How to hire a chief of staff · permanent, fractional or interim · hiring in London

Hire a chief of staff · permanent or fractional

To hire a chief of staff, first write down what the chief executive should stop carrying: the weekly leadership meeting, the priorities that slip between teams, the board pack.

Then give the seat a mandate (what it decides and what it only coordinates), choose permanent, fractional or interim, and test each candidate on a real week from your business.

We recruit fractional, interim, part-time, temporary and permanent executives, and non-executive directors.

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.

Brief us on a chief of staff hire →See the roles

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

3–5

Shortlist · with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 set out

Vetting · stages before a candidate reaches you

15 minutes · video or phone

Book 15 minutes to hire a chief of staff

Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with Chief of Staff 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

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On the board · last 3 months

Chief of staff roles jobs on the board

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Current chief of staff roles

Fractional Quest is a fractional recruitment agency: send a Chief of Staff brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.

01/ the role

Hire a chief of staff: what the seat owns before you write the brief

A chief of staff runs the chief executive’s agenda and the operating rhythm of the leadership team.

That means the weekly meeting, the quarterly priorities, the follow-through between teams and the papers the board reads.

Most chiefs of staff have no team of their own.

Their authority is borrowed from the chief executive, so the brief has to say plainly what they may decide and what they only chase.

Signs the business needs the seat

Decisions are made in the leadership meeting and then nothing happens.

The chief executive is the only person who knows where every project stands.

Board and investor papers are written the night before.

If those are the problems, the seat is worth filling; if the problem is one broken function, hire a leader for that function instead.

Confidential by design

A chief of staff sees restructures, pay decisions and board matters before anyone else.

Put a confidentiality clause in the contract; Acas notes one can sit in an employment contract and is legally binding.

Agree what personal information about staff the seat needs to see.

The ICO’s guidance on keeping employment records says managers should have access only to the information they need.

02/ scope

How to hire a chief of staff: the steps

1. Write the mandate before the job advert

List what moves from the chief executive to the new hire, which meetings they run, and who they speak for.

Then say what should be different after twelve months.

Ask each member of the leadership team what they expect from the seat.

If the answers clash, settle that first; a chief of staff caught between peers fails quickly.

2. Choose the route

Permanent, fractional or interim: the table below sets out which fits which situation.

Decide this before the budget, because each route is paid on a different basis.

3. Search widely, then test on a real week

A post that says "hire chief of staff" draws a wide field, because the title means different things in different firms.

A search to find chief of staff candidates should cover people who ran a leader’s office under other titles: head of the CEO’s office, strategy and operations lead, private secretary.

Give every candidate the same work sample: last month’s leadership notes and three priorities, and ask for the next meeting’s agenda and a one-page update for the board.

The CIPD’s selection methods factsheet finds skill-based tasks predict performance better than unstructured interviews.

Interview with a panel that includes the chief executive and one peer who will work with the hire.

Acas notes there is no set recruitment process in law, but employers must follow a fair one, with discrimination and data protection law applying throughout.

4. Check references and right to work

Take references yourself from a chief executive the candidate has worked for, and ask what they stopped doing once the candidate arrived.

Chartered Manager status from the Chartered Management Institute is one signal of standing, not a requirement.

For an employed hire, check the right to work before the start date.

What we do on every brief

We send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.

Every candidate goes through our five-stage vetting first.

03/ comparison

Permanent, fractional or interim?

Three ways to fill the seat. Choose by how much of the week the work needs, and for how long.

PermanentFractionalInterim

TimeFull-time, open-endedAgreed days a week, often alongside other clientsFull-time, for a fixed term

SuitsA leadership team that needs the rhythm run every dayA smaller business that needs the rhythm set up, not five days of itA gap, a raise, an integration or a new chief executive’s first months

How it is paidSalary, plus employer NI, pension and benefitsA day rate or a monthly fee for agreed daysA day rate for a fixed term

IR35On payrollDecided by how the engagement runsDecided by how the engagement runs

04/ vetting

How we vet chief of staffs

What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.

