Hire fractional CTO · CTO for hire
A fractional CTO provides technical leadership for agreed working days, covering the technology decisions defined in the brief. For candidates and hiring teams, compare architecture, delivery priorities and supplier authority with the internal team doing the work. Confirm who owns incident response and daily engineering management outside the CTO’s scheduled time.
Hire a fractional CTO for senior technical leadership, 1–3 days a week.
Hire fractional CTO capability for a scaling startup, a transformation or a platform decision.
Bring one brief and we come back with a shortlist of 3–5, or browse the fractional CTO jobs below.
Part 01 / 04
Decisions
Part 02 / 04
Access
Part 03 / 04
Continuity
Part 04 / 04
Handover
15 minutes · video or phone
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with fractional CTO candidates, their day rates and availability.
Pick a day that suits · live availability
Fractional Quest is a fractional recruitment agency: send a brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.
Fractional CTO jobs · last 3 months
The Carlyle Group · London
Reg Advantage Ltd · London
Green Orbit Ltd · Cardiff
Maxima Opus Ltd | Cloud, Cyber & CTO Consulting · Bury St Edmunds
Also on the board: fractional product and technology leadership roles (3).
Also on the board: fractional executive roles (8).
LRO Financial Consultancy · Worcester
Confidential client (Fractional Quest mandate) · Remote
Unity Advisory · London
Confidential client (Fractional Quest mandate) · London
PHIX · United Kingdom
CivSec Group · London
Algorithmiq Oy · United Kingdom
Twenty-Nine Palms Entertainment · London
Full-time · permanent as posted · last 3 months
Full-time CTO roles, posted by the employer as full-time and listed as the posting states them. We recruit permanent CTOs as well as fractional and interim. Hiring a permanent CTO: CTO headhunter.
Airwallex · London
Track Titan · City of Westminster
Track Titan · City of Westminster
ELIQUO HYDROK UK · Barnsley
StrideUp · London
WPP · United Kingdom
01/ the cross
Move the day rate and the days a week: the rising line is a month of part-week cost, the flat line a permanent hire’s month. Where they cross, the seat should go full-time.
At 3.5 days a week a permanent hire costs less.
Our arithmetic. Permanent a month = the salary ÷ 12 plus 15% employer NI, plus the 30% search fee spread over 12 months — the calculator’s inputs. Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for each step.
Permanent = the £160,500 Robert Half 2026 median salary. The full calculator below adds the months, the totals and the currency tabs.
Our arithmetic, cumulative. Permanent = the salary’s 30% search fee in month 0, then salary ÷ 12 plus 15% employer NI each month. Interim = the midpoint of the published interim band (£1,300 a day, Exec Capital 2026) × 5 days × 4.33 weeks. Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for each month.
02/ the route
Four taps. The answer names the route for the seat and the page that covers it.
The route · Fractional
A fractional CTO.The work fills part of the week, so buy the days it needs.
A fractional CTO 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 CTO.The work fills the week, and it has an end: a programme, a cover, a transaction.
An interim CTO 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 CTO after.The seat is full time and long term, and the need is now.
An interim CTO holds it while the permanent search runs, so the seat is not left empty.
The route · Permanent
A permanent CTO.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.
03/ the board
A read of the roles on the board above, 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 · 15 roles · fractional CTO · fractional product and technology leadership · fractional executive
Engagement
Seat
Days a week
Day rate
Work arrangement (as the job feed classifies it)
Newest posting on the board: 16 Oct 2026.
Postings per week on this board, last 90 days
15 postings on this board in the last 90 days, counted by the week each was published.
04/ the model
Fractional CTO jobs are part-time chief technology roles where you own the tech strategy within a defined scope — not a consultant, not an advisor.
Four ideas define the model.
01 · cadence
Senior, proven CTO capability across a defined slice of the week. You get the technical leadership you need without a full-time salary or a five-day commitment.
02 · role
Unlike a consultant or advisor, a fractional CTO is the technology leader: owns architecture, leads the engineering team, and makes the technical decisions.
03 · structure
Usually engaged through their own company rather than employed, on a scope that names the outcome, the days and the notice. IR35 status depends on how the engagement runs in practice, and a medium or large client makes the determination.
04 · horizon
Scoped to an outcome — a platform rebuild, a scale transformation, a tech debt reduction — often ending in a clean handover to a permanent CTO.
