Executive recruitment for consumer brands
CFO Executive Search
for DTC and Consumer Brands
Most CFO searches start with a title and a salary benchmark. We define what the seat owns first, then introduce finance leaders who have managed cash and margin through growth at consumer brands from $3M to $150M+.
First interviews in 10 business days. Retained search.
Successful placements at top ecommerce and consumer brands
CFO vs. VP of finance vs. Controller
These titles sit close together on an org chart and lead to very different hires. What separates them is whether this person answers for the numbers or only reports them.
Get it wrong and the search fails in one of two ways. You hire a controller when you needed someone to run the cash plan and the lender conversation. Or you hire a CFO when you needed someone to close the books on time and clean up the chart of accounts.
We settle the scope on the intake call, before we contact any candidates.
Why CFO searches stall at consumer brands
CFO searches at consumer brands usually stall because the founder has been the finance function,
so nobody has written down what the seat decides.
Controller work at a CFO title
The job description asks for a CFO to own financial strategy. The first 12 months are cleaning up the close, fixing COGS, and rebuilding the chart of accounts. You either pay C-suite salary for accounting work, or the CFO you hired leaves once they see it.
No finance team under the seat
A CFO needs a controller and at least one FP&A lead. If the books still sit with an outsourced bookkeeper, year one goes to building that team before any planning gets done.
Founder keeps the checkbook
You hire a CFO to own capital allocation, then keep final say on every purchase order and every banking call. The role shrinks to reporting, and your new executive leaves inside 18 months.
Hired for the deal only
Brands often open a CFO search a quarter before a raise or a sale. The candidate who shines in a data room can be the wrong operator for the three years after the deal closes.
Strong in one track only
The seat covers two jobs: accounting that holds up across every channel, and financial planning and analysis (FP&A) that plans the year around peak season. Most candidates are strong in one. Hire the controller-turned-CFO and nobody forecasts, or hire the FP&A lead and the close stays a mess.
Public company pedigree, no DTC unit economics
The candidate ran FP&A at a Fortune 500 consumer company and speaks fluently about variance analysis and SOX. They have never tied contribution margin to paid media spend or planned an inventory buy against a cash runway.
According to Crist Kolder Associates, Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies saw 120 CFO turnovers in 2025, and fewer than a quarter of sitting CFOs moved into the role directly from another CFO seat. At a $50M consumer brand, you are usually hiring someone into their first CFO job. Being a strong number two is not enough, so the search has to test whether they are ready to run the seat.
First interviews in days, not weeks
Which financial leadership tier does your brand need?
Revenue stage, the team the hire inherits, and what they answer for tell you more than the title does.
Full-time or fractional CFO?
Fractional works when the accounting track is handled and the FP&A work is real but part-time. That usually means under $15M to $20M in revenue, a controller or strong bookkeeper closing the books, and no deal on the calendar.
Go full-time when the forecast needs weekly attention, when retail accounts or a credit line add working capital pressure, or when a raise or sale is within 18 months. The seat also grows past financial functions: in JM Search's 2025 CFO study, CFOs at companies under $100M oversaw legal and compliance in more than 60% of cases and HR in 55%.
Many brands run a fractional CFO for a year, then hire the full-time seat against a clear scorecard.
What a great DTC/CPG CFO looks like
A consumer brand CFO runs two tracks at once. Accounting makes the numbers right across every channel, and FP&A decides what the business does with them. We vet for both. We also tell you early which one a candidate is stronger in, because almost nobody is equally strong at each.
What separates a good CFO from a great one at a consumer brand
Vertically integrated or supplier-led:
which CFO fits your supply model
Whether you own production or buy finished goods from co-manufacturers changes the finance job more than revenue does. A CFO who has only worked in one model will misread the other's costs in the first quarter.
We confirm your supply model on the intake call and screen for the one you run or the one you are moving to.
Category and channel change the CFO you need
Two CFOs with the same title and revenue band can be wrong for each other's brands. Category and sales channel shape where margin leaks and how cash comes in.
Supplement CFO vs. food and beverage CFO
Amazon-only CFO vs. retail accounts CFO
A CFO who has only run Amazon usually underestimates the working capital a first big retail account needs. A retail-side CFO often misses how fast Amazon fees and ad spend move margin. Our shortlist reflects the channel mix you sell through now and the one you are building toward.
What a CFO costs at a DTC or CPG brand
Most published CFO salary data describes public companies.
For a $50M consumer brand, it points you at the wrong number.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics groups CFOs with top executives. Its financial managers line covers the controllers, finance directors, and VPs of finance one level down. That group earned a $166,570 median in May 2025, with the top 10% above $323,270. Chief executives sat at a $213,990 median with the top 10% above $507,730.Private company surveys get closer to the seat.
