CTO jobs · Chief technology officer vacancies · Permanent, interim and fractional
CTO jobs · permanent, interim and fractional
CTO jobs are chief technology officer roles: the most senior technology seat in a company, setting its technical direction, leading engineering and answering to the board for what gets built and how. They come as permanent full-time posts, interim assignments and fractional or part-time seats. The board below shows the CTO roles on our board, with permanent roles first where the posting says full-time.
We recruit permanent, interim, fractional and part-time technology 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.
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
Financial Times The executives going ‘fractional’, not freelance (paywall)
Some senior technology leaders now hold leadership seats in several companies at once rather than one permanent post. It is one of the choices in front of anyone looking at CTO jobs today.
15 minutes · video or phone
Book 15 minutes to hire a CTO
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with CTO 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
On the board · last 3 months
CTO jobs jobs on the board
No CTO jobs roles on the board in the last three months. Showing technology leadership roles instead.
Current CTO roles on our board
Fractional Quest is a fractional recruitment agency: send a CTO brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.
01/ the role
CTO jobs: what the board holds
The board on this page holds the CTO roles on our board: chief technology officer, group CTO and CTO roles in every mode of work. Roles whose posting says full-time come first. Interim, fractional and part-time CTO roles follow, and where a posting states how the role is engaged, the listing says so. When there are few CTO roles, the board widens to the CIO and CISO seats beside it, and says that it has.
What the seat does
The Government Digital and Data framework describes the chief technology officer as the organisation’s technology strategist: setting a technology strategy that serves the wider one, deciding the technical direction, putting in place an architecture that is reliable, and keeping systems running and resistant to attack. In a software business the CTO also leads the engineering team that builds the product. For the day-to-day picture, see what a CTO does.
One seat, several ways to hold it
A permanent CTO is employed full-time and owns technology for years. An interim CTO holds the seat for a fixed period, to cover a departure, steady a platform or carry a raise or a sale. A fractional CTO holds it for agreed days a week, often in an early-stage company that needs senior technical judgement before it can carry a full-time salary. The job title is the same; the contract, the days and the tax position are not.
CTO or CIO?
Where a company has both, the CTO usually faces outwards, at the product and the technology customers use, and the CIO faces inwards, at the systems, data and IT the business runs on. Many postings blur the two, so read the scope rather than the title. Inward-facing seats are listed under CIO jobs.
02/ scope
How to get a CTO job
1. Lead engineering first
There is no licence a CTO must hold. Postings are decided on a record: shipping software at scale, choosing architecture that held up, and running engineering teams. The usual path runs through senior engineer, engineering manager and head of engineering. Our guide on how to become a CTO sets out the steps, and fractional head of engineering jobs are one way to hold the seat below it.
2. Show the level, not only the stack
Two frameworks help you show the level. SFIA’s levels of responsibility run from Follow to Set strategy, inspire, mobilise; a CTO works at the top of that scale. BCS’s Chartered IT Professional (CITP) registration is assessed on written evidence of competence and conduct, and is the chartered title for IT professionals in the UK. Neither is required, but both give a hiring panel something to test against.
3. Show the board work
A CTO shortlist is decided on what the board needs from technology: security, resilience, cost and the case for investment. The NCSC’s Cyber Security Toolkit for Boards sets out what directors are expected to ask. Software companies are asked to meet the government’s voluntary Software Security Code of Practice. Where the company claims R&D tax relief, a project must seek an advance in a field of science or technology, and the CTO is often the one who explains what that advance was.
4. Pick the route in
Not every CTO job is permanent. Interim CTO jobs cover a gap or a transaction for a set period; fractional CTO jobs and part-time CTO 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
CTO jobs by type
Every page we keep for the CTO seat, one per kind of role or question. We recruit permanent, interim, fractional and part-time CTOs.
04/ vetting
How we vet CTOs
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify CTO 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 technology officer jobs
Chief technology officer jobs the seat and its titles
Chief technology officer jobs are advertised under several titles. Chief technology officer and CTO are the same seat; group CTO runs technology across a group of companies. In smaller businesses the top technology seat may be called technical director, head of technology or VP engineering, and some companies merge technology and product into one chief technology and product officer seat. The title is a starting point; the scope decides the job.
Read the posting for three things: what the seat owns (product engineering, infrastructure, data, security), who it reports to, and whether it sits on the board. A CTO job reporting to a founder before a first raise is a different job from a group CTO seat in a listed company, even with the same title.
Ask how the security seat is arranged. Some CTOs own security outright; others work beside a chief information security officer. Our CISO jobs page lists that seat.
06/ permanent cto jobs
Permanent CTO jobs the market and the pay
Permanent CTO jobs are full-time employed roles, and they are the ones listed first on this page. Robert Half’s 2026 salary guide puts a full-time UK CTO at £120,000 at the 25th percentile, £160,500 at the median and £201,500 at the 75th percentile (Robert Half). In London, Robert Half’s table puts the CTO at £163,250, £218,250 and £274,000 at the same points (Robert Half, London). 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, and equity matters more in an early-stage company. For the pay picture across permanent, interim and fractional seats, see our CTO salary guide.
Some permanent CTO searches are run by a headhunter rather than an open advert. Our CTO headhunter page sets out how a permanent CTO search works from the hiring side.
07/ questions
CTO jobs FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in a CTO.
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.
