Interim CTO and CIO services
Hire an interim CTO for the vacancy
An interim CTO is a full-time, fixed-term technology leader who takes the seat when the product, the platform or the IT estate cannot wait for a permanent hire: a CTO has left, a rebuild has stalled, a migration has a deadline or a deal needs technology leadership on both sides.
We scope the mandate with you in fifteen minutes and 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 rate bands
- Fixed-term, full-time mandates
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 CTO 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
Interim CTO, CIO and technology roles on the board
No Interim CTO, CIO and technology 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 an interim CTO actually does
An interim CTO leads technology for a defined term: the engineering team, the architecture, the delivery plan and the decisions that shape the product.
In businesses where the seat is about internal systems rather than product, the same job is done by an interim CIO.
Either way the mandate has a reason and an end date, and a good interim leaves a team that ships, a platform that is understood, and a successor who inherits a plan rather than a mess.
COVER
Keeps engineering moving while you search
The CTO leaves, or the founder has been doing the job alongside everything else. The interim takes the team, the roadmap and the technical decisions so that delivery does not stall during the permanent search.
Keeps engineering moving while you search. The CTO leaves, or the founder has been doing the job alongside everything else. The interim takes the team, the roadmap and the technical decisions so that delivery does not stall during the permanent search.
Turns a fragile platform into one that scales. The product works but the platform will not carry the next stage. The interim makes the rebuild-or-refactor call, sequences the work and protects delivery while it happens.
Leads a cloud, ERP or systems migration. A data centre exit, a move to the cloud or a core system replacement with a fixed deadline. The interim owns the plan, the suppliers and the cut-over, and keeps the board informed of the risk.
Carries technology through a deal. Buy-side or sell-side, technology diligence and integration need someone accountable. The interim prepares the evidence, answers the questions and leads the integration of systems and teams after completion.
Builds the engineering organisation. The team has grown faster than its structure. The interim puts in engineering management, hiring standards and a delivery rhythm so the business can grow without the founders in every decision.
02/ scope
What the CTO owns on a mandate
Agree what the interim owns before day one.
Technology decisions touch product, finance and operations, so a clear remit saves weeks.
- Technology strategy and the roadmap during the term
- Architecture decisions and technical debt priorities
- The engineering and IT teams and their delivery rhythm
- Technology suppliers, contracts and cloud spend
- Technical due diligence and integration on deals
- Technology reporting to the CEO, board and investors
- The hand-over to the permanent CTO or CIO
- Day-to-day coding and code review (to the engineering team)
- Information security accountability (to a CISO, where there is one)
- Product prioritisation (shared with the product lead)
- Contract drafting (to counsel)
- Long-term strategy beyond the mandate
03/ which model
Interim, fractional or permanent?
Move the slider to the days the technology seat needs and choose how long.
Four or five days on a fixed term is interim.
One to three days a week, open-ended, is a fractional CTO, which our parent company also searches for.
The model that fits · CTO
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 CTO →Our framing, not a measured rule: the lines between the four models blur, and many briefs could run two ways.
04/ alternatives
The CTO seat against the alternatives
Each option fits a different problem.
The question is how soon you need a technology leader, for how long, and whether they must lead the team or advise it.
→ Interim when technology needs a leader now; permanent when the shape of the role is settled.
05/ rates
Interim CTO and CIO day rates
Published bands only, each with its source named.
Switch between the technology seats and enter a day rate you have been quoted to see where it sits.
- Interim CTO£800–£1,800Exec Capital 2026
- Interim CIO£800–£2,000Exec 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 an interim CTO costs
Model a fixed-term interim CTO against a permanent Chief Technology Officer over the same period.
£1,300 a day is within the published CTO band (£800–£1,800, Exec Capital 2026).
Interim cost for the term
£169,000
130 working days · 5 d/wk · 6 mo · before tax
Interim costs more over 6 months£28,563
Interim CTO, the term£169,000
Permanent CTO, same period£140,438
Interim CTO, the term$223,908
Permanent CTO, same period$186,066
Converted from £ at $1.3249 per £1 (Bank of England spot rate), 2 Oct 2026. A conversion, not a US market rate. Source ↗
Interim CTO, the term€198,507
Permanent CTO, same period€164,958
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 £160,500 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 to bring in an interim technology leader
Most interim technology mandates start in one of four situations.
Each calls for a slightly different profile.
Which sounds like you?
A resignation or sudden exit leaves engineering without direction, and decisions start to queue. An interim takes the team, restores a delivery rhythm and gives the board time to find the right permanent hire.
- → Departure at short notice
- → Releases slipping
- → No internal successor ready
Growth or a new product has exposed the limits of the current platform. An interim who has led a rebuild before makes the call on what to keep, sequences the change and keeps customers served during it.
- → Outages or performance problems
- → Rising technical debt
- → New product blocked by the platform
A data centre contract ends, a core system reaches end of support or the business is moving to the cloud. The interim owns the plan and the suppliers through cut-over and stabilisation.
- → Fixed contract or support end date
- → Several suppliers to coordinate
- → Board wants one accountable owner
Investors are running technical diligence, or two businesses must bring their systems together after completion. The interim prepares the evidence, answers the questions and leads integration.
