How quickly can I hire a Director of Data, and how are candidates screened?

Most clients are matched with a Director of Data in ~3 days , and there is no deposit to start sourcing. Every operator is pre-screened by veteran executive recruiters on track record, references, and hands-on data leadership before you meet them. That process is why our match success rate is 98% .

How is Go Fractional different from a data agency or freelance site?

Go Fractional is a dedicated fractional executive marketplace , not an agency and not a generic freelance platform. You hire the Director of Data directly, and they work inside your team rather than handing off deliverables. We draw from a network of 19,000 operators and use AI-powered matching to find people who have already solved your specific data problem, such as consolidating a sprawling warehouse or standing up governance for a SOC 2 audit.

Can I convert a fractional Director of Data to full-time?

Yes. Contract-to-hire lets you work with your Director of Data on real pipelines and real stakeholders before making a permanent offer. If you convert, the fee is 20% of first-year salary .

What does a Director of Data and analytics actually do in the first few weeks?

A Director of Data starts with an audit: which sources feed the warehouse, which metrics leadership relies on, and where definitions conflict or pipelines fail. From there they set a short list of certified metrics , assign ownership, and decide what the analysts and engineers stop doing. Expect an early roadmap that ties data work to specific business decisions, such as pricing, retention, or forecasting, rather than a backlog of dashboards.

Do I need a Director of Data, a Head of Data Science, or a data engineering lead?

Hire a Director of Data when the problem spans strategy, governance, reporting, and team leadership at once. A Head of Data Science fits when clean data already exists and the goal is models and experimentation, while a data engineering lead fits when the gap is mostly pipelines and infrastructure. Many growing companies start with a Director of Data, who then decides which of those specialist roles to hire next.

Which skills should I screen for in a Director of Data?

Look for hands-on fluency in SQL, Python, and a modern stack such as dbt, Snowflake or BigQuery, and Looker or Tableau, plus a working grasp of statistics and when machine learning is worth the effort. Equally important is governance experience: access controls, data quality testing, and lineage. Ask for an example where their analysis changed a business decision, and how they explained it to non-technical executives.

Hire a Fractional Director of Data

Get a pre-screened Director of Data who has already built warehouses, metric layers, and governance programs like yours, matched in about 3 days and working on a monthly retainer.

Helen P

Fractional Director of DataThe New York Times, Peloton Interactive, Foursquare

Fractional Data Scientist with 15+ years experience at NYTimes, Peloton. Specializing in Analytics, SQL, Python and AWS.

Hire Helen

Tim R

Fractional Director of DataBank of America / Merrill Lynch, Constant Contact, Open Text

Experienced fractional analytics leader with expertise in data analysis, business intelligence and startups. Excelled at ChowNow leveraging Tableau, Python, SQL.

Hire Tim

David K

Fractional Director of DataThe Home Depot, Macy's, LG Electronics

Experienced Head of Data & Analytics specializing in fractional roles, with expertise in ETL tools, Python, Big Data, and Google Cloud Platform.

Hire David

Brigit L

Fractional Director of DataCitigroup, Airbnb, SEPHORA

High-level data analytics leader with expertise in fractional strategies. Proficient in SQL, R, Python for customer insights.

Hire Brigit

Rutvij S

Fractional Director of DataSTAPLES, Inc, Dassault Systèmes, MIT

Fractional data expert driving scalable solutions in BI, analytics, ETL, and governance. Empowering businesses with strategic insights.

Hire Rutvij

Our members have led data at

19,000+

Operators

~3 days

Average Time to Match

98%

Match Success Rate

No Deposit

Want to see more profiles?

Meet uniquely qualified Fractional Director of Datasfor your company. Tell us your needs and we’ll handpick your best matches from the network.

Find My Fractional Director of Data

When to hire a Fractional Director of Data

Bring in a Director of Data when your company has data but no one accountable for whether it is right, used, and turned into decisions.

Hire a Fractional Director of Data

Finance and product report different numbers
Revenue, churn, and active users change depending on who pulled them, and leadership meetings turn into arguments about whose dashboard is correct.
Your warehouse grew without a plan
Tables pile up in Snowflake or BigQuery with no modeling layer, no ownership, and pipelines that break silently overnight.
Analysts work as a ticket queue
Your data team spends its week on ad hoc SQL requests instead of the analysis and forecasting that would change a decision.
Governance is now a compliance question
Customers, auditors, or investors are asking about data access, retention, and lineage, and nobody can answer with confidence.
The AI or ML project has no foundation
Leadership wants predictive models or an AI feature, but the training data is incomplete and nobody owns the path from pilot to production.
Your last data leader left
The roadmap stalled, the team lacks direction, and you need someone running the function while you decide on a permanent hire.

