The seats companies fill, in order
Sales, growth, product, people, security, data and legal follow the same pattern a stage later, and each has its own seat on the bench.
| Seat | Who hires it | Published band |
|---|---|---|
| Fractional CFO | Founders before a raise, funds for portfolio companies, family offices | £800 to £1,500 a day |
| Fractional COO | Founders who have become the bottleneck, PE backed businesses scaling delivery | £700 to £1,300 a day |
| Fractional CMO | Series A and B companies with stalled growth and no marketing leader | £700 to £1,300 a day |
| Fractional CTO | Non technical founders, scale ups whose product has outrun the team | £800 to £1,400 a day |
What the top 1% have in common
- They have held the seat, at a company that got through the stage the hiring company is at, and the profile shows it in two roles rather than ten.
- They publish a day rate. Companies budget before they write, and a question mark loses to a number every time.
- They are specific about sector and stage. A company filters by both before it reads a word.
- They keep Available now switched on when it is true, because that is the first filter companies apply.
- They are verified. Every operator on this bench is checked by a person against their LinkedIn and their CV before going live, and companies trust the profile because of it.
UK, US and UAE
The engagements look the same in all three markets and the paperwork does not. UK operators contract through their own company under the IR35 rules, US operators as 1099 contractors, and UAE operators through a freelance permit or a free zone licence. The bench lists operators in each market with the rate published in its currency, and an operator who has worked across more than one can say so and be found by companies in all three.
How the brief arrives
A company browses the bench by seat, sector and country, shortlists two or three profiles, and sends a short brief from the profile: stage, the outcome it needs in ninety days, the days a week it can fund, who the person reports to. The operator accepts or declines. The engagement is contracted directly between the two of them, at the published rate.
Where a company asks for the search to be run, Operator Search puts three verified operators in front of it, and the operators in the three are chosen from the bench.
How to list yourself
About five minutes: name, LinkedIn, country, the seat, a two line bio, years of experience, your rate and a CV as a PDF. A person verifies the listing before it goes live. There is no registration fee, nothing an operator could buy changes where a profile appears, and the engagement is yours.
Common questions
Are fractional executive jobs advertised anywhere?
Rarely, and the advertised ones are usually not the senior engagements. Companies that hire a fractional leader read profiles and send a brief to the people whose track record matches their stage. Listing on a bench where companies look, with a published rate and a verified profile, is how the brief arrives.
Which fractional executive seat is most in demand?
Finance, then operations, then marketing and technology, in roughly that order, because a raise or a board makes the finance gap visible first. Every seat on the bench has its own page describing who hires it and what it pays.
Can I list as a fractional executive in more than one seat?
A profile lists one seat, the one the operator has held, because companies filter by it and a profile that claims two reads as neither. The bio can say what else the operator has run.
More of them, on hiring, contracts and what a fractional engagement costs, on the fractional executive FAQ.