Sarah was born and brought up in Gower, and after graduating from Cardiff University she moved to Exeter.

She qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2010 with Bishop Fleming, a large regional firm of Chartered Accountants based in the South West of England.  At Bishop Fleming Sarah gained experience and developed skills across a broad range of financial and accounting disciplines. This included accounting and accounts preparation, business and personal tax, company secretarial and special projects. Her clients were predominantly small businesses, including start-up ventures and not for profit charitable entities.

Sarah moved back to Cardiff in 2011 to work for Deloitte. Here she gained experience in a large international multi-department organisation working with clients ranging from small businesses to large corporate entities. During her time at Deloitte, Sarah continued to support clients from the education and charitable sector.

In 2014 Sarah relocated back to Swansea to work at Tata Steel, Port Talbot, to take up the role of Senior Reporting Accountant. While at Tata, she further honed her technical skills. She was responsible for the preparation of consolidated group reporting and statutory financial statements.  During this time Sarah also worked on certain specific projects and provided technical accounting updates and associated presentations to the finance team.

In 2017 Sarah set up Sarah Fairley Chartered Accountants to provide accounting and tax support to small businesses in Gower and Swansea.