If you’re an executive looking for a new position, you might have considered pursuing a fractional opportunity.
Fractional work is an alternative to pursuing a traditional full-time position and can be a great way to put your skills to use and make an impressive salary.
However, finding fractional opportunities catering specifically to executives can be challenging, since many of these opportunities are not advertised on popular job boards.
Consequently, following up on my round-ups of the best tech websites, best websites for remote jobs, and best LGBTQ+ job boards, I wanted to share a few of the top platforms for finding fractional jobs for senior leaders.
Keep reading to discover some of the most popular websites to find fractional opportunities.
A quick note on this list: As a career coach who specializes in tech executives, this list is tailored primarily toward websites that cater to senior managers and leaders in the industry.
What Is A Fractional Role?
But first, what exactly is a fractional role?
According to Jami Delaney, Chief Care Officer, People Strategy and Client Experience at Assemble, a human resources consulting company, “Fractional roles by definition are positions that share responsibilities among a few people. While this may be true as an outcome, many view the fractional role as a flexible choice to fill an open role or business need.”
Fractional roles can be a smart alternative to hiring a full-time executive, since the employer gets their business needs met at a lower cost, and the leader gets to focus on a specific scope of work.
The number of hours dedicated to fractional roles tends to range from 5 to 30 per week but can vary from company to company and change over time. Some fractional opportunities are arranged for set hours each week or month, while others are less time-bound and instead focus on a specific scope of work to be completed.
Why Do Companies Hire Fractional Executives?
“Companies tend to hire fractional talent when they need expert-level help from someone who’s ‘been there, done that,’” explains Taylor Crane, founder of Fractional Jobs, a popular job board for finding fractional work.
“Having a fractional executive often allows incredible flexibility in an area of expertise,” adds Delaney. “It provides an external and often unbiased perspective in specific functional areas.”
Additional benefits of hiring fractional talent include cost savings, flexibility, and a more seamless onboarding process:
Cost Savings
Companies often hire fractional executives as a cost-saving measure. With a fractional hire, the company doesn’t have to fit the role into a traditional 40-hour-per-week leadership position. Instead, the employer can hire for the work that needs to be done—and nothing more.
In many cases, a fractional hire is often less expensive than the salary of an executive leader and all its associated benefits, which can be incredibly costly to the employer, particularly in the tech industry.
Flexibility
Additionally, fractional roles can be scaled up and down in response to the company’s in-the-moment needs and budget. It’s not uncommon for the number of hours allocated to a fractional role to increase over time, particularly among hyper-growth startups.
“A fractional role is an excellent solution when a company is not ready to hire a full-time position,” explains Delany. “For example, an organization’s size or maturity may not require a full-time Head of People, yet they feel culture and HR initiatives are important.” In these cases, she says that the organization may opt to bring in a fractional HR leader to deliver focused and prioritized support.
Quicker Onboarding Process
Moreover, fractional roles allow companies to quickly source top executives for very specific needs without going through a lengthy interview and hiring process for a senior leader, which can often take months.
“Companies consider fractional talent to fill a role that has been vacated,” says Delaney. “It allows them time to look for the right backfill while still supporting their business.”
Put simply, a fractional role provides employers with an opportunity to hire the best talent possible for their current needs while saving time and money.
Is Fractional The Same As Part-Time?
Although they share some similarities, fractional positions are not the same as being a part-time employee.
Generally speaking, “fractional” describes the scope of the position (a fraction of a position), while “part-time” describes the allocation of hours (less than full-time).
What Is The Difference Between Freelance And Fractional Positions?
Similarly, while freelance work and fractional positions can be similar, they are not necessarily the same.
In a freelance position, someone is self-employed and works on a contractual basis in exchange for payment. This is not always the case with fractional work, since it can be structured in a variety of ways.
In a fractional position, you’re often overseeing a specific scope, sometimes equivalent to what would be assigned to a full-time employee, but within a limited schedule. You may be self-employed, employed by the company, or hired through an agency.
Finding Fractional Work As An Executive
Like many full-time positions at the most senior levels, fractional positions catering to executives are often never formally marketed. Instead, you’ll want to harness the power of networking and build relationships so that you can tap into the “hidden job market.”
If you do decide to leverage job search engines to find fractional work specific to executives, you’ll want to seek out those specific to senior leaders, as traditional freelance and gig platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, and TaskRabbit are unlikely to have ones that align with your experience and skills.
Best Websites For Finding Fractional Executive Jobs
The following are some of the top websites for finding fractional opportunities as an executive.
The Free Agent
First up on the list is The Free Agent, given its deep focus on fractional opportunities for tech executives.
“The Free Agent provides access to a vetted bunch of battle-tested experts that work directly with technology companies in hyper-growth,” explains Beau Billington, founder of The Free Agent.
