CFO headhunter: fractional, interim and permanent CFO placement

No UK CFO headhunter publishes a fee schedule.

UK retained search runs 25–35% of the candidate’s approximate first-year base salary, with 30% the most common headline rate and minimum fees of £30,000–£40,000 at established firms (Headhunters.co.uk, March 2026).

For a CFO search specifically, Executive Recruit gives 28–33%, or £40,000–£80,000.

A fractional CFO bills a day rate instead — £700–£1,400, with PE, VC and fundraising specialists at £1,200–£1,600 (FD Capital).

Always ask a firm for a written fee letter.

There is no honest league table: no firm publishes CFO placement outcomes, and we are one of the firms.

What we can say is which firm type fits which hire.

For a permanent listed or PE-backed CFO, the Big Five — Spencer Stuart, Heidrick & Struggles, Korn Ferry, Russell Reynolds Associates and Egon Zehnder — plus Odgers, headquartered in London, and Boyden, a partner-led federation.

For CFO-specialist recruitment, FD Capital (part-time, interim and full-time CFOs) and Marks Sattin (investor-led CFO search).

For fractional or interim CFOs, Fractional Quest, alongside Odgers Interim and Boyden’s interim practice.

The firm cards set out what each publishes about itself.

Strictly, CFO headhunting is proactive search — approaching people who are not on the job market — while a contingent recruiter more often sources from applicants.

In the UK market the words headhunter and recruiter are used interchangeably.

At CFO level almost every engagement is search-led, because most sitting CFOs are not actively looking.

Search fees are higher than contingent recruitment fees because the search firm invests before anyone signs: retained CFO search runs 28–33% of approximate first-year base salary, contingent recruitment 15–25% of base (Executive Recruit).

None of the firms on this page publishes a standard timetable for a CFO search, so we don’t quote one.

StandOut CV puts the UK average time to hire for senior leadership roles at 6.5 weeks — an all-sector average, not a retained CFO search.

The best public example of a retained search is the BBC’s Director-General appointment: resignation on 9 November 2025, a permanent start on 18 May 2026, just over six months with an interim in the seat (BBC Annual Report 2025/26; our arithmetic on the dates).

For an interim or fractional CFO, what decides the start is whether suitable people are free: the IIM’s 2026 survey found 64% of interim managers on assignment at the end of March.

We put no clock on our shortlist of 3–5; the start date is yours to agree with the candidate.

Use a retained CFO headhunter when you have decided you need a permanent, multi-year CFO, the role is board-level, and the cost — a 28–33% search fee (Executive Recruit) on top of a salary with a £176,500 median (Robert Half) — is justified by the appointment.

Use a fractional or interim CFO when you need senior finance leadership for a phase — a fundraise, Series A finance discipline, a turnaround, a sale — and a permanent hire would be premature.

The two are complementary: a fractional CFO often writes the brief for the permanent search.

Hire a fractional CFO.

In the UK the boundary is blurry.

A Finance Director is typically the operational owner of finance — controls, management information, statutory reporting, the team — at SMEs and mid-market companies.

A CFO is typically a board-level role with broader strategic, capital-allocation, investor-relations and M&A scope, at scale-ups, PE-backed companies, listed plcs and larger groups.

Published day rates reflect the difference: FD Capital puts a standard interim FD at £600–£1,000 a day (interim FD guide), a fractional CFO at £700–£1,400 and an interim CFO at SME or mid-market level at £1,000–£1,500 (CFO guide).

At a Series A–B scale-up the same person often holds both titles.

See fractional finance director jobs.

Retained search fees are paid in three staged instalments across the process (Executive Recruit), calculated as a percentage of the placed candidate’s approximate first-year base salary — whether bonus counts varies, so check the fee letter.

The retainer is paid whatever the outcome, because the firm invests in market mapping, research and assessment before any candidate signs.

Contingent recruitment, paid only on placement at 15–25% of base salary (Executive Recruit), is uncommon at genuine CFO level.

Retained CFO headhunters commonly offer a replacement guarantee: if the placed CFO leaves or is let go within an agreed window, the firm runs a replacement search at no further search fee.

It does not refund the original fee, and the length of the window varies by firm — none of the firms on this page publishes its terms, so get it in the fee letter.

