Search for what a fractional executive costs in Dubai and you will find a range within thirty seconds. AED 15,000 to 35,000 a month for a COO. AED 8,000 to 18,000 for a CFO. AED 11,000 to 37,000 for a CTO. Fifty to seventy per cent cheaper than a permanent appointment.
Not one of those figures carries a source. We read the articles they appear in. One piece we read carries sixteen numbers and cites none of them.
So this piece does two things. It builds the number that can be built, from published law and a published salary guide. And it explains why the second number is missing.
The number that can be built
A company deciding between a full-time appointment and a fractional one is comparing against a cost it can calculate exactly. Here is the calculation, with the source of each line.
Base salary. Cooper Fitch, whose UAE salary guide is the reference most search firms in this market work from, put a UAE CFO base at AED 61,000 to 92,000 a month in its 2025 edition. Take the lower end for a mid-market company: AED 732,000 a year.
Allowances. Housing, transport and schooling are standard in a UAE senior package and are usually structured as a percentage of base. A conservative loading is 25% to 40%. At 30%, that is AED 219,600.
Medical insurance. Mandatory for the employee and, in Dubai, for sponsored dependants. For a senior package with family cover, budget AED 20,000 to 45,000 a year.
The visa. Employment visa, Emirates ID, medical and establishment card charges, plus the annual renewal cycle.
Recruitment. Executive search in this market runs at a percentage of first-year total compensation. Contingency work sits lower, retained search higher.
End-of-service gratuity. This one is law, not a market rate. Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 sets gratuity at 21 days of basic wage for each of the first five years of continuous service and 30 days of basic wage for each year after that, payable once the employee has completed one year. On AED 61,000 of monthly basic, the first year accrues around AED 42,700, and it accrues every year whether the appointment works or not.
The gap while the seat is empty. A senior search in this region does not close in a month. Whatever the seat is worth to the company, it is worth nothing for the length of the search.
Add the first six lines at the bottom of the range and the first year of a full-time CFO in Dubai sits comfortably above AED 1m before a single decision has been made. That figure is defensible line by line, and every line above has a public source behind it.
The number we will not print
Here is what a fractional rate card would need in order to be honest: a survey of what companies in this region actually pay leaders on part-week engagements, with a sample size, a date and a method.
It does not exist.
The nearest thing is Heidrick & Struggles' Talent Lens Survey, which reached 3,810 full-time independent executives in August 2025 and is the largest study of its kind. Its geography split is 64% North America, 26% Europe and Africa, 7% Latin America, 2% Asia Pacific and 1% Middle East. One per cent of 3,810 is around 38 people across the whole region, and the survey does not publish a Gulf cut.
Publishing an AED range on top of that evidence base would be an invention. Every site that has published one has invented it, and a buyer who checks will find that out.
What the Heidrick survey does tell us is the direction of rates rather than the level: 30% of independent executives reported higher daily rates in 2025 than in 2024, 50% reported no change, and 20% reported a decline. That is a market holding steady, not one running away.
Where the real saving sits, and it is not the rate
The saving in a fractional engagement is structural, not a discount on a day rate.
No gratuity accrues. A business-to-business engagement creates no employment relationship, so there is no end-of-service liability building on the balance sheet.
No visa, no insurance, no establishment cost. The leader holds their own licence, their own residence status and their own cover. That is why the licence check belongs in the appointment process.
Notice is contractual and short. One month is normal. Ending a full-time senior appointment in this region is slower and more expensive than ending a fractional one, and every board that has done both knows the difference.
No search fee, and no empty seat. A company reading a leader's page has already done most of the assessment work that a search process charges for.
Against that, the company gives up presence. A leader who is in the building two days a week is not in the building three days a week, and a company that needs someone in every meeting is buying the wrong instrument.
What to compare, in order
- What does the seat need to own, and can that be owned in two or three days a week.
- What does the full-time version cost in year one, built line by line, including gratuity and the empty months.
- What is this specific leader asking, on their own page, for that scope.
- What does the company lose when the engagement ends, and how quickly can it be replaced.
Question three is the only one with a single answer, and on Atlas it sits on the leader's page rather than in a bracket on ours. Some leaders publish a rate band. Some show it on request, because a published band sets a ceiling with every future client. Both are their decision.
If a network quotes you a market rate for the Gulf, ask which survey it came from. The answer is the most useful thing you will learn in the conversation.