HR director salary · 2026
What an HR director earns, and what the seat costs you
An HR director earns a median salary of £110,250 on Robert Half’s 2026 figures, with £92,000 at the 25th percentile and £128,750 at the 75th. Ashdown Group’s 2026 guide puts the median at £118,280, and £135,000 in London. A head of HR sits lower, at a £70,000 median; a chief people officer higher, at £147,000.
If you need senior HR for part of the week, or full-time for a fixed term, the fractional and interim routes are priced by the day. When you hire an HR director through us, permanent or flexible, we send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
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 a HR director
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with HR Director 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
Live roles · last 3 months
Live HR leadership jobs
No live HR leadership roles in the last three months. Showing live fractional executive roles instead.
- FractionalSyndicated
Fractional CISO (Contract / Project Based)
Cambridge Spark · United Kingdom
est £1,500/day2 d/wk - FractionalSyndicated
Head of Medical Compliance, Governance & Diligence (Fractional)
CNX Therapeutics Ltd · Greater London
est £1,000/dayGreater London - FractionalSyndicated
Head of Applied Legal – AI Product (Fractional)
Stealth Startup · London
est £1,600/day2 d/wk - FractionalSyndicated
Fractional Product Practice Leader - 9 Month Contract
Tails.com · London
est £1,000/day2 d/wk - FractionalSyndicated
Fractional CPO
Log my Care · City of London
est £3,250/day3 d/wk - FractionalSyndicated
Fractional Finance Directors
PWF Associates Limited · Manchester
est £750/dayManchester - FractionalSyndicated
Fractional legal counsel
Nifina · London
est £750/dayLondon - FractionalExclusive
Fractional COO
Confidential client (Fractional Quest mandate) · London
Rate n/aLondon - FractionalSyndicated
Fractional Financial Controller
MarcoPolo Learning · City of Westminster
est £750/day2 d/wk
Live HR leadership roles
How fractional recruitment agencies compare is set out in one place, including how we work: a HR Director brief and a shortlist of three to five.
01/ the role
What an HR director does, and what sets the pay
An HR director runs the people function: employee relations, reward, talent, learning, HR operations and the policies that keep the business on the right side of employment law. Most sit on the leadership team and report to the chief executive. In a larger business a chief people officer or CHRO may sit above the role and set people strategy at board level.
Three things set the salary. The size and complexity of the workforce. Whether the role carries board-level accountability or runs the function day to day. And the agenda: Exec Capital’s 2026 HR guide notes that a business going through restructuring or rapid growth pays more for an HR director who can work at that pace. On Robert Half’s scale, a candidate with above-average experience and specialised qualifications sits at the 75th percentile, £128,750.
Professional standing is worth checking. The CIPD’s membership levels run from Foundation to Chartered Fellow, and its Profession Map describes Chartered Fellow work as driving long-term value through strategic business insight. Robert Half lists CIPD among the credentials that attract higher starting offers. It is a signal, not a requirement.
02/ scope
How to hire an HR director
1. Scope the seat
Write down the headcount, the countries, the HR team, the change programme and who the role reports to. An HR director running a steady function of a few hundred people and one leading a restructure are different hires with different pay.
2. Choose the route
A permanent HR director suits a business that needs a senior owner of people every day; our guide to HR director recruitment covers that search. If the need is senior judgement for part of the week, hire a fractional HR director. If the seat is empty mid-restructure and needs a full-time leader for a fixed term, hire an interim HR director.
3. Assess against the work
The CIPD’s guidance on selection methods favours clear, objective, structured and transparent processes, with skill-based tasks alongside interviews. For an HR director, that task might be a plan for a difficult consultation or a review of your reward structure.
4. Set the whole package
Salary is the start. An employer also pays employer’s National Insurance and must enrol eligible staff in a workplace pension and contribute. The CIPD’s introduction to reward separates fixed base pay from variable pay such as bonuses, which is not guaranteed. Decide which part rides on results before you make an offer.
5. Check before the offer
For an employee, you must check their right to work before they start. Take references yourself, from people the candidate reported to.
What we do on an HR director brief
We recruit permanent, fractional, interim, part-time and temporary HR leaders, and non-executive directors. We send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, and every candidate goes through our five-stage vetting first.
03/ rates by stage
HR director salary by level and route
Robert Half’s and Ashdown Group’s 2026 figures for permanent HR leadership, with Exec Capital’s published interim day rates beside them. Every figure is a recruiter’s published range, named in the table.
04/ economics
Interim or fractional: what an HR director costs by the day
Not every business needs a full-time HR director. Exec Capital publishes interim HR director day rates of £500–£750 for steady-state cover at mid-market scale, and £750–£1,100 where the brief is transformation: restructuring the function or leading a major people programme. At large corporate and listed level it puts interim CHROs at £1,100–£1,800 a day. These are a search firm’s published rates, not survey results.
A day rate does not compare one for one with a salary. An employee also costs employer’s National Insurance and pension contributions; a contractor funds their own, along with holidays and unsold days. Tax status is set by how the engagement runs in practice, not by its label. Under the off-payroll working rules (IR35), a medium or large client makes the status determination; a small client outside the public sector leaves it to the worker’s own company. Our IR35 guide sets out the tests.
For live roles and the fractional route in full, see fractional HR director jobs and fractional CHRO jobs. For a full-time leader on a fixed term, see interim HR director jobs.
05/ vetting
How we vet HR directors
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify HR Director 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
06/ head of hr salary
Head of HR salary: how it compares with a director
On Robert Half’s 2026 figures, a head of HR salary runs £62,500 at the 25th percentile, £70,000 at the median and £80,750 at the 75th. An HR manager sits just below, at £55,250, £62,000 and £70,000. Ashdown Group’s 2026 guide gives an HR manager a median of £61,330, and £70,000 in London.
Both sit well below the HR director band. The titles are used loosely, though. In a smaller business the head of HR is often the most senior people professional, doing much of a director’s job without the title or the seat on the leadership team. In a larger one the role usually runs HR operations or a region and reports to an HR director or CHRO. Pay the scope, not the title.
If the business has outgrown a head of HR but cannot yet justify a full-time director, the part-week route fits: see fractional HR jobs. For an official cross-check, the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings reports employee earnings by occupation, although its groups are broader than either title.
07/ chief people officer salary
Chief people officer salary: HR director or CHRO
Robert Half’s 2026 guide puts the chief people officer salary, which it groups with the CHRO, at £110,250 at the 25th percentile, £147,000 at the median and £183,750 at the 75th. Ashdown Group’s 2026 guide gives a CHRO or CPO median of £162,087, and £185,000 in London. Exec Capital puts mid-market CHRO base salary, at businesses with £50m–£300m revenue, at £120,000–£200,000.
Exec Capital’s HR guide describes the three titles as broadly similar in most businesses: the most senior people leader. The CHRO and CPO titles signal a more strategic, board-level mandate and are more common in larger, PE-backed and technology businesses. Its advice is to choose the title deliberately, because it tells candidates what kind of person you want.
At board level the seat also answers for more public reporting: larger employers must report their gender pay gap each year. For the fractional and permanent routes at C-suite level, see the fractional CHRO salary page and our CHRO headhunter page.
08/ questions
HR director salary FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in a HR director.
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.
