How to hire an interim CIO · portfolio companies · interim, consultant or fractional
Hire an Interim CIO · for PE and portfolio firms
To hire an interim CIO, name the outcome with a date on it: a go-live, a carve-out, an integration or a sale.
Then set who the interim reports to and what they can sign off, and look for someone who has delivered that outcome before.
An interim CIO takes the whole seat, full-time, for a fixed term, and hands over at the end.
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.
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
15 minutes · video or phone
Book 15 minutes to hire an interim CIO
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with interim 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
Pick a day that suits · live availability
On the board · last 3 months
Interim CIO jobs on the board
No Interim CIO roles on the board in the last three months. Showing interim executive roles instead.
- InterimSyndicatedInterim Chief Executive Officer (Women's Health Charity)
Verity (PMOS UK) · United Kingdom
Rate not stated3 d/wk - InterimSyndicatedInterim Finance Director
Pragmatic Semiconductor · Cambridge
est £1,400/day5 d/wk - InterimSyndicatedInterim Finance Director
Juro · United Kingdom
£800–£1,000/dayUnited Kingdom - InterimExclusiveInterim Chief Operating Officer
Confidential client (Fractional Quest mandate) · London
Rate not stated5 d/wk
On the board interim CIO and technology leadership roles
How fractional recruitment agencies compare is set out in one place, including how we work: a interim CIO brief and a shortlist of three to five.
01/ the role
Hire an interim CIO: when the interim route is the right one
Interim is one of four ways to fill the CIO seat.
If you are still choosing between permanent, fractional, part-time and interim, start with how to hire a CIO; this page is for the interim decision.
Boards hire interim CIOs when the work has an end: a programme with a go-live, a gap before a permanent CIO starts, or a deal that needs the IT estate separated or joined up.
If the need has no end date, a permanent hire usually costs less over time.
What you are buying
The Institute of Interim Management defines interim management as leadership by an independent, board or near-board level manager or executive, over a finite time span.
So you are buying the authority of the seat for a set period: the suppliers, the budget sign-off, the team and the board report.
That is what separates an interim from an adviser.
Expert, executive or analyst
Read the brief behind the search.
Someone who wants to hire interim CIO expert cover usually needs one programme delivered; someone looking to hire interim CIO executive leadership needs the whole seat run.
A search to hire interim CIO analyst support is often a smaller brief: an analyst or programme lead working under the CIO, not the CIO.
02/ scope
How to hire an interim CIO: the steps
1. Name the outcome and the date
Before you hire interim CIO cover, write down what must be true at the end of the term, and when.
"Stabilise IT" is not a brief; "ERP live in all three sites by March, with the old system switched off" is.
2. Set the authority
Decide who the interim reports to, what they can sign off, and which supplier contracts they can reopen.
An interim who has to ask permission for each decision cannot hold a programme to a date.
3. Search for the track record, not the title
Plenty of CVs carry the title for work a level below the seat.
The SFIA framework puts its top level of responsibility at one that "determines overall organisational vision and strategy, and assumes accountability for overall success".
Give every candidate the same work sample: review the governance of the programme they would inherit, and say what they would change in the first month.
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. Agree the contract
Most interims work through their own limited company on a fixed-term agreement.
The other route is a fixed-term employment contract, which ends on a set date or when a specific task, like a project, is done.
Tie the term to programme milestones rather than a round number of months, with a review point and an agreed way to extend if a go-live moves.
5. Check, then plan the exit
Search past directorships and disqualified directors on the Companies House register.
Take references yourself from the sponsor of the candidate's last programme, not only a line manager.
Name, before day one, who the interim hands over to: a permanent CIO, an IT director or the programme board.
A written record of suppliers, contracts, risks and open decisions belongs in the scope.
What we do on a brief
We send a shortlist of 3–5, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
Every candidate goes through our five-stage vetting first.
03/ 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 · 4 roles · interim executive
Engagement
- Interim4
Seat
- Finance director2
- CEO1
- COO1
Days a week
- Stated in the posting3
- Not stated1
Day rate
- Verified rate1
- Estimated (est)1
- Rate not stated2
Work arrangement (as the job feed classifies it)
- Remote1
- Hybrid1
- On-site1
- Not classified1
Newest posting on the board: 18 Sept 2026.
