Fractional commercial director jobs · Commercial director vs CCO · When to hire
Fractional commercial director jobs · hire a fractional commercial director, or hire one for good
Fractional commercial director jobs are commercial director roles held for part of the week: a senior leader who owns commercial strategy, pricing, key accounts and the targets that tie sales, marketing and finance together, at one business for an agreed number of days.
To hire a fractional commercial director, decide which commercial decisions the seat will own, then how many days that takes.
We recruit fractional, interim, part-time, temporary and permanent 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.
Looking for work?
Commercial leadership roles are on the board below.
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)
On senior people who choose to work inside several companies at once at leadership level. It is the working pattern behind most fractional commercial director roles.
International Finance Renting the C-suite, and why the fractional executive era has arrived · 17 Sep 2026
Argues that fractional leadership has moved from a start-up stopgap into the mid-market. That is where most commercial director seats sit.
15 minutes · video or phone
Book 15 minutes to hire a fractional 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
On the board · last 3 months
Fractional commercial director jobs on the board
No Fractional commercial director roles on the board in the last three months. Showing commercial and revenue leadership roles instead.
Live commercial leadership roles
Fractional Quest is a fractional recruitment agency: send a Commercial Director brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.
01/ the role
Fractional commercial director jobs: what the seat owns
The Institute of Directors describes the commercial director’s job as planning, developing and implementing commercial strategies, researching the market, managing relationships with key stakeholders, setting financial targets and budgets with the rest of the business, and reporting commercial performance to the senior team.
A fractional commercial director does that work for part of the week.
The usual core is pricing and margin, the largest customer and supplier contracts, the commercial plan that sits under the business plan, and the targets that sales and marketing work to.
Commercial is not only sales
A sales director owns the team and the number.
A commercial director owns the terms: what the business sells, to whom, at what price and on what contract.
In some sectors the word means something else again.
In government, the Government Commercial Function is the network that buys goods and services for the state, so “commercial” means procurement and contract management.
A supplier to the public sector often wants a commercial director who understands that side of the table, and a fractional bid manager beside them.
What the jobs pay
Our planning estimate starts with the commercial responsibilities, team size and decision authority.
For a permanent appointment, compare base salary, target variable pay and equity separately, and budget employer costs alongside them.
For a fractional or interim engagement, multiply the candidate’s proposed day rate by the agreed working days.
Show those assumptions explicitly and review them against the actual brief; this is a planning method, not a single market rate for every CCO.
See chief commercial officer salary for the separately sourced permanent comparisons.
02/ scope
How to hire a fractional commercial director
1. Write down the problem
Start with what has to change.
Prices that have not moved in years, margins that slip as volume grows, a few customers who hold too much of the revenue, contracts signed on the customer’s paper, or sales and marketing chasing different targets.
Then decide the days a week you can fund and who the role reports to.
2. Choose commercial director, sales director or CCO
If the gap is running the sales team and hitting the number, hire a fractional sales director.
If the business needs one board-level owner for every revenue line, hire a fractional CCO.
If the gap is pricing, contracts and margin across the business, the commercial director is the seat.
The table below sets out the difference.
3. Test the judgement
Give candidates a real price list and your three largest contracts and ask what they would change first, and what it would cost you in customers.
Ask how they have handled a price rise with a customer who could walk.
Take references from a CEO and a finance director who worked beside them.
For the full scope of the role, the commercial director job description sets it out section by section.
4. Settle the engagement
Agree the days, the outcomes for the first three months, what the commercial director can sign or approve alone (price changes, discounts, contract terms), and whether the role sits on the board.
If they will work through their own company, check IR35 before the start date (below).
What we do on the 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/ the week
How a week divides.
Part of a week is the point of the model: the days you buy are yours, the rest of the week goes to other clients. Move the days a week and the week redraws.
Illustration only: one way a fractional commercial director’s week can divide at 2 days a week for you. Each block is half a day.
04/ the board
What the board holds.
A read of the roles on the board on this page, counted as they stand: how each is engaged, whether the posting gives the days and the rate, and where the work happens.
