Fractional Operations · COO, director, manager
Fractional Operations · senior operations leadership, part of the week
Fractional operations is senior operations leadership bought for part of the week, across three levels: a fractional COO running the whole operation under the CEO, a fractional operations director leading a function or region, or a fractional operations manager running day-to-day process.
The right level depends on company size and what the gap actually is.
This page sets out what each level covers and when it fits.
We recruit fractional, interim, part-time, temporary and permanent operations leaders, and non-executive directors.
We come back with a shortlist of 3–5.
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
15 minutes · video or phone
Book 15 minutes to hire a fractional operations leader
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with Operations leader 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 Operations jobs on the board
Current operations leadership roles
Fractional recruitment works differently from a permanent search — shorter, scoped by days a week, and priced on the engagement. Send a Operations leader brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.
01/ the role
What does fractional operations cover? three levels, one function
Fractional operations means experienced operations leadership held for an agreed number of days a week, rather than as a full-time hire.
It sits at three levels, and the right one depends on where the gap actually is.
Three levels
A fractional COO sits on the leadership team, under the CEO, and owns how the whole company runs: operations, and often finance or people as well in an early-stage company.
A fractional operations director leads one function, region or site, reporting to a COO or directly to the CEO where there is no COO.
A fractional operations manager runs day-to-day process: scheduling, suppliers, the systems that keep work moving, usually without strategic ownership of the function.
A small or early-stage company usually starts at one level and adds the others as it grows.
A fast-scaling team that already has a strong operations manager often needs a COO or director for strategy and systems, not another pair of operational hands.
02/ scope
What the work covers
Process and systems
Mapping how work actually moves through the company, fixing the bottlenecks, and choosing or implementing the systems (ops tooling, supply chain, logistics) that let it scale without adding headcount at the same rate.
Cross-functional leadership
Operations sits across sales, finance and product.
At COO and director level the work is coordinating those functions toward one plan; at manager level it is making sure the handoffs between them actually happen.
Scaling through a growth stage
A company moving from one office to several, or from founder-led delivery to a repeatable process, is the classic trigger for bringing in fractional operations leadership rather than waiting for a full-time hire to be found and onboarded.
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 operations leader’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 · Fractional Operations
Engagement
- Fractional1
Days a week
- Stated in the posting0
- Not stated1
Day rate
- Verified rate0
- Estimated (est)0
- Rate not stated1
Work arrangement (as the job feed classifies it)
- Remote0
- Hybrid0
- On-site0
- Not classified1
Newest posting on the board: 2 Sept 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 operations leader.The work fills part of the week, so buy the days it needs.
A fractional operations leader 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 operations leader.The work fills the week, and it has an end: a programme, a cover, a transaction.
An interim operations leader 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 operations leader after.The seat is full time and long term, and the need is now.
An interim operations leader holds it while the permanent search runs, so the seat is not left empty.
The route · Permanent
A permanent operations leader.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/ vetting
How we vet fractional operations leaders
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify Operations leader 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
07/ choosing the level
Which level of fractional operations do you actually need?
Start with the gap, not the title.
If the business has no one owning how it runs day to day and the CEO is doing it by default, that is a fractional COO gap.
If one function or site has outgrown its current management, that is an operations director.
If the systems and process work itself is undone — no one is chasing suppliers, scheduling or the ops tooling — that is an operations manager.
It is common to need two levels at once: a fractional COO setting direction for a few days a month, and an operations manager doing the week-to-week work underneath them.
We can shortlist for either or both.
08/ what it costs
What fractional operations costs by level
Connectd publishes a UK fractional COO day rate of £800–£1,400, with a mid-market figure of £900–£1,050 a day.
Full-time COO base pay averages £115,590 (Glassdoor, via Intelligent People) — a fractional COO at two days a week is bought for a fraction of that annual cost, though scope differs too: a fractional leader is bought for direction, not full-time cover.
No source we trust publishes a fractional day rate for an operations director or operations manager, so we do not quote one — every shortlist we send states each candidate’s day rate or pay.
For comparison only, Exec Capital’s interim Operations Director rates run £500–£1,800 a day depending on company scale and complexity, and IT Jobs Watch puts the UK Operations Manager contract day rate at a median of £525 (six months to 5 Oct 2026) — both are full-time contract or interim rates, not fractional ones.
Our rate calculator turns a day rate and a number of days into a monthly and annual figure.
09/ questions
Fractional Operations FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in a fractional operations leader.
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.
