ยท 7 min read
Hiring a CTO versus bringing in a fractional one: the decision for a 40 to 400 person company.
Hire a full-time CTO when software is the product, or when the in-house team is heading past 15 to 20 engineers and needs leading every day. Otherwise start with a fractional CTO. It starts within weeks, it costs less than a full package once employer costs and the search are counted, and it tells you what the permanent role actually is before you spend 6 to 9 months filling the wrong one. Often the right answer is both, in that order.
What a full-time CTO costs in Belgium and the Netherlands
There is no clean public benchmark for "CTO of a company with 40 to 400 staff". The closest reliable one is the IT director line in the Robert Half salary guides, which report by percentile and are based on real hiring data. Treat it as the floor of a CTO package, not the ceiling: a CTO at a software company usually earns above an IT director at a company of the same size.
- Belgium. The Robert Half 2027 salary guide for Belgium puts an IT director at EUR 7 850 to EUR 11 100 gross a month, 25th to 75th percentile. With the 13th month and double holiday pay, that is about EUR 109 000 to EUR 155 000 a year. Employer social contributions add roughly 25 percent on top.
- The Netherlands. The Robert Half 2026 salary guide for the Netherlands puts the same role at EUR 8 284 to EUR 11 688 gross a month. With the 8 percent holiday allowance, about EUR 107 000 to EUR 151 000 a year. Dutch employers pay 20 to 35 percent on top of gross salary in employer costs.
- The spread. Self-reported data is wider and noisier. PayScale's Belgian CTO sample, only 21 profiles, runs total pay from EUR 64 000 to EUR 268 000.
| Belgium | Netherlands | |
|---|---|---|
| Gross monthly salary, IT director, 25th to 75th percentile | EUR 7 850 to EUR 11 100 | EUR 8 284 to EUR 11 688 |
| Annual gross, with 13th month and holiday pay | About EUR 109 000 to EUR 155 000 | About EUR 107 000 to EUR 151 000 |
| Employer costs on top | About 25 percent | 20 to 35 percent |
| Cost to the company before bonus, car, pension, equity | About EUR 135 000 to EUR 195 000 | About EUR 130 000 to EUR 205 000 |
| Notice period when a candidate resigns elsewhere | Up to 13 weeks | 1 month by law, up to 6 months by contract |
Add a bonus, a car or mobility budget, group insurance or pension, and equity at a scale-up, and a senior CTO package at a company that has to compete for one moves well past EUR 200 000 a year.
For comparison, a fractional CTO at 2 days a week, at a market rate of EUR 1 100 to EUR 1 600 a day, costs about EUR 100 000 to EUR 150 000 over a year. That is not cheap, and anyone who tells you fractional is a bargain per day is selling something. The difference is elsewhere: it is 40 percent of the time, it starts within weeks, and it stops when the work is done. Advisory at 3 days a month costs about a third of that. The market rates are covered in more detail in what an interim CTO costs in Belgium and the Netherlands.
The 6 to 9 month timeline
Owners plan a CTO hire as if it takes a quarter. From the decision to hire to a CTO making real decisions in the building, it usually takes 6 to 9 months, and each step is longer than it looks.
- Defining the role: 2 to 4 weeks. CTO, head of engineering, or IT manager are three different jobs. Most companies start the search before they have decided which one.
- The search: 2 to 4 months. Good candidates are employed and not looking. A recruiter shortens the list, not the calendar.
- Interviews, references, offer: 3 to 6 weeks.
- Notice period: up to 13 weeks in Belgium. A Belgian employee who resigns serves at most 13 weeks. In the Netherlands the legal minimum is 1 month, but contracts can extend it to 6, and senior contracts often do.
- Onboarding: 2 to 3 months. A new CTO who makes structural decisions in month 1 is either brave or reckless. Most need a quarter to read the code, the team, and the suppliers.
Meanwhile nobody grades the supplier, the hiring plan waits, and the senior engineers watch the empty seat.
