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Fractional Recruitment Agency UK · Fractional Executive Jobs

A fractional recruitment agency that sells days, not heads.

Fractional Quest is a fractional recruitment agency for UK companies that need senior leadership 1–3 days a week: fractional CFOs, CTOs, CMOs, COOs, CPOs, CHROs and CISOs. Bring one brief and we come back with a shortlist of 3–5, each through our five-stage vetting, with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.

Book a 15-minute call →What does it cost?
  • 3–5 on every shortlist
  • IR35 position set out on every brief
  • 1–3 days a week
  • 5 stages of vetting

How a brief runswhat we undertake

  1. 01Brief30-MINUTE SCOPING CALLDay 0
  2. 02Shortlist of 3–5VETTED · RATE BENCHMARK · IR35After the brief
  3. 03InterviewsYOU MEET THE SHORTLISTYour diary
  4. 04Scoped startFIRST-MONTH OUTCOMES AGREEDYou set the date
  5. 05Fractional, interim and permanentIR35 POSITION SET OUTOn every brief

Shortlist3–5

25–35%
UK retained search fee, of first-year total pay
Headhunters.co.uk, 2026
5
Vetting stages
Our commitment
3–5
Candidates on every shortlist
Our commitment
15%
Employer NI on a permanent salary, above £5,000
HMRC, 2026/27

15 minutes · video or phone

Book 15 minutes to hire a fractional executive

Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with fractional executive candidates, their day rates and availability.

  1. 0115 minutes, video or phone
  2. 02We scope the role and the days a week
  3. 03A shortlist of 3–5 after the call
  4. 04Fractional, interim and permanent briefs
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01/ the model

What a fractional recruitment agency actually does.

Fractional recruitment finds experienced executives for part-time, ongoing leadership roles — usually one to three days a week — instead of permanent full-time hires. It sells days, not heads: you buy part of a senior leader’s week on a day rate, rather than one appointment priced as a share of first-year pay.

Traditional executive search is built around the head. UK retained search runs 25–35% of the candidate’s first-year total compensation, with minimum fees of £30,000–£40,000 at reputable firms (Headhunters.co.uk, 2026), for a single permanent appointment. A fractional search unbundles that: the executive invoices through their own company, so there is no employer National Insurance — 15% above £5,000 on a permanent salary (HMRC) — no pension and no employment notice to buy out.

It fits a market where even the most senior seats turn over: FTSE 100 CFO tenure fell to a record-low 4.95 years in 2025 (Russell Reynolds). A seat that turns over that often is worth asking about — does it need five days of senior bandwidth, or two days of senior judgement?

What we undertake on every brief: a shortlist of 3–5, each candidate through the five stages on our vetting page, and the IR35 position set out. What we do not do: hold a bench, grade candidates on a score, or promise a shortlist by a date.

Comparing firms rather than reading about one? Our guide to fractional executive search firms in the UK sets the firms side by side on fee, model and reach.

02/ one brief, three ways to buy it

Permanent, interim, fractional.

The three models solve different problems, and choosing between them is the first real decision — before choosing a candidate.

PERMANENT

A full-load seat, for years

Suits a mature role with five days of work in it, staffed for the long term. Salary plus employer NI, pension and bonus — and, if you use retained search, a fee on first-year pay. See CFO headhunters and recruiters.

INTERIM

Full-time, for a fixed period

Built for a departure, a turnaround or a transaction. The IIM’s 2026 survey puts the average UK interim day rate at £907 (£1,004 in the private sector) and the average assignment at 10 months (IIM). See interim recruitment agencies.

FRACTIONAL

Part of the week, ongoing

A slice of senior capacity — one to three days a week — that flexes with the company. Often the step before a permanent hire, and the person who writes that brief.

The right question isn’t “fractional or full-time?” — it’s “how much senior leadership does this stage of the company actually need?” If the function needs senior judgement more than senior bandwidth, fractional fits.

03/ how the agency works

From brief to boardroom in four steps.

No 200-CV inbox. You give us the shape of the role; we return a shortlist of 3–5 people who have held the seat before.

01 · your brief

Tell us the shape of the role.

Role, stage, sector, days a week and budget. No account needed to start — submit a brief or book a 15-minute call.

1brief

04/ what we recruit

Fractional recruitment across seven C-suite functions.

Fractional recruitment, fractional recruiting, fractional management recruitment — the vocabulary varies, the work does not. One brief process covers every seat, so a brief that turns out to need a CPO rather than a CTO does not start again. Each band below is a published figure with its source.

