Executive interim management · UK
Hire an interim executive for the vacancy
An interim executive is a senior leader who joins full-time for a fixed term to solve one problem and hand over cleanly.
Tell us the seat and the situation in a 15-minute call and we come back with a shortlist of three to five, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
- Shortlist of 3–5
- Day rate, availability and IR35 on each
- Published UK day-rate bands
- Eight C-suite seats covered
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 mandate
Tell us the situation, the days and the start date. We come back with interim executive candidates, their day rates and availability.
- 0115 minutes, video or phone
- 02We scope the assignment
- 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
Latest interim executive roles on the board
- InterimNot confirmed still openInterim Chief Executive Officer (Women's Health Charity)
Verity (PMOS UK) · United Kingdom
Rate not stated3 d/wk - InterimNot confirmed still openInterim Finance Director
Pragmatic Semiconductor · Cambridge
Rate not stated5 d/wk - InterimNot confirmed still openInterim Finance Director
Juro · United Kingdom
£800–£1,000/dayTue Sep 08 - InterimConfirmed openInterim Chief Operating Officer
Confidential client (Fractional Quest mandate) · London
Rate not stated5 d/wk
Looking? Build your repo once on Fractional Quest and every role on the board is read against it.
Sign up now →01/ definition
What executive interim management is for
Executive interim management puts an experienced leader into a seat for a set period with a set purpose.
It is not consultancy, because the interim holds the authority and runs the function; and it is not a permanent hire, because the end date is agreed before the start date.
Most mandates fall into one of five shapes.
VACANCY
Keeps a vacant seat working
A chief executive, finance chief or operations lead leaves without a successor. The interim keeps decisions moving, steadies the team and gives the board time to recruit properly.
Keeps a vacant seat working. A chief executive, finance chief or operations lead leaves without a successor. The interim keeps decisions moving, steadies the team and gives the board time to recruit properly.
Leads a business out of trouble. Falling cash, lost customers or a failing plan. A turnaround interim resets priorities, takes the hard decisions and works alongside lenders, investors and advisers.
Carries the business through a deal. A sale, an acquisition, a carve-out or a refinancing. The interim prepares the business for scrutiny, leads its side of diligence and stays through completion and integration.
Delivers a programme the team cannot. A new operating model, a systems replacement, a merger of two teams. The interim brings the experience of having done it before and leaves the method behind.
Leads a new function until it can stand. A first security lead, a first people director, a marketing function built from scratch. The interim builds it, hires the permanent leader and steps away.
02/ scope
What an interim executive takes on
Write the line down before the first day.
A clear remit lets an interim act in week one; a vague one sends every decision back to the board.
- The function they lead, with real decision rights
- A written outcome for the end of the term
- Reporting to the board or the chief executive
- The team during the mandate, including hard calls
- Key outside relationships: lenders, investors, regulators, suppliers
- A documented hand-over to the permanent leader
- Recruiting or briefing that successor where asked
- Routine processing and administration
- Specialist legal and tax work (to advisers)
- Strategy that runs beyond the mandate
- Decisions reserved to shareholders
- Line management outside the agreed remit
03/ which model
Interim, fractional, part-time or permanent?
Set the days a week the seat needs and how long you need it.
Four or five days on a fixed term is executive interim management; one to three days, open-ended, is a fractional executive.
Our parent company, Fractional Quest, searches for every model, permanent included.
The model that fits · executive
Interim
A full-time or near full-time leader on a fixed-term mandate — a gap, a turnaround, a transaction — who hands over at the end.
Book a call about an interim executive →Our framing, not a measured rule: the lines between the four models blur, and many briefs could run two ways.
04/ alternatives
An interim executive against the other options
Interim is one answer among several.
What decides it is how soon the seat must be filled, how many days the work takes and whether you need someone to run the function or to advise on it.
→ Interim when the problem is now and has an end; permanent when the seat needs a long-term owner.
05/ rates
Interim executive day rates by seat
Published UK day-rate bands for eight interim seats, each with its source named under the band.
Pick a seat and type a day rate to see where it falls.
- Interim CFO£650–£1,500FD Capital 2026
- Interim CEO£1,000–£1,800Exec Capital 2026
- Interim COO£800–£2,000Exec Capital 2026
- Interim CMO£700–£2,000Exec Capital 2026
- Interim CTO£800–£1,800Exec Capital 2026
- Interim CIO£800–£2,000Exec Capital 2026
- Interim CISO£1,000–£1,500Barclay Simpson
- Interim CHRO£900–£1,500Robert Walters 2026 (London contract)
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 an interim executive costs
Model a fixed-term interim executive against a permanent executive over the same period.
£1,100 a day is within the published CFO band (£650–£1,500, FD Capital 2026).
Interim cost for the term
£143,000
130 working days · 5 d/wk · 6 mo · before tax
Interim costs less over 6 months£11,438
Interim CFO, the term£143,000
Permanent CFO, same period£154,438
Interim CFO, the term$189,461
Permanent CFO, same period$204,614
Converted from £ at $1.3249 per £1 (Bank of England spot rate), 2 Oct 2026. A conversion, not a US market rate. Source ↗
Interim CFO, the term€167,968
Permanent CFO, same period€181,402
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.
