Chief people officer jobs · CHRO vacancies · Permanent, interim and fractional

Chief people officer jobs · permanent, interim and fractional

Chief people officer jobs are the most senior people roles in a company: the executive who owns workforce strategy, reward, talent, culture and employee relations, and advises the chief executive and the board on all of them. The seat is also called CHRO. It comes as a permanent full-time post, an interim assignment or a fractional or part-time seat. The board below shows the roles on our board for this seat, permanent roles first where the posting says full-time.

We recruit permanent, interim, fractional and part-time people leaders, and non-executive directors. Hiring rather than looking? On every brief we send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.

Brief us on a people leadership hire →See the roles

How a brief runswhat we undertake

01Brief30-MINUTE SCOPING CALLDay 0
02Shortlist of 3–5VETTED · RATE BENCHMARK · IR35After the brief
03InterviewsYOU MEET THE SHORTLISTYour diary
04Scoped startFIRST-MONTH OUTCOMES AGREEDYou set the date
05Fractional, interim and permanentIR35 POSITION SET OUTOn every brief

Shortlist3–5

3–5

Shortlist · with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 set out

Vetting · stages before a candidate reaches a client

£147,000

Chief people officer salary, median · 50th percentile

Robert Half, 2026

15 minutes · video or phone

Book 15 minutes to hire a chief people officer

Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with chief people officer candidates, their day rates and availability.

0115 minutes, video or phone
02We scope the role and the days a week
03A shortlist of 3–5 after the call
04Fractional, interim and permanent briefs

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On the board · last 3 months

Chief people officer jobs jobs on the board

0 Chief people officer jobs · 1 HR leadership

No Chief people officer jobs roles on the board in the last three months. Showing HR leadership roles instead.

FractionalSyndicated
Performance & Development Lead (Fractional)
Unity Advisory · London
Rate not stated3 d/wk

Browse every role on the board →

Current people leadership roles on our board

Fractional Quest is a fractional recruitment agency: send a chief people officer brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.

01/ the role

Chief people officer jobs: what the board holds

The board on this page holds the roles on our board for this seat: chief people officer, CHRO and group people roles in every mode of work. Roles whose posting says full-time come first. Interim, fractional and part-time roles follow, and where a posting states how the role is engaged, the listing says so. When there are few roles at this level, the board says so and shows the nearest people leadership roles, labelled as what they are.

What the seat does

A chief people officer sets how the company hires, pays, develops and keeps its people, and answers for it at board level: workforce planning, reward and the remuneration committee’s papers, leadership and succession, culture and engagement, employee relations, and the HR team that runs it all. For the full picture, see what is a CHRO.

The seat owns a moving body of law. Acas sets out the Employment Rights Act 2025, whose changes are phased in through 2026 and 2027; larger employers must also report their gender pay gap each year. Acas publishes the codes of practice and guidance a people function works to.

One seat, several ways to hold it

A permanent chief people officer is employed full-time and owns the people function for years. An interim one holds the seat for a set period, to cover a departure, a restructure or an integration after a deal. A fractional one holds it for agreed days a week, often in a growing business that needs senior people judgement before it needs a full-time executive. The title is the same; the contract, the days and the tax position are not.

02/ scope

How to get a chief people officer job

1. Build the professional base

No law requires a qualification, but postings often ask for CIPD membership. The CIPD offers routes to membership through qualifications or through an experience assessment; Chartered Member (MCIPD) and Chartered Fellow (FCIPD) are its chartered grades, which it calls the badge of expertise in the people profession.

2. Run a people function first

The usual path runs through HR business partner, head of HR or head of people, and HR director, with a function and a budget of your own. A shortlist at this level is decided on what you changed for the business: hiring at scale, a reward overhaul, a restructure handled well. See HR director jobs for the seat below, and fractional head of people jobs for part-week roles a level down.

3. Show the board work

Expect to be tested on reward and the remuneration committee, on succession for the top team, and on the hardest employee relations case you handled. In a listed company the board works under the FRC’s UK Corporate Governance Code, which has a section on remuneration. If the seat carries a board appointment, the duties of a company director come with it.

