For employers · the exception
The one role I would close the practice for.
Everything else on this site is built around staying fractional — three clients at most, public prices, boundaries I keep. This page is the honest exception: the shape of role that would end all of that, and the bar it has to clear before I would even consider it.
Three things, and they have to be true together.
- 01A company that is genuinely good at what it does. Not a logo I could describe as impressive — one whose work I would defend in an argument, and whose engineering or operating culture I would learn from rather than repair.
- 02Compensation that matches what it replaces. A full-time role does not sit next to the practice — it takes its place. The number has to reflect that, and it is a conversation, not a page. No range published here, on purpose: it depends entirely on the country, the level and the company.
- 03Work I would be proud to have my name on. Not the title — the room. Senior people who argue about the right things, decisions that are written down, and a problem large enough that owning it for years sounds like a good use of a decade of practice.
Two out of three is a no. That is not posturing — it is the arithmetic of giving up something that already works.
What it would cost on my side.
Retainers end properly, not quietly. Every client I have would get the handover written down, the systems documented, and enough notice to hire or reassign — that is the same promise that makes the fractional work worth buying in the first place, and it does not get suspended because a better offer arrived.
Which is the real reason the bar sits where it does. A role that is worth breaking a working practice for is rare by definition. If yours is, you will know it from the first conversation, and so will I.
Location. I work remotely, from Bali, and that is deliberate. Relocation is the one thing this band changes: for a role that clears all three, moving is on the table — including to a company’s own city. That is a conversation to have in person, not a policy to publish.
If you think yours is that role, say so in the first message.
Tell me what the company is, what the role owns, and why you think it clears all three. You’ll get an honest answer either way, with reasons — and if it doesn’t clear the bar, I’ll say what would.