Every year, clients and candidates ask us the same question: what should this role pay? It is a reasonable question with an unreasonable answer.
The honest reply is that it depends. Two Finance Controllers with the same years behind them can be worth 35 lakh and 55 lakh, and the difference isn't seniority. It's scope: how many entities, which reporting framework, whether there is an audit worth the name, and whether the person is running a finance function or building one. This guide gives you the range first, then shows you where inside it a specific role sits.
It does that in two parts. The industry sections tell you what roles pay, by sector, scale and experience. Two later sections, on what moves a candidate within a band and on qualifications and notice periods, tell you where in those ranges a role actually lands. Read those first.
Three things stood out this year. FP&A became the hardest finance role to fill, because clients now expect automation and AI fluency alongside modelling and most candidates stop at spreadsheets. Counter-offers reached the highest level we have seen, driven by notice periods that leave a candidate exposed for two to three months. And briefs shifted, with more weight on long-term commitment and automation capability in roles where it was optional two years ago.
A word on the numbers. The salary tables are compiled from public compensation data, cross-referenced and checked against our live searches. The commentary and hiring guidance come from our own search work. We keep those two things separate, and the methodology below sets out what sits behind each.
Use the numbers as a starting range. Use the rest to work out where in that range your role actually sits.
HireGenie is a specialist finance recruitment firm working across India and the Middle East. We place finance professionals and nothing else. This guide covers finance and nothing else for the same reason: finance hiring goes wrong in ways that are invisible unless you have done the work yourself.
CA Ayush Mehta
Founder, HireGenie
Put a Number on Your Role
The ranges are the starting point. Tell us the scope — entities, framework, build or maintain — and we will tell you what the role should actually pay.