CFO · Hire a fractional CFOFinance leadership · £700–£1,400 a day (FD Capital, 2026).CTO · Hire a fractional CTOTechnology leadership · £1,000–£1,600 a day.CMO · Hire a fractional CMOMarketing and growth · £750–£1,400 a day (Connectd, 2026).COO · Hire a fractional COOOperations and delivery · £800–£1,400 a day (Connectd, 2026).CPO · Hire a fractional CPOProduct leadership · £800–£1,500 a day for fractional or contract CTO/CPO work (Hyperact, 2024).CHRO · Hire a fractional CHROPeople and HR · London contract CHRO £900–£1,500 a day (Robert Walters); no source publishes a fractional CHRO day rate.CISO · Hire a fractional CISOSecurity leadership · £1,200–£2,000 a day (Optima Europe).Legal · Fractional General CounselLegal leadership on the same part-time model.

05/ agency vs retained search

Fractional recruiting vs retained search.

Retained executive search runs a bespoke search for one permanent hire and charges a share of first-year pay. A fractional recruitment agency fills part of a week on a day rate — which removes the employer NI and the employment notice at the same time. For the firms themselves, see fractional executive search firms compared.

Fractional, through usRetained search
What you buyPart of a senior leader’s week, ongoingOne permanent appointment
Employer NINone — the executive invoices via their own company15% above £5,000 on the salary (HMRC)
What comes backA shortlist of 3–5, day rate and IR35 set outA shortlist for one permanent seat

→ Retained search sells a head. A fractional recruitment agency sells days.

06/ what it costs

Fractional executive day rates, by role.

Published bands only, each with its source, from the same rate table the rest of the site uses. Switch between fractional, interim and a full-time salary expressed per day. For your own numbers, use the fractional rate calculator.

Published UK day-rate bands · £ a day
  • CFO£700–£1,400FD Capital 2026
  • CTO£1,000–£1,600Leadership Services
  • CMO£750–£1,400Connectd 2026
  • COO£800–£1,400Connectd 2026
  • CISO£1,200–£2,000Optima Europe
Published fractional band
RoleFractional day rateSource
CFO / Finance Director£700–£1,400FD Capital 2026
CTO£1,000–£1,600Leadership Services
CMO£750–£1,400Connectd 2026
COO£800–£1,400Connectd 2026
CISO / Security Head£1,200–£2,000Optima Europe

The full-time column is a salary divided by 220 working days — our arithmetic, not a day rate anyone charges, and before employer NI or pension. Our sources publish no fractional day band for a CPO (the nearest is Hyperact’s £800–£1,500 for fractional or contract CTO/CPO work, 2024) or a CHRO, so neither is charted. Two days a week across 46 weeks at the FD Capital CFO band is £64,400–£128,800 in day fees — our arithmetic. Cost guides: fractional CFO cost · fractional CMO cost.

07/ economics

What a fractional executive costs.

Rate × days × weeks, against a loaded full-time package. Modelled on the fractional CFO band (FD Capital) because it is the best-sourced; move the day rate to your role’s band from the table above.

Days a week needed2 days

£1,000 a day is within the published band for a UK fractional executive (£700–£1,400, fractional CFO band, FD Capital 2026).

Year-one cost

£92,000

2 d/wk · 46 weeks · day fees, before tax

Fractional executive£92,000
Full-time executive, loaded£202,225

Fractional costs less in year one£110,225

Book a 15-minute call →

Our arithmetic, indicative. Modelled on a CFO. Full-time CFO = £202,225: the £176,500 Robert Half 2026 UK median salary plus employer NI at 15% above the £5,000 threshold (HMRC). Excludes pension, bonus and a search fee, so any saving shown is the conservative one. For another seat, set the day rate to that role’s band in the table above.

08/ the contract

Fractional management recruitment: how the engagement is contracted.

A fractional engagement is written around a scope — the outcome the seat exists for, the days a week and the notice — and we set out the IR35 position on every brief. IR35 status depends on how the engagement runs in practice, and a medium or large client makes the determination. Reference: HMRC IR35 guidance and Check employment status for tax (CEST). See the IR35 guide.

01 / CONTROL

Control of the “how”

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 contract

02 / SUBSTITUTION

Right of substitution

HMRC looks at whether the executive could send a suitably qualified substitute, and whether that right is genuine in practice.

✓ In the contract

03 / MUTUALITY

Mutuality of obligation

HMRC looks at whether the company must offer work beyond the agreed scope, and whether the executive must accept it.

✓ In the contract

09/ fractional recruiting

How fractional recruiting works — and the rules behind it.

