The corporate treasurer is the person who makes sure the company can pay its suppliers, its salaries and its debt repayments, while putting idle cash to sensible use. It is a niche, discreet role, but a central one in groups with subsidiaries, foreign currencies and several banks. This guide explains what a treasurer does day to day, which studies lead to the job, the skills recruiters look for, what to know about pay and career paths, and how to present this profile on a CV.
What does a corporate treasurer actually do day to day?
The core mission is simple to state: guarantee the company's liquidity. In practice, that means knowing, day after day, how much money is coming in, how much is going out, and where every euro sits. The job profiles published by Apec for the corporate treasurer 🔗 and by France Travail for the treasurer 🔗 describe a role organised around a few blocks of responsibilities.
Steering cash flows and forecasts
The treasurer tracks receipts and payments, reconciles bank positions and builds short- and medium-term cash forecasts. A good forecast lets you spot a cash shortfall several weeks ahead, rather than discovering it on payday morning. This work requires constant dialogue with accounting, purchasing, sales and management control, because they are the ones who know the real due dates.
Managing the banking relationship
A mid-sized company works with several institutions: current accounts, credit lines, payment methods, guarantees, investment financing. The treasurer negotiates terms, challenges fees, arbitrates between banks and makes sure the company does not depend on a single partner. In the interview with a treasurer published by Onisep 🔗, negotiating with banks and securing the company's funds appear at the heart of the job.
Financing and investing
When the company needs money, the treasurer prepares the financing files: loans, committed lines, sometimes debt issues in the largest groups. When there is a surplus, they invest it according to its duration, expected return and risk level. Apec's profile of the treasury manager 🔗 also mentions setting up centralisation mechanisms such as cash pooling and netting, as well as drafting treasury agreements between the parent company and its subsidiaries.
Hedging currency and interest rate risk
As soon as a company sells or buys in foreign currencies, or borrows at a variable rate, it is exposed to market moves. The treasurer assesses this exposure and puts hedges in place: forward contracts, options, interest rate swaps. The aim is not to speculate but to make the budget predictable. It is one of the most technical sides of the job, and the one that brings it closest to trading floors.
Securing payments
Fake-CEO fraud, hijacked bank details, cyberattacks: payment security is part of the remit. The treasurer defines approval workflows, signing authorities and controls, often together with the IT department and internal audit.
Depending on the size of the company, these tasks are spread across several job titles: treasury assistant, cash manager, treasury manager, group treasurer. In an SME, one person often covers everything, sometimes reporting directly to the finance director. In a large group, people specialise: forecasting, financing, markets, payments.
Studies and routes into the job
There is no single degree that opens the door to the profession. The treasurer interviewed by Onisep says it himself: profiles often come from accounting, audit or banking, and few programmes lead directly to the job. France Travail's profile adds that the job is accessible from two or three years of higher education up to a master's level (bac+5) in finance, accounting, management or economics.
University routes and business schools
The most common route to a direct entry is a master's degree in finance or in accounting, control and audit, preferably with a treasury track or option. Some universities offer master's degrees dedicated to corporate treasury, sometimes as work-study programmes, which lets you reach the job market with two years of experience. Business schools with a corporate finance major also lead to these positions, as does the DSCG for accounting profiles.
Bridges from other jobs
Many treasurers get there after a first position elsewhere:
- in accounting (receivables, payables, bank accounting), where you learn to reconcile flows and understand how the company works;
- in audit, which gives a cross-functional view of processes and controls;
- in banking, particularly on the corporate or markets side, which brings knowledge of financing and hedging products;
- in management control, for those who already master forecasting and budgeting.
Additional training
Organisations such as the Cnam offer certificates in treasury management and cash management, useful for specialising during a career. A short course on hedging instruments or on a treasury management system can weigh as much in an application as an extra degree.
💡 Learn more: if your ambition goes beyond treasury and aims at the finance directorship, read our guide on becoming a CFO, which describes the stages of the path.
Key skills recruiters expect
Treasurer job ads combine technical skills, tools and more relational qualities.
The technical foundation
- Financial analysis and reading of accounts: understanding how a profit turns into cash (or does not).
- Forecasting and modelling: building cash plans in Excel, with scenarios (base case, downside case).
- Financing products: loans, committed lines, factoring, commercial paper, depending on the size of the structure.
- Markets and hedging: spot and forward foreign exchange, simple options, interest rate swaps.
- Payment rules: transfers, direct debits, SEPA, security rules.
Tools
Excel remains the basis, with advanced formulas and sometimes macros. More structured companies use a TMS (treasury management system) and bank communication platforms. Knowledge of an ERP and the ability to extract data, for example with SQL or a reporting tool, are pluses. Job ads often ask for fluent English, because banking counterparts and subsidiaries are international.
