Treasury is responsible for managing a company's financial assets, liabilities, and risk. The day-to-day work includes:

**Cash management and liquidity:** Forecasting cash needs, managing bank relationships, ensuring the company has sufficient liquidity to fund operations and growth. At large companies, this involves sweeping cash across hundreds of bank accounts globally and managing short-term investment portfolios.

**Debt and capital markets:** Managing the company's debt portfolio — revolving credit facilities, term loans, bonds — including covenant compliance, interest rate risk management, and refinancing strategy. At public companies, treasury leads the debt capital markets process.

**Foreign exchange and risk management:** Identifying and hedging FX exposure from international operations. Derivatives (forwards, options, swaps) are common tools, requiring treasury professionals to have working knowledge of financial instruments.

**Banking relationships:** Managing the company's banking relationships, negotiating credit facility terms, and evaluating banking services. Treasury is often the primary finance contact for the company's commercial and investment banks.

Treasury professionals see parts of the business that most FP&A professionals don't — capital structure decisions, board-level exposure through debt committee meetings, and direct interaction with investment banks and credit rating agencies. These are the same experiences that CFOs draw on constantly.

## Treasury Analyst (0–3 years) **Salary:** $60,000–$90,000 **What the job is:** Cash management execution, bank account management, daily cash positioning, debt and covenant reporting, and FX exposure tracking. High systems work (TMS — Treasury Management System — proficiency is critical). Learning the company's capital structure and banking relationships. **What moves you up:** Speed and accuracy on daily cash operations; understanding the 'why' behind each treasury function, not just the 'how'; initiative to improve reporting or processes.

## Senior Treasury Analyst (3–6 years) **Salary:** $80,000–$120,000 **What the job is:** Taking ownership of a treasury function area — FX hedging program, debt portfolio management, cash forecasting model, or banking relationship management. Beginning to represent treasury in cross-functional meetings. **What moves you up:** Owning a function end-to-end without oversight; demonstrating judgment on risk management decisions; CTP certification progress.

## Treasury Manager (6–10 years) **Salary:** $100,000–$155,000 **What the job is:** Managing a treasury team, owning a complete treasury function (global cash management, capital markets, or risk management), and presenting to the VP of Treasury or CFO. Beginning to build relationships with the company's banks at a more senior level. **What moves you up:** Quality of the team you build; complexity of the treasury challenges you handle; exposure to capital markets transactions (bond issuance, credit facility refinancing).

## Director of Treasury (10–16 years) **Salary:** $145,000–$230,000 **What the job is:** Owning the treasury function for a major company or business unit. Leading capital markets transactions (refinancings, debt issuances), building rating agency relationships, and presenting to the CFO, board, and audit committee on treasury strategy. **What moves you up:** Track record on capital markets execution; board and audit committee exposure; strategic influence on capital structure decisions.

## VP of Treasury / Treasurer (15–22 years) **Salary:** $180,000–$320,000 **What the job is:** Owning the complete treasury function. Capital allocation strategy, investor relations (at some companies), board compensation committee involvement, and direct CFO succession preparation. The Treasurer at a large public company is often considered a strong internal CFO candidate. **What moves you up to CFO:** Board relationships, capital markets credibility, and demonstrated readiness to own the full finance function — which typically requires expansion into FP&A, accounting, or IR oversight beyond treasury.

The CFO path from treasury is underappreciated for a concrete reason: treasurers have capital markets credibility that most FP&A and accounting CFO candidates don't.

CFOs at public companies spend significant time on capital markets — managing the revolving credit facility, pricing debt issuances, interacting with rating agencies, and communicating with institutional investors about the company's financial health. Treasurers have done this work; most FP&A professionals haven't.

Approximately 15–20% of Fortune 500 CFOs came from treasury or a treasury-related path. The treasury-to-CFO path requires one additional step that pure treasury professionals sometimes miss: expanding into broader finance leadership (FP&A, accounting, or investor relations) before reaching the CFO seat. Treasurers who only ever own treasury are more likely to be passed over for CFO in favor of candidates with broader finance function ownership.

The treasury professionals who reach CFO typically take one of two paths: (1) a stint as Controller or VP Finance that broadens their finance function ownership, or (2) a CFO role at a smaller company where their capital markets credibility is the differentiating factor and the broader finance scope is manageable.

The CTP (Certified Treasury Professional) from the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) is the primary credential for treasury professionals. It signals mastery of core treasury concepts: cash management, working capital optimization, risk management, and capital markets. Most senior treasury roles list it as preferred or required.

The optimal timing: begin CTP preparation in years 2–4 as an analyst, once you have enough treasury experience to contextualize the curriculum. Sitting for the exam before having treasury experience is common but makes the material harder to retain.

For treasury professionals targeting capital markets-heavy roles or buy-side positions, the CFA is increasingly valued — particularly the fixed income and derivatives curriculum. Treasury professionals who become CFA charterholders have strong positioning for corporate treasury and treasury-adjacent investment management roles.

For treasury professionals at companies with significant FX exposure, relevant FX risk management courses from the AFP or equivalents can differentiate candidates in a relatively thin talent market.