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Permanent managing director · hiring brief

Hire a Managing Director

Hire a Managing Director: agree the mandate with the board or owners, write the MD’s authority and the owners’ reserved matters, and test candidates on the business’s own plan.

Brief us on this role →See managing director roles

Reviewed by Fractional Quest · updated 1 November 2026 · 5 sources linked below

  • 3–5on every shortlist
  • 5stages of vetting
  • IR35set out on every brief
Hire a Managing Director: a technology leader taking a founder through a product roadmap (illustration)

On the board · last 90 days

Which roles are on the board now?

Permanent managing director roles first, then the seat in any engagement and the wider function when the board runs short.

Roles

See every role on the board →

Every fractional role in the UK is on the fractional jobs board.

In the press

The brief

Hire a Managing Director: what must the role own?

Growth, turnaround, succession or a sale.

  • 01MandateGrowth, turnaround, succession or a sale.
  • 02AuthorityWhat the MD decides alone.
  • 03OwnersReserved matters and owner involvement.
  • 04BoardBoard seat and reporting.

Role reference: Institute of Directors: role of the managing director. The IoD describes the managing director’s responsibility for company performance within the board’s strategy.

MD or CEO

Hire a managing director or a CEO?

Mostly a naming choice in the UK.

Hire a managing director where the business is owner-managed or a subsidiary; CEO is more common in investor-backed companies. The accountability is similar.

For a fixed-term need, an interim chief executive may fit better.

The working pattern

What changes when the managing director is permanent?

A managing director runs the company within the strategy the board or owners set. In many UK businesses the MD is the chief executive in all but name.

The illustrative brief: an owner stepping back. The founder-owner wants to stop running the business day to day.

The appointment owns: The company hires a managing director with a reserved-matters list.

Another owner retains: The owner keeps dividends, sale and borrowing decisions.

The case is illustrative; it does not describe a Fractional Quest placement.

From brief to start

How do you hire a Managing Director, step by step?

Hire a Managing Director, in practice: the first three steps are ours; the last four are what has to be true before the first day. We don’t promise a shortlist by a date.

  1. Day 0
    01
    The 15-minute call
    What the managing director must own, the working pattern, the start date and the budget.
    You and us
  2. Week 1
    02
    Scope agreed in writing
    The outcome the seat exists for, the days, and how the engagement will run for IR35.
    Us
  3. Weeks 1–3
    03
    Search, references, shortlist
    We approach people who aren’t looking, verify tenure, take references ourselves and return three to five.
    Us
  4. Week 4
    04
    Board minute
    Mandate and reserved matters.
    You
  5. Before day one · 2
    05
    Information
    Plan, accounts and people.
    You
  6. Before day one · 3
    06
    Introductions
    Team, customers, bank.
    You
  7. Before day one · 4
    07
    First 90 days
    A written plan.
    You

Your figures

What does part of a senior week cost?

Rate × days × weeks, against a loaded full-time package. Move the sliders; the numbers redraw.

  • managing director band £800–£1,500 (FD Capital 2026)
Year-one cost, fractional
£105,800
2 days a week · 46 weeks · day fees, before tax · our arithmetic
Fractional executive£105,800
Full-time managing director, loaded£137,250£624 a day over 220 days · our arithmetic
Fractional costs less in year one by£31,450

Our arithmetic. £120,000 Exec Capital 2026 (UK SME) lower-quartile salary + employer NI at 15% above £5,000 (HMRC) = £137,250. Excludes pension, bonus and any search fee.

Assessment

How should you assess each candidate?

Hire a Managing Director on evidence: put the same work in front of each candidate before comparing answers.

  1. Comparable work
    Ask for a business they ran at your size.
  2. Authority
    Test a reserved matter.
  3. Team
    Ask how they worked with an owner.
  4. Handover
    Ask how they built their team.

Acas recommends a consistent, fair selection process: choosing who to interview.

Vetting

What happens before anyone reaches your shortlist?

Five stages before a candidate reaches a shortlist of three to five.

  1. Pedigree screen
    Tenure
    We verify prior tenure in the seat, at the scale and stage you need. No consultant presenting as an executive.
  2. Mandate fit
    Fit
    Fit to your stage, sector and the problem the seat exists to solve, not a CV keyword.
  3. Reference deep-dive
    Verify
    We take references ourselves, from recent clients and boards: what they delivered, not what they titled it.
  4. Shortlist
    Shortlist
    Three to five candidates, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
  5. Kick-off
    Start
    Scope, first-month outcomes and the contract agreed before day one.

The full process is on how we vet.

The right pattern

Does this hiring pattern fit the work?

Test the amount of the week, the expected end and the continuity needed before writing the contract.

Questions

Hire a Managing Director: questions, answered

A brief to hire a Managing Director begins with mandate: Growth, turnaround, succession or a sale. Then a stated working pattern and the evidence you will ask every candidate to show.

Read next

Related hiring and role pages

Sources

Where does every reference on this page come from?

  • iod.com
  • HMRC
  • legislation.gov.uk
  1. 1
    Institute of Directors: role of the managing director iod.com
  2. 2
    Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027 HMRC
    Employer National Insurance at 15% above £5,000 a year.
  3. 3
    Understanding off-payroll working (IR35) HMRC
    Status depends on how the engagement runs; medium and large clients make the determination.
  4. 4
    Check employment status for tax (CEST) HMRC
    HMRC’s own status check for each engagement.
  5. 5
    Employment Agencies Act 1973 legislation.gov.uk
    The law a recruitment agency works under; no fee to a work-seeker.

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  1. A shortlist of 3–5, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position
  2. Fractional, interim, part-time, temporary or permanent — and non-executive directors
  3. Every candidate through our five-stage vetting
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