Behavioural qualities
The job requires rigour (a wrong transfer is hard to recover), responsiveness (decisions are made on short deadlines), negotiation skills with banks and clear explanations to present a cash position or a risk to non-finance colleagues. To prepare this part of your application, our article on the essential soft skills in finance gives examples of wording.
Pay at each stage
On pay, let us be cautious: the level depends on the size of the group, the scope (treasury only, or financing and markets as well), the region and experience. We therefore do not publish a numerical range drawn from secondary sources. Here instead is the logic that shapes salaries.
What makes pay vary
- The size and complexity of the group. Managing several currencies, dozens of accounts and structured financing pays more than managing one account and one credit line.
- The scope of responsibility. A position that commits the company's signature, negotiates financing or leads a team sits higher than an execution role.
- The scarcity of the profile. Experienced treasurers are fewer than accountants or management controllers, which strengthens their position in negotiations.
- Variable pay. It exists in some companies, more often at manager and director level.
The main stages
At the start of a career, the position of treasury assistant or junior cash manager is an entry point with pay close to that of other junior roles in corporate finance. The Onisep interview mentions a starting level of around thirty thousand euros gross per year; this is the account of a single person, to be taken as an order of magnitude and not as a pay scale. With a few years of experience, moving to treasurer or treasury manager comes with a noticeable increase, then another at group treasurer or head of treasury level.
To place your profile against other finance jobs, see our analysis of salaries in capital markets and investment banking and our finance salary forecasts. For up-to-date data, Apec's profiles and the pay surveys of recruitment firms remain the best references.
⚠️ Warning: never state a single figure in an interview without knowing the scope of the job. Ask first how many accounts, currencies and subsidiaries are involved.
Career paths and openings
Treasury offers both vertical and lateral career paths.
Progression within the function
The classic path goes from treasury assistant to treasurer, then treasury manager, group treasurer and head of treasury or financing. At each step the scope widens: more countries, more banks, more products, more people to manage and more direct exposure to general management.
Bridges to other functions
- Chief financial officer. Treasury gives a very concrete view of the company's health, which is an asset for aiming at the finance directorship.
- Structured finance and corporate finance. Treasurers who have led debt raises or refinancings can join financing or mergers and acquisitions teams.
- Risk management. Experience of currency and interest rate hedging opens the way to risk management in a company or a bank.
- Banking and advisory. Some join the corporate side of banks or the firms that advise finance departments on how to organise treasury.
- Management control. For those who prefer analysis and performance steering, moving to management control is natural.
Sectors that hire
Every sector needs treasury, but the needs are most visible in industry, retail, energy, luxury and large international groups, where currency flows are numerous. Fintechs and payment service companies also look for profiles able to understand both finance and systems.
How to showcase this profile on your CV
A treasurer's CV must show, within seconds, the scope managed and mastery of tools and risks. A recruiter reads first: size of the group, number of subsidiaries or countries, currencies handled, partner banks, tools used.
Structuring the profile and the experience
- The CV headline repeats the target title: "Corporate treasurer", "Cash manager", "Treasury manager".
- The summary fits in two or three lines: scope, specialities (forecasting, financing, hedging), sector.
- Experience entries start with an action verb, followed by a scope and a result. Our list of action verbs for a finance CV helps you vary the wording.
Here are before-and-after examples:
- Before: "Responsible for cash monitoring."
- After: "Led the 13-week cash forecasts of three European subsidiaries and anticipated two liquidity tensions, avoided by drawing a credit line early."
- Before: "Involved in the banking relationship."
- After: "Renegotiated the terms of the credit line with two banks and reduced account maintenance fees across the whole scope."
If your figures are confidential, use orders of magnitude or percentage changes, never invented amounts.
Highlighting tools and skills
A clear skills section distinguishes tools (advanced Excel, TMS, ERP, bank platform), products mastered (forward FX, swaps, cash pooling) and languages. Put first what appears in the job ad: applicant tracking systems (ATS) filter on those keywords first.
For a complete example adapted to this job, open our treasury CV example and our article on the corporate treasurer and cash manager CV. For the general logic of a finance CV, also read how to write a CV for capital markets and investment banking.
One point is often underestimated: layout. A poorly structured CV, with misaligned columns or badly read tables, can be rejected before a human reads it. Our editor handles the layout for you and produces a PDF that screening software can read correctly, so you can focus on the content.
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Sources
- Apec, job profile Corporate treasurer 🔗
- Apec, job profile Treasury manager 🔗
- France Travail, job profile Treasurer (M1207) 🔗
- Onisep, chat with a corporate treasurer 🔗