05/ find
Tap the situation closest to yours.
Each answer names the seat that fits it and the page for that seat.
Where is your technology now?
The seat that fits
Fractional CTO1–3 days a week, ongoingArchitecture, the roadmap and the engineering team need one accountable owner in the leadership team, but not five days of it. That is the fractional seat.
The seat that fits
Interim CTOFull-time, for a fixed termA vacancy, a rescue or a defined programme needs the whole seat covered every day until the permanent hire starts.
The seat that fits
Part-time CTOFixed days, employed pro rataThe same leadership on an employment contract with one company, rather than a contracted, multi-client mandate.
The seat that fits
CTO as a serviceScoped to the projectDue diligence, an architecture review or a build-versus-buy call is a project with a document at the end. Scope it, price it and hand it back.
The seat that fits
Fractional head of engineeringPart of the weekDelivery, hiring and the engineering rhythm are a head of engineering’s work; the CTO seat is architecture, security and the board conversation.
The seat that fits
Permanent CTOFive days a week, no end dateWhen architecture, security and a growing team need daily leadership, hire the CTO for good. We recruit permanent executives too.
A CTO for hire is usually a fractional or interim seat engaged through the leader’s own company.
The Government Digital and Data framework describes the CTO as the organisation’s technology strategist, working with the other senior leaders on the technical direction.
Brief us and we come back with a shortlist of 3–5, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
06/ scope
Accountable for technology strategy and architecture — and answerable to the CEO and board, exactly like a permanent chief technology officer.
01 / ARCHITECTURE
Owns the architecture roadmap, technology choices and platform evolution — accountable for scalability, security and technical debt management.
02 / ENGINEERING TEAM
Scales the engineering organisation, defines team topology, owns hiring standards and delivery processes. Builds a team that ships.
03 / PRODUCT PARTNERSHIP
Partners with product leadership to balance technical excellence with shipping velocity. Translates business needs into technical reality.
04 / TECHNICAL CREDIBILITY
The technical voice in the boardroom, during due diligence, and with enterprise customers.
07/ alternative models
How the fractional model compares with a consultant, an interim, a VP Engineering and a full-time appointment.
→ Fractional = embedded owner. Consultant = a decision, delivered as a document.
→ Fractional describes part-week responsibility; interim describes a defined period of cover or change. Agree scope, hours and duration separately.
→ CTO = strategy + external. VP Eng = delivery + internal.
→ Fractional gives proven CTO firepower for a defined mission — at a fraction of the commitment.
08/ the choice
A fractional CTO takes responsibility for an agreed part-week share of the role.
Confirm its duration, review point and continuity; the label does not determine when it ends.
An interim CTO covers the seat for a defined period of absence or change, such as a vacancy, transaction or turnaround.
Agree the hours, authority and handover for the actual assignment.
Agree responsibility, hours, duration and between-day cover separately.
Fractional and interim describe different aspects of a brief and can overlap.
The calculator illustrates fees at the stated days and assumptions.
Confirm employment, tax and benefit obligations before using it as a total-cost comparison.
09/ vocabulary
Most companies that need this do not use the word “fractional”.
They search CTO as a service, CTO consultant, CTO consultancy, contract CTO, a CTO for hire or simply chief technology officer jobs — and they mean roughly the same thing: senior technical leadership without a permanent hire.
A DECISION
Usually engaged for an assessment — a technical due diligence, an architecture review, a build-versus-buy decision — and delivers a document. Also sold as CTO advisory services or a CTO consultancy.
A FIXED TERM
Typically full-time for a fixed term, covering a gap or running a defined programme. A CTO contractor bills a day rate through their own company. See interim CTO jobs.
A PRODUCT
A productised version of the same thing, usually sold by an agency with a team behind one named lead. See fractional CTO services.
AN OWNER
One named person, in your business one to three days a week, ongoing, accountable for the roadmap rather than a deliverable.
Which you want depends on whether you need a decision or an owner.
A decision — should we rebuild, is this team the right shape, is the codebase an asset or a liability — is consultancy work and should be scoped and priced as such.
An owner is a seat, and fractional is the cheapest way to fill it at this seniority.
This is our reading of how the terms are used in the UK market, not a published definition.
10/ rates
Published figures only, each with its source.
London and regulated-sector mandates sit at the top of the band; regional engagements typically run £200–£400 a day cheaper.
