Part-time or permanent
Fractional chief growth officer vs a full-time hire
When a part-time growth lead is enough, and when the company should hire a full-time chief growth officer instead.
| Fractional chief growth officer | Full-time chief growth officer | |
|---|---|---|
| Time | An agreed cadence, not a five-day week | The role is the job |
| Best when | The remit is still being proved, or the company is between stages | The work is enduring, defined, and fills a week |
| Cost logic | Senior attention before a permanent executive is justified | A salary, a search, and a seat that is hard to unwind |
| End state | Transfer ownership, including into a permanent hire | The owner is already inside |
| Risk | Scope that quietly becomes a full-time job | Hiring the title before the job is clear |
A full-time chief growth officer is an executive seat. The person lives inside the company, holds the staff meetings, and is accountable across the week, not across a standing agenda.
A fractional chief growth officer is the same category of decision, bought before that seat is obvious. The company has traction. The founder is still the router. A permanent search would be guessing at the job.
What fractional work is for
Use it to name the constraint, install a weekly rhythm, and find out which parts of “growth” are actually a job. Some of that work will shrink once it is owned. Some of it will justify a full-time hire with a description you can now defend. The point of the fractional seat is that transfer, not a retainer that becomes the org chart.
Do not use it to avoid a hire the company has already earned. If the calendar is full, the team is waiting on one person every day, and the decisions are repetitive, hire. A fractional arrangement will disappoint both sides.
The role Steven takes is described on the fractional chief growth officer page. If you need advice and your team will keep the week, that is consulting, not a lighter full-time hire. A fractional CFO is a different full-time-or-not decision in finance. Steven is not a fractional CFO.
The decision
Choose the side that matches the constraint.
01When should we hire a full-time chief growth officer?
When the decisions, the meetings, and the cross-functional work already fill a week, the remit is stable, and the company can support a permanent executive. Fractional work is a poor substitute for a job that is obviously full-time.
02Why start fractional?
Because many companies know they need senior ownership and do not yet know the permanent job description. A fractional engagement can make that description true, then hand it to a full-time hire.
03Do you publish a salary comparison?
No. A full-time chief growth officer salary and a fractional fee are different purchases. Steven recommends a scope and a fee after a discovery call, rather than a public day rate.
Other comparisons
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