When your function is about to double, hire for the shape of the team you will have in eighteen months, not the one you have today. That means recruiting people who can operate one level above their current remit and building roles that can grow with the business rather than roles you will outgrow within a year.
This is one of the hardest calls a sitting finance leader makes. Hire too far ahead and you carry cost the business cannot yet justify. Hire too safe and you spend next year rehiring the same seats.
Here is how to think about it.
What does doubling actually mean for your function?
Doubling headcount or revenue does not double your finance team in a straight line. The work changes shape.
At the transactional layer, volume roughly tracks growth. More invoices, more payments, more reconciliations. That part is predictable.
The layer above moves differently. A business twice the size needs more partnering, more forecasting rigour, more board reporting, tighter controls. The step change happens in the middle of your team, at Financial Controller, Head of FP&A and Finance Manager level.
So the mistake is planning for more of what you have. What you actually need is a heavier middle and cleaner separation of duties. Map that before you write a single job description.
Should you hire for today or for the business you are becoming?
Both, but at different layers.
At the top of the layer below you, hire ahead. A Financial Controller or Head of Finance should be able to run a function bigger than yours is now. You want someone who has seen the next stage, not someone who will meet it for the first time in your seat.
At the transactional layer, hire for now. A Financial Accountant or Accounts Assistant who is technically strong and reliable will grow into the volume. You do not need to overpay for potential in a role where consistency matters most.
The judgement call sits in the middle. An FP&A Manager or Finance Manager hired today should have clear headroom. If the role tops out at your current scale, you have built a ceiling into your own succession plan.
How do you write a role that grows instead of one you outgrow?
Define the role by the problems it will own, not the tasks it does this month.
A role built around tasks becomes obsolete the moment volumes shift. A role built around ownership of forecasting, or ownership of the monthly close, or ownership of commercial partnering, stretches as the business grows.
Be honest in the interview about the trajectory. Tell candidates the function is doubling. Strong people are drawn to that. It tells them the role has a future and that they will not be doing the same thing in two years.
Write the specification with two horizons. What they own on day one, and what they will own once the team is fully built. Good candidates want to see both.
Which roles should you sequence first?
Sequence the roles that unlock the rest.
Start with the layer directly below you. A capable number two frees up your week and gives you the capacity to hire, onboard and lead the rest of the build. Try to grow a function while doing the controlling yourself and you will stall.
Next, fix the reporting engine. A strong FP&A hire turns a chaotic forecast into something the board trusts and gives you the numbers to justify further headcount.
Only then scale the transactional team. That layer is easiest to hire and quickest to onboard, so it can wait until the structure above it is holding.
Get the sequence wrong and you end up with a wide base and no one to lead it.
How do you protect quality while hiring at pace?
Standardise before you scale. Agree your interview scorecard, your technical test and your sign off process before the roles open. Pace exposes weak process, and a rushed hire in a doubling function costs you twice.
Protect the bar on the senior seats especially. One weak Financial Controller slows every hire beneath them. If you are unsure, it is worth working with a recruiter who knows the market rather than absorbing the search into an already full week. A specialist finance recruiter can hold the pipeline while you keep running the function.
And keep your own visibility on the market. Even between hires, knowing what good looks like and what it costs keeps your plan grounded. You can see the shape of live roles on the Harper May jobs board.
Common questions
Should I promote from within or hire externally when the function doubles?
Do both. Promote where you have genuine readiness, because it protects culture and rewards loyalty. Hire externally where you need experience the team has not yet seen. A doubling function usually needs at least one external senior hire to bring in scale you have not run before.
How far ahead is too far when hiring senior?
If the role would sit largely idle for six months, you are too early. If a strong candidate would be fully stretched from month three and growing into more, the timing is right. Aim for a role that fits at the point growth arrives, not before.