4. Pick the route in

Not every role at this level is permanent. Interim CHRO jobs cover a gap or a restructure; fractional CHRO jobs hold the seat for set days a week. If you work through your own company, the off-payroll working rules (IR35) may apply: status turns on how the engagement runs, and a medium or large client makes the determination. Our IR35 guide sets out the tests.

03/ related roles

Chief people officer jobs by type

Every page we keep for the seat, one per kind of role or question. We recruit permanent, interim, fractional and part-time people leaders.

Fractional CHRO jobsInterim CHRO jobsCHRO headhunterCHRO salaryWhat is a CHRO?HR director jobsFractional HR directorInterim HR directorFractional head of people jobs

04/ vetting

How we vet chief people officers

What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.

01
Qualification screen
Verify chief people officer tenure, sector context and stage fit.
SOURCING
02
Mandate fit
Match to your situation — stage, board dynamics, timing.
MATCHING
03
Reference deep-dive
We take references ourselves, from recent past clients — real outcomes, not titles.
VERIFY
04
Shortlist
Three to five candidates with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
SHORTLIST OF 3–5

05/ chro jobs

CHRO jobs the same seat under another title

CHRO jobs are chief human resources officer roles, and in most companies the CHRO and the chief people officer are the same seat. Some companies say chief people officer, others CHRO or group HR director; the job is usually the same. Robert Half benchmarks the two titles as one role.

Read the posting for who the seat reports to and what it owns. A role that reports to the chief executive, sits on the executive committee and owns reward is the top seat, whatever it is called. People director and HR director roles are often the seat below; see HR director jobs.

Search chief people officer, CHRO, chief human resources officer and group HR director together; employers use all four.

06/ permanent chief people officer jobs

Permanent chief people officer jobs the market and the pay

Permanent chief people officer jobs are full-time employed roles, and they are the ones listed first on this page. Robert Half’s 2026 salary guide puts a CHRO or chief people officer at £110,250 for a candidate still developing the skills, £147,000 at the median and £183,750 for one with above-average experience. It puts an HR director, the seat below, at a median of £110,250. Robert Half is a recruiter, and these are its own starting-salary projections.

Base pay is one part of a permanent package. Bonus, equity, pension and notice period vary widely by company stage and ownership, so compare offers line by line. For pay across permanent, interim and fractional seats, see our CHRO salary guide.

Some permanent searches at this level are run by a headhunter rather than an open advert. Our CHRO headhunter page sets out how a permanent search works from the hiring side.

07/ questions

Chief people officer jobs FAQ

The questions people ask before bringing in a chief people officer.

On this page: the board shows the roles on our board for this seat, permanent roles first where the posting says full-time, then interim, fractional and part-time. Each kind of role also has its own page, from interim CHRO jobs to fractional CHRO jobs.

In most companies, yes: chief human resources officer and chief people officer are two titles for the top people seat, and Robert Half benchmarks them as one role. The reporting line tells you the seat. People director roles are often a level down; see HR director jobs.

Robert Half’s 2026 guide puts a CHRO or chief people officer at £110,250 for a candidate still developing the skills, £147,000 at the median and £183,750 for one with above-average experience. Interim and fractional people leaders are paid by the day; see our CHRO salary page.

Run a people function as head of HR or HR director, build a record on reward, succession and change, and get in front of the board and its remuneration committee. Postings often ask for CIPD membership at a chartered grade. Interim and fractional roles are another way into the seat.

No law requires it, and the qualification asked for is the employer’s call. Postings at this level often ask for chartered CIPD membership; the CIPD offers routes through qualifications or experience.

Often only the title, in a smaller company. Where a company has both, the chief people officer sits on the executive committee and owns people strategy and reward, and the HR director runs the HR function or a division. See HR director jobs.

It depends on how the engagement runs in practice, not on its label. In most cases a medium or large client makes the determination; for a small client outside the public sector, the worker’s own company decides (HMRC). We set out each candidate’s IR35 position on the shortlist and do not promise an outcome.

Decide whether the seat is permanent, interim or for set days a week, then write down what it owns and who it reports to. For a permanent search, start with our CHRO headhunter page; for set days a week, see fractional CHRO jobs. On every brief we send a shortlist of 3–5 after five-stage vetting.

Book 15 minutes · shortlist of 3–5

Bring the brief. We architect the team.

A shortlist of 3–5 with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, after five-stage vetting.

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