WTF is Fractional Work?
The following post is synthesises a 1 hour webinar that we ran on April 11th, 2025:
“WTF is Fractional Work?”.
You can watch the full webinar on our Youtube channel here!
Greg and I did I photoshoot for this cover, I hope you like it.
Let me be blunt: fractional work is exploding. Not just in finance. Not just in startups. Everywhere.
This post is a synthesis of the insights we shared in our recent Enki webinar, "WTF is Fractional Work?" alongside some behind-the-scenes thinking that went into our slides. If you missed the live session, consider this your catch-up. If you joined, here’s the deep dive.
So, WTF is Fractional Work?
Fractional work is a flexible, dynamic way of working where experienced professionals offer their expertise to one or more businesses without being a full-time employee of any of them.
It’s not just a trendy rebrand of part-time work. It’s more strategic than consulting. It can be project-based, permanent, interim, or BAU. And you might work 2 days/week for two companies, 3 days for one and take the rest off, or run a full client portfolio across the month.
The key here is you own your time. You own your positioning. You’re not slotting into a fixed job description — you’re being brought in for your expertise, your perspective, and your impact.
"Fractional work in its truest sense involves a professional offering their expertise to multiple clients or businesses on a part-time or project basis, rather than being a full-time employee of any single organisation." — Caroline Phillips, Agora
Why Now?
Fractional work isn't new. But the reasons it's booming now are worth pausing on:
Post-COVID shift to remote/hybrid work
Budget-conscious hiring (get the talent, skip the full-time cost)
AI eating the middle: automation takes care of the grunt work, and strategic humans are deployed fractionally.
In other words: companies don’t need more bodies. They need better brains. Brains they can borrow, not buy.
The New Operating Model for Careers
If you're mid or senior-level, this is not just about flexibility. It’s about leverage.
Want to test multiple sectors? Go fractional.
Want to accelerate from mid to senior? Go fractional.
Want more control, and potentially earn more? Yep, go fractional【25†source】.
We heard it loud and clear from our community: this is a career accelerator. You're learning faster, operating sharper, and influencing more businesses than you ever could as an employee.
"You can work across multiple industries and sharpen your skills faster... five companies in a year, which you just can't do working one company at a time." - Jed Roberts from enki
"Fractional is almost a new operating model for your career." — Caroline Phillips from enki
What It’s Really Like
We asked our community to speak openly about what it’s like being fractional. Here are the highlights:
The good:
Control over your calendar
Variety of challenges
Faster learning
Increased earnings potential
The hard bits:
Feast/famine cycles
Scope creep
Need for strong self-management
BD is part of the job
"You’ve either got eight days work a week, or you’ve got one." — Matt, enki community member
"It takes time to build a pipeline. Have a cushion so you’re not saying yes to bad roles." — Aisling, enki community member
Traits of a Great Fractional Pro
Fractional work isn’t for everyone. Here’s what works:
Confidence across systems, industries, people
Entrepreneurial mindset
Clear boundaries & scope discipline
Strong networks and BD muscle
You’re not just doing the work. You’re running your own business.
What to Charge (and How)
Rates vary. A lot. But here’s what we’ve seen across Enki:
Avg Day Rate:
CFO - £855
FD - £660
Head of Finance - £575
FP&A Lead - £650
Commercial Finance - £750
Senior avg: £700 / Mid avg: £406
Longer-term roles may pay a bit less. Shorter, high-impact work can pay more. Some charge per day, others per deliverable. Know your worth, be clear on your value, and don’t be afraid to walk away.
"Take your full-time salary, halve it, then add a zero." — Greg Wellman
Why We Started Enki
We started Enki because we could see fractional work taking off, but no one had built the infrastructure around it.
Job boards don’t work. Traditional recruitment is too slow. And most professionals have no idea how to start.
So, we created:
A vetted community
A high-signal marketplace
A support layer to help both sides do better work together
Final Thought
Fractional work is not a trend. It's a shift. It's how ambitious professionals are designing careers with more ownership, leverage, and meaning.
It’s a new career operating model for elite talent.
If you’re interested in exploring a fractional career, please get in touch with us at hello@enki.work
Here are the timestamps for the full webinar:
00:00 – Intro & Housekeeping
00:54 – WTF is Fractional Work?
02:15 – Why Demand for Fractional Work is Booming
04:07 – The AI Shift & Why It Matters for Fractional Careers
06:28 – What is Enki & Why We Built It
06:50 – Caroline: What Fractional Work Really Means
10:05 – Fractional as a New Career Operating Model
11:53 – Matt Emerson: How I Got Into Fractional CFO Work
14:04 – What Types of Companies Hire Fractional Talent?
15:52 – Sven Huckstadt: From VC Portfolio to Independent Fractional
18:09 – Fractional Permanent vs Fractional Interim Explained
19:20 – Aisling: Lifestyle, Try-Before-You-Buy, and Strategic Flexibility
21:31 – Fractional as a Career Accelerator
23:57 – Can Fractional Fast-Track You to CFO Level?
25:46 – The Downsides: Feast/Famine, Scope Creep, Self-Management
28:55 – What Kind of Work Do Fractionals Actually Do?
31:21 – The Role of AI in Reducing Transactional Work
33:23 – What I Wish I Knew Before Going Fractional
36:08 – Summary: Attractions & Trade-offs of Fractional Work
38:00 – Traits of Great Fractional Professionals
41:24 – Greg: How to Price Yourself as a Fractional Pro
46:15 – How to Calculate Your Day Rate
47:38 – Creative Compensation Models: Equity, Bonuses & More
49:27 – What Fractional Roles Are in Demand?
52:00 – Appetite for Fractional in Corporates & Job Shares
53:02 – Private Equity & Fractional: A Growing Opportunity
55:00 – Can Fractional Really Accelerate Your Career?
56:34 – Final Q&A: Is Fractional Right for You?