What the Titles Actually Mean (Before You Buy One).
A plain-English reference for company roles — what each title owns, what it pays in Australia and New Zealand, and the personal liability that comes attached.
Most of the words on a company's org chart were invented to describe work that was already happening. CEO. CFO. Head of Growth. Each one is a label for a function someone was already doing — until the labels escaped the buildings they were built in, and started getting bought before the work existed.
We've argued before that hierarchy is not structure — that a title is a description of work that already exists, not a substitute for it. This is the companion piece. If that one is the warning, this is the reference: what each title actually means, what it costs to put a person in it, and — the part almost nobody explains — what legal liability comes attached.
If you already know the difference between a CFO and a Financial Controller, you don't need this. If you don't — if the titles blur together and you're not sure which ones your business should even have yet — start here. Because the honest answer for most small businesses is: far fewer of these than the internet implies. A $400k business does not need a Chief Revenue Officer. It needs to know what one is, so it can recognise that it doesn't.
The shape of a company
Before the individual titles, the shape. Most organisations stack into the same five tiers — governance at the top, the front line at the bottom, and the distance between them measured in scope, not effort.
Up the chart: fewer people, higher pay, and more personal legal liability — the duties attach to the office, not the person in it.
Down the chart: more people, lower pay, and liability that stays operational rather than personal.
Read it top to bottom and two things move together: as you climb, the pay rises and the headcount thins — and so does the personal legal exposure. The duties the law cares about concentrate near the top, where the decisions are made.
Every title, decoded
Tap any role to open it. You'll get who it reports to, what it actually owns, the role it's most often confused with, and the liability it carries. Switch between Australian and New Zealand pay with the toggle.
CEOChief Executive OfficerC-Suite🇦🇺 $180k–$600k+🇳🇿 $150k–$450k+
Board of Directors
Owns / accountable for- Company vision and strategy
- Board and investor relationships
- Culture and leadership
- Ultimate P&L accountability
- Major capital decisions
A GM runs operations within a defined scope — a division, a region, a site. The CEO owns the entire organisation: strategy, board accountability, culture, and the final P&L. A GM reports to the CEO. You can have many GMs; there is only one CEO.
Legal / personal: Almost always an 'officer' under the Corporations Act (AU) / Companies Act (NZ), and often a director too — so carries real personal duties: to act with care and diligence, in good faith, and for a proper purpose. Personal exposure if the company keeps trading while insolvent, a due-diligence duty for workplace safety, and personal liability for some unpaid company tax.
Accountability: Accountable to the board for the whole organisation's performance, conduct, and survival.
Hugely variable. Listed-company CEOs run well past $1M; owner-operator and SME CEOs are often $150–300k.
CFOChief Financial OfficerC-Suite🇦🇺 $180k–$450k+🇳🇿 $160k–$380k+
CEO
Owns / accountable for- Financial strategy
- Capital structure and fundraising
- Risk management
- Investor relations
- Forecasting and financial modelling
- M&A financial oversight
A Financial Controller manages the numbers — bookkeeping, compliance, reporting accuracy. A CFO interprets the numbers to drive decisions. The Controller looks backward; the CFO looks forward. Controller is a senior accounting role; CFO is a strategic leadership one.
Legal / personal: Typically an 'officer', so carries the same personal duties as a director. Specific exposure around the accuracy of financial reporting, solvency, and — in Australia — personal liability for the company's unpaid PAYG withholding, GST and super if those obligations aren't met.
Accountability: Accountable for the integrity of the numbers and the company's financial position.
Don't confuse with the Financial Controller — AU $110–170k / NZ $100–150k.
COOChief Operating OfficerC-Suite🇦🇺 $180k–$400k+🇳🇿 $150k–$340k+
CEO
Owns / accountable for- Business operations across all departments
- Execution of company strategy
- Process design and efficiency
- Cross-functional leadership
- Scaling infrastructure
An Operations Manager runs day-to-day execution inside a set system. The COO designs the system, owns cross-functional performance, and is effectively the CEO's right hand running the business engine. Ops Manager is tactical; COO is strategic.
Legal / personal: Usually an 'officer' given the breadth of decisions they influence, so the personal director-style duties apply — including the workplace-safety due-diligence duty across the whole of operations.
Accountability: Accountable for execution across the business and the systems that keep it running.
Not every company has a COO — often added during the scale phase.
CMOChief Marketing OfficerC-Suite🇦🇺 $160k–$350k+🇳🇿 $140k–$300k+
CEO
Owns / accountable for- Brand strategy
- Customer acquisition strategy
- Demand generation
- Market positioning
- Product-market fit
- Marketing budget and ROI
A Marketing Manager runs campaigns and executes briefs. The CMO owns the brand, the demand-generation strategy, the acquisition economics, and market positioning at a company level. The Manager executes; the CMO decides what to execute and why.