The risk of the wrong hire at that level
A wrong hire at CTO level is not a bad quarter. It is usually a year: 6 to 9 months to hire, another 6 before anyone admits it is not working, then a negotiated exit and a second search. On the way, the decisions that CTO made stay behind, from the platform they chose to the people they hired and the ones who left because of them.
The patterns repeat. A CTO from a large corporate who builds the department they are used to, for a company that needed one owner and two suppliers. A startup CTO who joins a 300-person manufacturer and is lost without a product team. The best engineer promoted into a role that is now mostly people and budgets. Each was hired for a job nobody had defined. The signs your CTO isn't the right CTO are often visible from the job description onwards.
When a fractional CTO comes before a hire
- You do not yet know which role you need. A fractional CTO spends the first weeks reading the code, the team, and the suppliers, and then writes the job description from what is actually there. That alone avoids the most common wrong hire.
- The seat is empty and the team is leaking. Someone holds the seat while the search runs, so the senior engineers have a reason to stay. That is the bridge described under CTO replacement.
- Something has to be fixed before a good candidate will join. A team that is the wrong size, a supplier contract that owns your platform, a delivery rhythm that stopped. Strong candidates read those signs in the interview and decline. Fix them first, then hire. For a funded company this is often the scale-up engagement: restructure, stabilise, recruit.
When a fractional CTO replaces a hire
For many SMEs a full-time CTO never becomes the right answer, and that is fine. If software supports the business rather than defining it, the in-house team is under 15 engineers, and most building happens through suppliers, there is rarely 5 days of CTO work in a week. A fractional CTO a few days a month, together with a promoted internal lead, covers the role for years. That is the shape the SME practice is built around. The signal to change it is simple: when the fractional days stop fitting in the week, hire.
The handover
When a fractional precedes a hire, the handover decides whether the money was well spent. A sequence that works: the fractional CTO defines the role, sits on the interview panel, and briefs the finalists honestly on what they are walking into. Once the hire starts, the fractional stays on for a fixed period, 1 day a week for about 6 weeks, to hand over the decisions in flight, the supplier relationships, and the written record of why things are the way they are. Then they leave, on a date agreed in advance. A fractional CTO who wants the permanent job has a conflict of interest in the search. Ask about it before you start.
Frequently asked
How much does a full-time CTO cost in Belgium or the Netherlands?
As a floor, the Robert Half salary guides put an IT director at EUR 7 850 to EUR 11 100 gross a month in Belgium and EUR 8 284 to EUR 11 688 in the Netherlands. With holiday pay and employer costs, that is roughly EUR 130 000 to EUR 205 000 a year to the company before bonus, car, pension, and equity. A senior CTO at a company that has to compete for candidates usually costs well over EUR 200 000 all in.
How long does it take to hire a CTO?
Usually 6 to 9 months from the decision to a CTO making real decisions. Defining the role takes 2 to 4 weeks, the search 2 to 4 months, interviews and the offer 3 to 6 weeks, the notice period up to 13 weeks in Belgium and up to 6 months by contract in the Netherlands, and onboarding another 2 to 3 months.
Should I bring in a fractional CTO before hiring a full-time one?
Often yes, in three situations: when you do not yet know which role you need, when the seat is empty and senior engineers are starting to leave, and when something has to be fixed before a strong candidate will accept. The fractional CTO writes the job description from what is actually there, sits on the interview panel, and hands over to the hire.
Can a fractional CTO become my permanent CTO?
Some do, but it creates a conflict of interest in the search, because the person defining the role is also a candidate for it. I do not take the permanent seat. The engagement is built to end with someone else in it, which keeps the recommendation on who to hire honest.
Written from patterns I've seen across engagements. If any of it sounds too specific to be general, that's why.
Salary and notice-period figures come from the sources linked in the text, as published on 7 October 2026. Annual figures are my conversion of the published monthly ranges.
Related reading: signs your CTO isn't the right CTO, fractional CTO, agency, or full-time hire, and what an interim CTO costs in Belgium and the Netherlands.