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Fractional IT director
Your IT director, without the hire.
One person accountable for all of it. Most companies your size have IT vendors. Almost none have an IT director. That’s the job we take: run the platform, lead the vendors, answer to you.
Inside the flat fee
What you get every month.
| Area | What you get |
|---|---|
| Leadership | A written roadmap and an annual IT budget. A weekly stand-up with your managers. One name to call. |
| Vendors and spend | Every IT contract and invoice read before you pay it. Renewals negotiated. Vendors held to written scopes. |
| Microsoft 365 and sign-in | Mail, Teams, SharePoint, accounts and licenses. Multi-factor sign-in. New hires ready on day one; departures shut off the same day. |
| Devices and network | Laptops that set themselves up. Patching. Firewall, VPN and Wi-Fi. |
| Security and audit evidence | Access reviews, tested backups, documented controls. And the records to prove them when an auditor, insurer or regulator asks. |
| Servers and the system of record | Windows servers and directory services. For the system the company runs on, whether it’s a decades-old ERP, a banking core or something newer: documentation, access and vendor oversight, so the company never depends on one person’s memory. |
In your industry: Banks and credit unions, Pharmaceutical distribution, Manufacturing, PCI and SOC 2.
Outside the flat fee
What’s priced on its own.
So the monthly number never hides a surprise.
First-line support.
Password resets and “my laptop is slow” go to a named technician: yours, under our direction, or ours at a per-person rate. Not into the director’s week.
Projects.
Portals, integrations, automations and websites are quoted as a fixed fee before work starts.
Hardware and licenses.
Billed separately, in your company’s name.
Sign-off.
We produce the evidence. Your compliance officer, attorney or auditor signs.
The first 90 days
Find everything. Close the big gaps. Agree on the plan.
Days 1–30: find everything.
Systems, accounts, vendors, contracts, invoices, and the things only one person knows. You get a written list of what could stop the business, in plain English.
Days 31–60: close the big gaps.
Shared admin passwords. Untested backups. Accounts for people who left. Doors open to the internet. The short list first.
Days 61–90: agree on the plan.
A roadmap with dates and prices. The first project scoped. The weekly stand-up running.
The price
From $7,500 a month.Flat. Sixty days’ notice.
The fee is set by the size of the job, not the hours on a timesheet. You’ll have it in writing after one conversation.
- The first month is a fixed fee, agreed up front.
- No hourly billing for anything inside the scope.
- Projects quoted separately, fixed fee, before work starts.
- An agreement your auditors can read, ending on 60 days’ notice.
The alternatives
Three ways to get an IT director.
Hire one, lean on your managed service provider, or outsource the role. What each gets you, what it costs, and where it falls short.
Hire an IT manager.
- You get
- One full-time person, in the building.
- It costs
- About $180,000 a year with benefits.
- The catch
- One person can’t cover security, servers, vendors and strategy. They still need vendors behind them, and what they know leaves when they do.
Lean on your MSP.
- You get
- A help desk, monitoring and patching.
- It costs
- A monthly fee per user, plus projects.
- The catch
- The advice comes from the company selling you the projects. Nobody on your side is checking the invoice.
Outsource the role.
- You get
- A fractional IT director who runs the platform, manages the vendors and answers to you.
- It costs
- From $7,500 a month, flat.
- The catch
- It isn’t a help desk. First-line support is priced separately, or stays with your technician or MSP.
Hiring cost: Robert Half 2026 salary data for Birmingham, AL (median $125,440) plus benefits at the U.S. private-industry average reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Who you get
One senior lead. Every engagement.
Nathan Jones founded RapidShift and leads every engagement.
His background is IT leadership inside a bank: leading the team, writing the policies, preparing for FDIC IT exams and SOX audits, bringing in AI with the guardrails on. Plus the engineering to build what the plan calls for.
The same person is in the stand-up, on the vendor call, and reading the invoice. No account managers. No rotating cast.
Questions
The practical ones.
What is a fractional IT director?
An experienced IT leader who works for your company part-time, for a flat fee instead of a salary. They set the plan, manage the vendors and answer to whoever runs the company. You get the role without the hire.
Is that the same as a vCIO or a fractional CIO?
The titles overlap. The question worth asking is whether the person only advises, or also does the work. Ours does the work: the Microsoft 365 tenant, the vendors, the invoices, the audit evidence.
How is this different from a managed service provider?
A managed service provider (MSP) runs tickets and monitoring for a monthly fee per user. An IT director decides what gets run, by whom, and whether the invoice is right.
If you already have an MSP, they can stay. We manage them the way a staff IT director would: scope, service levels, invoices.
What does a fractional IT director cost?
Ours starts at $7,500 a month, flat. For scale, a full-time IT manager runs about $180,000 a year with benefits. First-line support and projects are priced separately, in writing, before work starts.
How many hours do we get?
It isn’t sold in hours. The fee covers the job. If the job grows, we tell you before the bill does.
Can you work alongside our IT person?
Yes. Often that’s the best setup. Your technician handles the day-to-day; we set direction and cover what they can’t.
Do you work on site?
Mostly remote, on your schedule. On site when the work needs hands.
Who owns what you build?
Your accounts, domains, data and documentation are yours and stay in your name. Ownership of custom software is spelled out in each statement of work before we start.
Start here
Two invoices. Two business days.
Send the last two bills from whoever handles your IT. We’ll tell you what you’re paying for, and whether it’s fair. Free.