MAT CFO Recruitment

Specialist MAT CFO recruitment search for your organisation

"The right CFO gives the board confidence in everything else the trust is trying to do."

Corrina O’Beirne
Head of MAT CFO Recruitment

The MAT CFO role has changed beyond recognition in the last five years. We want to ensure your appointment is right from every step in our MAT CFO executive search - we understand what trustees are actually scrutinising, why the ESFA's concerns aren't the same as corporate audit risk, and what separates a CFO who'll thrive under academy trust governance from one who'll struggle. We will help you through each process to find the right fit for you.

When MATs come to us for CFO search

Most CFO mandates we take on fall into one of four scenarios. Each needs a different approach and different candidate profile.

Appointing your first dedicated CFO

Growing MATs often reach a point usually around five or six schools, or the £20m turnover mark where the business manager or school-level finance director model breaks. The board wants real strategic finance leadership, consolidation expertise, and someone who can speak fluently to the auditors and the ESFA. This is a first-CFO appointment, and it's one of the most important hires the trust will ever make. We've placed first CFOs into MATs ranging in various environments to ensure the perfect fit is always met with the specification.

Replacing a long-serving CFO

The CFOs who've been in post for 8–10 years are retiring, and trusts feel it. There's often deep institutional knowledge walking out the door. Succession searches need to balance continuity with the skills a MAT needs for the next decade: data maturity, estates strategy, treasury thinking, commercial acumen on trust growth.

Growth-phase CFO for MATs preparing to expand

Trusts with an approved growth plan taking on 3–5 new schools in the next 18 months, or entering a regional consolidation need a CFO who's done transition and integration before. The brief is someone who can manage TUPE, integrate finance systems, harmonise policies across incoming schools and model the funding implications of different growth shapes.

How our MAT CFO recruitment works

Scoping the brief properly

We start by understanding your trust by size, growth plans, financial health, where the board wants the CFO seat to sit strategically. We speak to the CEO, chair and audit committee chair so we're scoping against the full picture, not just one view of the role.

Mapping the market

We map active and passive candidates across the sector, and selectively from adjacent sectors where the profile fits. You see the full landscape, not just who's immediately available.

Assessment and shortlist

Every candidate we put forward has been through structured assessment — qualifications, trust-scale experience, regulatory fluency, and cultural fit with your board. We present a tight shortlist, with context on each person.

Appointment and induction

We support interview design, reference checks, offer structuring and onboarding. Once the CFO is in seat, we stay close for the first 12 months checking in with the CFO, CEO and audit committee chair to make sure the appointment is landing well.

Other related roles we recruit for:

MAT COO
MAT CEO

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How does it work?

Start the conversation

We start with a working session with the CEO and the chair of your finance committee covering the trust's current finance picture, what the next year looks like, and the kind of CFO who can hold all of it together.

Meet who's running your search

You'll work directly with the consultant leading your CFO appointment, drawing on candidates from in-sector finance leadership, audit practice, and senior finance roles in regulated sectors.

We map the finance talent market

We approach sitting MAT CFOs, deputy CFOs and senior finance leaders from regulated sectors and audit practice by bringing you a shortlist of finance leaders who can stand up to scrutiny from your auditors, your trustees and the regulator.

Through to your first reporting cycle

We stay with you through final interview and offer, then support your new CFO through the early months by covering induction, the handover from your outgoing finance lead, and getting through their first audit and reporting cycle.

Frequently Asked Questions

What qualifications should a MAT CFO hold?

Most boards expect a full accountancy qualification - ACA, ACCA or CIMA and the Academy Trust Handbook signals this as the clear expectation for trusts above a meaningful scale. We also see strong candidates with CIPFA backgrounds, particularly those moving across from local authority finance. The qualification is table stakes; what matters more is sector fluency and evidence of operating at trust scale.

How long does a MAT CFO search typically take?

From signed brief to accepted offer, most of our MAT CFO searches complete in 8–12 weeks. Intervention searches are often faster by design. We front-load the mapping and scoping so we're not running a discovery process in front of you.

Should we recruit from inside the sector or bring in a cross-sector CFO?

Both work. Sector-native CFOs land faster and hit ESFA fluency from day one, which matters if you're in intervention or preparing for ATAP. Cross-sector CFOs often bring stronger commercial thinking, treasury skills, and data maturity, which matter if you're growing or modernising. The right answer depends on your context and it's a conversation we'd rather have properly at scoping than default either way.

Contact us today to help you with your search

Speak to a specialist member of the team to discuss how we can partner your organisation.

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