JM Search's 2025 study of 312 CFOs found the most common base salary was $250,000 to $299,000 under $100M in revenue and $350,000 to $399,000 between $100M and $500M. Mid-market target bonuses usually ran 50% to 59% of base, before equity. A DTC CFO who owns capital allocation belongs in that band, well above the BLS median.
Geography moves the median more than most founders expect.
For a CFO search, the 90th percentile column is the one that matters, and the spread there is tighter than at the median. At the top end, New York pays $58,040 more than Dallas, and Nashville's 90th percentile beats Seattle's despite a far lower median. CFO talent is priced close to a national market, so a remote or relocation-open search widens the pool without changing the budget much. On a call, we share how base, bonus, and equity are split for consumer brand finance leaders at your stage.
Our COO executive search process
1 Client Intake Call
Our recruitment process starts with a structured intake that scopes the role before sourcing begins. That means settling which version of the seat you need: a controller who owns the close, a VP of finance who owns the plan and the team, a CFO who owns capital allocation and the board relationship, or a transaction CFO hired against a defined deal. Then we get specific about what transfers with the title. Banking and treasury, spend approval, the cash forecast, and board access either move to this hire or stay with you, and the search changes completely depending on which.
We map your setup: revenue stage, ownership structure, supply model, category, the channel mix across DTC, Amazon, and retail, lenders and credit facilities, and who closes the books today. We also agree on which track needs the most help right now, accounting or FP&A. You bring the business context. We write the executive hiring profile around it before we contact a single candidate.
2 First Interviews in 10 Days
Within 10 business days we present a vetted shortlist of senior finance executives screened against the brief we agreed on. We evaluate each profile on the decisions the candidate owned: capital they raised or allocated, margin they moved, and cash pressure they managed at a consumer brand near your stage.
We prioritize finance leaders who have planned a Q4 inventory build against a cash runway and kept a chart of accounts clean across more than one channel. We match candidates to your supply model, category, and channel mix, because a CFO from an Amazon-only brand and one who has managed large retail accounts solve different problems. We source through our executive network. That is how we reach passive candidates: sitting CFOs and VPs of finance at DTC and CPG brands who are employed and not looking.
3 Weekly Refinement
Executive searches move as your read on the role sharpens. We provide a shared portal to track candidates, feedback, and interview stages in one place, and run weekly calls to recalibrate, so you hear from us every week.
Each week we tighten the profile based on what the interviews surfaced. Founders often discover in interview three that they scoped the role one tier too high or too low. It usually surfaces when a candidate asks who owns the bank relationship and nobody has a clear answer. Catching that in week two costs far less than catching it after an offer.
4 White-Glove Talent Solutions
We schedule interviews across your leadership team and run structured reference checks with former direct reports as well as former bosses. Those direct-report calls show how the candidate leads a finance team when nobody senior is watching. The leadership assessment uses your own business problems. The candidate works through your last 12 months of financials and your current cash forecast.
We run compensation negotiation as an intermediary, including the equity conversation, so you and your incoming CFO never haggle directly in the final week. We stay involved through onboarding so the hire ramps into the finance team instead of around it.
Executive search case studies
Why consumer brands choose Constant Hire
for chief financial officer recruitment
DTC, ecommerce, and CPG only
Consumer brands are our entire client list. Generalist firms fit consumer searches in around healthcare, financial services, and automotive.
Consumer brand finance depth
Our recruiting team works with 7-, 8-, and 9-figure consumer brands. We know the difference between a CFO who financed a Q4 inventory build on a revolving line and a SaaS finance director who has never carried inventory.
The deepest executive network in consumer brands
We know sitting CFOs and VPs of finance across DTC and CPG personally. Founders come to us for introductions they cannot make themselves.
Shortlist in 10 business days
Most placements close within 45 to 60 days of kickoff. Generalist firms typically take 90 to 120 days.
How Constant Hire compares to other CFO search options
Founders usually weigh two alternatives: a large generalist firm, or an in-house talent team stretched across every function.
Founders rarely hire an executive search firm for extra screening hours. They hire one for access. The CFO you need is employed somewhere, outside your network, and not answering recruiter InMail. We know 1,000+ senior consumer brand operators personally, including sitting CFOs and VPs of finance.
What DTC experts are saying about us.
If you're looking for a bad ass recruiter for roles like Head of Growth, Director of Performance Creative, Ops, he's your guy.
Read more
What does a CFO executive search firm do?
CFO executive search is a retained recruiting service that helps consumer brands hire a chief financial officer by sourcing and vetting passive candidates: employed finance leaders who are not applying to roles. A specialist firm also scopes the mandate before sourcing starts, deciding what the CFO owns and which decisions stay with the founder.
