Whether you need interim support to cover a short-term skills gap, to get a fresh perspective, to solve a specific problem, or to help upskill your current team, we are interim recruitment specialists that are here to help for interim and contract roles.
These are some of the interim roles we recruit for. Contact us with your requirements and we will see if we can help.
We also cover Fractional Marketing positions.
The main reasons that employers move towards hiring interim contractors are:
You’ve got a crisis situation. You may have a vacancy where a key member of staff has moved on and you’ve since struggled to recruit for the permanent position.
In this case, you can usually engage an interim who is able to start immediately or within a week or two, provided they are not already signed up to another engagement.
It may be that you want to upskill a team. You’ve got a skills gap and you need to get someone in straight away that has the right domain experience that your team requires.
At the same time as delivering a project, the interim contractor can upskill the wider permanent workforce by training and simple cross pollination.
Your business needs to deliver a project that you don’t currently have capacity for internally. But you may not have the budget for a permanent hire or you may only forecast needing these skills for a short period of time.
Interim recruitment is specifically helpful when you are a business that is testing something, building something new, or investigating new markets or product lines.
It could be that the business is not ready to fully commit to a project by building a team or investing in permanent hiring. So investing in interim recruitment and interim support is less risky.
Due to the size and quality of our interim and contractor database across product, marketing, product design, UX and eCommerce, we are able to present our clients a shortlist within 24 hours. To achieve this, we will work with the client to ensure the specification, the competency requirements and the allocated day rate are all realistic and competitive in today’s market, ensuring we have access to the whole fixed term contractor talent pool.
From there, we can advise on the best interim interview questions to ask, IR35 considerations and continue to help you engage the interim contractor throughout the contract recruitment process and into their notice period – this is usually anywhere between 2 and 4 weeks.
Tell us more about your vacancy and what you are looking for in a candidate.
We’ll listen carefully to your needs and using our industry experience and vast network, we’ll connect you to real talent in the market.
Fill in this form or alternatively contact us on 01727 736690.
We deliver a shortlist to our clients within 24 hours of taking your brief. We do this by taking an in-depth brief of what you are looking for and form a comprehensive interim professional profile to work against.
35,000 candidates are already known to us through our extensive interim executive candidate database. We can quickly find candidates who are actively looking and have the particular domain skills that you need.
We have a 92% candidate success rate – candidates who accept the position when offered by our clients. We do this by delivering a quality and relevant shortlist, also keeping these fixed term contractors actively engaged throughout the hiring process.
We find interim contractors which are experts in their field, ready to hit the ground running. They’re used to moving from engagement to engagement and adapting to new challenges and we also take the time to prepare them for each role before they start.
We manage the interim recruitment process from start to finish, including advice on day rates and IR35 rules. We also help to navigate the offer stage, any counter-offers and offer acceptance process.
Read: IR35 rules for employers
Many employers are nervous to start interim recruitment or look for contractors – the main reason for this is cost. Interim contractors can appear to charge high daily rates for their expertise.
It’s important to consider the total cost to the business when looking at starting an interim recruitment search for a fixed term contractor. Costs including holiday pay, sick pay and employee benefits (life insurance, health cover, income protection insurance) do not need to be considered, meaning interim recruitment isn’t as costly as expected.
Day rates will differ on a case-by-case basis, depending on the role, location, the business needs, the project objective and contract length. As a general rule of thumb, we’d expect the below day rates per discipline:
| Role | Range: Min | Range: Max |
| Interim Chief Product Officer | 1000 | 1500 |
| Interim VP Product | 900 | 1200 |
| Interim Product Director | 800 | 1000 |
| Interim Product Lead | 700 | 1000 |
| Interim Head of Product | 650 | 800 |
| Interim Senior Product Manager | 550 | 750 |
| Range: Min | Range: Max | |
| Vice President Product Design | £1000 | £1200 |
| Product Design Director | £700 | £900 |
| Head of Product Design | £550 | £700 |
| Product Design Manager | £450 | £550 |
| UX / User Experience Director | £700 | £900 |
| Head of UX / User Experience: | £600 | £800 |
| UX / User Experience Manager | £550 | £700 |
| UX / User Experience Researcher | £400 | £500 |
| UX / User Experience Designer | £500 | £600 |
| UX / User Experience Lead | £550 | £700 |
| UI Designer | £350 | £450 |
| Information Architect | £550 | £650 |
| Customer Experience Manager | £500 | £600 |
| Role | Range: Min | Range: Max |
| Interim Chief Marketing Officer | 1000 | 1500 |
| Interim VP Marketing | 800 | 1000 |
| Interim Marketing Director | 700 | 1000 |
| Interim Growth Lead | 600 | 800 |
| Interim Head of Marketing | 500 | 800 |
| Interim Marketing Automation Consultant | 500 | 700 |