04/ economics
What the interim route costs day rate × days
An interim is paid a day rate for the days worked, usually five a week, with no bonus, pension or notice period on top.
Exec Capital, a recruiter, publishes £800–£2,000 a day for an interim CIO in its 2026 Executive Salary Guide.
Exec Capital splits that by situation: £700–£1,200 a day at an SME or scale-up, £1,000–£1,800 at a mid-market or PE-backed business, £1,200–£2,200 in financial services or another regulated sector, and £1,500–£2,500 or more for a major transformation or large corporate.
For context across every discipline, the IIM Interim Management Survey 2026 puts the average interim day rate at £907 and the private-sector average at £1,004.
Those are all-discipline averages, not CIO rates.
Against a permanent hire, Robert Half’s 2026 salary guide puts the median CIO salary at £150,250, and employer National Insurance adds 15% above £5,000 a year (HMRC, 2026/27).
05/ comparison
Interim CIO, CIO consultant or fractional CIO?
Three hires that are often confused. Choose by who holds the decisions, for how many days, and for how long.
06/ vetting
How we vet interim CIOs
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify interim 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
07/ hire an interim CIO for a portfolio company
Hire an interim CIO for a portfolio company: carve-out, integration, exit
To hire an interim CIO for a portfolio company, start from the deal timetable.
The interim exists to deliver one dated piece of the investment plan, then hand over.
The BVCA describes private equity as an active ownership model, in which the investor works alongside management to drive operational improvements.
When the improvement runs through the systems, operating partners hire interim CIO for portfolio companies rather than wait for a permanent search.
Write one brief per company.
A carve-out, an integration and an exit each need a different track record, even inside one fund.
Carve-out
A business bought out of a larger group usually keeps using its former parent’s systems under a transitional services agreement while it builds its own.
The interim’s job is to get off those services before the agreement ends, without the business noticing.
Ask candidates which separations they have led, and what they did when the date slipped.
Integration
In a buy-and-build, each acquisition arrives with its own finance system, its own suppliers and its own way of reporting.
Owners who hire interim CIO for PE-backed groups at this stage want one estate and one set of numbers.
The test is evidence of joining up acquired companies, not of running a single estate well.
Exit readiness
Before a sale, the estate has to be documented, secure and explainable to a buyer.
Technology due diligence shows what a buyer’s advisers will look for.
Cyber risk is usually first on their list; the NCSC’s Cyber Security Toolkit for Boards sets out the questions a board should be able to answer.
Across the fund
Some firms hire interim CIO for PE firms’ own work: running technology diligence on deals or setting the standards portfolio companies are held to.
That is a different scope from one company’s programme, so brief it separately.
Exec Capital, a recruiter, publishes £1,000–£1,800 a day for an interim CIO at a mid-market or PE-backed business.
Agree up front whether the interim reports to the CEO, the CFO or the investor’s operating team, and who signs off spend.
08/ interim CIO, CIO consultant or fractional CIO
Interim CIO, CIO consultant or fractional CIO: which hire
Interim CIO, CIO consultant or fractional CIO turns on two questions: who holds the decisions, and for how many days a week.
A consultant advises and hands over a report or a plan; the decisions stay with you.
The IIM’s guide says interim managers take responsibility for delivering results, not just offering advice, which is the line between the two.
If you want to hire interim CIO consultant support, decide which of those you mean before you brief anyone: a review is a consultant’s job, a delivery is an interim’s.
A fractional CIO holds the seat for agreed days a week, with no set end.
To go that way, hire a fractional CIO; fractional CIO services sets out what that engagement covers.
For the full-time version, the interim CIO page explains the role stage by stage, and interim CIO jobs lists the interim roles on the board.
If the technology is the product rather than what runs the business, look at an interim CTO instead.
When the person works through their own company, the off-payroll working rules (IR35) may apply.
Status depends on how the engagement runs in practice, contract by contract, and a medium or large client makes the determination; our IR35 guide sets out the tests.
09/ questions
Hire an interim CIO FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in an interim CIO.
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.
