategic scope, or a cleaner path toward CFO?
- Do I want to be closer to the front line (commercial, GTM, product) or closer to capital (investors, lenders, M&A)?
- What stage and ownership structure fit how I like to work and communicate?
We will look at where your strengths sit today—building models, running teams, working with investors, transforming processes—and then focus on environments where those strengths actually matter and get noticed.
Controllers / Senior Managers Moving Into VP Finance / Head of FP&A
Many great VP Finance and FP&A leaders start as Controllers, Senior Managers, or FP&A Managers who get pulled into more strategic work.
The transition usually looks like:
- Moving from reporting “what happened” to shaping what should happen next.
- Spending more time with commercial and operational leaders, less time deep in the close.
- Owning budgeting and forecasting, not just providing actuals.
- Building models and scenarios around pricing, expansion, and investments.
When we talk, we will look at your exposure to planning, business partnering, and decision support—not just your accounting responsibilities—to identify VP Finance / Head of FP&A roles that are a stretch, but realistic.
What I Look At With You
Our conversation goes beyond “Can you build a model?” Together we dig into:
- Stage and structure: VC‑backed startup, PE‑backed scale‑up, founder‑owned, or more mature growth company.
- Your preferred balance between hands‑on modeling and managing a team.
- How close you want to be to the CEO, CFO, and board versus running the internal engine.
- Your appetite for messy, high‑change environments versus more stable, optimized ones.
From there, I can be upfront about which roles match your profile and what might be a stretch too far—or not far enough.
How We Can Work Together
If this sounds like where you are in your career:
- Share your resume or LinkedIn profile, plus a short note on your current scope and what “better” looks like for you.
- If there is a live VP Finance / Head of FP&A / Strategic Finance search that fits, we will go straight into details.
- If not, I will keep you in mind for confidential mandates and reach out when there is a role that deserves your attention.
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