- → Diligence questions arriving
- → Two technology estates to merge
- → Integration owner not named
08/ tax and IR35
How an interim CTO 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
Interim CTO services: a practical guide
Interim CTO services exist because technology problems compound while the seat is empty.
Decisions queue, good engineers leave, suppliers drift and the roadmap loses its logic.
An interim technology leader stops that drift in the first weeks and gives the board a credible owner for the technology while it makes the permanent appointment.
Start the brief with the outcome.
"Lead engineering" is not a brief.
"Move the platform onto the new architecture by the end of the third quarter, rebuild the engineering management layer and hand over to a permanent CTO" tells you, and every candidate, what kind of interim you need: a platform rebuilder, a migration lead, a deal specialist or a safe pair of hands for a vacancy.
Decide whether the seat is CTO or CIO.
A CTO usually leads the technology behind the product a company sells; a CIO usually leads the systems the business runs on — ERP, data, networks, end-user IT.
Many organisations need one more than the other, and some need both in one person for a period.
The section below sets out how to choose, and our interim management agency page explains how we run the search.
Set the term and the intensity.
Most interim CTOs work four or five days a week on a fixed term.
If the work is really strategy and hiring oversight on one or two days a week, a fractional CTO may fit better.
Our parent company, Fractional Quest, searches for both and for permanent technology leaders.
Compare cost like for like.
An interim is paid a day rate for the days worked; a permanent CTO carries salary, employer National Insurance, pension, bonus, often equity, and usually a search fee.
The calculator above runs both on published figures for the CTO and CIO seats.
A migration or ERP move often needs an interim CFO or interim COO on the business side as well.
Plan the exit on day one.
A good interim mandate ends with documented architecture decisions, named owners for every system the interim touched, and a successor who overlaps before they leave.
If security is part of the remit, a baseline such as Cyber Essentials from the NCSC is a sensible minimum to hand over, and an interim CISO can take the security seat where the risk needs its own owner.
10.1/ how to hire
How to hire an interim CTO step by step
Hiring an interim CTO runs in five steps.
Write a one-page brief with the situation, the outcome and the term.
Decide the days a week and set a budget against published day-rate bands.
Brief one search partner, so candidates hear one consistent story.
Interview a shortlist of three to five, with a technical session led by your strongest engineer.
Contract on clear terms, including the status determination where you are a medium or large company.
On IR35: medium and large clients decide the interim’s status and give them a status determination statement — see HMRC’s off-payroll working guidance.
For small clients the interim’s own company decides.
Status turns on how the engagement runs in practice.
What to put in the brief
The situation in two lines, the outcome by the end of the term, the start date, days a week, location and remote working, reporting line, size of the team, the stack and main suppliers, any deadline that cannot move, and the decisions the interim can take alone.
How to find an interim CTO who fits
Ask each candidate to walk through a mandate like yours: what they found, which decision they made first, what they would do differently and who they handed over to.
Then call that person.
References we take ourselves are part of every shortlist.
10.2/ the information seat
Interim CIO: when the seat is about systems
An interim CIO leads the systems a business runs on: ERP and finance systems, data and reporting, networks, end-user IT and the suppliers behind them.
Hire an interim CIO when the problem is an ERP replacement, a messy IT estate after acquisitions, a failing outsourcing contract or a data programme that has lost its way.
In the public sector and in larger organisations the CIO often answers for how technology is bought as well as how it runs.
The government’s Technology Code of Practice is a useful reference for an interim CIO coming into a public-sector body.
Our parent site’s interim CIO page covers the seat in more depth.
If you are not sure whether you need a CTO or a CIO, describe the problem rather than the title on the first call.
We will tell you which profile we would search for and why.
10.3/ the IT director seat
Interim IT director or interim CIO?
An interim IT director usually runs the IT function day to day — infrastructure, service desk, suppliers and projects — and reports to a CIO, CFO or COO.
An interim CIO sits on the executive team and owns technology strategy across the business.
In smaller organisations the IT director is often the most senior technology role, and the two titles describe the same job.
Choose an interim IT director when the work is operational: stabilising service, renegotiating contracts, delivering a defined set of projects.
Choose an interim CIO or CTO when the work is strategic or crosses functions.
Tell us which you think you need and we will test it with you.
10.4/ for executives
Interim CTO jobs and how to find them
Interim CTO jobs are often filled before they are widely advertised.
The board above reads the Fractional Quest pipeline daily and labels every role honestly.
Our parent site lists interim CTO jobs and part-time CTO jobs for part-week work, and the interim jobs board covers every interim seat.
Most interim technology leaders work through their own limited company.
Keep your day rate, notice period, stack and the situations you have led — rebuilds, migrations, deals, team builds — current, because that is what a hiring board reads first.
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 CTO 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
Technology leadership across Fractional Quest
Interim Quest is part of Fractional Quest.
When the technology brief is part-week, open-ended or permanent, these pages cover it.
A CTO on one to three days a week, open-ended — what it is and what it costs.
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.