Fractional head of people jobs · Fractional people director
Fractional head of people jobs · hire a fractional head of people, or hire one for good
Fractional head of people jobs are senior people-leadership roles taken for part of the week: a head of people or people director who leads HR at one growing business for an agreed number of days, often alongside other clients.
To hire a fractional head of people, decide what the seat must build, then how many days it needs.
We recruit fractional, interim, part-time, temporary and permanent people 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?
People 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 sit inside several companies at once at leadership level. It is the working pattern behind most fractional head of people and people director roles.
Fast Company 16 leaders on when fractional C-suite hires make sense · 24 Jun 2026
Leaders disagree on when a fractional hire makes sense and when a seat needs daily ownership. Useful before you decide whether your people function needs a part-week leader yet.
15 minutes · video or phone
Book 15 minutes to hire a fractional head of people
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with Head of People 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 head of people jobs on the board
HR leadership roles on the board
Fractional recruiting starts with the brief, not the CV pile. Send a Head of People brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five candidates, each through five-stage vetting.
01/ the role
Fractional head of people jobs: what the seat covers
A fractional head of people is usually the first senior people leader a company brings in, for part of the week.
The usual scope: employment contracts, policies and a handbook; a hiring process managers actually follow; onboarding; a performance and pay cycle; the HR system and people data; employee relations and the difficult cases; and coaching the managers who carry all of it.
It is a leadership seat, not an administrative one.
HR manager roles, which run day-to-day processes, are a different and more junior hire and are not what this page covers.
The difference from an HR consultancy is ownership.
A fractional head of people is named on the leadership team and accountable for the people function between their days, not for a report about what it should be.
The family of fractional people roles
The same part-week seat is advertised under several titles.
For a whole HR function in an established business, hire a fractional HR director.
For people strategy at board level, hire a fractional CHRO.
For full-time cover through a restructure or a gap, hire an interim HR director.
If the gap is recruiting capacity rather than people leadership, see fractional talent acquisition.
What fractional head of people jobs pay
No source we trust publishes a fractional head of people day rate, so we do not quote one; every candidate on a shortlist states their own.
For the permanent salary spread across part-week days (our arithmetic, not a market rate), see fractional head of people salary.
The full-time seat is published under the title head of HR: Robert Half’s 2026 figures put it at £62,500–£80,750 nationally, with a median of £70,000, and Robert Walters puts a London head of HR on a PAYE contract at £600–£1,100 a day, an average of £850.
See head of people salary for the permanent benchmarks and interim head of people salary for the day rates.
The seats either side are higher: Robert Half’s 2026 HR salary guide puts an HR director at £92,000–£128,750, median £110,250, and a CHRO or Chief People Officer at £110,250–£183,750, median £147,000, full-time.
A fractional fee is the day rate times the days worked.
02/ scope
How to hire a fractional head of people
1. Write down what the seat must build
Start with what has to exist in a year that does not exist now.
Contracts that match how people actually work, a handbook, a hiring process, a first performance cycle, pay bands instead of one-off offers, or managers who can handle a hard conversation.
Then decide the days a week you can fund and who the role reports to, usually the CEO or COO.
2. Pick the level of the seat
The CIPD Profession Map levels are a good yardstick.
They run from Foundation (tactical, day-to-day work) through Associate (operational work with some complexity) and Chartered Member (thinking strategically and driving people change) to Chartered Fellow (long-term value through strategic business insight).
A head of people who will build the function alone usually needs to work at Chartered Member level or above.
3. Check the evidence
CIPD membership levels match those standards: Associate (Assoc CIPD) for experienced operational HR, Chartered Member (Chartered MCIPD) for strategic and operational expertise, and Chartered Fellow (Chartered FCIPD) for people influencing at senior levels.
Membership is one signal.
Ask for what they built at a company of your size: the handbook, the hiring process, the pay framework.
Take references from the founders they worked for.
4. Settle the engagement
Agree the days, the outcomes for the first three months, what the head of people can decide alone, and who covers an urgent case between their days.
If they will work through their own company, check IR35 before the start date (below).
What we do on a people 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 head of people’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 · 2 roles · Fractional head of people
Engagement
- Fractional2
Seat
- CHRO1
- HRD1
Days a week
- Stated in the posting1
- Not stated1
Day rate
- Verified rate0
- Estimated (est)0
- Rate not stated2
Work arrangement (as the job feed classifies it)
- Remote0
- Hybrid1
- On-site1
Newest posting on the board: 6 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 head of people.The work fills part of the week, so buy the days it needs.
A fractional head of people 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 head of people.The work fills the week, and it has an end: a programme, a cover, a transaction.
An interim head of people 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 head of people after.The seat is full time and long term, and the need is now.
An interim head of people holds it while the permanent search runs, so the seat is not left empty.
The route · Permanent
A permanent head of people.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
Head of people, HR director, CHRO side by side
Three titles for overlapping seats. At a small company they often merge; choose by the work.
07/ vetting
How we vet fractional head of peoples
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify Head of People 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/ fractional people director
Fractional people director: the same seat, one level up
A fractional people director is the director-level version of the seat, in companies that say "people" rather than "HR".
The brief is usually wider than a head of people’s: the people function has been built and now needs running, the leadership team wants a people plan under the business plan, and there may be a team of HR advisers or a recruiter to lead.
In practice the title sits alongside HR director; which one a company uses says more about its culture than the job.
The work that separates a people director from a head of people is design and change.
The CIPD describes organisation design as aligning the shape and structure of an organisation with its strategy, and notes that people professionals are often the gatekeepers of the organisation’s people data.
A fractional people director is expected to do that: restructure teams, set pay frameworks, and lead the consultation when roles change.
Test candidates on the change they have led, not the policies they have written.
Ask for the restructure they ran, the reward framework they built, the manager training they put in place.
No source we trust publishes a people director salary; the HR director line above is the nearest benchmark.
Our shortlist sets out each candidate’s day rate, availability and IR35 position.
09/ head of people vs HR director vs CHRO
Head of people vs HR director vs CHRO: which seat you need
The head of people vs HR director vs CHRO question is about scope and stage.
A head of people builds the foundations, usually in a start-up or scale-up, and reports to the CEO or COO.
An HR director or people director runs the whole HR function in an established business.
A CHRO or Chief People Officer sets people strategy at board level: organisation design, succession and reward architecture.
At a small company the titles overlap; choose by the work.
See what a CHRO does for the board-level seat.
Whichever title you choose, most of the risk in the seat is legal.
Acas notes that the Employment Rights Act 2025 became law on 18 December 2025 and that its changes arrive through 2026 and 2027, so contracts and handbooks need a plan for each change.
Casework has a floor: the Acas Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures is the minimum an employer should follow, and a tribunal takes the procedure into account.
A head of people owns these processes and takes legal advice where the facts are unclear.
10/ ir35
IR35 and fractional people roles employed part-time or through a company
A fractional head of people 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.
In most cases the client decides the worker’s status.
For a small client outside the public sector, the worker’s own company decides; HMRC sets out the size tests in its guidance for clients.
Status turns on how the engagement runs in practice, not on its label, 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 head of people jobs FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in a fractional head of people.
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.
