Fractional operations director jobs · Fractional head of operations
Fractional operations director jobs · hire a fractional operations director, or hire one for good
Fractional operations director jobs are senior operations roles taken for part of the week: an operations director or head of operations who runs delivery at one business for an agreed number of days, often alongside other clients.
To hire a fractional operations director, name the operational problem, then the days a week it needs.
We recruit fractional, interim, part-time, temporary and permanent operations 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?
Operations 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 operations director and head of operations 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 role needs daily ownership. Useful before you decide whether operations needs a part-week director or a full-time one.
15 minutes · video or phone
Book 15 minutes to hire a fractional operations director
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with Operations 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 operations director jobs on the board
Live operations leadership roles
How fractional recruitment agencies compare is set out in one place, including how we work: a Operations Director brief and a shortlist of three to five.
01/ the role
Fractional operations director jobs: what the seat covers
The Institute of Directors describes an operations director as overseeing the operational side of company strategy, helping to set strategic goals and carrying operations information to the chief executive and the board.
A fractional operations director does that job for part of the week.
The usual scope: how orders become delivery; suppliers and the supply chain; service levels and quality; capacity and the plan that sits under the budget; the systems and data operations run on; health and safety; and the managers who carry the day-to-day.
The difference from an operations consultant is ownership.
A fractional operations director is named on the leadership team and accountable for how operations run between their days, not for a report about how they should.
The family of fractional operations roles
The same part-week seat is advertised under several titles.
When the work spans every function and answers to the board, it is COO work: hire a fractional COO.
When the seat needs full-time cover for a fixed term, through a restructure, a site move or a gap, hire an interim operations director.
When the need is process and systems work below director level, hire a fractional operations manager instead; that is a different and more junior role, and this page does not cover it.
What fractional operations director jobs pay
No source we trust publishes a fractional operations director 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 operations director salary.
Two published benchmarks help.
IT Jobs Watch puts the median advertised salary for a full-time operations director at £100,000, from 21 salaries over the six months to 5 October 2026; see operations director salary.
For interim work, Exec Capital publishes Operations Director day rates of £500–£900 at SMEs (to £20m revenue), £800–£1,400 mid-market (£20m–£75m), £1,000–£1,800 for PE-backed or complex operations and £1,000–£1,600 for turnaround or crisis.
A fractional fee is the day rate times the days worked.
For the level above, see fractional COO salary.
02/ scope
How to hire a fractional operations director
1. Write down the operational problem
Start with what has to change, not the title.
Late deliveries, margin lost to rework, a supplier base nobody manages, a second site to open, or a team that runs on one person’s memory.
Then decide the days a week you can fund and who the role reports to.
Our operations director job description is a starting template.
2. Pick the level of the seat
If the problem sits inside operations, you need an operations director or head of operations.
If it sits between functions, such as how sales hands over to delivery or how the hiring plan follows the forecast, it is COO work.
Below both sits the operations manager, who, in the Skills England occupational standard, leads a team within agreed budgets and resources and reports to senior leaders.
3. Check the evidence
Ask for results from a business of your size and sector: the delivery measure they moved, the supplier they replaced, the site they opened.
Credentials are one signal among several; Chartered Manager status, backed by a Royal Charter and awarded only by CMI, shows a tested standard of management and leadership.
Take references from the owners and boards they worked for.
4. Settle the engagement
Agree the days, the outcomes for the first three months, what the operations director can decide alone, and who covers incidents between their days.
If they will work through their own company, check IR35 before the start date (below).
What we do on an operations 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 operations 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 · 2 roles · Fractional operations director
Engagement
- Fractional1
- Interim1
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
- Hybrid0
- On-site0
- Not classified2
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 director.The work fills part of the week, so buy the days it needs.
A fractional operations 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 operations director.The work fills the week, and it has an end: a programme, a cover, a transaction.
An interim operations 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 operations director after.The seat is full time and long term, and the need is now.
An interim operations director holds it while the permanent search runs, so the seat is not left empty.
The route · Permanent
A permanent operations 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
Head of operations, operations director, COO 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 operations directors
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify Operations 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/ fractional head of operations
Fractional head of operations: the first senior operations hire
A fractional head of operations is often the first senior operations leader a growing company brings in.
The brief is foundations: a delivery process that does not depend on the founder, suppliers under contract and measured, a weekly operating rhythm, the systems that hold the data, and managers who know what good looks like.
It is a leadership seat, not an administrative one.
The title is common in start-ups and scale-ups.
As the company grows, the seat either becomes an operations director post or moves up to a COO who runs every function against the board’s plan.
A fractional head of operations can build the system first and help you recruit whoever runs it next.
For a fuller picture of the role, see what a head of operations does.
Test candidates on what they have built, not what they have advised on.
Ask for the process map, the supplier scorecard, the first-quarter plan they wrote somewhere similar.
Our shortlist sets out each candidate’s day rate, availability and IR35 position, so you can compare them on the same page.
09/ operations director vs COO
Operations director vs COO: which seat you need
The operations director vs COO question is about scope.
The IoD places the operations director over the operational side of strategy, reporting operations information to the chief executive and the board.
Its COO role profile goes wider: directing and controlling all of the organisation’s operations in line with the strategy the chief executive and board have agreed, and maintaining the structure and processes the organisation runs on.
In practice: if the problem sits inside operations (delivery, fulfilment, service quality, suppliers), a fractional operations director running that function part of the week is the right shape.
If it sits between functions, or the board needs one person accountable for how the whole business runs, it is COO work, whatever the title on the brief.
The title also carries legal weight when it comes with a board seat.
A director appointed to the board takes on the general duties in the Companies Act 2006, and GOV.UK notes that those duties still apply to someone who acts as a director without being formally appointed.
Many operations directors hold the title without a board appointment; agree which it is before the start date.
Either way, the HSE’s guidance for directors and board members on leading health and safety, built on Plan, Do, Check, Act, is usually part of the brief.
10/ ir35
IR35 and fractional operations roles employed part-time or through a company
A fractional operations 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.
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 operations director jobs FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in a fractional operations 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.