Some do.

The Big Five are built for permanent appointments; Heidrick & Struggles is the one that describes “on-demand talent solutions” on its own site.

Odgers runs Odgers Interim, and Boyden runs interim management as one of its three services.

FD Capital states it offers CFOs on a part-time, interim and full-time basis.

Fractional Quest recruits fractional, interim and permanent CFOs: a shortlist of 3–5, each with day rate or pay, availability and IR35 position set out.

See hire an interim CFO.

The Association of Executive Search and Leadership Consultants (AESC), founded in 1959 and headquartered in New York, is the executive search industry’s self-regulator; member firms commit to its Code of Professional Practice.

For a board-level CFO appointment, membership is a useful but not sufficient signal.

Two firms on this page, Odgers and Boyden, state AESC membership on their own websites; the Big Five are commonly cited as members.

See aesc.org for AESC’s own description, and its member directory to check a firm.

More often than they used to.

Russell Reynolds Associates found that average FTSE 100 CFO tenure fell to a record low of 4.95 years in 2025, against a seven-year average of 6.8.

Globally, 2025 saw 316 CFO appointments, 12% above the seven-year average of 281, and first-time CFOs made up 57% of appointments.

The practical read: boards should expect to run a CFO search more often, and an interim or fractional CFO is one way to hold the seat while one runs.

A good brief covers four things.

(1) Company stage and revenue, and where the business is going in the next 18 months — the brief for a fundraise CFO and the brief for a covenant-managed PE-portfolio CFO are not the same.

(2) The decisions the CFO will own — investor relations, capital allocation, M&A, systems, team build, controls.

(3) The compensation envelope — base, bonus, equity, or day rate and days a week.

(4) Constraints — geography, and which sector experience is required rather than preferred.

A conversation with the chair, the CEO and any lead investor before the brief is signed heads off most failed CFO searches; this is our editorial view, not a measured finding.

The brief section sets out the steps.

We don’t name one, because no firm publishes the CFO outcomes it would take to prove it.

What each firm publishes: Spencer Stuart, Heidrick & Struggles and Russell Reynolds Associates list London offices; Odgers is headquartered in London; Boyden lists UK offices in London and Aberdeen; FD Capital is based at Great Portland Street; Marks Sattin runs an investor-led CFO search practice.

Match the firm to the hire — retained for a permanent listed-company CFO, a stated private-equity practice for a PE-backed CFO, an interim or fractional specialist for cover.

The London section sets it out.

For a permanent CFO, the retained firms: the Big Five, Odgers and Boyden, each profiled above on its own published facts.

Expect a CFO search fee of 28–33% of approximate first-year base salary, or £40,000–£80,000 (Executive Recruit), paid in staged instalments.

For a CFO for part of the week or a defined period, a fractional or interim specialist is the better tool, and costs less.

Ask any firm for the fee in writing, who runs the search, and what happens if the appointment fails.

Use a retained search firm on an exclusive mandate: it approaches CFOs who are not on the market, so the role is never advertised.

Ask for the search to run under a project name, and agree in writing who inside the company sees the specification.

If the seat will be empty before the permanent CFO starts, put an interim CFO in alongside the search — the BBC ran its Director-General search with an interim in the seat (BBC Annual Report 2025/26).

We can brief the interim.

Start with the brief, not the firm.

Re-check the decisions the CFO will own, the pay envelope, and which requirements are essential rather than preferred — an over-specified brief is the usual cause of a thin shortlist.

Ask the firm for its market map and why the strongest names declined.

Retained fees are paid in three staged instalments (Executive Recruit), so know which one is next before agreeing to extend.

If the business needs cover now, a fractional or interim CFO can hold the seat while you re-brief — and may show whether the role needs five days at all.

It depends on who is free, and nobody can promise it before they have spoken to candidates — we don’t.

The IIM’s 2026 survey found 64% of interim managers on assignment at the end of March, so availability, not search, is the constraint.

What helps: brief several interim providers at once with the board date, the pack you need and a day-rate budget — FD Capital publishes £1,000–£1,500 a day for SME and mid-market interim CFOs (FD Capital) — and be ready to interview fast.

