Hire a Fractional CTO or find CTO jobs

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 — one to three days a week, ongoing, is fractional; five days for a fixed term 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.

See remote fractional jobs.