01
Qualification screen
Verify Chief of Staff 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

05/ chief of staff, executive assistant or COO

Chief of staff, executive assistant or COO: which hire

Chief of staff, executive assistant or COO is the question to settle before the brief, because the three are often confused.

Put simply, a chief of staff runs the chief executive’s agenda and the operating rhythm; an executive assistant runs the diary and the admin; a COO owns operations.

An executive assistant manages the chief executive’s time, travel, correspondence and papers.

If the gap is the diary and the inbox, hire an executive assistant; if one person needs part-week support, hire a fractional PA.

A COO owns how the business runs day to day, with budgets and teams of their own.

The Institute of Directors’ factsheet puts the COO’s main purpose as directing and controlling all operations in line with the strategy the chief executive and board agree.

If the gap is delivery, margins or a function that is failing, hire a COO.

If the gap is that good decisions are not followed through, a chief of staff is the closer fit.

06/ hire a chief of staff in London

Hire a chief of staff in London: what changes

To hire a chief of staff in London you run the same steps.

A search for "hire chief of staff London" turns up many people with the title; the work is narrowing them to those who have done the job beside a chief executive at your stage.

The seat works close to the chief executive, so agree in the brief which days are in the office and which meetings must be in the room.

A fractional hire often splits the week between clients, so fix their days with yours.

We set out each candidate’s pay or day rate on the shortlist, rather than quoting a London range we cannot source.

07/ permanent, fractional or interim

Permanent, fractional or interim: which route

Permanent suits a leadership team large enough that running its rhythm is a full-time job.

Interim suits a fixed piece of work: a raise, an integration, or a new chief executive’s first months.

A fractional chief of staff works agreed days a week, often to set up the operating rhythm that a smaller team then runs.

The fractional chief of staff jobs page shows how other businesses frame the part-week seat.

If the hire works through their own company, the off-payroll working rules (IR35) may apply.

Status depends on how the engagement runs in practice, and a medium or large client makes the determination; our IR35 guide sets out the tests.

08/ questions

Hire a chief of staff FAQ

The questions people ask before bringing in a chief of staff.

Write the mandate first (what moves from the chief executive, which meetings the hire runs, what they may decide), then choose permanent, fractional or interim. Test every candidate on the same work sample from your business, interview with a panel, take references from a chief executive yourself, and confirm the right to work before an employed start.

It depends on the route: a salary for a permanent hire, a day rate or monthly fee for a fractional or interim one. For an employed hire, employer National Insurance adds 15% above £5,000 a year (HMRC, 2026/27), before pension and benefits. We set out each candidate’s pay or day rate on every shortlist.

Four: write the mandate before the advert, choose the route, search widely and test candidates on a real week, then check references and right to work before the offer. The mandate is the step most often skipped, and the one that decides whether the hire works.

A chief of staff runs the chief executive’s agenda and the leadership team’s operating rhythm. An executive assistant runs the diary and the admin. A COO owns operations, with budgets and teams of their own. Hire for the gap you have: follow-through, time, or operations.

The same way as anywhere else, with more people holding the title to narrow down. Agree office days in the brief, and test candidates on work from your own business rather than on their title. We set out pay or day rate on every shortlist.

Permanent when the leadership rhythm needs running every day; interim for a fixed piece of work such as a raise or an integration. Fractional when the business needs the rhythm set up for agreed days a week: see fractional chief of staff.

When there is no leadership team for the hire to coordinate, or when the real gap is one function. In those cases an executive assistant or a functional leader usually helps more. The seat pays off once the chief executive is the bottleneck between several leaders.

It can, if they work through their own company. Status depends on how the engagement runs in practice, and a medium or large client makes the determination (HMRC). We set out each candidate’s IR35 position on the shortlist.

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.

Book a call →Submit a brief