Fractional recruiting, as we use the phrase, means recruiting a senior leader for part of the week — a fractional CFO, a fractional CTO or a fractional CMO on one to three days, ongoing. (Online the same words also describe hiring a part-time recruiter; that is the next section.) The recruiting itself follows the arc of any senior hire, which the CIPD sets out as defining the role, attracting applicants, managing selection and making the appointment (CIPD). What changes is the first step: you define days, outcomes and an IR35 position, not a full-time job.

No law prescribes a recruitment process, but Acas is clear that an employer must still follow a fair one, and that discrimination and data-protection law apply throughout (Acas). The ICO’s recruitment guidance is written for employers and for “recruitment agencies, head-hunters or consultancies”, and covers contractors as well as employees (ICO) — so a fractional executive who invoices through their own company is still a candidate whose information has to be handled lawfully.

The agency is regulated too. GOV.UK’s guidance on the Conduct Regulations explains that the Employment Agencies Act and the Conduct Regulations cover executive search consultants, apply whatever the work-seeker’s employment status — limited-company work-seekers included — and bar agencies from charging work-seekers for finding them work (GOV.UK). That is why applying to our board is free. Tax status is a separate question, decided by how the engagement runs — see HMRC’s off-payroll guidance and our IR35 guide.

10/ fractional recruiter

When you need a fractional recruiter, not an agency.

A fractional recruiter is a recruiter or talent lead who works inside your business for part of the week and runs your hiring — sourcing, screening, the interview process, offers — usually across a run of roles below board level, and paid for their time rather than per hire. It is the talent-acquisition version of the fractional model. We don’t supply fractional recruiters; we recruit executives — fractional, interim and permanent. The two answer different problems.

The practical line: if you need one senior leader — a CFO for the raise, a CTO for the rebuild — brief a fractional recruitment agency for a shortlist. If you have a hiring plan to work through below the leadership team, an embedded fractional recruiter is, in our view, the better tool — and the two can sit side by side: a fractional CHRO sets the people plan, and a fractional recruiter works it.

The same rules follow whoever runs your hiring. A fractional recruiter who works through their own limited company falls under the off-payroll working rules like any other contractor; in most cases the client determines employment status for tax (HMRC), and CEST is HMRC’s own check. They will handle candidates’ personal data on your behalf, so the ICO’s recruitment guidance applies to their work as much as yours. Our IR35 guide covers the contract side; for senior hires, how we vet sets out what we check before anyone reaches a shortlist.

11/ talent acquisition

Fractional talent acquisition and the fractional internal recruiter.

Fractional talent acquisition means buying part of an experienced recruiter’s week to run your hiring from the inside. A fractional internal recruiter sits in your team for a day or two a week, owns the hiring plan, the job adverts and the interview process, and works through the roles below the leadership team. It suits a company with a run of hires ahead and no in-house talent team yet.

A fractional talent acquisition firm supplies those embedded recruiters. A fractional recruitment agency does something narrower: it recruits the senior leaders themselves. That is all we do — fractional, interim and permanent executive briefs, each answered with a shortlist of 3–5, with day rate or pay, availability and IR35 position set out. We don’t supply embedded recruiters.

Fractional staffing is the broader label: part-time people at any level, from support roles to the board. If your plan needs both, use both — the embedded recruiter handles volume, and an agency is briefed on the one senior seat that needs a search. Either way, if the person works through their own company, the off-payroll rules apply to that engagement (HMRC).

12/ vetting

How we vet, on every brief.

What we undertake before a candidate reaches your shortlist. The full five-stage process is on how we vet.

  1. 01

    Pedigree screen

    Verify prior tenure in the seat — CFO, CTO, CMO, COO, CPO, CHRO or CISO — at the scale and stage you need. No consultant presenting as an executive.

    TENURE
  2. 02

    Mandate fit

    Fit to your stage, sector and the problem the seat exists to solve — not a CV keyword.

    FIT
  3. 03

    Reference deep-dive

    We take references ourselves, from recent clients and boards: what they delivered, not what they titled it.

    VERIFY
  4. 04

    Shortlist

    3–5 candidates, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.

    SHORTLIST OF 3–5
  5. 05

    Kick-off

    Scope, first-month outcomes and the contract agreed before day one.

    START

13/ the decision

When to hire fractional vs full-time.

The trigger for a fractional hire is usually a gap between the strategic need and the workload: the company needs a senior leader’s judgement long before it can fill five days of that leader’s week. Four common shapes.

Which sounds like you?

A Series A company needs CFO-grade financial leadership for the board, the model and the raise — but rarely five days a week of it.

  • → Fractional CFO, 1–2 days a week

A scaling product business needs a CTO to set architecture and hiring standards long before it needs a full-time one.

