Interim sales director jobs · Permanent and interim
Interim sales director jobs · hire an interim sales director, or a sales director for good
Interim sales director jobs are full-time, fixed-term roles: a senior sales leader runs the team, the pipeline and the forecast while the permanent seat is empty or the sales function needs rebuilding. The live roles are below. For hirers, this page sets out when to bring in an interim, what it costs, and how to hire a sales director on a permanent contract instead.
On every brief we send a shortlist of 3–5 candidates, 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
In the press
Fast Company 16 leaders on when fractional C-suite hires make sense · 24 Jun 2026
Leaders disagree on when a fractional C-suite hire makes sense. Read it before you decide whether your sales seat needs a senior lead for a defined mandate or an owner every day.
15 minutes · video or phone
Book 15 minutes to hire an interim sales director
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with Interim Sales 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 Interim sales leadership jobs
No live Interim sales leadership roles in the last three months. Showing live interim executive roles instead.
- InterimSyndicated
Interim Chief Executive Officer (Women's Health Charity)
Verity (PMOS UK) · United Kingdom
Rate n/a3 d/wk - InterimSyndicated
Interim Finance Director
Pragmatic Semiconductor · Cambridge
est £1,400/day5 d/wk - InterimSyndicated
Interim Finance Director
Juro · United Kingdom
£800–£1,000/dayUnited Kingdom - InterimExclusive
Interim Chief Operating Officer
Confidential client (Fractional Quest mandate) · London
Rate n/a5 d/wk
Live sales and revenue leadership roles
Fractional recruitment works differently from a permanent search — shorter, scoped by days a week, and priced on the engagement. Send a Interim Sales Director brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.
01/ the role
What an interim sales director does, and when a business needs one
An interim sales director leads the sales function full-time for a fixed term: the team, the pipeline, the forecast, the key accounts and the number. The mandate is usually one of two kinds. Coverage keeps a team performing through a vacancy or a transition. Transformation rebuilds something that is not working: the sales process, the territories, the commission plan or the commercial model.
The usual triggers
The sales director has left ahead of a key quarter and a permanent search will take longer than the pipeline can wait. Revenue has missed plan for several quarters and the board wants a diagnosis from someone with no stake in the old approach. A founder is stepping back from selling and the key accounts need a new owner. Or a business is entering a new market or channel and needs someone who has built that route before.
Sales has its own professional body. The Institute of Sales Professionals is the membership body for the profession, with sales qualifications and accreditation for employers. Membership is a signal worth asking about; it is not a requirement for the role.
02/ scope
How to hire an interim sales director
1. Write the mandate and the end point
Say whether the job is coverage or transformation, what the interim inherits (team, pipeline, targets), who they report to, and what must be true when they leave: a forecast the board trusts, a rebuilt process, a permanent successor chosen. A brief that mixes coverage and transformation without saying so draws the wrong shortlist.
2. Choose the level
If the remit spans sales, marketing and customer success, hire an interim CRO instead. If it covers pricing, partnerships and contracts as well as sales, see commercial director recruitment. If the need is senior sales leadership for part of the week with no end date, hire a fractional head of sales.
3. Assess against the work
The CIPD’s guidance on selection methods favours clear, objective, structured processes, with skill-based tasks alongside interviews. For an interim sales director, the task is your own pipeline: ask each finalist to review it and say what they would do in the first month. Ask for the targets they were set in past mandates and what they delivered, and check it with references.
4. Settle the engagement route and IR35
Most interim sales directors work through their own limited company, so the off-payroll working rules (IR35) may apply. Status is decided by how the engagement runs. In most cases the client decides, and a medium or large client makes the determination; a small client outside the public sector leaves it to the worker’s own company. Our IR35 guide sets out the tests.
5. What it costs
An interim costs the day rate multiplied by the days worked. Exec Capital’s 2026 sales director salary guide puts interim rates at £600–£900 a day for coverage, managing a team through a vacancy or transition, and £900–£1,500 a day for a transformation brief. These are a recruiter’s published ranges, not survey results. We set out each candidate’s day rate or pay on every shortlist.
03/ vetting
How we vet interim sales directors
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify Interim Sales 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
04/ interim sales director jobs
Interim sales director jobs: what candidates should know
Interim sales director jobs are usually full-time for a set term, with a mandate the board can measure: keep the number on track through a vacancy, or rebuild the function. Some are advertised; many are filled through search. The board on this page shows live sales and revenue leadership roles from the last three months, labelled as what they are.
Ask how a role is engaged before you apply. On a fixed-term contract you are the company’s employee; GOV.UK says a fixed-term contract ends on a particular date or on completion of a specific task. Through an agency you may be an agency worker, which GOV.UK defines as having a contract with an agency while working temporarily for a hirer. Through your own limited company, IR35 may apply, and the client’s status determination is the one to read.
Hirers will ask about the teams you have led, the targets you carried and hit, the sales cycles and deal sizes you know, and how soon you can start. For wider revenue roles, see interim CRO jobs; for interim roles across every function, see interim executive recruitment.
05/ interim sales director
Interim sales director or fractional: which fits the gap
An interim sales director answers a gap or a problem with an end date: full-time, for a set period, then a handover to a permanent leader. A fractional sales leader answers a need that does not fill a week, such as building the first repeatable sales process in a young company, on an ongoing basis.
Choose by the size of the team and the urgency. A team of sellers with a quarter to land needs someone there every day, which suits an interim. A founder-led business with a handful of deals needs judgement and a process more than daily management, which suits a fractional chief sales officer or head of sales.
Commission plans outlast interims, so agree who owns the plan. For an employed interim, Acas says commission entitlement belongs in the written statement of employment particulars, and the contract should say what happens to commission earned but not yet paid when employment ends.
06/ hire a sales director
Hire a sales director: permanent or interim
A permanent sales director suits a business with a sales team that needs a senior owner every day, with no end in sight. An interim suits a gap or a rebuild. Many businesses use one, then the other: the interim steadies the team and helps write the permanent brief.
Compare the costs on the same basis. For a permanent role, ITJobsWatch counts a median advertised sales director salary of £100,000 in 2026 IT-sector job ads. Exec Capital’s 2026 guide puts base pay from £70,000 in smaller businesses to £220,000-plus at enterprise level, with on-target earnings typically 1.5 to 2 times base. Employer’s National Insurance and pension come on top. The full picture is on our sales director salary page.
A permanent sales director is your employee; GOV.UK notes that employers must work out each worker’s status in both employment law and tax law, and you must check their right to work before they start. The recruitment route differs too: GOV.UK guidance on the Conduct Regulations defines an employment agency as one that finds permanent roles and an employment business as one that supplies temporary workers. For the most senior revenue seat, see CRO recruitment.
We recruit permanent, interim, fractional, part-time and temporary sales leaders. On every brief we send a shortlist of 3–5 with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, and every candidate goes through our five-stage vetting first.
07/ questions
Interim sales director FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in an interim sales 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.
