Why Don’t I See any Fractional Roles for Me or My Function Area?

The Most Popular Fractional Roles, and Why

Many companies often hire fractionally in comfortable, well-understood domains first. Functions like CFO, CMO, and CTO are very familiar titles with recognizable deliverables.

But that’s not the only reason they’re popular. It’s also because these tend to be the areas where its easy for a founder or business owner to say “I have this problem, and I need to bring in an expert to solve it.”

If a company has a need for strategic finance work, their first instinct is going to be to find a finance expert to solve it for them. However, if a company has a need for strategic operations work, the first instinct might be for the founder to do it themself, or have another team member step in.

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The Less Popular Roles, and Why It’ll Change

Fractional roles in Product, Operations, Sales, HR, etc. are rising quickly in popularity, but not yet super popular. These are all examples of roles that we all know are common roles at companies, but company instincts tend to have them pull in other team members to try and solve these problems, or simply just go without solving them for a while, perhaps to their detriment.

Remember that fractional work is still very new. It’s going to take time for founders and business owners to understand its benefits, and they’re probably going to start with the more obvious roles first like CFOs or CMOs.

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Fractional Needs Evolve As Companies Grow

Needs around expertise change as companies mature. Companies usually hire fractional in this pattern:

1. Immediate operational needs first. Early on, companies focus on urgent gaps that clearly impact revenue or operations.
2. Leadership and scaling comes next. As the companies grow, they bring in part-time experts to provide strategy and governance without the financial burden of a full-time hire.
3. Deeper functions typically come later. Once fractional leadership for core roles proves valuable, companies will often expand into other areas like product, people operations, data, or legal.

This means some function areas simply haven’t reached the adoption threshold yet.

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Job Postings Do Not Equal Demand

Just because a role isn’t posted on a job board like Fractional Jobs, does not mean it doesn’t exist. Many fractional engagements are filled through:

• Referrals and networks
• Founders or executives reaching out directly
• Rolling, informal conversations rather than public postings

In other words, demand may be there but it is just not yet frequent enough to gain visibility on places like job boards, Linkedin, or other places.

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You Can Create Your Own Demand

If you do not see many fractional roles in your area, that doesn’t have to be the end of the story. Fractional work is still shaping itself, and individuals who take it upon themselves to do outbound outreach and define the value of their function can create demand. This is how most fractional leaders get their business, even for the most popular function areas.

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Quick Summary

Not seeing fractional roles listed for your function area usually means the market has not fully matured in that space yet. It does not mean your skills are not valuable or that companies do not need what you do. Demand often starts off happening through networks, referrals, and direct outreach.

If you want a more in-depth understanding, read Taylor’s personal take on this question, including what he calls Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 fractional hiring.

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