~/fractional-ceo-jobs-uk

Hire a fractional CEO — live roles, rates & fractional CEO jobs UK.

Hire a fractional CEO — a part-time chief executive, 1–3 days a week, £800–£2,000 a day, outside IR35.

Fractional CEO jobs UK, graded on rate, fit and IR35 — browse live mandates below, or bring a brief and and we aim to have a shortlist with you inside two working days.

£1,150

median day rate, UK fractional CEOs

48h

brief to graded shortlist of 3–5

2 d/wk

typical engagement intensity

Browse live CEO jobs ↓ Hire a fractional CEO

Median day rate and engagement intensity: FD Capital 2026 (£800–£1,500 UK band) — VERIFIED. Shortlist target: Fractional Quest process.

Scroll to descend

01 · one seat, four ways to fill it

Fractional, interim, chair, full-time.

A fractional CEO is not a caretaker, and not an advisor.

It is the same seat — the strategy, the board, the team, the capital allocation — hired by the day instead of by the year.

The difference that matters most is who actually runs the company: a chair or NED governs and advises from outside the seat, while a fractional CEO is personally in it.

In the seatnot an advisor

A mandate, not a tenure.

Scoped to an outcome — a transition, a turnaround, a value-creation plan — typically 12–24 months, often with a clean handover to a permanent CEO. The company defines the outcome; the CEO decides how to achieve it.

02 · the four ideas

What are fractional CEO jobs?

Part-time chief executive roles where you run the company within a defined scope — not a caretaker, not an advisor.

Four ideas define the model.

The model04 ideas

01Part-time
Senior, proven CEO capability across a defined slice of the week — 1–3 days, without a full-time salary.
02In the seat
Runs the company — owns strategy, runs the board, leads the team. Not a caretaker, not an advisor.
03Outside IR35
Built outside IR35 by default: right of substitution, no mutuality of obligation, contractor-controlled working.
04Time-bound
Scoped to an outcome over 12–24 months, often with a clean handover to a permanent CEO.

A full-time package, or two days a week.

Either way, the company is led.

Past this line — the rates, the structure, the maths and the live board.

03 · rates

Fractional CEO day rates by region.

UK median around £1,150–£1,200 a day, typically 2 days a week.

Rates by region below are directional bands from live and recent mandates; unverified figures are flagged.

Switch the view to see what hiring a fractional CEO costs by the month at one, two or three days a week.

Day-rate bands · GBPBY REGION

UK-wide band verified (FD Capital 2026); regional bands are estimates pending a larger mandate sample. Wider market context: interim CEO briefs are quoted at £1,200–£2,500/day at the top of the market (FD Capital 2026). Monthly bands: FD Capital, Part-Time CEO Costs UK 2026 — VERIFIED. Regional rows ported verbatim from app/fractional-ceo-jobs-uk/_content.ts.

04 · comparison

Fractional CEO vs the alternatives.

How the fractional model compares to interim, executive chair, advisor and a full-time appointment.

Read the "in the seat" row first — it is the row that decides the other four.

Four models, five dimensionsFractional CEO

Ported verbatim from the compare table in app/fractional-ceo-jobs-uk/_content.ts. On the division of responsibilities between a chair and a chief executive: FRC, UK Corporate Governance Code.

05 · IR35

Outside IR35 by default.

All fractional CEO engagements are structured outside IR35 from day one.

Three tests, contract-tested against CEST.

Status is decided on the facts of each engagement, and a statutory directorship brings office-holder duties — take advice before accepting one.

The three tests01 / 03

Status is decided on the facts of each engagement. Consult a tax adviser · gov.uk/CEST · off-payroll rules: HMRC IR35 guidance.

06 · the maths

Rate × days × weeks.

A fractional CEO career is a portfolio, and a portfolio is arithmetic.

Most operators run 2–3 clients in parallel at one to three days each, across roughly 46 working weeks.

Move the sliders — this is the site’s own earnings calculator, brought into the scroll.

Earnings calculator · portfolio model

Day rate£1,150/dayDays per week (all clients)4 daysWorking weeks per year46 weeks

Your potential

£211,600 /year

Your £1,150/day sits near the 50th percentile for UK fractional CEOs (£800–£1,500 band).

For a hiring company, the same mandate costs well under the ~£345K loaded cost of a full-time CEO (base + employer NI, benefits and recruitment — indicative).

Ported verbatim from app/templates/role-jobs-hub-v3/EarningsCalculator.tsx. The percentile line anchors to the £800–£1,500 UK band (FD Capital 2026); the calculator invents no figures. For a hiring company, the same mandate costs well under the ~£345K loaded cost of a full-time CEO (indicative). Employer NI at 15% from April 2025: gov.uk.