The company has a history of working with executive-level talent with backgrounds spanning sales, marketing, technology, production, operations, and finance who are available on a fractional, interim, or full-time basis.
“We are beginning to work outside of the tech sector, but this has been our main focus for the last 7 years,” Billington adds.
Catalant
Catalant is a highly vetted network of more than 100,000 independent consultants (experts) and requires an application to join.
According to Josh Kernan, Vice President of Customer Experience & Marketing at Catalant Technologies, “Our network of Experts has a mix of expertise including ex-executive operators, subject matter experts, and ex-traditional consultants (i.e. ex-McKinsey, BCG, Bain and Big-4).”
Catalant’s independent consultants have an average of 21 years of experience, he adds.
“Projects are flexible and fit-to-purpose, ranging from 2 weeks to multi-year projects,” explains Kernan. You can participate in independent consulting projects, serve in interim and fractional roles, or take part in team engagements where Catalant assembles a team of ex-operators, SMEs, and consultants for transformational projects.
Projects are typically focused on Operational Excellence, Commercial Excellence, Transformation & M&A (i.e. post-merger integration), Technology Implementation (including GenAI), and Organizational Design.
Kernan says that Catalant’s typical customers include Fortune 1000 companies, PE-backed portfolio companies, and consulting firms.
Fractional Jobs
Fractional Jobs is “the job board for fractional (i.e. part-time expert) talent,” says Taylor Crane, the platform’s founder.
“We’re open to all senior talent across 10+ function areas [including engineering, marketing, design, sales, product, finance, operations, people, and legal].”
Crane shared that the job board typically works with companies looking to hire talent with at least 7 years, and often 10+ years, of work experience.
In addition to posting fractional job opportunities, the platform is also home to playbooks and tools to help you break into fractional work, he says.
“We are not an agency, we don’t take a hefty percentage commission like fractional work agencies do,” adds Crane.
Fractional People People
If you’re looking for fractional opportunities in human resources and people operations, you’ll want to check out Fractional People People (FPP).
According to Jessica Donahue, a fractional HR leader and active member of the community, “FPP is a slack community for those who have chosen to pursue the fractional/consulting HR life full-time.”
“[FPP] consists of HR leaders with diverse backgrounds, with varying HR specialties, in various industries,” says Donahue. “The thread connecting all of us is that we are working with companies doing HR, People & Culture work in a fractional or consulting capacity.”
“In addition to sharing best practices consultant-to-consultant, companies seeking fractional HR talent may submit a request via the FPP website to have their fractional HR opportunities shared with members,” she adds.
The community, which was founded in September 2023 by Elles Skony, has grown to more than 850 members as of writing this article.
Fraction
Fraction connects startups and growing companies with US-based talent.
According to the website, “[Fraction] enables clients to work with the best for up to 70% less than full-time hiring.”
Fraction’s offerings include senior developers, UI/UX designers, project and product managers, dev teams, low code, CMOs, and CTOs, so if your experience falls within these buckets, you might wish to join their talent pool.
When you take on a project with Fraction, you can expect to dedicate between 20 and 30 hours per week. This will include two weekly stand-up meetings (15 to 20 minutes each) and one weekly checkpoint meeting (1 hour).
GigX
GigX is “the world’s #1 independent professional network” and “maintain[s] the #1 fractional CxO Network in the world,” according to its website.
For a low monthly fee, the platform helps connect C-level leaders with organizations who are looking to hire fractional leaders.
What’s unique about this platform is that GigX Network develops the connection between you and the potential employer and then steps out of the way. As the fractional executive, you get to set the terms of the employment and the pay.
Importantly, GigX doesn’t charge a finder’s fee or commission, just the monthly fee.
Shiny
Shiny is an online marketplace that allows experienced executives to be matched with companies with long-term fractional roles.
The marketplace is free to join and caters to startups and SMBs.
According to its website, “Shiny streamlines the process from start to finish, including contract signing, invoicing, payments, and 1099s.”
Shiny also houses a Slack community of fellow fractional executives that allows you to professionally network, share resources, and ask questions of industry peers.
As of the writing of this article, there are 400+ executives across 40+ industries in the community, and there’s a waitlist to join the platform.
Finding Fractional Jobs As An Executive
Many of the steps you’ll take to find a fractional role are the same as a traditional job search, including getting clear on what you want in your next position, crafting a stand-out executive resume, and harnessing the power of your network.
That said, you’ll want to leverage those job boards that specifically cater to fractional opportunities for executives, since many opportunities won’t be marketed through traditional channels. Speaking of which, please let me know if there are any job search engines or platforms for fractional executives that I missed that you think should be included on this list.
On a final note, if you want some help navigating the process of finding your next executive role, please feel free to reach out or schedule a consultation. I’m here for you! You’ve got this!