Published UK day-rate bands · £ a day · the marker is the calculator’s day rate
The permanent band is the published salary ÷ 220 working days — our arithmetic, for comparison only.
Two days a week across a 46-week year at the published band is £92,000–£147,200 in day fees — our arithmetic.
11/ economics
Model the cost against a permanent CTO over the same months, or what one fractional mandate earns.
The slider runs across the published band for a fractional CTO: £1,000–£1,600 a day (Leadership Services 2026).
Cost over 12 months
£135,200
104 working days · 2 d/wk · 12 mo · before tax
Fractional costs less over 12 months£97,525
Fractional CTO, 12 months£135,200
Fractional CTO, a month at 2 d/wk£11,258
Permanent CTO, same period£232,725
Fractional CTO, 12 months$179,126
Fractional CTO, a month at 2 d/wk$14,916
Permanent CTO, same period$308,337
Converted from £ at $1.3249 per £1 (Bank of England spot rate), 2 Oct 2026. A conversion, not a US market rate. Source ↗
Fractional CTO, 12 months€158,806
Fractional CTO, a month at 2 d/wk€13,224
Permanent CTO, same period€273,359
Converted from £ at €1.1746 per £1 (Bank of England spot rate), 2 Oct 2026. A conversion, not a EU market rate. Source ↗
Our arithmetic, indicative. Permanent = the £160,500 Robert Half 2026 median salary pro rata for the same months, plus 15% employer NI, plus a 30% search fee on the annual base (UK retained search runs 25–35%, Headhunters.co.uk). Excludes pension, bonus and equity.
12/ the week
The days you buy are yours; the rest of the week goes to other clients.
Move the days a week in the calculator above and the week redraws.
Illustration only: one way a fractional CTO’s week can divide at 2 days a week for you. Each block is half a day.
13/ tax
The general position under UK rules, with the HMRC source for each point.
Not tax advice: check your own case with your accountant.
01 · DEDUCTIBLE
A fractional CTO’s fees, like a salary, are deductible against profits when incurred wholly and exclusively for the trade (HMRC BIM37000). At the 25% main rate, each £1,000 of fees costs a profitable company £750 after relief.
02 · EMPLOYER NI
A permanent CTO carries employer National Insurance at 15% above £5,000 a year. A fractional CTO engaged through their own company carries none when the engagement is outside IR35; inside IR35, the fee-payer deducts tax and NI and pays employer NI. Status depends on how the engagement runs in practice.
03 · WHO DECIDES
Medium and large clients determine the status themselves; for a small private-sector client, the fractional CTO’s own company decides (HMRC off-payroll guidance).
14/ the contract
A fractional CTO engagement is written around a scope — the outcome, the days a week and the notice.
IR35 status depends on how the engagement runs in practice, and a medium or large client makes the determination.
Reference: HMRC off-payroll working (IR35) guidance and the CEST tool.
See the IR35 guide.
01 / CONTROL
HMRC looks at who decides how, when and where the work is done — whether the company sets the outcome or directs the method.
✓ In the contract02 / SUBSTITUTION
HMRC looks at whether the CTO could send a suitably qualified substitute, and whether that right is genuine in practice.
✓ In the contract03 / MUTUALITY
HMRC looks at whether the company must offer work beyond the agreed scope, and whether the CTO must accept it.
✓ In the contract15/ timing
Four situations where a fractional chief technology officer is often the right answer — a team that needs CTO-level strategy, architecture oversight and leadership before it can justify a £120,000–£180,000 full-time base.
Which sounds like you?
The technical founder wants to focus on product vision or step into the CEO role. A fractional CTO handles architecture, team scaling and engineering processes while the founder transitions.
Legacy tech debt blocking growth. You need senior technical leadership to architect and execute a migration while keeping the lights on. Too critical for consultants, not permanent enough for full-time.
The engineering team is outgrowing founder or VP leadership. You need CTO-level thinking for architecture, org design and technical strategy but are not ready for a £155K–£240K fully loaded package.
Fundraising or an acquisition on the horizon. You need a credible CTO for technical due diligence, architecture documentation and engineering maturity.
16/ the buyer’s guide
The buyer’s guide, compressed: scope, source, assess, then a structured trial.
