How to hire a CIO · permanent, fractional or interim · private-equity portfolio companies

Hire a CIO · permanent, fractional or interim

To hire a CIO, first write down what the systems that run the business must deliver in the next year: an ERP live, a cloud move finished, cyber risk the board can see, or an IT estate a buyer will accept.

Then choose the route (permanent, fractional, interim or part-time), approach people who are not already looking, and test each candidate on a live programme of yours.

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 CIO 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

In the press

Fast Company 16 leaders on when fractional C-suite hires make sense · 24 Jun 2026
Useful before you pick a route. Executives set out when a part-week leader suits a defined mandate, and when the seat needs a full-time owner.

3–5

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

Vetting · stages before a candidate reaches you

£150,250

CIO median salary · Chief Information Officer, 2026

Robert Half, 2026

£1,000–£1,800

Interim CIO, PE-backed · a day, mid-market or PE-backed

Exec Capital, 2026

15 minutes · video or phone

Book 15 minutes to hire a CIO

Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with CIO 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

Prefer email? Use the booking page →

Pick a day that suits · live availability

Open the booking calendar →

On the board · last 3 months

CIO roles jobs on the board

0 CIO roles · 1 technology leadership

No CIO roles roles on the board in the last three months. Showing technology leadership roles instead.

FractionalSyndicated
Fractional CISO (Contract / Project Based)
Cambridge Spark · United Kingdom
est £1,500/day2 d/wk

Browse every role on the board →

On the board CIO and technology leadership roles

Fractional recruiting starts with the brief, not the CV pile. Send a CIO brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five candidates, each through five-stage vetting.

01/ the role

Hire a CIO: what the seat owns before you write the brief

A CIO owns the systems the business runs on: the IT estate, the core platforms such as ERP and CRM, data, suppliers, security and the change programmes that move them.

Before you write the brief, decide which of those the seat must fix first.

A business halfway through a failing ERP programme needs a different leader from one that has simply outgrown its IT manager.

The level, not the title

Plenty of CVs carry the title for work a level or two below the seat.

The SFIA framework describes its highest level of responsibility as one that "determines overall organisational vision and strategy, and assumes accountability for overall success".

If the job is mostly running the estate and the service desk, an IT director may be the better hire; IT director jobs show how that seat is framed.

What the board will ask of the seat

The government's Cyber Governance Code of Practice sets out what boards and directors should do to govern cyber risk, and the CIO is usually the person who reports on it.

Data protection sits close by: the ICO's guidance on accountability and governance covers the records, impact assessments and design choices a CIO's systems have to support.

In a regulated firm the bar is higher.

The FCA's operational resilience rules ask in-scope firms to keep important business services within set impact tolerances, and much of that work runs through the CIO.

02/ scope

How to hire a CIO: the steps

1. Write the brief around the programme

Set out what the CIO will own, what they inherit (team, suppliers, contracts, programmes in flight) and who they report to.

Then say what should be different after twelve months.

Turn that into a CIO job description before anyone is approached.

2. Choose the route

Permanent, fractional, interim or part-time: the sections below set out which fits which situation.

Decide this before you set a budget, because the cost basis differs.

3. Search, then test on your own work

An advert that says "hire CIO" mostly reaches people already on the move.

Many strong candidates are in post, so someone has to approach them; a CIO headhunter does that for a permanent seat.

Give every candidate the same work sample: review the governance of a programme you are running, and say what they would change first.

Score the answers against criteria agreed in advance, with a panel rather than one interviewer.

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 credentials and directorships

There is no single licensing body, so check what is claimed.

The BCS Register of Technology Professionals lets you verify a listed member's grade and registrations; listing is optional, so absence proves nothing.

Search past directorships and disqualified directors on the Companies House register, and take references yourself from the sponsor of the candidate's last major programme.

What we do on a 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, interim or part-time CIO?

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

PermanentFractionalInterimPart-time

TimeFull-time, open-endedAgreed days a week, often alongside other clientsFull-time, for a fixed termA fixed part of the week, often employed

SuitsA business whose systems need an owner every dayA business that needs senior IT judgement and governance, not five days of itA vacancy, a failing programme, a migration or a transactionA steady, smaller IT function

Published cost£150,250 median salary (Robert Half, 2026), plus employer NI and benefits£800–£1,200 a day, growth-stage SME (Exec Capital, 2026)£800–£2,000 a day (Exec Capital, 2026)Set out on each shortlist

IR35On payrollDecided by how the engagement runsDecided by how the engagement runsUsually on payroll

04/ vetting

How we vet CIOs

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

01
Qualification screen
Verify CIO 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/ hire a CIO for a private-equity portfolio company

Hire a CIO for a private-equity portfolio company: the hold period

To hire a CIO for a private-equity portfolio company, start from the investment plan, not the org chart.

