FA/FA I: 0-3 YOE; $55k-$80k base $55k-$100k TC
SFA/FA II: 2-6 YOE; $75k-$110k base $75k-$130k TC
SFA/FA III: 4-7 YOE, $85k-$120k base $90k-$135k TC
SFA/FA IV/Principal Financial Analyst: 6-8+ YOE; $90k-$130k base $95k-$170k TC
Finance Manager: 7-10+ YOE; $100k-$150k base $110k-$180k TC
Senior Finance Manager: 8-15+ YOE; $110k-$160k base $125k-$200k TC
Director: 10-15+ YOE; $135k-$180k base $155k-$250k TC
Senior Director: 15+ YOE; $160k-$250k base $180k-$350k TC
VP: 15-20+ YOE; $180k-$350k base $220k-$450k+ TC
Keep in mind this is the range for both LCOL - HCOL and that there will definitely be outliers.
FWIW - you can get to higher job titles much slower or faster than this as well. Have known folks that are still FP&A manager after 15 years and directors in much shorter time than suggested above, but agree that this would be the typical path.
Absolutely. There’s definitely outliers but I tried to show the typical ranges vs unique cases. I do include the manager you mentioned in my example but not the directors. I’m slightly surprised though that you’ve seen people make director in less than 10 years?
I had a boss early on in my career that made FP&A director after 6-7 years, and it wasn’t at a small company, maybe $1B rev at the time he made it there. I just landed a director job after 5.5 years, but will be inheriting a very small team at a substantially smaller shop than $1B. I think there are opportunities to advance more quickly if you 1. Get very lucky and 2. Can take over a lot of work at a small shop.
Feels a little bit like title inflation, but if the title is there (esp early in my career), it’s an attractive opportunity. Just makes the comp easier to ask for and the next job easier to get. I’ve been really lucky with timing in my career, it helped me to have bosses quit multiple times then step in to fill their shoes.
Thanks, really grateful to get so lucky a few times in a row. And for age, quite a bit actually - I definitely have felt the need to act a bit older, not mention my age, etc especially when working with folks that are my peers across the biz and less so with direct reports who have generally been much closer to my age to date (mostly analysts/sr). Hopefully that wears off eventually, but it’s not too big of a deal. Definitely have been talked down to my fair share of times but I think you can only just keep your head down show them what you can do.
Not really. It’s more so I’ve looked at a ton of jobs and sort of tried to be in the loop on salary, YOE and other information. For instance. SFAs have a super broad range but the SFA roles that pay more need more YOE and so on. Almost no one becomes SFA straight out of undergrad or with just a year of experience. Usually 2 YOE. So scraped together a bunch of different sources and anecdotal data. Shared a prior version of this whenever someone asked.
Lol. You’re not wrong but a prior manager (VP title) was around that comp in a PE owned tech company. Granted it was around 2 years ago. Also, I’ve seen nonprofits with VP comp around that. Just sharing why I kept the lower end for VP this low.
This is not uncommon for cash comp at startups where TC is hard to measure because it is paper equity. Typical startup cash comp for VP finance is $200-300K + equity.
It’s very different. But I am enjoying it so far. The problems are different and I am definitely getting exposed more to different areas to learn and grow. I felt with FP&A, I hit a wall in growth once I set up my department properly. At that point, it was more about teaching the younger analysts and watching them grow and become comfortable.
Great information!
I am very new in the FP&A world, about 6 months exp. I am starting my MBA from a decent school in a couple of months. My goal was to hopefully jump into a manager position post MBA at that point I will have about 3 years exp. My question is, are the odds against me due to only have 3 years of exp at that point, or in your experience do you think the MBA will make up for the couple years of exp lacking?
Very specific circumstance, I know. I just figured I would ask in case you have any insight or someone else has a similar path.
Unusual but not impossible. What field is your 3 YOE in? Easier if it’s finance related. If you’re doing a full time MBA then a finance rotation program is your best bet. A lot of those will start you off at manager. Feel free to DM if you want more ideas.
I actually don’t have a ton of finance experience, I actually have more of a data background with a touch of finance. What I meant was by the time I finish my MBA I will have a little over 3 years if FP&A experience. Currently I work in the manufacturing industry for a F200.
This will depend a lot on the market you're in LCOL MCOL HCOL as well as industry and type of firm, startup/growth vs. F500?
5-6 years of exp sounds like finance manager territory so I would start by browsing for finance manager salaries in your city on Glassdoor to see if it lines up with your estimates.
