A controller makes sure the numbers are accurate. A CFO decides what the numbers should mean. That distinction sounds obvious stated plainly, but it’s exactly where a surprising number of controller searches go wrong, either by hiring someone whose skill set is misaligned with the actual gap, or by asking one person to do both jobs at once and getting neither done well.
Get Clear on What Gap You’re Actually Filling
The most common mistake in this hire isn’t a bad candidate, it’s an unclear brief. A controller owns the close, internal controls, compliance, and reporting, all of it backward-looking and precise. If your monthly numbers are late, inconsistent, or trusted by no one, that’s a controller problem. If you need someone steering fundraising conversations, building forward-looking scenarios, or sitting with the board, that’s a CFO-level need, and hiring a controller to cover it will leave you with clean books and no one actually steering. Getting this distinction right before the search starts saves you from discovering the mismatch at the worst possible moment, after the hire is already made.
Technical Skill Alone Isn’t Enough Anymore
A strong controller in 2026 needs to combine solid technical accounting with genuine commercial awareness, and that combination is harder to find than either skill alone. The role has also picked up real technology expectations: mastery of financial systems like SAP, Oracle, or NetSuite alongside advanced Excel and, increasingly, comfort with AI-enabled reporting and automation tools. A controller who can close the books accurately but can’t operate the systems your finance function actually runs on will create friction that shows up months into the role, not during the interview.
Weigh the CPA Question Deliberately, Not by Default
A CPA signals someone who passed a demanding exam and understands audit, GAAP, and controls at a professional depth, but it isn’t always strictly necessary. For a hands-on controller at a smaller, simpler company, a sharp non-CPA with deep practical experience can genuinely be the stronger fit. Requiring a CPA by default, rather than by actual need, narrows your candidate pool in a market where qualified accountants are already scarce, without necessarily buying you anything the role requires.
Don’t Underweight the Soft Skills
It’s easy to evaluate a controller candidate almost entirely on technical accounting ability, but the role carries real cross-functional weight. A controller collaborates with departments throughout the company and often works closely with upper management, which means the ability to communicate clearly, negotiate, and resolve conflict matters as much as GAAP fluency. A technically excellent controller who can’t work well with the team around them will create the same organizational friction a weaker technical hire would, just from a different direction.
Consider Renting Before You Buy
If you’re genuinely uncertain whether the need is a permanent seat or a temporary gap, a fractional or interim controller working a few days a week can clean up your close, stand up proper controls, and give you an honest read on whether a full-time hire is actually warranted yet, all before you lock in a permanent salary. This is worth considering more often than most CFOs default to. It’s not unusual for a company to bring in interim support, stabilize the function, and circle back to a permanent search twelve months later with a far clearer picture of what the role actually needs to accomplish.
Know What You’re Competing Against
Roughly three in four accounting firms plan to hire the same number of graduates or more this year, against a shrinking supply of new CPAs entering the field. That gap means a strong, content controller candidate is unlikely to be browsing job boards, and a search built around posting and waiting will underperform against firms actively sourcing passive candidates through a recruiting partner with real relationships in the space.
What a Strong Search Process Looks Like
- Define the actual gap before writing the job description. Controller-level backward-looking accuracy, or CFO-level forward-looking strategy, are different hires with different candidate pools.
- Use structured, behavioral interviews. A clear process with consistent criteria and reference checks that probe actual past behavior meaningfully improves hire quality over an ad hoc conversation.
- Weigh credentials against actual need, not habit. A CPA requirement should reflect the complexity of your reporting environment, not a default box to check.
- Evaluate collaboration ability directly, not just technical competence, since this role touches nearly every department in the company.
- Consider a fractional or interim option if you’re not fully certain the need is permanent yet.
The Bottom Line
Hiring a controller well starts with a clear answer to a question many searches skip entirely: what is this role actually supposed to fix? Get that answer right, weigh credentials against real need rather than habit, and evaluate for collaboration as seriously as technical skill, and you’ll avoid the quiet, expensive mismatch of paying for one kind of financial leadership and getting another.
Globalsoft Solutions helps CFOs source and evaluate controller candidates against the specific gap your finance function actually has, not a generic job description. Our direct hire and permanent staffing service is built to find candidates who fit the real scope of the role. Contact us to talk through your next controller search.
