Managing director salary · base pay, CEO pay and day rates
What a managing director earns, and what sets the pay
Managing director salary at a mid-market business (£20m–£200m revenue) runs from £130,000 to £280,000 in base pay, in Exec Capital’s 2026 director salary guide. Exec Capital is a recruiter, and the band is base pay only: the guide says smaller businesses sit at the lower end and larger ones at the upper end or above.
Where the MD is the top executive, the pay follows the chief executive’s. Exec Capital’s 2026 CEO guide gives £120,000–£250,000 base at an SME (£5m–£50m revenue) and £200,000–£400,000 in the mid-market (£50m–£250m). When you hire a managing director through us, permanent, interim or fractional, 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 managing director
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with Managing 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
On the board · last 3 months
Managing director jobs on the board
Managing director roles sit with chief executive roles on our board.
Live managing director and chief executive roles
Fractional recruiting starts with the brief, not the CV pile. Send a Managing Director brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five candidates, each through five-stage vetting.
01/ the role
What a managing director does, and what sets the pay
The Institute of Directors describes the managing director or chief executive as the most senior full-time executive of the company, responsible for its performance against the board’s strategy, and treats the two titles as virtually the same role. For the role in full, see what is a managing director.
Scope sets the pay more than the title does. The same title covers the sole executive of a small company, the MD of a private equity-backed business, and the head of one division inside a large group. Exec Capital’s guide calls the managing director the hardest director-level role to benchmark without context, which is why its mid-market band is wide. Ask three questions of any figure: how large is the business, who owns it, and does the MD run the whole company or one part of it?
Against the other director seats in the same mid-market table, the MD band has the highest floor: finance director £100,000–£250,000, operations director £110,000–£280,000, sales director £110,000–£280,000 base, marketing director £120,000–£300,000 and HR director £100,000–£250,000. For each seat in detail, see finance director salary, sales director salary, marketing director salary and HR director salary.
02/ scope
How to hire a managing director
1. Scope the seat
Write down what the role runs (a whole company or one business in a group), who it answers to, whether it carries a board seat, and who reports in. A brief that does not say whether the MD owns the profit and loss account draws the wrong shortlist. Our managing director job description sets out the headings.
2. Choose the route
A permanent MD suits a business that needs someone running it every day for years. For cover after a departure, a turnaround or a sale, hire an interim CEO or MD on a day rate. For set days a week, often beside an owner stepping back, hire a fractional CEO or MD. Open roles for the seat are on managing director jobs.
3. Set the base and the variable part together
The CIPD’s introduction to reward separates fixed base pay from variable pay, which is not guaranteed. Tie an MD’s bonus to what the role controls, often profit and cash as well as revenue, and in an investor-backed business agree any equity at the same time as the salary.
4. Assess against results
Ask for the plans they were set and what they delivered, and check it with references from a chair or an owner. A useful task is a real one: a read of your last year’s numbers and a plan for the first hundred days.
What we do on a managing director brief
We recruit permanent, fractional, interim, part-time and temporary executives, 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
Managing director salary beside CEO and director pay
Base salary ranges and day rates published by Exec Capital, a recruiter, for 2026, and the IIM’s 2026 survey of interim managers. Each figure is quoted as its source publishes it; base pay excludes bonus and equity.
04/ economics
Salary or day rate: what the seat costs you
A salary is not the whole cost of an employee. For 2026 to 2027, employer’s National Insurance is 15% on earnings above £5,000 a year (HMRC rates and thresholds), and the rates apply to directors too. Under automatic enrolment, the employer must pay at least 3% into a workplace pension on earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 a year, including bonuses (GOV.UK). That band caps the legal minimum well below an MD’s salary; most senior packages pay more by agreement.
The bonus is pay too. HMRC treats a cash bonus as earnings, with PAYE tax and Class 1 National Insurance deducted through payroll, so budget employer’s National Insurance on the bonus as well as the base. If the MD is a director and the contract guarantees employment, or a notice period, of more than two years, the Companies Act requires the members to approve it first, with exceptions such as a wholly-owned subsidiary.
A day rate does not compare one for one with a salary: an interim or fractional MD funds their own pension, holidays and gaps between assignments. Tax status is set by how the engagement runs in practice. Under the off-payroll working rules (IR35), a medium or large client makes the status determination; for a small client outside the public sector, the worker’s own company decides. Our IR35 guide sets out the tests.
05/ vetting
How we vet managing directors
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify Managing 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/ managing director vs CEO salary
Managing director vs CEO salary: one seat, two titles
Where the managing director runs the whole company, the job is the chief executive’s under another name, and Exec Capital says the pay mirrors its CEO benchmarks. Its 2026 CEO guide gives base pay of £70,000–£130,000 at an early-stage startup, £120,000–£250,000 at an SME (£5m–£50m revenue) and £200,000–£400,000 in the mid-market (£50m–£250m).
The managing director vs CEO salary gap opens in a group. There the chief executive leads the whole group and each MD runs one business inside it, so the MD’s pay reflects the narrower scope. The mid-market managing director band in the director guide, £130,000–£280,000, sits below the mid-market CEO band in the CEO guide, though the two guides define mid-market differently (£20m–£200m and £50m–£250m revenue).
For the top seat’s pay by company size, see our CEO salary page. For what each seat does, see what a CEO does.
07/ interim managing director day rate
Interim and fractional MD pay: day rates, not salary
None of the sources on this page publishes a day rate for an interim managing director by that title. The nearest is the chief executive seat: Exec Capital publishes interim CEO day rates of £1,000–£1,800 at SME and mid-market businesses, £1,800–£3,500 for complex listed or private equity-backed mandates, and £3,500+ for turnaround specialists. It is a recruiter’s published range, not survey data.
For the whole interim market, the Institute of Interim Management’s 2026 survey puts the average day rate at £907, and £1,004 in the private sector, with an average assignment of 10.0 months. Those are averages across every function, not a managing director rate. See the interim CEO page for when boards use one.
A fractional managing director works set days a week and is paid for those days. Exec Capital puts a two-day-a-week fractional CEO in a growth-stage business at £5,000–£10,000 a month. The fractional CEO page explains how the arrangement works.
08/ questions
Managing director salary FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in a managing 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.