PLAYBOOK 01
At pre-seed and seed, one day a week is the usual starting point; a one-to-two-day retainer runs £3,000–£7,000 a month. Scope the engagement to a specific outcome — a technical assessment, an architecture decision — rather than an open-ended strategic retainer. It is easier to judge and cheaper to stop.
→ Start with a scoped project; convert to a retainer once it works
PLAYBOOK 02
Sometimes one part-time person cannot carry it. The common shape: a fractional CTO at 1–2 days a week owning architecture, standards and the board relationship; a delivery or engineering manager at 3–5 days running the day-to-day; and flexible contract build capacity underneath both. Insist on one accountable technical owner in writing — and an exit plan that documents the team out of a job.
→ One accountable owner · an exit that isn’t a cliff
PLAYBOOK 03
Define your technical scope and budget. Source through investor and advisor referrals, specialist platforms and technical networks, or submit a brief to us. Assess with a portfolio deep-dive and technical scenarios against your stack. Then start with a structured 1–3 month trial with clear deliverables.
→ Start with a scoped project, not a retainer
17/ the terms
Five things to settle before a fractional CTO starts, so the days you buy go on the work.
01
Write down what has to be true at three, six and twelve months. Days a week follow from that list, not the other way round.
02
Fix the days a week, which days, and a review point where either side can change them. Most of the value is in the rhythm.
03
Put in writing what the role can see, sign and decide: systems, data, budget and the board. A part-week leader without access is an adviser.
04
Agree notice on both sides and the handover: documents, logins and who inherits each piece of work.
05
Settle how the engagement will run before it starts, because IR35 status follows the working practice. See the IR35 guide.
18/ the brief
Five taps write the brief we work from.
Copy it into your own document, or send it to us.
Your brief · fractional CTO
A fractional CTO fits only as well as the brief is specific: the gap, the days a week, the on-site days, your stage and what must be true at the end of the first mandate.
Put the stack and the team size in the covering note.
19/ the search
To find a fractional CTO, start with the brief.
Most CTO recruitment goes wrong at the brief, not the shortlist.
Boards ask for a chief technology officer when the work in front of them is closer to a head of engineering, or brief a hands-on builder when what they need is someone to own architecture, security and the board conversation.
Before anyone is approached, write down what the CTO will own — roadmap, platform, engineering team, vendors, cyber risk — and what should be different by the end of the first mandate.
Then choose the engagement model, because it changes who you can hire and what you must do.
A permanent appointment follows the ordinary employment steps — job description, structured interviews, references, an offer — and Acas sets out each of them, along with the discrimination rules that apply; every employee also needs a right-to-work check.
A fractional or interim CTO is usually engaged through their own company, so the IR35 question belongs on the brief: status depends on how the engagement runs in practice, a medium or large client makes the determination, and HMRC’s guidance for clients sets out who is in scope.
Assess leadership as well as technical depth.
Two independent reference points help: the SFIA framework, which describes digital skills against levels of responsibility, and BCS Chartered IT Professional (CITP) registration, which benchmarks technical and professional competence against an independent standard.
Neither replaces references from people who worked for the candidate.
If you are comparing a CTO recruitment agency, a CTO recruiter working on contingency and a retained CTO search, ask each how they will assess leadership as well as technical depth, and who takes the references.
Our part in CTO recruitment is stated plainly: a shortlist of 3–5, each candidate taken through the stages on our vetting page with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
20/ the broad hire
Most people who set out to hire a CTO have not yet decided which kind they need.
Four shapes cover almost every case.
A permanent CTO is an employee, full-time, owning technology for the long run.
An interim CTO works for a defined term with agreed hours — cover, a turnaround, a defined programme.
A fractional CTO owns the roadmap one to three days a week, ongoing, often across more than one client.
A part-time CTO holds the same seat on a consistent weekly pattern with one company.
The deciding question is how much CTO-level work exists each week.
If architecture, engineering leadership, security and the board conversation fill a week, hire permanently — hiring a full-time CTO?
See our CTO headhunter page.
If they fill a day or two, a fractional hire fills the seat without a full-time salary — fractional CTO cost sets out the published figures.
Two further points change the answer.
Equity: HMRC’s Enterprise Management Incentives carry a working-time requirement that a one-to-three-day engagement will not usually meet, so share options for a fractional CTO need a different structure and proper advice.
Risk: whoever you appoint will own your security posture, and the NCSC’s Cyber Security Toolkit for Boards sets out the questions your board should be able to put to them.
