Part-time executive search · UK
Hire part-time executives for finance
A part-time executive is a senior leader on a fixed share of your week, kept on for the long run rather than a single project.
Some join on a part-time employment contract, others on a day rate through their own company.
Tell us the seat and the days in a 15-minute call and we come back with a shortlist of three to five, each with day rate or pay, availability and IR35 position.
- Shortlist of 3–5
- Day rate or pay, availability and IR35 on each
- Published UK rate bands
- Employed or day-rate engagements
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 scope the role
Tell us the situation, the days and the start date. We come back with part-time executive candidates, their day rates and availability.
- 0115 minutes, video or phone
- 02We scope the days and the pattern
- 03A shortlist of 3–5 after the call
- 04Fractional, interim, part-time and permanent briefs
Pick a day that suits · live availability
On the board · last 3 months
Part-time executive roles on the board
No Part-time executive roles on the board right now.
We only show real vacancies from the last three months, read from the Fractional Quest pipeline — we never pad the board. New roles appear here as the pipeline finds them.
Looking? Build your repo once on Fractional Quest and every role on the board is read against it.
Sign up now →01/ definition
What a part-time executive brings to the week
A part-time executive holds a real seat — finance, technology, marketing, operations or the chief executive role — on a set number of days.
The pattern is agreed up front and the arrangement is meant to last.
That is what separates part-time leadership from a project consultant who leaves when the deliverable lands.
OWNERSHIP
Owns a function, not a task list
The executive carries the accountability a full-time leader would — the numbers, the roadmap, the brand or the operating rhythm — and is measured on the function’s results, not hours logged.
Owns a function, not a task list. The executive carries the accountability a full-time leader would — the numbers, the roadmap, the brand or the operating rhythm — and is measured on the function’s results, not hours logged.
A fixed share of the week. Two days, three days, alternate Fridays: the days are written down so the team knows when decisions get made and the leader can plan the rest of their working life around them.
Employed or on a day rate. A part-time employee is on your payroll with pro rata salary, holiday and pension. A day-rate executive invoices through their own company. Both are legitimate; the right one depends on how the role will run.
Leads people between visits. The good ones build a team and a cadence that work on the days they are not in: clear owners, a weekly rhythm, decisions written down, and a deputy who can act.
Stays as the business grows. Many part-time hires start at two days and move to three, or become full-time when the company can carry it. Others stay part-time for years because the seat needs judgement more than hours.
02/ scope
What the seat owns
Write the line before the first day.
A part-time leader with a clear remit gets more done in two days than a full-timer with a vague one.
- The function’s plan and budget for the year
- The board or leadership-team reporting for that area
- Hiring and line management of the direct reports
- The key outside relationships — lenders, agencies, vendors, auditors
- The decisions that need senior sign-off, on agreed days
- A written hand-off routine for the days off
- Day-to-day execution within the team
- Routine processing and admin
- Specialist work to outside advisers
- Urgent same-day calls to a named deputy
- Projects outside the agreed remit
03/ which model
Part-time, fractional or full-time?
Set the days the seat needs and how long you need them.
Two or three days, open-ended and with one employer, is part-time.
Similar days spread across several clients is a fractional executive.
A full-time fixed term is interim; open-ended full-time is a permanent hire.
Our parent company searches for all of them.
The model that fits · executive
Part-time
A fixed slice of the week on a set pattern — the same days each week, often on a part-time contract or a day-rate arrangement.
Book a call about a part-time executive →Our framing, not a measured rule: the lines between the four models blur, and many briefs could run two ways.
04/ alternatives
How it compares with the other models
The models overlap at the edges.
What separates them is the share of the week, the length of the commitment and who the executive works for.
→ Part-time when the work is senior but not five days of it; full-time when the business needs daily presence.
05/ rates
Part-time executive day rates
Published UK part-time and fractional day-rate bands only, each with its source named.
Type your own rate to see where it sits.
For the full breakdown, see part-time day rates.
- Part-time / fractional CFO£700–£1,400FD Capital 2026
- Part-time / fractional Finance Director£600–£1,000FD Capital 2026
- Part-time / fractional Financial Controller£400–£650Accountancy Capital 2026
- Part-time / fractional CTO£1,000–£1,600Leadership Services 2026
- Part-time / fractional CMO£750–£1,400Connectd 2026
- Part-time / fractional COO£800–£1,400Connectd 2026
- Part-time / fractional CIO£800–£2,000Exec Capital 2026
- Part-time / fractional CEO£800–£1,500FD Capital 2026
Bands are as each source publishes them; permanent day equivalents are the salary band ÷ 220 working days, our arithmetic. Recruiter guides are named, not linked. Rates vary with sector, scope and location.
06/ calculator
What a part-time executive costs
Model a part-time executive at the days you need against a permanent executive.