Legal / personal: May be an 'officer' depending on seniority and decision-making power. Day-to-day exposure is commercial: misleading-advertising and consumer-law obligations (the Australian Consumer Law / NZ Fair Trading Act) attach to the claims the brand makes.
Accountability: Accountable for brand, demand, and the economics of customer acquisition.
A Marketing Manager is a different job — AU $80–130k / NZ $70–110k.
CTOChief Technology OfficerC-Suite🇦🇺 $180k–$350k+🇳🇿 $160k–$320k+
CEO
Owns / accountable for- Technology vision and roadmap
- Engineering culture and team
- Architecture decisions
- Technical risk
- Innovation and R&D direction
An IT Manager keeps systems running. A Head of Engineering manages a dev team. The CTO sets the technical vision, makes the build-vs-buy calls, owns the roadmap, and makes technology a competitive advantage — not just infrastructure.
Legal / personal: May be an 'officer'. Growing personal exposure around data, privacy and cyber-security obligations, and around product safety where the technology is the product.
Accountability: Accountable for the technology, its security, and the roadmap.
Wide variance by stage. A startup CTO may earn less but hold equity.
CPO / CHROChief People OfficerC-Suite🇦🇺 $160k–$320k+🇳🇿 $140k–$280k+
CEO
Owns / accountable for- Talent strategy
- Culture design
- Leadership development
- Organisational design
- Compensation strategy
- Diversity and inclusion
An HR Manager handles hiring, compliance and HR admin. The CPO/CHRO treats people as a strategic asset — designing culture, leadership pipelines, retention and org design to support growth. HR Manager is reactive; CPO is proactive.
Legal / personal: May be an 'officer'. Carries the organisation's exposure under employment, work-health-and-safety, and anti-discrimination law — the duties that most often turn personal for the people who run them.
Accountability: Accountable for how the organisation hires, develops, pays and protects its people.
An HR Manager is a different role — AU $80–120k / NZ $70–100k.
CROChief Revenue OfficerC-Suite🇦🇺 $180k–$400k+🇳🇿 $150k–$340k+
CEO
Owns / accountable for- Revenue strategy end-to-end
- Sales and marketing alignment
- Pricing and packaging
- Customer success and retention
- Revenue forecasting
A Sales Director leads the sales team. The CRO owns the entire revenue engine — sales, marketing alignment, customer success and pricing. The Sales Director optimises one channel; the CRO connects every revenue-generating function.
Legal / personal: May be an 'officer'. Commercial-law exposure around pricing, contracts and consumer protection across the whole revenue engine.
Accountability: Accountable for the entire revenue system, not one channel.
Common in SaaS and high-growth firms. A Sales Director runs one channel — AU $130–200k.
GMGeneral ManagerSenior Management🇦🇺 $130k–$280k+🇳🇿 $120k–$220k+
CEO or Board
Owns / accountable for- Full P&L for a division, region, or business unit
- Staff across all functions within their scope
- Operational performance
- Local strategy within the group direction
Most often confused with the CEO. The GM's scope is contained — one division, region or unit. The CEO's scope is the whole company. The GM reports up; the CEO reports to the board.
Legal / personal: The one manager that often crosses into 'officer' territory: a GM running a full business unit and shaping company-wide decisions can pick up the same personal duties as a director. Scope determines exposure.
Accountability: Accountable for the full P&L of their division or region.
Ops ManagerOperations ManagerMiddle Management🇦🇺 $100k–$160k🇳🇿 $85k–$140k
GM or COO
Owns / accountable for- Day-to-day operational performance
- Process efficiency
- Staff scheduling and output
- Supply chain or service delivery
Legal / personal: Generally not personally liable in the statutory-director sense. Carries frontline work-health-and-safety responsibilities, and can be personally liable for serious safety breaches.
Accountability: Accountable for day-to-day operational performance within set systems.
FCFinancial ControllerSenior Management🇦🇺 $110k–$170k🇳🇿 $100k–$150k
CFO or CEO
Owns / accountable for- Accounting accuracy
- Month-end reporting
- Compliance and audits
- Accounts payable / receivable
- Payroll oversight
Often mistaken for a CFO. The Controller is technical — accuracy, compliance, reporting. The CFO is strategic — capital, forecasting, decisions. The Controller looks backward; the CFO looks forward.
Legal / personal: Not usually an 'officer'. Exposure is mainly professional and conduct-based — being knowingly involved in a financial breach carries personal consequences. Compliance accuracy is the core risk they hold.
Accountability: Accountable for accurate books, reporting, and compliance.
