CIO recruitment · Executive search · UK
Hire a CIO — CIO recruitment and headhunting, UK
How to hire a CIO in the UK: what a Chief Information Officer owns, when you need one, how to assess candidates, what search costs, and whether a CTO, an IT director or a fractional CIO fits better.
On a permanent or senior contract brief we send a shortlist of 3–5 CIOs, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position where relevant set out, after five-stage vetting.
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
15 minutes · video or phone
Book 15 minutes to hire a CIO
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with CIO 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
Pick a day that suits · live availability
Live roles · last 3 months
Live CIO jobs
No live CIO roles in the last three months. Showing live fractional executive roles instead.
- FractionalSyndicated
Head of Medical Compliance, Governance & Diligence (Fractional)
CNX Therapeutics Ltd · Greater London
est £1,000/dayGreater London - FractionalSyndicated
Head of Applied Legal – AI Product (Fractional)
Stealth Startup · London
est £1,600/day2 d/wk - FractionalSyndicated
Fractional Product Practice Leader - 9 Month Contract
Tails.com · London
est £1,000/day2 d/wk - FractionalSyndicated
Fractional CPO
Log my Care · City of London
est £3,250/day3 d/wk - FractionalSyndicated
Fractional Finance Directors
PWF Associates Limited · Manchester
est £750/dayManchester - FractionalSyndicated
Fractional legal counsel
Nifina · London
est £750/dayLondon - FractionalExclusive
Fractional COO
Confidential client (Fractional Quest mandate) · London
Rate n/aLondon - FractionalSyndicated
Fractional Financial Controller
MarcoPolo Learning · City of Westminster
est £750/day2 d/wk - FractionalSyndicated
Chief Financial Officer
Fiberpay · Marlow
Rate n/a2 d/wk
Current CIO and technology leadership roles
Fractional Quest is a fractional recruitment agency: send a CIO brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.
01/ the role
What a CIO does, and when you need one
A Chief Information Officer runs the technology the business runs on: the IT estate and its budget, the core systems (finance, ERP, CRM, HR), suppliers and outsourcing contracts, data and information risk, and the IT team. Robert Half’s CIO role profile describes the position as strategic business leadership focused on achieving business objectives through IT services and solutions, with responsibility for the performance of the IT function.
When a company needs a CIO
The usual triggers: the business has outgrown an IT manager and the technology budget now needs a board-level owner; a major ERP, cloud or data programme needs a senior sponsor on the client side of the table; an acquisition or carve-out means systems must be integrated or separated; or the board has been asked who is accountable for cyber and information risk and has no good answer.
That last point is a board matter. The government’s Cyber Governance Code of Practice shows boards and directors how to manage digital risks, and the NCSC’s Cyber Security Toolkit for Boards explains how to put it into practice. A CIO appointed as a statutory director also owes the company the general duties of directors in the Companies Act 2006. In an FCA-regulated firm, the person with overall responsibility for managing the firm’s internal operations or technology may perform the chief operations function (SMF24).
02/ scope
How to hire a CIO in the UK
1. Scope the seat before the search
Write down what the CIO will own and what they will not: is security with them or with a separate CISO, product engineering with them or with a CTO, data with them or with a Chief Data Officer? Name the programmes they inherit, the contracts up for renewal, and what the board expects to see in their first year.
2. Choose the route: full-time, fractional or interim
A permanent CIO suits a business whose operations depend on a large IT estate every day. If you need senior IT leadership for part of the week — a strategy, a supplier review, a board that wants a named owner — hire a fractional CIO. If the IT function needs a hands-on leader rather than a board-level executive, hire a fractional IT director. If the seat is empty mid-programme and needs full-time cover for a fixed term, hire an interim CIO.
3. Assess candidates against the level of the role
The SFIA framework’s levels of responsibility give a common yardstick for digital and IT roles: level 7 operates at the highest organisational level, sets overall vision and strategy, and is accountable for overall success; level 6 has significant organisational influence and makes high-level decisions. Decide which level the seat needs before you meet anyone. BCS describes Chartered IT Professional (CITP) registration as recognition of technical and professional competence matched by ethical integrity — one signal among several. The CIPD’s guidance on selection methods favours clear, objective, structured processes: the same questions for every candidate, an exercise built on a real problem from your estate, and references you take yourself.
4. Run the checks before the offer
For an employee, you must check their right to work before they start. Directorships and disqualified directors can be searched on the Companies House register. In an FCA-regulated firm, senior management functions need FCA or PRA approval before the person starts. One structural point: the ICO says a data protection officer must be independent and cannot hold a position that leads them to decide the purposes and means of processing personal data — so if your CIO will make those decisions, plan for the DPO role to sit elsewhere.
5. What CIO search costs
Two costs: the salary and the search. On salary, Robert Half’s 2026 figures for a Chief Information Officer in the United Kingdom run from £108,000 at the 25th percentile to £200,000 at the 75th, with a median of £150,250. On search, retained firms are engaged exclusively and paid in stages as the search runs; contingent recruiters are paid only if their candidate is hired. Both usually charge a share of first-year pay — get the percentage, the base it applies to and the payment dates in writing.
What we do on a CIO brief
We send a shortlist of 3–5 candidates, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position where relevant set out. Every candidate goes through our five-stage vetting first.
03/ vetting
How we vet CIOs
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify CIO 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
04/ cio recruitment agency
CIO recruitment agency: what to ask before you brief one
A CIO recruitment agency might be a retained executive search firm, a contingent technology recruiter or a specialist in interim and fractional IT leaders. The same law covers all of them. GOV.UK guidance on the Conduct Regulations says the Employment Agencies Act applies to executive search consultants, and that the fee charged to you, the hirer, is a commercial agreement between you and the firm. Agencies cannot charge candidates a fee for finding them work, so the hiring company pays.
Ask four things in writing before you sign: the fee, the base it is calculated on and when each part falls due; who runs the search day to day; how candidates are assessed and referenced; and what happens if the appointment does not work out. Check the firm on the Companies House register, and ask whether it belongs to a body such as the AESC, whose members are guided by its Code of Professional Conduct. The ICO’s recruitment and selection guidance applies to agencies and head-hunters as well as employers, so ask how candidate data is handled.
What we undertake as a CIO recruitment agency: a shortlist of 3–5 with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position where relevant, and five-stage vetting.
05/ cio vs cto
CIO vs CTO: which to hire
The short version of CIO vs CTO: a CIO runs the technology the business runs on; a CTO builds the technology the business sells. A logistics firm, a retailer or a professional-services business with a large internal estate usually needs a CIO. A software or platform company whose product is the technology usually needs a CTO first — see the CTO headhunter page. Some companies have both, with a CISO alongside.
Pay is close at the top. Robert Half’s 2026 UK medians put a Chief Technology Officer at £160,500 and a Chief Information Officer at £150,250, with an IT Director at £96,000 on the same table. For a mid-sized firm, weigh a CIO against an IT director too: a CIO sets IT strategy with the board; an IT director runs the function day to day.
If the need is board-level direction for part of the week, a fractional CIO can set the strategy and help you decide whether the permanent seat should be a CIO, a CTO or an IT director.
06/ questions
CIO headhunter FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in a CIO.
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.
