Hire an Interim CRO · Interim Sales Director Jobs UK
Interim CRO Jobs · hire an interim CRO
for the gap, or hire a CRO
Hire an interim CRO or interim Sales Director — full-time revenue leadership on a fixed-term assignment — to hold the number through a vacancy, rebuild a sales team or turn round a stalled pipeline. Or browse live interim Chief Revenue Officer and interim sales leadership jobs below.
- £500–£1,800 a day (Exec Capital)
- Full-time, fixed-term
- Sales Director to CRO
- Shortlist of 3–5
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 CRO
Tell us the situation and the start date. We come back with interim CRO candidates, their day rates and availability.
- 0115 minutes, video or phone
- 02We scope the assignment and the start date
- 03A shortlist of 3–5 after the call
- 04Fractional, interim and permanent briefs
Pick a day that suits · live availability
Interim CRO jobs · last 3 months
Live Interim CRO jobs
No live Interim CRO roles right now.
We only show real, verified vacancies from the last three months — we never pad the board with fabricated listings. New Interim CRO roles appear here as our pipeline finds them.
01/ definition
What is an interim CRO?
An interim CRO — or interim Sales Director — leads revenue full-time for a fixed term. Not a sales trainer and not a part-time fractional CRO: the person who owns the number, the pipeline and the sales team until the job is done or the permanent hire arrives.
01 · cadence
The CRO seat, five days a week.
An interim CRO takes the role in full — the number, the pipeline, the forecast and the sales team — rather than advising from outside it.
02/ scope
What an interim CRO or Sales Director owns
The interim carries revenue accountability for the term; account executives and sales operations keep the selling.
- Revenue target and forecast
- Pipeline and sales process
- Sales team structure, hiring and coaching
- Comp plans and quotas
- Key accounts and strategic deals
- Sales–marketing alignment
- Board revenue reporting
- Handover to the permanent hire
- Individual deal admin
- CRM data hygiene
- Prospecting sequences
- Proposal formatting
- Event logistics
- Commission calculations
03/ alternatives
Interim CRO vs fractional, Sales Director and permanent
The same seat, four ways of filling it.
→ Interim covers the whole seat for a period; fractional covers part of it indefinitely.
04/ rates
Interim CRO and Sales Director day rates, UK 2026
Published figures only, each with its source. No UK source we can verify publishes a separate interim CRO band, so the Sales Director bands are the reference; Exec Capital puts CRO pay 20–40% above Sales Director at comparable scale.
- SME£500–£900Exec Capital
- Mid-market / PE-backed£800–£1,400Exec Capital
- Turnaround / acceleration£900–£1,600Exec Capital
- Enterprise£1,200–£1,800Exec Capital
- Interim Sales Director£800–£1,500Leadership Services
Six months full-time (about 130 working days) is roughly £104,000–£182,000 on the mid-market band — our arithmetic.
05/ calculator
What an interim CRO costs
Model a fixed-term interim CRO against a permanent Chief Revenue Officer over the same period.
£1,100 a day is within the published Mid-market / PE band (£800–£1,400, Exec Capital).
Interim cost for the term
£143,000
130 working days · 5 d/wk · 6 mo · before tax
Interim costs more over 6 months£46,750
Book a 15-minute call →Our arithmetic, indicative. Permanent = a £110,000 base, the bottom of Exec Capital’s mid-market Sales Director band (commission excluded) pro rata for the same months, plus 15% employer NI, plus a 30% search fee on the annual base (UK retained search runs 25–35%, Headhunters.co.uk). Excludes pension, bonus and equity.
06/ tax
Is an interim CRO tax-deductible?
General position under UK rules, with the HMRC source for each point. Not tax advice — check your own case with your accountant.
01 · DEDUCTIBLE
The fees are a business expense
An interim CRO’s fees, like a salary, are deductible against profits when incurred wholly and exclusively for the trade (HMRC BIM37000). At the 25% main rate, each £1,000 of fees costs a profitable company £750 after relief.
02 · EMPLOYER NI
Employer NI follows IR35 status
A permanent CRO carries employer National Insurance at 15% (gov.uk). An interim engaged through their own company carries none when the engagement is outside IR35; inside IR35, the fee-payer deducts tax and NI and pays employer NI. Status depends on how the engagement runs in practice.
03 · WHO DECIDES
IR35 status, by company size
Medium and large clients determine the interim’s status themselves; for a small private-sector client, the interim’s own company decides (HMRC off-payroll guidance).