07 · hiring

When to hire a fractional CEO.

Four situations where a fractional chief executive is often the right answer.

Each one is a scope question, not a status question — the seat is filled for the outcome that needs it.

The four triggers01 / 04

Ported verbatim from the when.scenarios array in app/fractional-ceo-jobs-uk/_content.ts.

08 · vetting

How we vet fractional CEOs.

Every candidate clears the same four-stage read before their profile reaches a shortlist.

Most fractional CEOs arrive after 10+ years of leadership, including P&L ownership at CEO or MD level.

Fractional buyers pay for pattern recognition, not potential.

The four-stage readbefore any shortlist

01P&L readTRACK RECORD
Verified CEO or MD tenure with owned P&L. We read the numbers, not the narrative.
02Board-level referencesREFERENCES
Two references from chairs or investors who sat across the table — not colleagues.
03Mandate rehearsalDEEP-DIVE
A structured session on a real anonymised brief: first 90 days, cadence, capital allocation.
04GradingFIT + IR35
Rate percentile, stage fit and IR35 posture attached to every profile before it reaches a shortlist.

Directorship history is public record: Companies House.

09 · live roles

Live fractional CEO jobs, updated daily.

Real vacancies, honestly sourced.

Exclusive roles you apply for through us; syndicated roles live elsewhere that we surface and analyse; fractional-curious roles not advertised as fractional but structurable.

Syndicated and fractional-curious roles link to the original source with full attribution. We never invent a vacancy to fill a slot — if the board runs thin, it says so.

Live roles · last 3 months

Live Fractional CEO jobs

1 live

FractionalSyndicated
Fractional C-Suite
Acentis Group Ltd · Southend-on-Sea
Rate n/aSouthend-on-Sea

Browse all live UK roles →

Back into daylight.

The full guide to fractional CEO work.

How to hire, how to become one, where the roles are, and twelve questions answered.

06 · Hiring

How to hire a fractional CEO.

Hiring a fractional CEO takes four steps — brief to graded shortlist inside two working days is what we aim for.

Day 0Scope the mandate.
Define the outcome — a transition, a turnaround, a value-creation plan — the days per week, and the 12–24-month horizon.
Day 0Bring the brief.
Stage, sector, board context and budget band. The brief is partner-read, not parsed by an intake form.
DaysTake the graded shortlist.
3–5 vetted profiles, each graded on rate percentile, stage fit and IR35 posture (Fractional Quest process target).
Week 1–2Contract outside IR35.
Interview, mandate rehearsal, then a CEST-tested contract — substitution and no-MOO clauses in, statutory-officer edge cases taken to a tax adviser.

Hire a part-time Chief Executive — what it costs

A 2-day-a-week mandate runs roughly £6,400–£13,000 a month — about 20–40% of a full-time permanent CEO’s cost (FD Capital, Part-Time CEO Costs UK 2026 — VERIFIED). Employment-status tool: gov.uk/CEST.

A fractional CEO leading a UK board meeting — hire a fractional CEO through Fractional Quest

07 · Guide

How to become a fractional CEO in the UK.

Most fractional CEOs arrive after 10+ years of leadership, including P&L ownership at CEO or MD level. The path from permanent to portfolio, in five steps.

Before you startBank the track record.
10+ years of leadership including P&L ownership at CEO or MD level. Fractional buyers pay for pattern recognition, not potential.
Week 1Define the niche and stage.
Sector plus company stage — “SaaS, Series A–B” beats “growth companies”. Your first two mandates will come from your existing network.
Week 1–2Set the rate band.
Anchor to the UK band: £800–£1,500/day mid-market, £1,200–£2,000 in London and PE contexts. Quote a range, hold the floor.
Week 2–4Structure for outside IR35.
Form a limited company, get a CEST-tested contract template with substitution and no-MOO clauses, and take advice on office-holder edge cases.
OngoingGet on the boards that matter.
Register with fractional-specialist platforms, set your availability once, and let graded mandates come to you while you work your network.

Fractional executives comparing portfolio mandates — fractional CEO jobs UK

New · Titles

Fractional managing director, part-time CEO — the same seat by other names.

In UK SMEs and family-owned businesses the chief executive is usually titled managing director, so the same mandate is advertised as a fractional MD as often as a fractional CEO.

The shape is identical: in the seat, 1–3 days a week, scoped to an outcome, outside IR35 by default.

The rate band is identical too — the UK's published £800–£1,500 band covers fractional and part-time chief executives under either title (FD Capital 2026).

Part-time CEO usually signals a consistent-days engagement with a single company, while fractional CEO usually signals a portfolio across 2–3 clients — the market uses both loosely, so read the mandate, not the label.

What a fractional chief executive actually earns across a portfolio, by stage and percentile, is covered on the fractional CEO salary page.

