Home Chief Financial Officer Resume template
Chief Financial Officer resume template
A clean starting structure with example content grounded in what chief financial officers actually do day to day, not generic filler. Download and replace the bracketed placeholders with your own details.
Which resume format should you use?
Reverse chronological
You have a steady work history. This is the format almost every recruiter and ATS expects by default.
Functional
You're changing fields or have gaps in your employment. Leads with skills rather than a job-by-job timeline.
Combination
You're early career or have worked consistently but for only a few employers. Blends a skills summary with a shorter chronological history.
This template uses the reverse chronological format: the one most chief financial officers should default to, since most Australian recruiters and ATS software expect it.
Professional summary
Chief financial officer with a background spanning financial reporting, tax, treasury and strategic planning. Experienced in leading finance teams, managing external audit and regulatory relationships, and presenting financial performance and risk to boards. Comfortable working alongside a chief executive on capital decisions and long-term investment strategy.
Key skills
- Financial reporting
- Tax compliance and planning
- Auditing and assurance
- Budgeting and forecasting
- Financial analysis and modelling
- Strategy development
- SAP or Oracle ERP systems
- Excel and financial modelling
- XBRL and disclosure management platforms
- Treasury management systems
- People leadership
- Stakeholder management
- Board reporting
- Capital planning
Experience: example bullet points
- Directed financial strategy and long-term capital planning, working with the chief executive on major investment decisions and capital structure.
- Oversaw preparation of financial statements and regulatory filings, delivering audit-ready accounts ahead of statutory deadlines and managing the relationship with external auditors.
- Led finance teams through budget season, improving forecast accuracy by embedding driver-based models across business units.
- Presented financial performance, risk and capital position to the board each reporting cycle, translating complex financial information into clear strategic commentary.
- Managed relationships with banking partners and tax advisors, including covenant reporting, facility negotiations and tax planning.
- Built finance team capability and succession, mentoring financial controllers and analysts as the business scaled.
- Streamlined group consolidation and reporting through SAP, reducing manual journals and improving data integrity.
Education
Typically a bachelor degree in accounting, finance or commerce, often followed by a postgraduate qualification such as an MBA or master's in finance. Professional certification as a Chartered Accountant (CA ANZ) or CPA (CPA Australia) is common, and many CFOs also complete the Australian Institute of Company Directors' course.
Keywords an ATS is likely to scan for
Applicant tracking systems match your resume against terms in the job ad before a person ever sees it. Only include the ones that actually apply to your experience, but if a term below matches something you've done, use the same wording the job ad uses.
- Financial reporting
- Statutory reporting
- ASIC
- AASB
- IFRS
- ASX Listing Rules
- Corporations Act 2001
- ATO
- GST
- BAS
- FBT
- CA ANZ
- CPA Australia
- GAICD
- SAP
- Oracle
- XBRL
- SBR
- Treasury management
- Capital management
- Board reporting
- Financial modelling
- Consolidation
- Management reporting
- Audit
Getting past ATS screening
- Match the specific skills, certifications and terms used in the job ad, not just your own wording for the same thing.
- Keep formatting simple: no tables, text boxes, columns, headers/footers or graphics. Parsers frequently drop content placed in these.
- Submit as .docx or PDF unless the job ad specifies otherwise.
- Use standard section headings (Experience, Education, Skills) rather than creative alternatives.
- List your core skills and technical competencies in their own section so a keyword scan can find them instantly.
This is a starting point, not a guarantee of interviews. Tailor every bullet point to your own real experience and the specific job ad.