The seat exists to make the systems support that plan between the deal and the exit.

The BVCA describes private equity as an active ownership model in which the investor works with management to drive operational improvements, and it names improving IT infrastructure among them.

In a hold period the work is usually some mix of four jobs: separating a carve-out from its former parent’s systems, joining up the systems of companies bought in a buy-and-build, reporting the numbers the owners ask for from one source, and making the estate secure and documented before a buyer looks at it.

Each has a date attached, so the brief should name the date.

Before the exit, technology due diligence shows what a buyer will find.

Exec Capital, a recruiter, publishes £1,000–£1,800 a day for an interim CIO at a mid-market or PE-backed business, and £1,200–£1,800 a day for a fractional CIO on PE-backed or transformation work.

The searches "hire interim CIO for portfolio companies" and "hire interim CIO for PE-backed" businesses describe the full-time version: a fixed term, one outcome.

"Hire fractional CIO for PE-backed" companies, "hire fractional CIO for portfolio companies" and "hire fractional CIO for PE firms" describe the part-week version, often one leader across more than one company in a portfolio.

Agree in the brief who the CIO reports to (the CEO, the CFO or the investor’s operating team) and who signs off spend, because a hold-period CIO answers to both.

06/ permanent, fractional or interim CIO

Permanent, fractional or interim CIO: which route

Permanent, fractional or interim CIO is the first decision, and it turns on two questions: how much of the week the work needs, and for how long.

A CIO for hire on a day rate suits a defined job; a permanent CIO suits a seat that needs an owner for years.

Robert Half’s 2026 salary guide puts a CIO at £108,000 to £200,000, with a median of £150,250.

Employer National Insurance adds 15% above £5,000 a year (HMRC, 2026/27).

A fractional CIO works agreed days a week; Exec Capital publishes £800–£1,200 a day at a growth-stage SME.

To go that way, hire a fractional CIO, and see fractional CIO cost for day rates and retainers.

An interim CIO works full-time for a fixed term; Exec Capital publishes £800–£2,000 a day.

Most people who search "hire interim CIOs" have a programme with a go-live date, and the interim CIO jobs page sets out how that brief and the board work.

Read the search terms closely.

"Hire interim CIO expert" and "hire interim CIO executive" both mean the seat itself, while "hire interim CIO analyst" often means something smaller: an analyst or programme lead working under the CIO, which is a different brief.

If the CIO 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.

07/ questions

Hire a CIO FAQ

The questions people ask before bringing in a CIO.

Write the brief first (what the CIO will own, what they inherit, what should change in the first year), then choose permanent, fractional, interim or part-time. Test every candidate on a programme you are running, check their registrations and directorships, and take references yourself.

Robert Half’s 2026 salary guide puts a CIO at £108,000 to £200,000, with a median of £150,250; employer National Insurance adds 15% above £5,000 a year (HMRC, 2026/27). Exec Capital publishes £800–£2,000 a day for an interim CIO. We set out each candidate’s pay or day rate on the shortlist.

Four: write the brief around the programme, choose the route, search and test candidates on your own work, then check registrations, directorships and references before the offer. The brief is the step most often rushed, and the one that decides whether the hire works.

Start from the investment plan: which systems must change between the deal and the exit, and by when. Choose interim for one dated outcome, fractional for part-week leadership through the hold period, and agree up front whether the CIO reports to the CEO, the CFO or the investor’s operating team.

Permanent when the systems need an owner every day; interim when the seat is empty or a programme needs a full-time leader for a fixed term. Fractional when you need senior judgement and governance for agreed days a week: hire a fractional CIO.

A CIO sets direction for the systems, sits with the executive team and answers to the board on technology risk. An IT director usually runs the estate and the service. If the brief is mostly operational, the IT director seat may fit better.

There is no single licensing body, so check what is claimed. The BCS register verifies listed members, and the Companies House register shows past directorships and disqualified directors. Take a reference from the sponsor of the candidate’s last major programme.

It can, if the CIO works 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