08 · Coverage

Where the UK's fractional CEO jobs actually are.

London leads demand; Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Bristol and Leeds follow — and a large share of mandates are remote or hybrid.

£1,200–£2,000/dayLondon

Deepest market — fintech, PE portfolios, regulated firms.

£900–£1,500/dayManchester

Fast-growing scale-up scene; strong e-commerce and B2B SaaS.

£900–£1,400/dayEdinburgh

Fintech and asset management; growing deep-tech cluster.

£850–£1,400/dayBirmingham

Manufacturing, logistics and family-owned mid-market.

£900–£1,400/dayBristol

Aerospace, robotics and creative-sector scale-ups.

£850–£1,350/dayLeeds

Health-tech and financial services back-office HQs.

£1,000–£1,600/dayCambridge & Oxford

Deep tech and life-science spinouts needing commercial CEOs.

£800–£1,500/dayRemote · UK-wide

The largest single segment — most mandates are hybrid or remote.

Leadership travels better than it used to: board meetings, investor conversations and the weekly executive cadence all survive a hybrid rhythm.

Most mandates settle into remote for the working cadence and in the room for the board meeting, the leadership offsite and the crunch weeks.

That is why the remote segment is the largest single slice of the board, and why remote fractional roles across every function are worth watching alongside the CEO board.

09 · Vetting

Who stands behind this page.

Who reviews this page

Reviewed by [NAMED REVIEWER — add founder bio, credentials and photo]. Competing pages lead with a named, credentialed expert; this slot ships empty until a real byline exists rather than inventing one.

Placements & testimonials

[CASE STUDIES — add 2–3 real placements with named clients and outcomes.] Until then, nothing is claimed here. Honest collapse beats placeholder fill.

10 · FAQ

Fractional CEO questions, answered.

Thirteen questions people actually ask Google about fractional CEO jobs — each answer also ships as FAQPage structured data.

What is a fractional CEO?

A fractional CEO is a chief executive who runs a company part-time — typically 1–3 days a week — within a defined scope. Unlike an advisor or chair, they own strategy, run the board and make the decisions.

How much does it cost to hire a fractional CEO in the UK?

UK fractional CEO day rates typically run £800–£2,000, with a median around £1,150–£1,200. A 2-day-a-week mandate costs roughly £120K–£215K a year, versus around £345K loaded for a full-time CEO.

How do I hire a fractional CEO?

Scope the mandate — the outcome, days per week and a 12–24-month horizon — then bring the brief. You get a graded shortlist of 3–5 vetted profiles in 48 hours, and contract outside IR35 with a CEST-tested agreement.

How much do fractional CEOs earn in the UK?

At the UK median of about £1,150 a day, a portfolio of 2 clients at 2 days a week each across 46 working weeks earns roughly £210K a year. Rates rise with sector, stage and PE backing.

How many days a week does a fractional CEO work?

Most engagements are 1–3 days per week, with 2 days the most common for SMEs and scale-ups. Many fractional CEOs run 2–3 clients in parallel.

Is a fractional CEO the same as an interim CEO?

No. An interim CEO is usually full-time for a fixed period — a bridge or crisis role. A fractional CEO is a sustained part-time engagement, often alongside other clients, scoped to an outcome over 12–24 months.

Are fractional CEO roles outside IR35?

They can be, and well-structured ones are by default: right of substitution, no mutuality of obligation, and contractor-controlled working. Each engagement should be CEST-tested on its own facts.

How do I become a fractional CEO in the UK?

Build a senior track record (typically 10+ years, including P&L ownership at CEO or MD level), define a niche and stage, set a day-rate band, form a limited company for outside-IR35 contracting, and register with fractional-specialist platforms and networks.

What does a fractional CEO do day to day?

They run the leadership cadence: board meetings, executive team management, strategy and capital allocation, investor relations, and the key hires — compressed into their contracted days.

When should a company hire a fractional CEO?

Four common triggers: a founder stepping back, a scale-up that can’t yet justify a £300K+ package, a PE portfolio needing leadership across several companies, and a crisis or turnaround while a permanent search runs.

Do fractional CEOs get equity?

Sometimes. Many mandates are day-rate only; growth-stage companies often add a small option grant (commonly 0.25%–1%) vesting over the engagement. Equity in place of cash is rare at CEO level.

How long does a fractional CEO engagement last?

Typically 12–24 months, scoped to an outcome — a transition, a turnaround or a value-creation plan — often ending with a clean handover to a permanent CEO.

Where are fractional CEO jobs in the UK?

London leads demand, followed by Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Bristol and Leeds. A large share of mandates are remote or hybrid, so many roles are location-flexible.

Fractional Quest · CEO practice