The slider runs across the published band for a part-time CFO: £700–£1,400 a day (FD Capital 2026).
Cost over 12 months
£109,200
104 working days · 2 d/wk · 12 mo · before tax
Fractional costs less over 12 months£146,725
Part-time CFO, 12 months£109,200
Part-time CFO, a month at 2 d/wk£9,093
Permanent CFO, same period£255,925
Part-time CFO, 12 months$144,679
Part-time CFO, a month at 2 d/wk$12,047
Permanent CFO, same period$339,075
Converted from £ at $1.3249 per £1 (Bank of England spot rate), 2 Oct 2026. A conversion, not a US market rate. Source ↗
Part-time CFO, 12 months€128,266
Part-time CFO, a month at 2 d/wk€10,681
Permanent CFO, same period€300,610
Converted from £ at €1.1746 per £1 (Bank of England spot rate), 2 Oct 2026. A conversion, not a EU market rate. Source ↗
Our arithmetic, indicative. Permanent = the £176,500 Robert Half 2026 median salary 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.
At 4.7 days a week a permanent hire costs less.
Our arithmetic. Permanent a month = the salary ÷ 12 plus 15% employer NI, plus the 30% search fee spread over 12 months — the calculator’s inputs. Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for each step.
07/ over two years
Part-time, interim or permanent over 24 months
The same seat three ways, at the days a week and day rate set in the calculator. Each crossover is computed, not typed.
- The part-time CFO at 2 days a week never passes permanent inside 24 months.
- Interim passes permanent at month 8.
Our arithmetic, cumulative. Permanent = the salary’s 30% search fee in month 0, then salary ÷ 12 plus 15% employer NI each month. Interim = the midpoint of the published interim band (£1,100 a day, FD Capital 2026) × 5 days × 4.33 weeks. Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for each month.
Illustration only: one way a part-time CFO’s week can divide at 2 days a week for you. Each block is half a day.
08/ decision
When a shorter week is the right hire
Four situations come up again and again when a business asks for senior leadership on part of the week.
Which sounds like you?
The business has outgrown the founder’s spare evenings but cannot yet carry a full-time chief officer. Two days of an experienced leader takes the function off the founder’s desk.
- → Founder signs off every invoice or campaign
- → Board asks for numbers nobody owns
- → Growth stalls on a missing skill
A business of a given size needs a CFO’s judgement on cash and funding, not a CFO’s full working week. A part-time hire matches the seat to the workload.
- → A strong team below the seat
- → Monthly, not daily, decisions
- → Budget for seniority, not headcount
Experienced leaders increasingly choose a set number of days. Offering part-time opens the search to people a full-time advert would never reach.
- → Shortlist thin on a full-time brief
- → Strong candidates asking about days
- → Flexible-working requests on the team
An existing executive asks to reduce their days. Agreeing a part-time pattern keeps their knowledge in the business instead of losing them to someone else.
- → A formal flexible-working request
- → Succession not yet ready
- → Knowledge hard to replace
09/ tax and IR35
How a part-time executive is engaged
General position under UK rules, with the HMRC source for each point. Not tax advice — check your own case with your accountant.
01 · DEDUCTIBLE
Fees are a business expense
Fees, like a salary, are deductible against profits when incurred wholly and exclusively for the trade (HMRC BIM37000), with corporation tax at the 25% main rate.
02 · WHO DECIDES
Status turns on how the work runs
Medium and large clients make the off-payroll status determination themselves; for a small private-sector client, the executive’s own company does (HMRC off-payroll guidance).
03 · WHAT HMRC LOOKS AT
Substitution, control, mutuality
Whether a substitute could genuinely be sent, who decides how the work is done, and whether either side must offer or accept further work. HMRC’s CEST tool walks through the same questions.
04 · ON THE PAYROLL
A part-time employee is an employee
Hired on a part-time contract, the executive has the same rights as a comparable full-time worker, pro rata (gov.uk part-time worker rights), and you pay employer NI on their salary.
10/ guide
Hiring part-time executives: a working guide
Most part-time executive hires fail for one of two reasons: the remit was a full-time job squeezed into fewer days, or nobody agreed what happens on the days the leader is not there.
Fix both before you advertise.
Write down what the seat owns, cut what it does not, and name the person who acts in between.
Next, choose the engagement route.
If the executive will be integrated, managed and paid like your other staff, a part-time employment contract is the honest choice — and the Part-time Workers Regulations require that they are not treated less favourably than full-time colleagues on pay rates, pension, holiday and training (GOV.UK sets this out under part-time worker rights).
If they will run their own company and work with genuine independence, a day rate may fit — with the off-payroll rules applied to how the work actually runs.
Price the role against published bands rather than a guess.
The rate section on this page shows UK part-time and fractional day-rate bands with each source named, and the calculator runs a part-time week against a full-time salary.