MMMarketing ManagerMiddle Management🇦🇺 $80k–$130k🇳🇿 $70k–$110k
CMO or GM
Owns / accountable for- Campaign execution
- Content and social
- Agency and vendor management
- Marketing calendar
Legal / personal: Not personally liable in the director sense. Practical exposure is consumer-law and advertising compliance — claims, pricing and promotions must not mislead.
Accountability: Accountable for executing campaigns and running the marketing calendar.
HRMHR ManagerMiddle Management🇦🇺 $80k–$120k🇳🇿 $70k–$100k
CPO or GM
Owns / accountable for- Recruitment
- Onboarding
- Compliance and employee relations
- Performance review processes
- HR administration
Legal / personal: Not an 'officer', but operates the organisation's highest-frequency legal surface — employment, safety and discrimination obligations — where a process failure becomes a dispute.
Accountability: Accountable for recruitment, compliance, and the people processes.
SMSales ManagerMiddle Management🇦🇺 $90k–$150k+🇳🇿 $80k–$130k+
CRO or GM
Owns / accountable for- Sales team performance
- Pipeline management
- Coaching reps
- Hitting revenue targets
Legal / personal: Not personally liable in the director sense. Exposure is consumer-law and contract compliance in how deals are sold and closed.
Accountability: Accountable for the sales team hitting its targets, fairly.
Usually carries commission and bonuses on top of base.
PMProject ManagerMiddle Management🇦🇺 $90k–$150k🇳🇿 $80k–$130k
GM, COO, or department head
Owns / accountable for- Delivery of specific projects
- Timeline, budget, scope
- Stakeholder communication
- Risk and issue management
Legal / personal: Not personally liable in the director sense. Carries contractual and safety responsibilities within the scope of the projects they run.
Accountability: Accountable for delivering projects on time, on budget, and in scope.
TLTeam Leader / SupervisorJunior Management🇦🇺 $70k–$95k🇳🇿 $60k–$85k
Manager
Owns / accountable for- Day-to-day team output
- Staff rostering
- On-floor problem solving
- Reporting up to the manager
Legal / personal: Not personally liable in the director sense. Has direct work-health-and-safety duties on the floor — the level where safety obligations are most hands-on.
Accountability: Accountable for their team's daily output and conduct.
Typically a step up from a senior individual contributor.
Indicative base-salary ranges, synthesised from the Robert Walters Salary Survey 2026, the Hays Salary Guide FY26/27, and Robert Half's 2026 guides for Australia and New Zealand, plus current market listings. Base salary only — super / KiwiSaver, bonuses and incentives sit on top, and figures vary widely by industry, company size and city.
Why liability climbs with the title
Pay is the obvious cost of a senior title. Liability is the hidden one. The further up the chart a role sits, the more the law treats the person in it as personally answerable for the company — not just employed by it.
The pivot word is officer. Under the Corporations Act in Australia and the Companies Act in New Zealand, directors and “officers” — a definition that reaches beyond the board to senior executives who shape whole-of-business decisions — carry personal duties: to act with care, in good faith, and for a proper purpose. Get it wrong and the consequences can land on the person, not only the company. They can be personally liable for trading while insolvent, for unpaid PAYG, GST and super, and they carry a due-diligence duty for workplace safety that doesn't disappear behind the company structure.
Managers, mostly, do not carry this. Their accountability is operational and contractual — real, but not personal in the statutory sense. The exception is the General Manager: run a whole business unit, influence company-wide decisions, and you can be deemed an officer whether or not the title says so. Liability follows scope, not job title.
General information only
This is a plain-English overview, current as at June 2026 — not legal, financial, or tax advice. Director and officer duties differ between Australia and New Zealand and turn on the specifics of each situation. Before you appoint someone to a role that carries personal liability — or accept one yourself — get advice from a qualified professional.
“A title is not a pay grade. Higher up, it becomes a legal position — and the law attaches the duties to the chair, not the person who happens to be sitting in it.”
The title is the last step, not the first
The order that works is the same one this whole site keeps returning to. You don't hire a CFO to get financial control; you build the financial cadence, and when it needs a senior brain one day a week, the title describes what is already there. You don't appoint a Head of People to fix culture; you fix how you hire and treat people, and the title comes after. The reference above exists so that when you do reach for a title, you know exactly what you are buying — what it pays, what it owns, and what it makes someone personally answerable for.
If you're weighing up pay, the related number most owners get wrong is their wages percentage. And if you're about to hire into one of these roles, read how to hire without getting burned and the questions to ask first before you write the job ad.
If you're not sure which of these roles your business actually needs yet, that is a structure question, not a hiring one — and it is what the diagnostic is for: naming the gap between the titles you have described and the work that is actually being done.