The resume looks right. A CPA, several years at a recognizable firm, then a Controller or Director of Finance title at a company roughly the right size. The interview confirms it: this person knows GAAP, knows how to close the books on time, knows how to run an audit without surprises. Everyone on the hiring side feels good about the offer.

In nearly twenty years recruiting Controllers, Directors of Finance, and CFOs for Israeli-founded companies, I’ve learned that confidence is only ever measuring part of it. The technical competence is real. It’s also not enough to determine whether this hire actually works.

The reporting line changes. The cross-border reality doesn’t.

The structure looks different from one search to the next. Sometimes it’s a Controller who owns the U.S. accounting function but reports professionally to a CFO sitting in Israel. Sometimes it’s a Director of Finance building the function largely on their own, with daily contact with the U.S. business and much lighter contact with HQ. Sometimes it’s a senior Finance leader or CFO who becomes one of the CEO’s closest operating and business partners, especially while the U.S. operation is still being built.

These are genuinely different jobs. Different seniority, different reporting lines, different scope. What they share isn’t hierarchy, it’s position: whoever holds any of these roles sits at the intersection of the U.S. operation and Israeli HQ, connected to Finance leadership in Israel, often working closely with U.S. Sales or GTM and the rest of the local business at the same time.

What a technical interview doesn’t test for

None of this is about where a candidate is from. It’s about what the position itself actually requires, whatever the title on the offer letter says.

Can this person operate before the process is fully built, or do they need one handed to them first. Do they understand the business behind the numbers, not just the numbers themselves. Can they hold a real, straight conversation with a Finance leader sitting in Israel, and with the local U.S. business at the same time, without losing connection to either side. Can they take a financial fact and turn it into something the person on the other end of that conversation can actually act on.

A resume built around GAAP and audit history doesn’t answer any of this. Any candidate can demonstrate it, regardless of background. It just rarely shows up in a technical interview built to confirm certifications, not judgment.

Strip away the title, and one requirement remains whether it’s a Controller, a Director of Finance, or a CFO: the ability to operate across the U.S. business and Israeli HQ. This is a cross-border role wearing a technical job title. That’s the part the resume can’t show.