Commercial director recruitment · Chief commercial officer recruitment
Commercial director recruitment: how to hire a commercial director or CCO
Commercial director recruitment starts with the brief: which revenue, pricing and partnership decisions the person will own, and whether the seat is a commercial director, a sales director or a chief commercial officer. To hire a commercial director, scope that first, then assess candidates on evidence from businesses like yours.
We recruit permanent, interim, fractional, part-time and temporary commercial leaders. On every brief we send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position 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
In the press
Fast Company 16 leaders on when fractional C-suite hires make sense · 24 Jun 2026
Before you commit to a permanent commercial director, it helps to hear both sides. Leaders here set out when a fractional hire suits a defined mandate and when a role needs someone in the seat every day.
International Finance Renting the C-suite, and why the fractional executive era has arrived · 17 Sep 2026
Argues that fractional leadership is moving into the mid-market, led by finance and marketing. Useful if you are weighing a part-week commercial lead against a full-time appointment.
15 minutes · video or phone
Book 15 minutes to hire a commercial director
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with Commercial Director 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 Commercial director jobs
No live Commercial director roles in the last three months. Showing live fractional executive roles instead.
- FractionalSyndicated
Fractional CISO (Contract / Project Based)
Cambridge Spark · United Kingdom
est £1,500/day2 d/wk - 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
Live commercial and revenue leadership roles
Fractional recruitment works differently from a permanent search — shorter, scoped by days a week, and priced on the engagement. Send a Commercial Director brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.
01/ the role
What a commercial director does, and when you need one
A commercial director owns how the business makes money from its market. The Institute of Directors describes the job as planning, developing and implementing commercial strategies to support business growth: researching the market, managing key stakeholder relationships, setting financial targets and budgets with the rest of the business, and reporting commercial performance to the senior team. In practice that usually means pricing, key accounts, partnerships and the plan that sales and marketing deliver against.
When a company needs a commercial director
The usual triggers: pricing and discount decisions are being made deal by deal with no owner; sales and marketing report separately and plan separately; a large customer or partner wants a senior counterpart; or the board wants one person accountable for the revenue plan. If the need is mainly running the sales team to a number, a sales director may be the better fit (see the comparison below).
The title and the law
"Commercial director" is a job title. It does not by itself make someone a director of the company in law; appointment to the board does. But GOV.UK guidance on being a company director notes that the legal duties still apply to someone who acts as a director without being formally appointed. Decide at the start whether the seat carries a board role, and say so in the brief.
Pricing is where commercial leaders carry personal risk. The CMA’s short guide to competition law risk says rival businesses must set prices independently, must never exchange competitively sensitive information, and that directors involved in a breach may be disqualified. It adds that not knowing is no excuse. Ask candidates how they have handled trade-association meetings and competitor contact.
02/ scope
How to hire a commercial director
1. Write the brief around the revenue problem
Set out what the commercial director will own (pricing, key accounts, partnerships, the sales and marketing plan), what they inherit, what stays with the CEO, and what should be different after the first year. A commercial director for a founder-led business with one sales motion and one for a group with several channels are different jobs.
2. Choose the route: permanent, fractional or interim
A permanent commercial director suits a business where commercial decisions need an owner every day. If you need senior commercial judgement for part of the week, hire a fractional CCO. If the revenue engine itself is the job, across sales, marketing and customer success, look at a Chief Revenue Officer: hire a CRO on a permanent basis, or hire a fractional CRO for part of the week.
3. Assess against evidence, not titles
Commercial titles vary widely between companies, so test the work. The CIPD’s guidance on selection methods favours clear, objective and structured processes: the same questions for every candidate, in the same order, and skill-based exercises, which it notes predict performance better than traditional approaches. Give a real pricing or key-account problem from your business. Professional standing is one signal among several: CIM describes Chartered Marketer status as the mark of a professionally certified marketer, and the Institute of Sales Professionals’ Sales Capability Framework sets out the knowledge, skills and behaviours for sales roles and underpins the Ofqual specification of sales qualifications.
4. Run the checks before the offer
For an employee, you must check their right to work before they start. Past and current directorships, and disqualified directors, can be searched on the Companies House register. Take references from a CEO and a finance lead who worked alongside the candidate.
What we do on a commercial director brief
We send a shortlist of 3–5 candidates, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out. Every candidate goes through our five-stage vetting first.
03/ comparison
Commercial director, sales director or chief commercial officer?
Three seats that are often confused. Choose by what the person will own, not by the title.
04/ vetting
How we vet commercial directors
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify Commercial Director 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/ chief commercial officer recruitment
Chief commercial officer recruitment: CCO or commercial director?
Chief commercial officer recruitment follows the same steps as commercial director recruitment, at a more senior level. The CCO usually sits on the executive committee and owns commercial performance across the business; a commercial director may report to them, or may be the most senior commercial leader in a smaller company. Many companies use the two titles for the same seat, so fix the scope before the title.
On pay, Robert Walters’ 2026 survey says Chief Commercial Officer salaries in the UK typically range between £100,000 and £281,000, depending on organisation size, industry and location. That is a CCO range; we have no published commercial director figure we can cite, so we set out pay for each candidate on the shortlist instead.
If what you need is part-week CCO cover rather than a permanent search, the hire chief commercial officer guide sets out the fractional route.
06/ commercial director vs sales director
Commercial director vs sales director: which seat do you need?
The commercial director vs sales director question comes down to scope. A sales director runs the sales team to a number: recruiting and coaching sellers, managing the pipeline, forecasting and closing. A commercial director decides what the business sells, to whom and at what price, and joins up sales, marketing and partnerships behind that plan. In a small company one person may do both; as the business grows, the roles separate.
Choose a sales director when the offer and pricing are settled and the constraint is selling it. Choose a commercial director when pricing, channels or key accounts need a senior owner. The IoD’s description of the commercial director role puts working with marketing, financial targets and stakeholder partnerships inside the job, which is broader than a sales remit. For part-week sales leadership, see fractional head of sales roles.
Whichever seat you fill, if the person works through their own company on a contract, the off-payroll working rules (IR35) may apply. A medium or large client decides the worker’s status; for a small client outside the public sector, the worker’s own company decides. Status turns on how the engagement runs in practice. Our IR35 guide sets out the tests.
07/ questions
Commercial director recruitment FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in a commercial director.
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.