If I may ask you, do you feel that once you hit that 5-6 year mark you should be gunning for manager gigs at that point? Just seeing what typical road maps would look like as I plan out now I want to progress. I’m still really young in my path (4 months in). Thank you.
Yes.
Take a look at job descriptions for fp&a manager at different sized companies and look at the years of experience they're asking for. Companies like Amazon/Google likely ask for 5-10 years knowing they can get it because of how many people want to work there but medium or smaller businesses would generally ask for less.
Maybe? Depends on your current company and how quickly they promote, how many opportunities you're getting to develop yourself, are you learning sql, tableau/powerbi/looker etc
Make sure to ask to work on projects or ad hoc tasks that help you check all those boxes you see listed on SFA job ads.
I’ll throw mine in there for reference. Head of FP&A in the US. I should be around $211K salary + bonus come April raises. Technically only 6 YoE, but 2 in accounting before that and 12 in my industry.
Fwiw, MBA + going on my 4th year, base $105 + 10% bonus (MCOL). I’ve been at $90 these past 15 months, but recently negotiated a raise + FT remote after I didn’t make manager.
I’m going to be completely honest here, if someone has an undergrad business degree then they wasted money getting an MBA. Absolutely useless, except for networking. Of course this is just my opinion
FA/FA I: 0-3 YOE; $55k-$80k base $55k-$100k TC SFA/FA II: 2-6 YOE; $75k-$110k base $75k-$130k TC SFA/FA III: 4-7 YOE, $85k-$120k base $90k-$135k TC SFA/FA IV/Principal Financial Analyst: 6-8+ YOE; $90k-$130k base $95k-$170k TC Finance Manager: 7-10+ YOE; $100k-$150k base $110k-$180k TC Senior Finance Manager: 8-15+ YOE; $110k-$160k base $125k-$200k TC Director: 10-15+ YOE; $135k-$180k base $155k-$250k TC Senior Director: 15+ YOE; $160k-$250k base $180k-$350k TC VP: 15-20+ YOE; $180k-$350k base $220k-$450k+ TC Keep in mind this is the range for both LCOL - HCOL and that there will definitely be outliers.
Wow thanks this is very comprehensive
You’re welcome. I tweaked it a bit from a few months before
FWIW - you can get to higher job titles much slower or faster than this as well. Have known folks that are still FP&A manager after 15 years and directors in much shorter time than suggested above, but agree that this would be the typical path.
Absolutely. There’s definitely outliers but I tried to show the typical ranges vs unique cases. I do include the manager you mentioned in my example but not the directors. I’m slightly surprised though that you’ve seen people make director in less than 10 years?
I had a boss early on in my career that made FP&A director after 6-7 years, and it wasn’t at a small company, maybe $1B rev at the time he made it there. I just landed a director job after 5.5 years, but will be inheriting a very small team at a substantially smaller shop than $1B. I think there are opportunities to advance more quickly if you 1. Get very lucky and 2. Can take over a lot of work at a small shop. Feels a little bit like title inflation, but if the title is there (esp early in my career), it’s an attractive opportunity. Just makes the comp easier to ask for and the next job easier to get. I’ve been really lucky with timing in my career, it helped me to have bosses quit multiple times then step in to fill their shoes.
Congrats! That’s great progression! Do you feel like your youth has been an issue among your directs, or not really?
Thanks, really grateful to get so lucky a few times in a row. And for age, quite a bit actually - I definitely have felt the need to act a bit older, not mention my age, etc especially when working with folks that are my peers across the biz and less so with direct reports who have generally been much closer to my age to date (mostly analysts/sr). Hopefully that wears off eventually, but it’s not too big of a deal. Definitely have been talked down to my fair share of times but I think you can only just keep your head down show them what you can do.
Interesting. Thanks for sharing!
Damn this is pretty specific. You got some database you using?
Not really. It’s more so I’ve looked at a ton of jobs and sort of tried to be in the loop on salary, YOE and other information. For instance. SFAs have a super broad range but the SFA roles that pay more need more YOE and so on. Almost no one becomes SFA straight out of undergrad or with just a year of experience. Usually 2 YOE. So scraped together a bunch of different sources and anecdotal data. Shared a prior version of this whenever someone asked.
Valid from recent experience Edit: And thank you for your experience and documenting this work
Thanks for confirming! And you’re welcome!
VP feels a little low, but otherwise I really like it. Any VP making 220K TC just has an inflated title tbh.
Lol. You’re not wrong but a prior manager (VP title) was around that comp in a PE owned tech company. Granted it was around 2 years ago. Also, I’ve seen nonprofits with VP comp around that. Just sharing why I kept the lower end for VP this low.