When should a DTC or CPG brand hire a CFO?
Usually between $50M and $150M in revenue, or earlier when a raise, a sale, or a large credit facility is on the calendar. The clearest trigger is a founder spending more time with the bank and the cash forecast than with the product. Below $50M, a VP of finance usually fits better, and below $15M a controller paired with a fractional CFO does.
Is a CFO higher than a VP of finance?
Yes. A CFO is a C-suite executive who owns capital allocation, lender relationships, investor relations, and board reporting, with the controller and FP&A leads reporting to them. A VP of finance owns the budget, the forecast, and the finance team, and usually reports to the CFO or the founder.
What is a CFO's average salary?
It depends mostly on company revenue. JM Search's 2025 study of 312 CFOs, mostly at private and investor-backed companies, found the most common base salary was $250,000 to $299,000 under $100M in revenue and $350,000 to $399,000 at $100M to $500M. Mid-market target bonuses usually ran 50% to 59% of base, before equity.
How much does a CFO of a $500 million company make?
In JM Search's 2025 study, CFOs at companies above $500M in revenue most often earned a base of $400,000 to $449,000, and 22% earned $450,000 or more. Vardis's survey of PE-backed CFOs puts mean base salary at about $419,000 for $500M to $1B companies, with target bonuses of roughly 40% to 70% of base, plus management equity.
How much does a CFO executive search cost?
Finance executive search is typically priced as a percentage of first-year compensation paid in stages across the search, plus a retained monthly fee. For a CFO, that usually means the fee scales with salary and target bonus. What varies between firms is how much scoping happens before sourcing, and whether senior people stay on the search after kickoff.
How long does a CFO executive search usually take?
Generalist firms typically take 90 to 120 days from kickoff to placement. We present a vetted shortlist within 10 business days, and most of our placements close within 45 to 60 days. Plan for notice periods too, since sitting CFOs often stay through a close or an audit before they leave.
How do you build a diverse CFO candidate pool?
We source wider than the usual referral chain. Crist Kolder's latest data shows women held the CFO seat at 17% of the companies it tracks, and racially and ethnically diverse CFOs at 14.4%. Many strong candidates sit in the number two finance seat, so we search VPs of finance and controllers alongside sitting CFOs, and assess every candidate against the same written scorecard.
What roles can CFO recruiters help fill?
Most CFO recruiters also place the finance team around the seat. We recruit CFOs, VPs of finance, controllers, heads of FP&A, and fractional CFOs for DTC, ecommerce, and CPG brands, and we often scope which of those you need before recommending a search.
Should we hire a full-time, interim, or fractional CFO?
Full-time when capital decisions, lenders, and the board need a permanent owner. Interim when a CFO leaves ahead of an audit, a raise, or a sale. Fractional when the work needs a few days a month, typically under $15M to $20M in revenue with a solid controller already in place.
What qualifications and qualities should I look for in a CFO candidate?
Look for a finance leader who has owned the cash forecast through a tight quarter, tied contribution margin to marketing spend, and built a finance team that closes on time. A CPA or MBA helps but rarely decides the hire. Ask which decision they changed with a number they found, and how they handled a lender conversation that went badly.
What's the difference between a CFO from supplements and one from food and beverage?
A supplement CFO usually knows subscription revenue, cohort retention, and the cost of acquiring and keeping a customer. A food and beverage CFO usually knows trade spend, distributor deductions, freight, and short shelf life. Both can cross over, but the first year goes faster when the candidate already knows where margin leaks in your category.
Should our CFO come from an Amazon-only brand or from retail?
It depends on where your revenue is heading. An Amazon-only CFO knows settlement reconciliation, FBA fees, and advertising cost of sale. A CFO who has managed large retail accounts knows net 30 to 90 day terms, chargebacks, consignment, and forecasting from retailer purchase orders. If a big retail launch is in your plan, hire for retail experience.
What will you expect your CFO to accomplish in the short and long term?
In the first 90 days: a reliable close, a 13-week cash forecast the founder trusts, and contribution margin by channel and SKU. In the first year: an annual plan and a finance team that runs without them. Longer term, the CFO owns capital allocation and risk management across covenants, inventory, and cash, and gets the business ready for its next raise, refinancing, or sale.
What should I look for in a CFO executive search firm?
Look for category depth before firm size. Ask how many financial leadership roles they filled at consumer brands in the last 12 months, which tier they think you need and why, and whether the person who pitched you runs the search day to day.
Let's find the CFO
your brand needs to scale
then put qualified financial executives on your calendar in 10 business days.
15-30 minutes • No Obligation • First interviews in 10 business days • Retained model