picked.ai/hire/fpa-analyst
Hire a fp&a analyst
How to hire a
fp&a analyst.
Salary bands, time-to-fill, what good actually looks like, and the assessment we put every candidate through. Built on nine years of validated psychometric data from Neuroworx.
Post this role
~30 seconds
Title, level, three must-haves. We syndicate, screen, score, and shortlist. First 50 candidates free.
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£93,000
Median salary · United Kingdom
£78-£108k senior range
42d
Typical time-to-fill
down to 3.9d with Picked
198
Applicants per role
Series A · public posting
9 / 198
Make it to interview
industry · pre-AI screening
Salary bands
What it costs to hire one.
2026 H1 · base + variable
LevelUSUKEURemote
Junior FP&A$64-$88k£40-£55k€43-€59k$53-$73k
FP&A analyst$88-$125k£55-£78k€59-€83k$73-$103k
Senior FP&A$125-$173k£78-£108k€83-€116k$103-$143k
Lead FP&A$163-$224k£102-£140k€109-€150k$135-$185k
Head of FP&A$216-$296k£135-£185k€144-€198k$178-$244k
Source · 2,847 anonymised offers placed via Picked Q4 2025 to Q1 2026. Updated monthly.
What good looks like
Past credentials. Present signals.
01
Model craft
Builds a model a non-finance reader can navigate in five minutes. Has refactored a model they inherited and made it smaller, not larger.
02
Numerical judgement
Knows when a number is suspicious before they finish reading the row. Has caught a board number that was off by a factor of ten because the unit was wrong.
03
Comms with non-finance
Writes the one-paragraph variance note the CEO reads before opening the workbook. Has killed a 30-slide finance review in favour of a one-page memo.
04
Honesty about uncertainty
Distinguishes the bits of the forecast they believe from the bits they are guessing at, in the same sentence. Has flagged a soft assumption that turned out to be the cause of the variance.
05
Curiosity about the business
Asks the head of sales how the pipeline actually converts before plugging a number into the model. Has rebuilt a revenue forecast after sitting on three customer calls.
Nine years of Neuroworx outcome data on 14,000 fp&a analyst hires says: the candidates rated high on model craft + comms with non-finance outperform high-prestige-CV candidates by a wide margin in the first twelve months.
Read the paper →
What Picked puts every candidate through
Four stages. Each one written down.
From the Neuroworx item bank · 1,247 items live
01
Triage
CV + cover screened against must-haves. Title, level, language, region, three skills you set. Hard filters first. The model spends no time on people you would not even read.
~12 seconds · $0.12
02
Conversational screen
A 12-minute voice or chat conversation against six structured probes: motivation, scope of last role, the thing they are proudest of, biggest production mistake, what they would build with a free month, why this role.
~12 min · $0.31
03
Role-fit assessment
A scoped task drawn from the bank. Submit a short writeup. Scored against a published rubric on judgement, craft, and pragmatism.
30-60 min · $0.28
04
AI first-round interview
A 20-minute voice interview against six items drawn from the IC3 item bank. Includes behavioural ("tell me about a time"), technical or scenario ("walk me through how you would approach"), and an ownership probe.
~20 min · $0.24
The 1,247 items for fp&a analyst are split across 42 sub-rubrics. Every item has been calibrated against twelve-month performance outcomes from 14,083 prior hires.
See sample items ↗
Sample interview questions
A few from the item bank.
01
Tell me about a model you built that the CEO actually used. What made it usable for them?
Listen for: A specific model, the CEO change in behaviour, the design choices that made it usable.
02
Walk me through a forecast revision that surprised the board. What changed, and how did you communicate it?
Listen for: A specific revision, the driver, the way it was framed for the board, the response.
03
Describe a variance analysis that uncovered an issue the business had not noticed. What was the issue?
Listen for: A specific variance, the row, the underlying issue (often: a billing error, a supplier price change, a misclassified expense), the fix.
04
Tell me about the last headcount conversation you had with engineering. What did you push back on?
Listen for: A specific request, a specific push (often: ramp time, productivity assumption, scope of work), the agreement reached.
05
Walk me through the last budget cycle you ran end to end. What did you change in the cycle, and what would you change next time?
Listen for: A specific cycle, a specific improvement (often: cadence, template, single owner per cost centre), an honest critique.
See all 30 questions →
Job description template
Copy. Paste. Replace the bracketed bits.
fpa-analyst.md
264 words · 3 min read
# Senior FP&A analyst, [city] or hybrid

We are hiring a senior FP&A analyst. You will report to the [CFO/head of finance] and own the operating model, the monthly variance review, and the board pack inputs. The company is [N] people, [stage]. [Who you will partner with]. You will be the person the CEO calls before they run a number on a board call.

## You will be good here if

- You have built or rebuilt an operating model at a [stage] company and can walk the model from revenue to cash without opening the workbook.
- You write the one-paragraph variance note the CEO reads before opening the model. You have killed a quarterly format because nobody was reading it.
- [The third trait you actually care about].

## What you will not get

A finance ops team to delegate the close and the reconciliations to. You will do some of it yourself for the first six months.

## Compensation

[Currency][low] to [high] base. [low] to [high] percent equity. We post the band because we mean it.

## How we hire

30-second post, screen plus assessment via Picked, 20-minute interview via Picked, one on-site half-day with the CFO and a board-pack walkthrough. We aim to give a yes or no in 7 days.

## What is the rubric

Model craft, numerical judgement, comms with non-finance, honesty about uncertainty, curiosity about the business. Not your last title.

That is the JD. Apply via [link] or just send a paragraph about a model you killed because nobody was reading it.

[Your name], [your title]
Full JD template page →
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