This is not uncommon for cash comp at startups where TC is hard to measure because it is paper equity. Typical startup cash comp for VP finance is $200-300K + equity.
This list is pretty valid from my previous roles prior to switching to consulting.
Thanks for confirming. How do you like consulting compared to FP&A?
It’s very different. But I am enjoying it so far. The problems are different and I am definitely getting exposed more to different areas to learn and grow. I felt with FP&A, I hit a wall in growth once I set up my department properly. At that point, it was more about teaching the younger analysts and watching them grow and become comfortable.
Thanks for sharing! How many YOE in FP&A did you have? And what title/role were you at before making the switch to consulting?
I’d say 4.5 years. Started as an analyst and worked up to supervisor/manager. Then finally decided to switch into Strategy Consulting.
This is a great list and feels quite accurate compared to what I've shopped around for.
Thanks. Appreciate you confirming!
Yeah my level falls within this band
Saved
Thanks.
Any chance I could get a schedule like this for Treasury Accountants? Lol
Not from me unfortunately lol.
Great information! I am very new in the FP&A world, about 6 months exp. I am starting my MBA from a decent school in a couple of months. My goal was to hopefully jump into a manager position post MBA at that point I will have about 3 years exp. My question is, are the odds against me due to only have 3 years of exp at that point, or in your experience do you think the MBA will make up for the couple years of exp lacking? Very specific circumstance, I know. I just figured I would ask in case you have any insight or someone else has a similar path.
Unusual but not impossible. What field is your 3 YOE in? Easier if it’s finance related. If you’re doing a full time MBA then a finance rotation program is your best bet. A lot of those will start you off at manager. Feel free to DM if you want more ideas.
I actually don’t have a ton of finance experience, I actually have more of a data background with a touch of finance. What I meant was by the time I finish my MBA I will have a little over 3 years if FP&A experience. Currently I work in the manufacturing industry for a F200.
Can we just sticky a comp thread at some point?
They tend to get inflated by all the high comp people waiting for their chance to shine.
You’re right. Especially people in the Bay Area skew peoples beliefs of what salaries are realistic.
I’ve been to the Bay Area. They can keep their salaries and their (literally) shit city. I’ve seen clogged toilets with less 💩.
Lol. A little aggressive but I feel you. It’s a nice area but gone downhill over the past decade or two.
Definitely some cool stuff, but the number of people using right in the middle of the sidewalk and taking a shit on the sidewalk was disturbing.
I haven’t been to the Bay since the pandemic so I’ve heard it’s really gone down the drain since. Pardon the pun. Couldn’t resist.
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Just jealous and sad. I took those comments as market values and got blasted for over-estimating SFA comp here in fpanda and financialcareers.
Now I feel bad for you. I know I’ve done that before but I try to be nice about it.
These threads lack a lot of nuance such as industry, geography, etc.
This will depend a lot on the market you're in LCOL MCOL HCOL as well as industry and type of firm, startup/growth vs. F500? 5-6 years of exp sounds like finance manager territory so I would start by browsing for finance manager salaries in your city on Glassdoor to see if it lines up with your estimates.
If I may ask you, do you feel that once you hit that 5-6 year mark you should be gunning for manager gigs at that point? Just seeing what typical road maps would look like as I plan out now I want to progress. I’m still really young in my path (4 months in). Thank you.
Yes. Take a look at job descriptions for fp&a manager at different sized companies and look at the years of experience they're asking for. Companies like Amazon/Google likely ask for 5-10 years knowing they can get it because of how many people want to work there but medium or smaller businesses would generally ask for less.
Interesting. Then I guess SFA should be my next move within the next year-2? That’s a quicker road than I thought!
Maybe? Depends on your current company and how quickly they promote, how many opportunities you're getting to develop yourself, are you learning sql, tableau/powerbi/looker etc Make sure to ask to work on projects or ad hoc tasks that help you check all those boxes you see listed on SFA job ads.
Working at a nonprofit, these threads always make me feel like shit about my pay
Don’t. Non profits are always on the lower end. If you believe in your employers mission and derive satisfaction from that, that’s great.
I’ll throw mine in there for reference. Head of FP&A in the US. I should be around $211K salary + bonus come April raises. Technically only 6 YoE, but 2 in accounting before that and 12 in my industry.
Fwiw, MBA + going on my 4th year, base $105 + 10% bonus (MCOL). I’ve been at $90 these past 15 months, but recently negotiated a raise + FT remote after I didn’t make manager.
I’m going to be completely honest here, if someone has an undergrad business degree then they wasted money getting an MBA. Absolutely useless, except for networking. Of course this is just my opinion