07/ decision
When an interim executive is the right call
Boards usually reach for an interim in one of four moments.
Each has its own signals, and each needs a slightly different kind of leader.
Which sounds like you?
Resignation, illness or a sudden exit leaves a seat empty and a team unsettled. An interim restores order quickly, so the permanent search can run on the board’s timetable rather than in a hurry.
- → No ready internal successor
- → Board or investor reporting slipping
- → Team asking who decides
Numbers are missing, cash is tighter than forecast or a key customer has gone. A turnaround interim brings authority, pace and the experience of having been in the room before.
- → Covenant or cash pressure
- → Forecasts repeatedly missed
- → Lender or investor asking questions
Buying, selling, merging or raising money exposes every weakness in the business. An interim prepares the ground, carries the workload of diligence and integrates what comes after.
- → Advisers appointed
- → Data room not ready
- → Two teams to bring together
A new system, a new structure or a new market needs someone who has delivered the same change before and can be held to an outcome and an end date.
- → Programme behind plan
- → No one with prior delivery experience
- → Outcome defined, owner missing
08/ tax and IR35
How an interim executive is contracted
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 interim’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.
09/ guide
Executive interim management: a guide for boards
Executive interim management is the practice of hiring a senior leader for a defined term to do a defined job.
Interim Quest is the interim arm of Fractional Quest, and this site covers the seats boards most often fill this way: the interim CEO, the interim CFO, the interim COO, the interim CMO, the interim CTO and CIO and the interim CISO.
Each page sets out the work, the published day rates and how to hire.
The brief decides the hire.
A good brief names the situation in two sentences, the outcome expected by the end of the term, the start date, the days a week, the reporting line and the decisions the interim may take alone.
With that on paper, the right profile usually becomes obvious: a turnaround specialist, a deal leader, a programme lead or a steady hand to hold the seat.
Cost should be compared on the same basis.
An interim executive is paid a day rate for the days worked.
A permanent hire carries salary, bonus, pension, employer National Insurance and, often, a search fee.
The calculator above runs both sides on published figures for each seat, so the comparison is ours in arithmetic only, never in the inputs.
Tax status needs a decision, not an assumption.
Under the off-payroll working rules, a medium or large client decides whether an engagement falls inside or outside IR35 and must give the worker a status determination statement; for a small client, the interim’s own company decides.
Status depends on how the engagement actually runs.
HMRC sets this out in its off-payroll working (IR35) guidance, and its Check Employment Status for Tax tool is a starting point for a specific role.
How the search is run matters as much as who runs it.
We take the brief, search and screen against it, take references ourselves and present three to five candidates with day rate, availability and IR35 position on each.
Fees are agreed with you in writing for each engagement.
If you are comparing firms, our interim management agency guide covers what to ask, and the parent site explains how a fractional recruitment agency runs fractional, interim, part-time and permanent search under one roof.
For executives, interim jobs are listed on this site by seat and sector, with NHS and healthcare roles on their own page.
Fractional and permanent roles sit on the parent site under fractional jobs UK.
10.1/ the discipline
Executive interim management and how a mandate runs
An interim mandate has three phases.
In the first fortnight the interim listens, reads the numbers and agrees a short plan with the board.
In the middle of the term they deliver against that plan, report against it and change course when the facts change.
In the final weeks they write the hand-over, brief the successor and step back so the permanent leader starts with ownership.
Mandates go wrong in predictable ways: the outcome was never written down, the interim was given responsibility without authority, or nobody planned the exit.
Each is avoidable at the brief stage.
Agree what “done” means, who the interim reports to and when the successor search starts, before the contract is signed.
How long a mandate lasts
As long as the problem needs and no longer.
Cover for a vacancy ends when the successor starts; a deal mandate ends after completion or integration; a programme ends when the outcome is delivered.
Agree a review point rather than an open-ended extension.
Interim executive search versus interim recruitment
The terms are used loosely. interim executive search usually means a researched search for one senior seat; interim executive recruitment is the broader activity of sourcing and placing interims.
Ask any firm which it is doing for you, and how.
10.2/ most searched seats
Interim CEO jobs and the interim CMO
Two seats draw more interest than any other on this site.
The interim CEO is usually brought in when a chief executive leaves suddenly, when a turnaround needs new leadership, or when investors want a steady hand through a sale.
The mandate is often the most visible in the business, and the hand-over to a permanent chief executive needs particular care.
The interim CMO is called for when marketing has lost its leader before a launch, when growth has stalled and the board wants a reset, or when a business is rebuilding its brand after a merger.
Exec Capital’s 2026 guide puts interim CMO day rates at £700–£2,000 and interim CEO day rates at £1,000–£1,800 for SME and mid-market roles.
If you are an executive looking for interim CEO jobs or interim CMO jobs, the parent site lists them alongside fractional and part-time work, and the board above includes both seats when they are open.
10/ 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 interim 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
11/ the family
Executive search across Fractional Quest
Interim Quest is part of Fractional Quest.
When the seat is part-week, permanent or a different model altogether, these pages pick it up.
Fractional, interim, part-time and permanent executive search in one firm.
12/ 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.