The benefits of hiring a Fractional Director of Data

A fractional Director of Data gives you one accountable owner for your data strategy, pipelines, and reporting, scoped to the work you actually have.

Hire a Fractional Director of Data

Put one owner on every metric your board sees

Senior data leadership across analytics, modeling, and governance without carrying a full-time director's salary, equity, and benefits.

Fix the pipeline before next quarter's close

Candidates are pre-screened before you meet them, so your Director of Data can start in days instead of after a months-long search.

Build governance with someone who has done it

Meet operators who have shipped dbt models, Snowflake or BigQuery warehouses, ML pilots, and data quality programs at companies your size.

The process

How to hire a Fractional Director of Data

No more juggling job boards and sorting through pools of unqualified applicants. Hiring a Fractional Director of Data is easy with Go Fractional.

Hire a Fractional Director of Data

Intro Call

Answer a few quick questions, then book a free 30-minute intro call with our team to review your goals, needs, and team dynamics.

Meet Experts

Our AI finds Fractional Director of Data candidates whose past clients and projects match your brief, which you won’t find on LinkedIn. A dedicated executive recruiter verifies each one’s experience, fit, and genuine interest, and you meet the ones who fit in about 3 days.

Start Work

Book time with candidates right from your shortlist, choose your operator, and sign a simple month-to-month agreement. We move as fast as you do.

What a Fractional Director of Data Costs

Engagements that fit how you work

Every Go Fractional engagement is structured for senior leadership without full-time overhead. Start fractional, scale up, or convert to full-time when you’re ready.

Fractional Director of Data

Senior leadership on a part-time schedule
Monthly retainer, no recruiting fees
Scale hours up or down as needs change

$5,000/month

Starting at · about 27 hrs/month at the $186/hr average

Start with a Retainer

Contract-to-Hire

Trial a Fractional Director of Data on a fractional engagement before converting them to a full-time hire.

Keep the expert's learnings or convert to full-time
Try the fit before you commit, no hiring risk
Faster speed to market, conserving time and resources

Book Time to Learn More

Interim Director of Data

Full-time coverage for a defined stretch: a leadership gap, a transition, or a critical project.

$24,000/month

Starting at · full-time hours

Hire Interim

Fractional Director of Data rates average $186/hr across our live benchmarks. Pricing scales with hours and scope.

Director of Data Hourly Rates

Fractional vs full-time vs agency

Three ways to get Director of Data leadership, and where each one wins.

Factor	Fractional Director of Data	Full-time Director of Data	Data agency or consultancy
Time to hire	~3 days	3-6 months	2-6 weeks
Engagement	Monthly retainer	Salary + equity + benefits	Project fee with markup
Owns data strategy and metric definitions	Yes, embedded with leadership	Yes	Rarely, scoped to deliverables
Leads your analysts and engineers	Yes	Yes	No, brings its own staff
Governance and data quality	Sets policy and builds it into your stack	Sets policy long term	Delivers docs, leaves upkeep to you
Best for	Data leadership now, flexible scope	Large data org needing a permanent leader	One-off dashboard or pipeline builds

We’ve helped hundreds of organizations Go Fractional

Twelve years: the average experience across a network of handpicked executives ready to make an impact on day one.

“Hiring a fractional Head of Data Science has been transformative for our company. At just 50% of the cost of a full-time data scientist, we secured a seasoned data leader with over 12 years of experience in top startups. This strategic move has significantly enhanced our data strategy and execution. The expert leadership has instilled confidence in our data capabilities, driving measurable results for our business.”

Khadija AliHead of Product, #paid

“It was literally three days after he started with us fractionally, our CEO was calling me and asking if we could get a full-time offer out.”

Victoria AshtonSenior VP of People, Lob

“It's a can't-lose scenario. You either get the learnings from the subject matter expert, or you get the full-time capability. It provided a ton of flexibility, much faster speed to market, and conservation of time and resources.”