Hire an interim CFO.

Define the phase first — vacancy cover, a transaction, a turnaround — and what the interim must deliver by the end of it.

Set a budget against published day rates: FD Capital gives £1,000–£1,500 a day for SME and mid-market interim CFOs and £1,500–£2,500 for complex mandates; Exec Capital gives £700–£2,000.

Brief an interim provider (Odgers Interim, Boyden’s interim practice, FD Capital or us), take board-level references, and settle the IR35 position before the contract: a medium or large client makes the status determination (HMRC).

With us, you meet a shortlist of 3–5.

More: hire an interim CFO.

A CFO headhunter for fractional, interim and permanent CFOs.

We run a brief to a shortlist of 3–5, with five-stage vetting and an IR35 position on every brief.

We don’t hold a candidate bench or grade candidates, and we take no referral fees from any firm on this page.

Start with the hire, then pick the firm type: a retained search firm for a permanent board-level CFO, a CFO-specialist recruiter or interim provider for interim and part-time work, a contingent agency for finance roles below the board.

Ask each firm for the fee in writing, who runs the search, and what happens if the appointment fails — Executive Recruit puts retained CFO search at 28–33% of approximate first-year base salary.

Verify the candidate’s qualification with ICAEW, ACCA or AICPA & CIMA.

A firm must not charge the candidate for finding them work (gov.uk).

The section above sets it out.

A retained, exclusive search: the firm agrees the brief, maps the market, approaches CFOs who are not looking, assesses them and presents a shortlist, and is paid in staged instalments — 28–33% of approximate first-year base salary for a CFO (Executive Recruit).

In an FCA-regulated firm, whoever performs the chief finance officer function (SMF2) needs regulator approval before starting, so build that into the timetable.

For a fractional, interim or permanent CFO, we run a brief to a shortlist of 3–5.

See how a retained search runs.

Full-time when the finance function needs a CFO every day — a listed company, a large group, or a regulated firm with a chief finance officer function to fill.

Part of the week when the business needs CFO judgement on a fundraise, a sale or investor reporting, but not five days of it: a fractional CFO on one to three days.

For a defined phase at full time, an interim CFO.

If what you want is advice rather than a hire, look for the best firms for CFO-level advisory work among accountancy and corporate-finance advisers; a headhunter recruits the person, it does not do the work.

We run fractional, interim and permanent CFO briefs to a shortlist of 3–5.

Hire a fractional CFO.

No firm publishes the outcomes a ranking would need, and we recruit fractional CFOs and COOs ourselves, so we don’t name leading firms.

What firms publish about themselves: FD Capital states it provides CFOs on a part-time, interim and full-time basis; Odgers and Boyden each run an interim management practice alongside retained search.

We recruit fractional, interim and permanent CFOs and COOs to a shortlist of 3–5, each with day rate or pay, availability and IR35 position set out.

For the operations seat, see hire a fractional COO and the COO headhunter guide.

Ask before you sign anything.

With us, browsing the board and applying is free.

As published examples: FD Capital puts a fractional CFO at £700–£1,400 a day and an interim CFO at SME or mid-market level at £1,000–£1,500.

Two fractional days a week across 46 weeks at the fractional band is £64,400–£128,800 in gross billings from one mandate; a six-month interim assignment at five days a week (130 days) at the interim band is £130,000–£195,000 — our arithmetic, before tax and expenses.

The calculator above models your own numbers.

On the board above, drawn from our jobs feed, and on the fractional CFO jobs and interim CFO jobs hubs.

Finance-director and controller roles are on the fractional finance director and fractional financial controller jobs boards.

For permanent roles, the retained firms approach you rather than the other way round; keeping your profile current and being known to the partners who cover finance helps.

For interim and part-time work, it pays to be known to the CFO-specialist recruiters and interim providers on this page, with your availability and day rate kept current.

Remember that the headhunter CFO candidates speak to is paid by the hiring company, not by them.

With us, apply to roles on the board above; applying is free.

If you work through your own limited company, the off-payroll working rules decide how the engagement is taxed, and a medium or large client makes the status determination (HMRC).

We set out an IR35 position on every brief; status still turns on how the engagement works day to day, and CFO office-holder duties need specific advice.