| Interim Performance Marketing Manager | 500 | 700 |
| Marketing Analyst | 400 | 600 |
| Interim Lead Generation Manager (B2B) | 400 | 600 |
| Interim Marketing Manager | 350 | 500 |
| CRM Manager | 350 | 500 |
| Role | Range: Min | Range: Max |
| Interim Head of eCommerce | 600 | 800 |
| Interim UX Designer | 450 | 650 |
| Interim Content Strategist | 400 | 600 |
| Interim Conversion Optimisation Consultant | 400 | 600 |
| Interim eCommerce Manager | 350 | 500 |
| Interim Digital Merchandising Manager | 300 | 500 |
Gabor Mayer11. April, 2022.Professional people, helpful culture. Lately I've been in touch with Doug B. from Intelligent People. If he ever calls you for a position you can be sure that you are in good hands. He is responsive. He treats candidates with respect. He cares. He understands that finding the right role is not just about "ticking a few boxes on a spreadsheet".taylan tahir11. April, 2022.Thanks Jess for your brilliant support and communication during the interview process. You made it really easy and efficient and allowed me to focus on the most important part - getting the role! I found the role advertised by IP through LinkedIn and would definitely recommend working with them as a candidate.Ashwin Peter23. March, 2022.One of the best firms out there in UK if you are looking for product hires. No BS and straight to the point. There is a reason why best product firms prefer them over others. I have had the best experience with them and would recommend any one who is looking for product role or to hire a product person for their firm. They are transparent and try to find the best fit for the firm and candidate.David Nightly21. March, 2022.One of the best recruitment experiences we've had for digital talent. The team at IP really take the time to understand what you're looking for before engaging with candidates, and when speed is of the essence, they deliver quickly but with quality, ensuring limited time is wasted with candidates that aren't relevant. I will certainly use them again.Pete Finlay18. March, 2022.These guys are so easy to work with, we have hired incredibly high calibre product talent through Intelligent People and will come back every time we need help.Benjamin Grunwerg17. March, 2022.Very prefessional, would use again when hiring Ecommerce staff, always have good candidates.Digital Marketing & Analysis2. March, 2022.A recruitment agency like no other. Honest and friendly consultants - guiding you and helping you through out the long recruitment process. From the start to the end of the process the recruitment consultants I worked with were extremely professional.Nick Brown1. March, 2022.Put simply my go-to for product hires. I've been on both sides (IP have placed me in a new role as well as helped me recruit candidates multiple times, most recently as CPO of a marketplace), and they have always been honest, professional and considerate balancing the needs of candidates with those of the hiring company. For my recent search- in a very difficult market- they were my first (and as it turned out only needed) port of call and helped me land the perfect PM for the role who's doing a fantastic job. The process was simple and straightforward, the shortlist exactly what i wanted and the advice along the way (salary benchmarks, candidate 1 vs candidate 2 thought partnering etc) was invaluable and refreshing in the scrappy world of recruitment. Would highly recommend to anyone looking to hire at any level in product or indeed as a recruiter to work with as a candidate.Jade Phillips3. August, 2021.By far one of the best recruitment agencies out there. I've worked with Suzy twice and on both occasions she has genuinely focussed on helping me to find a role that is right for me. Highly recommend working with them!Rajvir Randhawa30. June, 2021.Great experience working with Chris and the team at Intelligent People. They're just really nice, down-to-earth people that are brilliant at what they do. I'd have no hesitation in recommending them.
There are many reasons why organisations turn to interim recruitment. In summary:
There are many reasons why organisations are hesitant to start an interim recruitment campaign. In summary:
1. Risk. The flexibility that the employer has around an interim contract is also replicated for the contractor. The contractor can decide to move on easily if they are not enjoying the role or the business culture, as long as their short notice period is covered
2. Cost. Interim recruitment is often deemed to be more expensive than for permanent staff, although when worked out in detail, this isn’t always the case – especially when considering additional employee costs such as holiday pay, sick pay, office costs etc. Read this to discover more about competitive day rates for product and marketing interim roles.
3. IR35. The liability for employers around IR35 remains a concern for some employers. As interim recruitment experts, we can talk you through the IR35 process and ensure your business remains compliant with the rules.
IR35 or the off-payroll working rules apply when a contractor provides their services through their own limited company or another type of intermediary (agency or employment business) to a client.
The rules ensure that contractors pay Income Tax and National Insurance contributions in the same way as regular employees of the business do.
From 6 April 2021, all public authorities and medium and large-sized clients outside the public sector are responsible for deciding if the rules apply.
A Government legislative fix to the ‘double taxation’ issue is due on 6th April, 2024.
View our comprehensive interview guides for product and marketing interim candidates:
We’d love to keep you up-to-date with new trends within the employer market and top tips for your recruitment strategy.
