The Next Evolution of Leadership Hiring Is Fractional

Rhys Holding – Managing Director of Fractional, UAE explains the latest re-write in Leadership Recruitment

OPINION PIECE

Rhys Holding

11/11/20263 min read

Every few years, the definition of "the future of work" gets rewritten. Remote work was the headline of the pandemic years, erasing the assumption that executives must be on-site five days a week. A big shift happening for companies across the UAE right now runs deeper than where people sit. It is who leads them and how.

Remote work describes a way of working. Fractional leadership describes a method of delivery. The two often get grouped together because both loosened the grip of the traditional nine-to-five career, however only one of them is reshaping the level of access to senior C-suite talent and on what terms.

For years, senior expertise came locked behind a full-time hire. Bringing in a CFO or a CMO meant a six or seven-figure package and an assumption that the business needed that person at full capacity for years ahead. Most growing SMEs in the region couldn’t make that call. They either went without senior leadership at the top table, or promoted someone into a role they weren't ready for because a full-time hire sat out of reach.

Fractional leadership breaks that trade-off. A business brings in a senior executive for the days or hours it needs, at a cost tied to that need rather than a full salary. A founder scaling from ten people to fifty rarely needs a full-time CFO in month one. They need CFO-level judgment applied to a handful of decisions each month: structuring a raise, covering a leadership gap during long-term leave, seeing a defined project through to its end date. Fractional leadership supplies exactly that.

Globally, the shift is already underway.

A 2026 study by Heidrick & Struggles found that C-suite interim engagements have risen 151% since 2021, a structural change in how senior talent is being hired. The UAE is a natural home for fractional leadership with a market that has the scale to meet that shift. Research from the Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government puts SMEs at around 94% of all businesses in the country, which has a rich supply of experienced executives who are attracted to building flexible portfolio careers and working with a variety of clients instead of holding one full-time title. Global demand and local supply are converging, and with the recent launch of the “Dubai-it” national campaign, SMEs are being encouraged to match that convergence through both excellence and speed in their growth.

This reframes the question SME owners should be asking. The old question was whether the business could afford a CXO. The sharper question now is what the business needs from CXO-level thinking this quarter, and how to buy precisely that. That same flexibility works across the business: interim placements, a defined project, maternity or long-term leave cover, a specialist mandate, all sized up or down as priorities shift. Heidrick's research puts SMEs at more than 80% of global demand for high-end interim talent, a sign this is becoming standard practice.

The push isn't only coming from the business side.

Axios has reported that the number of professionals listing "fractional" in their LinkedIn grew from around 2,000 in 2022 to more than 142,000 by early 2025, a clear signal on the supply side too. Senior professionals with fifteen or twenty years’ experience are choosing several part-time mandates over one full-time role. Some are winding down after decades in one function and want variety; others simply prefer the model once they've tried it. For many, it's a deliberate choice made by people who have full-time options and choose the portfolio route for the excitement and variety it offers.

For SME owners exploring this route, the practical questions are straightforward: which function needs senior judgment without a full-time seat, how many days a month would move the needle and whether the goal is a stopgap before a full hire or a permanent way of operating. Getting those answers clear before bringing someone in separates founders who get real value from fractional leadership from those who treat it as a discount full-time hire and end up disappointed.

Remote work changed where people did their jobs. Fractional leadership is changing how companies are hiring. For SMEs across the UAE, that is the more consequential shift, and the one worth watching over the next few years.

More about Rhys

Rhys spent 18 years in Singapore building and running a multi-million-dollar SME. Following its sale, Rhys moved to Dubai to build his own ventures. Today, alongside Co-Founder Sam Loyd, he is building Fractional | UAE into a company connecting SMEs across the GCC with experienced executives across operations, finance, technology, marketing, people and growth.

Rhys’ profile: linkedin.com/in/rhysholding