However you hire a CTO, the brief is the same: scope, stage, stack, days a week, budget and IR35 position.
Send it to us and we come back with a shortlist of 3–5, and you interview.
For a contracted CTO, status turns on how the engagement actually runs, not on the contract label — check it with HMRC’s CEST tool and our IR35 guide.
21/ where
A fractional CTO UK search is not limited by postcode.
We shortlist fractional CTOs across the UK for hybrid or remote engagements.
Whether it is a fractional CTO London brief with regular office days or a fractional CTO Kent brief that needs only occasional visits, tell us how many days on site the role needs and we shortlist on that: 3–5 candidates, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
The rates section above sets out how location moves the day rate.
A freelance CTO and a fractional CTO overlap: both usually work through their own company, but a freelance CTO is often engaged for a project, while a fractional CTO holds the seat on an ongoing basis.
If the seat is the same days every week with one company, it is a part-time CTO — part-time CTO jobs covers that route, including part time CTO services bought by the day.
Virtual CTO consulting UK providers usually sell advice delivered remotely — an assessment, an architecture review, a roadmap — rather than an owner of the technology.
CTO as a service UK offers are the productised version, often an agency with a team behind one named lead; a CTO as a service London firm works the same way with more time on site.
Both are compared in fractional CTO services.
Ask who specifically will do the work before you sign.
22/ the standards
A CTO owns the technology, and with it the standards your customers and investors will ask about.
Ask every candidate how they have met these four.
Security: the NCSC’s Cyber Essentials is the government’s minimum standard for organisations of every size, built on five technical controls.
Many public-sector and enterprise buyers ask for it before they sign.
Software: the government’s Software Security Code of Practice sets out what software vendors should do to keep their products secure and resilient, and how to talk to customers when something goes wrong.
Data: UK GDPR expects data protection by design and by default, so privacy has to be built into the product rather than added at the end.
A fractional CTO will not run every control personally.
They should know which ones apply, put an owner against each, and report the position to the board each quarter.
23/ vetting
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches your shortlist.
Verify prior CTO or VP Engineering tenure, tech stack and scale. No consultants presenting as fractional.
SOURCINGMatch to your stack, architecture needs and engineering culture — not just buzzwords.
MATCHINGWe take references ourselves, from recent clients and engineering teams: real delivery, not just strategy.
VERIFY3–5 candidates, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
SHORTLIST OF 3–5Practical guide · Updated
The working brief · 01
A hiring checklist for technical authority, operational cover and board visibility.
Decision boundary
List the decisions the CTO may make, those requiring an executive sponsor and those owned by engineering managers. Include architecture, supplier commitments and delivery priorities. Give applicants the actual reporting relationship rather than an impressive title with no authority.
Operational cover
Identify who responds to incidents between the leader’s scheduled sessions. Agree escalation and deputies explicitly. Strategic fractional leadership should not imply an unstated promise of continuous availability or make a single external person the only route to a production decision.
Risk visibility
Ask how technical risks reach the board in language it can use: the affected service, the consequence, the available choices and the owner. NCSC guidance frames cyber governance as a board concern; appointing technical support should not obscure that responsibility.
The working brief · 02
Fictional worked example, not a client case study: a company wants new features while the team is worried about a fragile platform.
Find the constraint
In this fictional company, sales requests new integrations while engineering reports recurring interruptions. The brief asks the leader to inspect the evidence and explain the trade-off. It does not begin by assuming a rewrite is necessary.
Offer choices
The leader presents options with dependencies, risks and what the team would defer. Product owns the customer priority; technology owns the technical assessment; the executive sponsor accepts the business trade-off. Their choices are recorded together.
Test the judgement
The hiring conversation explores what information would change the recommendation and how the decision would be reviewed. No uptime gain or delivery acceleration is invented. The useful evidence is the reasoning and ownership, not a promised outcome.
The working brief · 03
Separate recurring strategic leadership from temporary cover and a role needing daily ownership.
Recurring oversight
Fractional leadership can suit a defined technology mandate when an internal team can deliver and manage day-to-day operation. Confirm scheduled access, decision escalation and capacity before treating a limited commitment as sufficient.
Temporary cover
An interim appointment can cover a vacancy or transition where active leadership is needed throughout the working pattern agreed. Make the exit condition and the successor’s information needs part of the brief. Temporary does not mean advisory.