  • → Fractional CTO, ahead of the engineering hires

Marketing has become a board question — channel mix, positioning, a team to hire — and the founder can no longer carry it alongside everything else.

  • → Fractional CMO, until the function is built

Operations, people or security needs designing once, properly, by someone who has done it before — then handing to a permanent owner.

  • → Fractional COO, CHRO or CISO with a written handover

15/ coverage

Nationwide. Not just London.

We take briefs from companies across the UK, and for fully remote seats. London-based companies pay fractional CFOs a 15–20% premium even for remote arrangements (FD Capital, 2026); no source we hold publishes a comparable premium for other roles or regions, so none is shown.

Hub · LondonFintech, PE portfolios and scale-up density — the London jobs board.City · ManchesterPE-backed and industrial businesses.City · EdinburghFinancial services and asset management.City · Bristol & BathTech, aerospace and climate.City · LeedsHealth-tech and financial services.Remote · Remote · UK-wideFully remote and hybrid fractional roles.

16/ questions

Fractional hiring, answered.

The questions we are asked most, by companies hiring and by executives looking for fractional work.

Define the scope first — role, days a week, stage, sector, budget and how the engagement will run for IR35. Then brief us: we search against that brief, take candidates through the five stages on how we vet, and come back with a shortlist of 3–5, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out. You interview and decide. The rates section gives a published band and its source for each role.

A recruitment agency that finds experienced executives for part-time, ongoing leadership roles — usually 1–3 days a week — rather than permanent full-time hires. It sells days, not heads: you buy part of a senior leader’s week on a day rate, instead of one appointment priced as a share of first-year pay. UK retained search runs 25–35% of first-year total compensation (Headhunters.co.uk, 2026).

Largely, yes — the labels overlap. Both find senior leaders for part-time, ongoing roles rather than permanent hires; in our reading, “search firm” tends to signal a more bespoke search for a more senior seat. Fractional Quest runs searches for fractional CFOs, CTOs, CMOs, COOs, CPOs, CHROs and CISOs across the UK. For the firms side by side, see our guide to fractional executive search firms.

Traditional retained search runs a bespoke search for one permanent hire and charges 25–35% of first-year total compensation, with £30,000–£40,000 minimum fees at reputable firms (Headhunters.co.uk, 2026), typically paid in three staged instalments (Executive Recruit, 2026).

A fractional search fills part of a week on a day rate. The executive invoices through their own company, so there is no employer National Insurance — 15% above £5,000 on a permanent salary (HMRC) — no pension and no employment notice. More in fractional executive search firms compared.

We start from your brief — role, days a week, stage, sector, budget and IR35 position — and search against it; we hold no pre-built bench. Each candidate goes through the five stages on how we vet, and we return a shortlist of 3–5, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out. You interview and decide.

Tell us why it missed and we re-scope the brief with you.

We take briefs from companies of any size. The fractional model tends to fit scale-ups, founder-led businesses and PE-backed companies — the point where a function needs a senior leader’s judgement but not yet five days of it. If the seat already has five days of work in it, we will say so, and a full-time hire is the better answer.

It depends on the seat. Published fractional day rates: CFO £700–£1,400 (FD Capital), CTO £1,000–£1,600, CMO £750–£1,400 and COO £800–£1,400 (Connectd), CISO £1,200–£2,000 (Optima Europe). London-based companies pay fractional CFOs a 15–20% premium (FD Capital).

At £1,000 a day, two days a week across 46 weeks is £92,000 in day fees — against £202,225 for a full-time CFO on the £176,500 Robert Half 2026 median plus employer NI (our arithmetic).

It depends on how the engagement runs in practice, not on the title. HMRC looks at who controls how the work is done, whether there is a genuine right of substitution, and mutuality of obligation. For medium and large clients, the client makes the determination. HMRC’s guidance: IR35 — find out if it applies.

The executives on a shortlist are independent — not our employees, and not a bench we hold. IR35 status depends on how each engagement runs in practice, and a medium or large client makes the determination; HMRC’s CEST tool is HMRC’s own check. We set out the IR35 position on every brief.

Interim is full-time for a fixed period — cover for a departure, a turnaround or a transaction. The IIM’s 2026 survey puts the average UK interim assignment at 10 months and the average day rate at £907, £1,004 in the private sector (IIM). Fractional is part-time and ongoing: 1–3 days a week that flexes with the company. See interim recruitment agencies.

Brief us on the role, stage and cadence and we come back with a shortlist of 3–5, each vetted and with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out. Each seat has its own hub: fractional CFO, fractional CTO and fractional CMO.