Our part-time day rates guide goes seat by seat and explains how to convert a day rate to a salary and back.
Then search properly.
A part-time brief needs a different shortlist from a full-time one: leaders who have already run a function on a shorter week and can show how they kept it moving between visits.
We search and screen against your brief and take references ourselves.
If you are weighing firms, our part-time recruitment agency page sets out how a part-time executive search runs and what to ask.
If what you actually need is a leader shared across several businesses, you are describing a fractional executive, and our parent company, Fractional Quest, is a fractional recruitment agency that runs fractional, interim, part-time and permanent searches.
Seekers can browse fractional jobs UK on the parent site alongside the part-time jobs board here.
Finally, review the pattern after six months.
Two days might have become three, or the business may now carry a full-time hire.
A part-time arrangement that is reviewed honestly tends to last; one left to drift turns into a full-time job paid at part-time.
10.1/ part-time c-suite
The part-time C-suite: which seats work on fewer days
The part-time C-suite covers every chief officer seat, but some suit a shorter week better than others.
Finance is the most common: a part-time CFO or finance director owns cash, reporting and funding while a financial controller runs the monthly close.
If finance is your gap, start with how to hire a part-time CFO on the parent site, or our part-time CFO hub.
Technology, marketing and operations follow.
A part-time CTO sets architecture, hiring and delivery standards for an engineering team that ships every day.
A part-time CMO owns positioning, budget and the agency roster.
A part-time COO builds the operating rhythm and holds the leadership team to it.
The chief executive seat is the hardest to run part-time and usually works only alongside a strong full-time managing director or founder.
Whatever the seat, a part-time C-suite member sits on the leadership team as an equal.
Give them the same information, the same meeting slot and the same authority as their full-time peers, or the role becomes advisory by default.
Seats that suit two days
Finance, marketing strategy, information security governance and technology leadership over an established team are often run well on two days a week.
Seats that usually need three or more
Operations during rapid growth, a chief executive role, and any seat with a large team and no deputy tend to need more days, or a strong second-in-command.
10.2/ models compared
Part-time vs fractional executives: the real difference
The terms are used loosely, but the distinction matters when you write the contract.
A part-time executive usually works for one organisation on a set share of the week, often as an employee.
A fractional executive usually holds several part-week roles at once and invoices each client through their own company.
That changes three things.
Availability: a fractional leader’s days are spread across clients, so urgent calls on an off-day need agreeing up front.
Integration: a part-time employee is easier to fold into a leadership team and its benefits.
Tax and status: an employee is on payroll; a day-rate leader is assessed under the off-payroll rules, where a medium or large client makes the status determination and a small client leaves it to the executive’s own company (HMRC off-payroll guidance).
Neither is better.
Choose part-time for one company’s undivided attention on set days; choose fractional for a leader who brings what they learn across several businesses.
Many briefs can be filled either way, and a good search shows you both.
10.3/ marketing and operations
Part-time CMO and COO services on a set share of the week
Two seats come up most often after finance: marketing and operations.
Both are senior jobs that many growing businesses need for two or three days rather than five.
Find a part-time CMO
Part-time CMO services cover positioning, the marketing plan and budget, the agency roster and the reporting the board reads.
To find a part-time CMO, write down the growth target and the channels that matter, then see our part-time CMO hub for rates, roles and how to hire.
The parent site’s part-time CMO guide covers the same seat from the hiring side.
Part-time COO services
A part time COO takes the operating rhythm off the founder: planning cycles, process, people operations and delivery across teams.
Part time COO services suit businesses scaling past the point where the founder can hold it all together.
Our part-time COO hub sets out the role, the rates and the roles open now, and the parent site’s part-time COO page goes deeper.
11/ process
How we run the search
What we undertake on every brief, run by Fractional Quest, our parent company.
- 01
Brief
A scoping call on the role, the days a week, the start date and what the part-time executive must have delivered.
DAY 0 - 02
Search
We search and screen against that brief: track record at your stage, in your situation, and references we take ourselves.
SCREENING - 03
Shortlist
Three to five candidates, each with day rate or salary, availability and IR35 position set out.
SHORTLIST OF 3–5 - 04
Start
You interview and choose. The executive you choose contracts with you.
YOU CHOOSE
12/ the family
Executive search across Fractional Quest
Part-Time Quest is part of Fractional Quest.
When the brief is fractional, interim or permanent, these pages on the parent site cover it.
Fractional, interim, part-time and permanent executive search in one firm.
A senior leader shared across several companies on part of the week.
Every fractional and part-week executive role on the parent board.
13/ questions
Questions, answered
For hiring managers, and for executives looking for the role.
Book 15 minutes · shortlist of 3–5
Start with the brief.
Fifteen minutes to scope the seat, the days and the start date.