On this board, last 90 days · 1 role · commercial and revenue leadership
Engagement
- Advisory1
Days a week
- Stated in the posting1
- Not stated0
Day rate
- Verified rate0
- Estimated (est)0
- Rate not stated1
Work arrangement (as the job feed classifies it)
- Remote1
- Hybrid0
- On-site0
Newest posting on the board: 14 Oct 2026.
05/ the route
Fractional, interim or permanent?
Four taps. The answer names the route for the seat and the page that covers it.
The route · Fractional
A fractional commercial director.The work fills part of the week, so buy the days it needs.
A fractional commercial director holds the seat on agreed days for as long as the seat is needed, and works for other clients on the rest.
The route · Interim
An interim commercial director.The work fills the week, and it has an end: a programme, a cover, a transaction.
An interim commercial director takes the seat full time for that stretch and hands it over when it is done.
The route · Interim, then permanent
Interim now, a permanent commercial director after.The seat is full time and long term, and the need is now.
An interim commercial director holds it while the permanent search runs, so the seat is not left empty.
The route · Permanent
A permanent commercial director.A full-time seat that sits at the table for years is a permanent hire.
There is time to run a search, so run one.
06/ comparison
Sales director vs commercial director vs CCO
Three seats that overlap in a smaller business. Choose by what the person will own.
07/ vetting
How we vet every candidate
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
08/ commercial director vs cco
Commercial director vs chief commercial officer: one tier apart
The question of commercial director vs chief commercial officer is mostly one of level.
A commercial director runs commercial strategy and delivers it: the prices, the contracts, the targets and the reporting that the IoD describes.
A chief commercial officer sets revenue strategy from the C-suite and owns every commercial function under it.
Robert Walters describes UK CCOs as leading sales, marketing and customer strategy, aligning go-to-market with the wider business and optimising pricing and revenue models.
Our planning estimate starts with the commercial responsibilities, team size and decision authority.
For a permanent appointment, compare base salary, target variable pay and equity separately, and budget employer costs alongside them.
For a fractional or interim engagement, multiply the candidate’s proposed day rate by the agreed working days.
Show those assumptions explicitly and review them against the actual brief; this is a planning method, not a single market rate for every CCO.
See chief commercial officer salary for the separately sourced permanent comparisons.
Write the brief around the decisions, not the title.
If the person will sit on the board and answer for all revenue, look at CCO candidates.
If they will fix pricing, margin and the largest contracts inside a plan the board has already set, a commercial director fits.
What a commercial director does covers the day-to-day in more depth.
09/ when to hire
When a business needs a fractional commercial director
The usual moment is when commercial decisions start costing money and nobody owns them.
When a business needs a fractional commercial director, the signs are familiar: prices set by habit or by the loudest customer, discounts agreed deal by deal, margin falling while revenue grows, a first large contract or public-sector framework with terms nobody has read closely, or a new market that needs a pricing and channel plan.
A fractional seat suits this work because much of it is judgement at intervals, not a full working week.
The seat brings legal exposure with it.
The CMA’s short guide to cartels lists price fixing, market sharing and sharing confidential information such as planned prices with rivals as cartel conduct, with serious consequences for businesses and individuals.
A commercial director who talks to competitors at industry events needs to know where the line is.
The Bribery Act 2010 guidance sets out the six principles behind the procedures a company can use to prevent bribery by agents and other associated persons, which matters as soon as a business sells through intermediaries.
If the commercial director joins the board, the seven general duties of a company director apply, and GOV.UK notes they still apply to someone who acts as a director without being formally appointed.
Agree in writing whether the title is a board seat.
When the work grows to five days a week, see commercial director recruitment for a permanent hire.
10/ ir35
IR35 and the seat: employed part-time or through a company
A fractional commercial director is either employed on a part-time contract or works through their own limited company.
Where they work through their own company, the off-payroll working rules (IR35) may apply.
A medium or large client makes the status determination; for a small client outside the public sector, the worker’s own company decides, and HMRC sets out the size tests in its guidance for clients.
Status turns on how the engagement runs in practice, so set out control, substitution and the days in the contract and then run it that way.
Our IR35 guide sets out the tests.
11/ questions
Fractional commercial director jobs FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in a fractional 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.
