Interim executive search · UK
An interim management agency for the vacancy
Interim Quest is the interim arm of Fractional Quest.
We take your brief in a 15-minute call, search and screen against it, take references ourselves and come back with a shortlist of three to five interims, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
Fees are agreed with you in writing for each engagement.
- Shortlist of 3–5
- Day rate, availability and IR35 on each
- References we take ourselves
- Fees agreed per engagement
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
Interim roles on the board now 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
How an interim executive search is run
An interim search is compressed compared with a permanent one: the client usually needs someone working soon, and the right candidates are often between mandates for only a short time.
A well-run search still follows the same discipline, in five stages.
SCOPE
Turn the problem into a mandate
The situation, the outcome by the end of the term, the start date, days a week, location, reporting line and the decisions the interim may take alone. Without these the search has nothing to measure against.
Turn the problem into a mandate. The situation, the outcome by the end of the term, the start date, days a week, location, reporting line and the decisions the interim may take alone. Without these the search has nothing to measure against.
Find people who have done this before. Candidates are sourced against the situation, not the job title: a business that needs a refinancing wants someone who has led one, at a similar size and in a similar sector.
Test the record, not the CV. Interviews probe what the candidate changed, how and with whom. References come from people the candidate reported to and handed over to.
Present a short list with terms. Three to five candidates, each with day rate, availability, IR35 position and why they fit this situation. A long list is not a shortlist.
Agree terms and the exit. The client interviews and chooses. Contract terms set the day rate, the term, notice on both sides, the status determination where the client is medium or large, and how the mandate will end.
02/ scope
What a good agency does and does not do
Know where the agency’s job ends and yours begins.
The best searches have a clear split.
- Turning your problem into a written brief
- Searching and screening against that brief
- Taking references on each shortlisted candidate
- Setting out day rate, availability and IR35 position
- Managing the interview timetable
- Keeping in touch through the mandate
- The hiring decision (yours)
- The IR35 status determination (yours, if medium or large)
- Day-to-day management of the interim (yours)
- Legal advice on contract terms (your advisers)
- Strategy the interim is hired to set
03/ which model
Interim, or a different kind of search?
An interim management agency fills fixed-term, near full-time seats.
If the work is one to three days a week, open-ended, a fractional recruitment agency that also runs fractional search is the better fit; if it is a permanent seat, you need permanent search.
Move the slider to see which model fits.
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 search →Our framing, not a measured rule: the lines between the four models blur, and many briefs could run two ways.
04/ alternatives
Agency routes compared
There are several ways to find an interim.
Each suits a different budget, timetable and level of risk.
→ Use an agency when the seat matters and the timetable is short; go direct when you already know the person.
05/ rates
Interim day rates by seat
What the market pays the interim, from published UK sources named under each band.
These are interim day rates, not agency fees.
- 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 hire 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 to call an interim management agency
A firm earns its keep when the seat is senior, the timetable is short and the cost of a wrong hire is high.
Which sounds like you?
Your own network has no obvious candidate. A search that reaches interims between mandates widens the field quickly.
- → Start date in sight
- → No name in mind
- → Seat too senior to leave empty
A refinancing, a regulatory intervention, a carve-out. You need someone who has led exactly this, and a search built around the situation finds them.
- → Rare experience required
- → Outside advisers involved
- → Board wants evidence of prior delivery
An interim takes decisions from the first week. References taken before the shortlist, from people the candidate reported to, reduce the risk.
- → High-stakes seat
- → Limited time to check yourself
- → Investor or lender scrutiny
Many boards appoint an interim while the permanent search runs. One firm that covers both can brief the interim on the hand-over from the start.
- → Permanent search starting
- → Interim to hold the seat
- → Hand-over to plan
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
Choosing an interim management agency: what to ask
An interim management agency finds, screens and presents senior interims for a fixed-term mandate.
Firms differ more than their websites suggest.
Some run a researched search for each seat; others match from candidates who have registered with them; some do both.
Ask which you are buying, because it changes who you will see.
Ask how they will find people for your situation, not your job title.
A firm that answers with names before it has asked about your situation is matching, not searching.
A good firm will ask what the interim must have delivered by the end of the term before it talks about candidates.
Ask about references and checks.
Who takes the references, from whom, and when?
References from the people a candidate reported to and handed over to say more than references from peers.
Ask, too, whether the firm will tell you plainly when a candidate’s record is thin in an area you care about.
Ask how they are paid.
Across the market, interim providers are commonly paid either through the day rate the client pays, with the provider’s margin inside it, or through a separate fee agreed for the engagement.
Permanent search is usually paid as a fee for the search.
Whatever the model, ask for it in writing before the search starts and ask what happens if the mandate ends early or is extended.
We agree fees with each client in writing, per engagement.
Ask about IR35 and contracting.
A medium or large client must make the status determination for each engagement and give the interim a status determination statement; a firm should help you understand the position, not tell you the answer in advance.
HMRC’s off-payroll working (IR35) guidance sets out who is responsible.
Agencies and employment businesses in Great Britain also operate under the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003.
Finally, ask what else they cover.
If the right answer turns out to be part-week rather than interim, or a permanent hire, a firm that only does one model will still try to sell you that model.
Through Fractional Quest we recruit fractional, interim, part-time, temporary and permanent executives and non-executive directors.
See interim CFO services, the interim CEO page and interim jobs on this site for how that works by seat.
10.1/ search
Interim executive search and interim recruitment
Interim executive search and interim recruitment are often used as if they meant the same thing.
In practice, interim executive search describes a researched search for one senior seat, run against a brief, with candidates approached whether or not they are looking. interim executive recruitment is the wider activity of sourcing and placing interims, which can include matching from registered candidates.
Neither is better in the abstract.
A specialist situation at board level usually warrants a researched search; a well-defined director seat in a common situation may be filled well by a firm that knows the candidates already.
What matters is that the firm tells you which it is doing.
Executive interim recruitment for a board seat
For chief executive, chief financial officer and other board seats, expect the firm to take the brief from the chair or the board, not only from HR, and to present candidates with a short written account of why each fits the situation.
10.2/ choosing a firm
The best interim management companies and how to judge them
Lists of the best interim recruitment agencies are a starting point, but a ranking cannot know your situation.
Judge firms on what they will do for your brief: how they will search, who will run it day to day, how they take references and how they are paid.
Ask each firm for the same things and compare like with like: a written proposal for the search, the name of the person running it, the timetable to a shortlist, the fee basis in writing and what happens if the mandate changes.
Firms that are reluctant to put any of that in writing are telling you something.
A firm that covers several models is useful when you are not yet sure which one you need.
Our parent site explains how fractional executive search firms work for part-week seats, alongside interim and permanent search.
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.
These pages cover the search models alongside interim.
Fractional, interim, part-time and permanent executive search in one firm.
Search firms for fractional, part-week executive seats.
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.