The Leadership.
Fractional and Accountable.
I run your data, systems or delivery function for three to six months. Real decisions, a real team, a clean exit. Make the permanent hire later, once you know what the role should be.
Statement of Work, not day rate. In place in weeks.
Two ways to put
someone on the hook.
Fractional Programme Lead
When a new ERP, a finance system or a core platform replacement needs someone running it day to day, not a PM updating a status report on Fridays.
See the systems track →Fractional Data & Operations Lead
When a data migration, a reporting rebuild or an ops team needs a senior owner who stays through go-live and the messy weeks after.
See the data track →What I do
I join the team and run the function as a principal. For three to six months it's mine: the team, the rhythm, the decisions, the data and vendor work, and the awkward calls. Where the work needs more hands, my team at Stratford Ellis comes in behind me.
What it produces
A team that keeps running after I'm gone. The proof of a decent engagement is that my exit doesn't cause a wobble.
What it isn't
Not a report-and-leave job. I'm on the hook for the outcome.
Typically 3 to 6 months · Statement of Work, not day rate · Embedded, not advisory
Principal,
not consultant.
Ten years leading data migrations, core system replacements, reporting rebuilds and the operating models around them. ERP, finance, CRM and data platforms, in regulated places where getting it wrong is expensive.
What I'm good at is reading how a system, a dataset and an operating model actually fit together, spotting where delivery will break, and putting a number on a decision before it gets made. I've built the systems and I've been the customer integrating them.
I take the seat as a principal, not a consultant. I know what good looks like at your stage and what it takes to get there.
When the function
needs an owner.
Urgency
Hiring takes three to six months. Your lead has left, or the work is now. You need someone running it in weeks.
Leader bottleneck
You're running the programme by default. A fractional lead takes it off you while you work out what the permanent role should be.
Capable but untested team
A strong team that hasn't done a migration at this scale. I set up how the work runs, lead the first one, then leave.
Board or investor signal
The board wants real delivery maturity. A new job title won't do it. A credible operator in the seat will.
Transformation mandate
New core system, new data platform, new operating model. Nobody internal has done it before. You need the right person for this phase, not forever.
Stabilisation
A stalled migration, a rough go-live, a programme that's drifted. You need it steadied, not written up.
Silent dysfunction
Leadership and delivery disagree about what's happening, and nobody internal can say so without paying for it. An outsider can.
Internal candidate
Someone should be running this in twelve months. I hold it now, develop them, hand it over cleanly.
If one of these
is your situation.
Tell me where delivery's breaking down. I'll tell you whether a fractional lead is the right answer.
What people
ask first.
- What is a fractional delivery lead?
- A senior programme leader working part-time for a defined three to six months. I sit in the leadership team, make the decisions and own the outcomes. That's what separates it from consulting.
- When should I bring one in?
- When a data, systems or operations programme is holding the business back and you're not ready for a full-time hire, or don't need one.
- How is this different from a consultant?
- A consultant advises and writes documents. I run the team, set the plan and own what ships. Inside the organisation, not next to it.
- What is an interim lead?
- Someone filling a full-time role temporarily. This works the same way: properly inside, real decisions, a defined exit.
- How is this different from a project manager?
- A PM tracks tasks against someone else's plan. I own how the work is designed: the operating model, the system and data choices, the team, the accountability.
- How is this different from hiring Stratford Ellis directly?
- Stratford Ellis is the firm and the team behind me. This is me personally in the seat. Where the work needs more hands, the firm provides them.
- How long does it last?
- Three to six months. Build the function, set the ways of working, hand over to a permanent hire or your internal team. Built to end, not to drift.
- How much does it cost?
- Scope dependent, on a Statement of Work rather than a day rate. You pay for a defined outcome and a clean exit, not open-ended time.
Words from the room.
A handful of notes from leaders, founders and chairs I've worked alongside.
Barbs walked into a programme that had been stuck for nine months and had us all reading off the same page inside a fortnight. The plan we left with was the one we actually ran.
She tells you what she thinks. No fluff, no vendor agenda. Our board got a read on our data we could finally act on, and a short list of fixes we could start on Monday.
Having Barbs in the room changed how we made the call. She knew the context from month two and saved us from at least one expensive mistake on the systems side.