What is a fractional IT Director?
A fractional IT Director is a senior IT executive who serves your business part-time on a monthly retainer — owning IT strategy, budget, security, compliance, and vendor decisions — instead of a full-time hire costing $160,000+ in salary and benefits. You get executive-level governance scaled to a 5–50 person firm.
What the retainer covers
- Strategy & budget: a 12-month technology roadmap with costs, reviewed quarterly with ownership.
- Security posture: MFA, backup, endpoint and identity baselines set, monitored, and documented — in the shape cyber-insurance underwriters ask for.
- Compliance ownership: HIPAA Security Rule, FTC Safeguards/WISP, or client-confidentiality programs with written risk analyses and policies.
- Vendor management: we hold your ISP, software vendors, and MSP accountable — and translate their proposals before you sign.
- AI governance: which tools your team may use, with what data, under what policy — decided deliberately instead of by default.
- Purchasing advisory: what to buy, what to skip, license right-sizing. We don't resell hardware, so the advice has no margin behind it.
Engagement levels
| Level | Cadence | From | Fits |
|---|
| Advisory | Monthly strategy session + on-call questions + annual roadmap | $1,500/mo | Firms with working day-to-day IT that lack direction |
| Standard | Everything above + vendor management + compliance program + quarterly owner reviews | $3,000/mo | Regulated firms of 10–30 people |
| Embedded | Everything above + project leadership + multi-site oversight + staff liaison | $5,000+/mo | Multi-location practices and growing firms |
One-off advisory is available at $200/hr. See the full pricing page.
Fractional IT Director vs. MSP
An MSP sells tickets, monitoring, and helpdesk labor. A fractional IT Director sits on your side of the table — setting strategy, holding vendors (including your MSP) accountable, owning compliance, advising on spend. Many clients use both: we lead, the MSP or internal tech executes.