07/ decision
When to hire an interim CRO
Four situations where companies hire an interim CRO or Sales Director — and where most interim revenue leadership jobs come from.
Which sounds like you?
Mid-year, with a forecast to hit and a team watching.
- → Hold the number
- → Keep the team
- → Run the search
Win rates down, cycles longer, forecast unreliable.
- → Pipeline audit
- → Process reset
- → Coaching
A raise that assumes a sales team twice the size by next year.
- → Hiring plan
- → Comp plans
- → Playbook
A new owner’s revenue targets and a commercial function not built for them.
- → 100-day plan
- → Pricing
- → Channel
08/ guide
Hiring an interim CRO: what to get right
Decide between CRO and Sales Director. A CRO owns the whole revenue engine — sales, marketing and customer success under one number; a Sales Director runs the sales team. Recurring-revenue businesses usually need the first; sales-led businesses often the second.
Start with the outcome and the number. An interim CRO is hired to leave something measurable: a forecast the board trusts, a rebuilt team, a pipeline back to coverage. Put it and a date in the brief.
Choose between interim and fractional. If revenue needs a full-time owner for a few months, hire an interim. If it needs senior direction a few days a month, a fractional Sales Director costs less — Exec Capital puts that at £500–£1,000 a day.
Budget from the published bands. Exec Capital puts interim Sales Director rates at £500–£900 a day for SMEs, £800–£1,400 mid-market and PE-backed, £1,200–£1,800 at enterprise scale and £900–£1,600 for turnaround; Fractional Quest quotes £800–£1,500. Interim revenue leaders are paid a day rate, not OTE.
If you are looking for interim CRO jobs or interim Sales Director roles rather than hiring, the live board below lists current roles; fractional CRO jobs cover the part-time market.
08.1/ how it is sold
Hire an interim CRO: check the pipeline and how it is sold
When companies hire an interim CRO, the brief is usually about numbers: a forecast the board can trust, pipeline coverage, a rebuilt team. The first weeks should also cover how the business sells, because a new revenue leader under pressure to hit a number inherits the risks in the current playbook. If you sell to consumers, the CMA’s guidance on unfair commercial practices under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 sets out what the law prohibits, from misleading and aggressive practices to banned practices such as pressure selling.
Professional standards help with selection too. The Institute of Sales Professionals’ code of conduct commits its members to behave with integrity, sell solutions in the interests of the customer and the employer, and act lawfully. Ask candidates how they have handled discounting, forecast pressure and commission disputes on past assignments, and take references from the chief executives they reported to.
We send a shortlist of three to five interim CROs or Sales Directors, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out. If marketing needs a leader too, see hiring an interim Marketing Director; for part-time revenue leadership afterwards, a fractional CRO.
09/ contract
Interim CRO jobs: how the assignment is contracted
Interim CRO and interim Sales Director jobs are usually contracted through the interim’s own limited company, on a fixed-term agreement that sets out the scope, the term, the day rate, the days a week and notice on each side. The scope is the outcome from the brief: the forecast, the rebuilt team, the pipeline or the cover the assignment exists to deliver.
IR35 status turns on how the assignment runs in practice, not on what the contract calls it. HMRC looks at substitution, control and whether either side must offer or accept further work. Medium and large clients make the status determination; for a small private-sector client, the interim’s own company does (HMRC off-payroll guidance). See the IR35 guide.
TEST 1
Substitution
Whether the interim’s company could send a suitably qualified substitute, and whether that right is genuine in practice.
What HMRC looks atTEST 2
Control
Who decides how the work is done, as distinct from what the assignment must deliver.
What HMRC looks atTEST 3
Mutuality
Whether either side is obliged to offer or accept work beyond the agreed assignment.
What HMRC looks at10/ process
How to hire an interim CRO with us
What we undertake on every brief.
- 01
Brief
A 30-minute call on the assignment, the start date and what the interim CRO must have delivered by the end of the term.
DAY 0 - 02
Search
We search and screen against that brief: track record at your stage and in your situation, and references we take ourselves.
SCREENING - 03
Shortlist
Three to five candidates with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
SHORTLIST OF 3–5 - 04
Start
You interview and choose. The interim you choose contracts with you.
YOU CHOOSE
11/ questions
Interim CRO FAQ
Hiring an interim Chief Revenue Officer, or looking for interim CRO jobs.
Book 15 minutes · shortlist of 3–5
Hiring an interim CRO? Start with the brief.
Book 15 minutes.