Permanent ownership
Consider permanent leadership when people management, delivery and risk decisions need continuing daily attention. Write the lasting role around the organisation’s needs, including how it works with product and operations, rather than simply expanding the fractional job description.
The working brief · 04
For applicants: explain technical judgement without exposing a previous employer’s systems or presenting team delivery as personal achievement.
Explain the setting
Describe the product, constraints, inherited systems and responsibilities you actually held. Distinguish decisions you owned from recommendations another leader approved. An anonymised account can still make the problem and your contribution clear.
Show the trade-off
Use an approved architecture decision, delivery review or incident learning example. Explain alternatives, the evidence considered and what changed afterwards. Avoid sharing credentials, customer data, private source code or confidential incident details to make an application more persuasive.
Ask about the seat
Ask who controls priorities, what engineering leadership exists, who covers incidents and what information you can inspect. Confirm the expected commitment and location. A CTO title cannot tell you whether the company needs strategy, management or hands-on implementation.
The working brief · 05
A staged handover checklist that leaves decisions, risks and operational responsibilities with named owners.
Make the map
Work through the exceptions
Confirm acceptance
The working brief · 06
For remote and hybrid searches, assess how technical work is seen and decisions are shared.
Remote decisions
Architecture review and planning can be discussed remotely when the team has usable evidence and clear decision owners. Confirm access to the relevant people and approved systems. Do not assume an external leader can judge a platform from a presentation alone.
Purposeful presence
Identify work that benefits from being on site, such as understanding a physical operation or meeting a delivery team. Describe the purpose and location in the brief. Avoid a vague hybrid label that leaves attendance expectations unsettled.
Coverage to agree
Record collaboration hours, deputies and incident escalation separately from location. A remote leadership role should not imply continuous support. Confirm who can act during an incident and who can accept a business risk when the leader is unavailable.
The working brief · 07
A useful interview explores trade-offs using an incomplete but realistic business problem.
Provide the context
Describe the product, team and a decision the company faces without sharing sensitive implementation details. Give candidates the same material and time to clarify assumptions. State whether the appointment needs strategic leadership, engineering management or hands-on delivery.
Probe the reasoning
Ask which evidence would support a change, what they would defer and how they would explain the trade-off to product and the board. Explore a situation where their preferred technical option is not commercially available. The response should reveal judgement under constraint.
Check the boundary
Ask who should accept the risk and what would trigger a review. Record the evidence against agreed criteria rather than favoured technology names. Do not request usable architecture or implementation work as an unpaid audition.
The working brief · 08
Write the interface between customer priorities and technical feasibility into the mandate.
Separate the questions
Product should explain the customer problem and business priority; technology should explain the options, dependencies and technical risk. State where one person holds both responsibilities and where separate owners need to agree. A merged title does not remove competing needs.
Resolve the trade-off
Identify the executive sponsor who can settle a disagreement beyond either function’s authority. Record the decision and the assumptions behind it. Engineering should not inherit a deadline that ignores dependencies, and product should be able to understand why work is deferred.
Review together
Use a shared review to examine customer evidence and technical constraints when circumstances change. Name who maintains the decision history. The interface should remain usable when one leader leaves or the business appoints permanent ownership in either function.
24/ questions
Common questions from companies on the buy side and CTOs looking for fractional work.
A part-time chief technology officer who owns your tech strategy within a defined scope — leading architecture, the engineering team and technical decisions.
Not a consultant, not an advisor: the CTO, 1–3 days a week.
CTO as a service is a productised version of fractional technology leadership, usually sold by an agency with a team behind one named lead.
A fractional CTO is one named person, in your business one to three days a week, accountable for the roadmap.
The practical difference is continuity and accountability: with a service you get a capability, with a fractional CTO you get a person who sits in your leadership meeting and whose judgement you can hold to.
Rates overlap heavily.
Ask who specifically will do the work and how many other clients they carry.
Do you need a decision or an owner?
A CTO consultant delivers an assessment — technical due diligence, architecture review, build-versus-buy — and hands you a document.
Scope it as a project.
A contract CTO is typically full-time for a fixed term, covering a gap or running a defined programme.
A fractional CTO owns the roadmap on an ongoing part-time basis.
If the technology direction needs someone accountable next quarter and the quarter after, that is the one you want.
Usually, yes.