No. We take briefs from companies across the UK — London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Bristol, Cambridge, Leeds — and for fully remote seats. London-based companies pay fractional CFOs a 15–20% premium even for remote arrangements (FD Capital, 2026); no source we hold publishes a comparable premium for other roles.

The phrase carries two meanings. Fractional recruiting in our sense is recruiting fractional executives: finding a part-time CFO, CTO or CMO for a company. A fractional recruiter is something else — a part-time in-house recruiter or talent lead, embedded for a few days a week to run your hiring. We do the first, not the second.

We won’t rank ourselves against the others. Our guide to fractional executive search firms compares UK firms on fee, model and reach, and the five questions above apply to every one of them, us included: what the fee is and when it is due, who vets and how, what comes back, where each number comes from, and who owns the IR35 position. For a growth-stage company, in our view, the fee structure and the IR35 position matter more than any claim about the size of a candidate pool.

Ask any provider the same questions, whoever they are: what the fee is and when it is due, who vets candidates and how, what comes back and in what form, where each rate figure comes from, and who owns the IR35 position. The five questions above set these out. Our answer to the second and third: a shortlist of 3–5, each through five-stage vetting, with day rate or pay, availability and IR35 position set out, for fractional, interim, part-time and permanent executive briefs.

Not in the managed-service sense. A support agency engages the assistant itself and sells you their time, with cover and replacement handled by the agency. We recruit: for a fractional PA London-based or remote, brief us and we come back with a shortlist of 3–5, each with day rate or pay, availability and IR35 position set out, and the person you choose contracts with you directly. See fractional EA and PA for how the role works.

No. We don’t place a fractional web consultant for SMEs or a fractional website consultant; those are project and specialist roles, and we recruit executives. If the website is one symptom of a wider gap, the right seat is usually a leader who owns the decision: a fractional CTO for the technology, or a fractional CMO for the marketing it has to serve.

Much like any senior hire, with the days and the contract decided up front. You scope the seat — the outcome it exists for, days a week, stage, sector, budget and how the engagement will run for IR35. We search against that brief, take each candidate through the five stages on how we vet, and return a shortlist of 3–5, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out. You interview and decide. Acas’s guidance on how employers should recruit — a fair process, with discrimination and data-protection law applying throughout — holds for a part-time executive as for any hire.

It depends on the hiring you have in front of you. A fractional recruiter works inside your team part of the week and runs a flow of hires, paid for their time; an agency is briefed on a specific role and paid on the outcome. For one senior seat, an agency shortlist is the more direct route — ours is 3–5 candidates. For a hiring plan below the leadership team, an embedded fractional recruiter is, in our view, the better fit — and we don’t supply those. If the recruiter works through their own company, the off-payroll rules apply to that engagement too (HMRC).

Ask every firm the five questions above, then two more for a technology seat. First, who assesses the candidate’s technical judgement — the architecture calls, the security trade-offs — rather than the CV alone? Second, does the firm search the market for your brief or wait for applicants? For fractional executives, headhunting — approaching people who are not looking — is the part worth asking about, and a firm should be able to show you how it does it. Our fractional recruitment services cover fractional CTOs, CPOs and CISOs as well as the rest of the C-suite, on fractional, interim and permanent briefs: a shortlist of 3–5, each through five-stage vetting.

Book 15 minutes · shortlist of 3–5

You bring the brief.
We return the shortlist.

A shortlist of 3–5. Five-stage vetting. IR35 position on every brief. Book 15 minutes.

For hiring companies

Book a call or submit a brief for any C-suite seat; we come back with a shortlist of 3–5 candidates.

Book a call →Submit a brief

For fractional executives

Browse live fractional executive roles from our jobs feed, or get in touch about the searches we run.

See live rolesContact us

17/ related

Guides, tools and role hubs.

Firms compared, costs, IR35, vetting and every fractional seat.

Guide

Fractional executive search firms (UK)

The firms compared — fractional executive search, side by side.

Tool

Fractional rate calculator

Loaded annual cost of fractional, interim and full-time for your role and cadence.

Process

How we vet

The five stages every candidate goes through before a shortlist.

IR35

IR35 guide

How the off-payroll rules apply to fractional engagements.

Cost

Fractional CFO cost

What a fractional CFO costs against a loaded full-time package.

Cost

Fractional CMO cost

Day rates, retainers and the full-time comparison.

Hire

Hire a fractional COO

Operations leadership, 1–3 days a week.

Hire

Hire a fractional CHRO

People leadership on the fractional model.

Jobs

All live fractional roles

Every live fractional role in the UK, in one board.

Guide

Where to find fractional executives

Every sourcing route, including agencies.

Fractional Quest logo — fractional recruitment agency UK, fractional executive search firms