“CTO for hire” and “CTO contractor” are how many buyers search for the same thing: a senior technology leader engaged through their own company rather than employed.
The distinction that matters is cadence — an agreed part-week responsibility is fractional; a defined period of cover or change, with agreed hours, is interim.
£1,000–£1,600 a day, typically two days a week — £92,000–£147,200 in day fees across a 46-week year (our arithmetic on the published band).
On a retainer, one to two days a week runs £3,000–£7,000 a month.
Use the calculator above for your numbers.
£1,000–£1,600 a day, or £3,000–£7,000 a month on a one-to-two-day-a-week retainer.
Connectd puts the band at £900–£1,600, mid-market £1,000–£1,200.
London and regulated-sector mandates sit at the top; regional engagements typically run £200–£400 a day cheaper.
For comparison, a full-time UK CTO is £120,000–£180,000 base and £155,000–£240,000 all-in once employer National Insurance at 15%, pension and recruitment are counted.
Submit your brief and we come back with a shortlist of 3–5 fractional CTOs, each matched to your tech stack, stage and culture.
You interview.
The brief builder above writes the brief in five taps.
Three routes.
Referrals from investors, advisers and founders who have hired one.
Professional standing you can check, such as BCS Chartered IT Professional registration.
And a search firm that shortlists against your brief: we come back with a shortlist of 3–5, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
At least three: the NCSC’s Cyber Essentials, the Software Security Code of Practice, and UK GDPR’s data protection by design.
Ask how they have met each in a previous role.
It depends on how each engagement runs in practice — HMRC looks at control, substitution and mutuality of obligation.
A medium or large client makes the status determination; each engagement can be checked against HMRC’s CEST tool on its own facts.
When you need deep, daily technical leadership for sustained product development and the engineering team has grown beyond what one to three days a week can lead.
A fractional CTO often helps you scale to that point, and to write the permanent brief.
Partly.
This page serves both sides: companies hiring, and technology leaders looking for fractional and part-time CTO work.
If you want permanent chief technology officer jobs, the board above carries fractional and interim roles rather than permanent ones — but most fractional CTOs arrive from permanent CTO careers.
Browse all fractional jobs for the wider board.
It starts with the brief: what the CTO will own, your stage and stack, the days a week, the budget, and whether the seat is fractional, interim or permanent.
We come back with a shortlist of 3–5, each candidate taken through the stages on our vetting page with day rate or pay, availability and IR35 position set out.
You interview.
If you are running CTO recruitment for a permanent employee yourself, Acas’s recruitment guidance covers the job description, interviews, offer and references.
Count the CTO-level work.
If architecture, engineering leadership, security and the board conversation fill every week, hire a CTO full-time.
If they fill a day or two, a fractional CTO covers the seat, and often helps you reach the point where a permanent hire makes sense — and writes that brief.
If the need is full-time but temporary, look at an interim CTO.
Equity works differently: HMRC’s EMI scheme has a working-time requirement that a fractional engagement will not usually meet, so take advice before offering share options.
It can be.
A fractional CTO typically holds one or two mandates alongside advisory work.
At the published £1,000–£1,600 band, two days a week at one client is £92,000–£147,200 a year before tax — our arithmetic.
Check your own IR35 and tax position with an accountant.
At the published £1,000–£1,600/day band, two days a week across 46 weeks is £92,000–£147,200 from one mandate.
The calculator above models it.
No. Browsing the board and applying is free.
When we run a search, we match on tech stack, stage, sector and your stated availability.
Roles on the board are real postings from our jobs feed; each card shows the day rate only where the posting states one.
On the board above, drawn from our jobs feed, with the day rate shown only where the posting states one.
If your search started as CTO jobs London or CTO jobs Southampton, check the working pattern on each card as well as the location: a hybrid or remote role based elsewhere can still suit you.
For full-time, fixed-term work see interim CTO jobs, and for the wider board fractional jobs UK.
No. Searching for CTO jobs Croydon or anywhere else outside central London works the same way: the board carries roles across the UK, and many are remote or hybrid; each card shows the location the posting gives.
Book 15 minutes · shortlist of 3–5
A shortlist of 3–5. Five-stage vetting.
Book a call or submit your fractional CTO brief; we come back with a shortlist of 3–5 candidates.
Browse the fractional CTO roles from our jobs feed, or get in touch about the searches we run.
