Senior part-time roles exist, but they rarely use the words you type into a search bar. A lot of them get filled through a contact, an interim contract, or a full-time offer that someone renegotiated down to four days. So the search is less about finding one special job board and more about learning where, and when, the hours actually get decided.
Where reduced-hours senior roles actually get posted
Start with the obvious channel and accept its limits. Most large job boards let you filter by contract type, and "part-time" is usually one of the options. The catch is that employers tag senior roles inconsistently. A head of finance role at 0.8 FTE may be tagged full-time because the HR system has no other box, and the hours only appear in the third paragraph of the description.
So run the filter, then run a second search on the phrases employers actually write: "0.6 FTE", "three days a week", "24 hours", "pro rata", "four-day week". Save both searches. The second one usually turns up roles the first one missed.
Flexible-work boards and specialist agencies
There is a whole category of job boards built around flexible work, and some recruitment agencies specialise in part-time and reduced-hours placements for professionals. Names change by country and some of these sites charge a subscription, so judge them on one thing: whether the roles they list match your level. A board full of admin roles at 20 hours is a different market from one listing a part-time product director.
An agency that already places senior people on reduced hours tends to know which employers have said yes to the idea before. That is the information you cannot get from a listing.
Interim and fractional work
For many experienced people, the shortest route to fewer hours is to stop looking for a permanent part-time contract. Interim management fills a gap for a fixed period, often at full intensity, then ends. Fractional work is the opposite shape: a finance director, marketing lead or HR lead who gives one or two days a week to several smaller companies.
Neither is a permanent job with a steady payslip, and the income can be lumpy. But for people with a clear specialism, fractional roles are often where the senior reduced-hours work actually sits.
Your own network
This is the channel people underuse because it feels like asking a favour. It isn't. A former manager who knows your work can argue for a 0.8 contract in a way no cover letter can, because they are vouching for what you deliver in four days.
Tell a handful of people specifically what you are after ("a senior operations role, three or four days, open to hybrid") rather than "something flexible". Vague asks get vague answers.
Reading "flexible" in a job listing
"Flexible" is the most overloaded word in recruitment. In a listing it can mean quite different things:
- Flexible location: hybrid or remote, still a full working week.
- Flexible hours: you choose your start and finish times, still 37 or 40 hours.
- Genuinely reduced hours: fewer contracted hours, and a salary that reflects them.
Only the last one is what you are looking for, and it is the rarest. When a listing says "flexible working considered" without detail, treat it as an open door rather than a promise. Some employers write it by default. Others mean it and would happily hire at four days for the right person. The only way to tell is to ask, which raises the question of timing.
The four-day week: compressed or reduced?
"Four-day week" covers two arrangements that feel completely different once you are living them. A compressed week fits your full hours into four longer days, at full pay. A reduced week cuts your hours, typically to around 80 percent of full time, usually with pay pro rata. A few employers run a third model, four days at full pay as a company-wide policy, but those offers say so explicitly and are still uncommon.
When a posting mentions a four-day week, find out which one it means before you invest in the application. Ten-hour days suit some people and quietly exhaust others, especially anyone with school runs or caring duties at both ends of the day. Neither is better in the abstract. The mistake is assuming you are applying for one and discovering at offer stage that it is the other.
When to ask: before applying, at offer, or after joining
There are three moments to raise reduced hours, and each one trades something away.
- Before applying. A short message to the recruiter: "Is this role open to four days?" You lose nothing if the answer is no, and you save yourself a long process. The risk is that some recruiters quietly drop candidates who ask, especially for roles the business has always seen as full-time.
- At offer. Once they want you, you have the most leverage you will ever have with this employer. The trade-off is a late surprise for the hiring manager, and some offers get withdrawn or reworked. Ask for it as a concrete proposal (which day off, what happens to the scope) rather than as an open question.
- After joining. You prove yourself at full time, then request a change. It is the safest route for the relationship and the slowest for you, and there is no guarantee the answer will be yes.
My view: for genuinely senior roles, ask before applying or on the first call. Being upfront filters out employers who were never going to agree, and the ones that say yes have often done it before. If you also want to negotiate where you work, remote work is its own negotiation and worth keeping separate from the hours.
Pay, scope and your legal footing
Reduced hours should mean a reduced job, not a full job paid at 80 percent. This is the part people underestimate. Before you accept, agree in writing what the role covers at four days: which meetings you drop, who covers the fifth day, whether your targets are adjusted. A part-time role with full-time objectives is a pay cut with extra stress.
On pay, pro rata is the normal starting point: 80 percent of the hours, 80 percent of the salary. Check how bonuses, pension contributions and holiday are calculated, because these do not always scale cleanly. Ask the question plainly; a good employer will have the answer ready.
On rights, many countries give employees some form of legal right to request flexible working or reduced hours, but the rules vary widely: who qualifies, after how long, and on what grounds an employer can refuse. In France, moving to temps partiel during conge parental is one example. In Spain, the reduccion de jornada for caring responsibilities is another. Treat these as a reason to check the rules where you work, not as legal advice, and talk to an employment adviser or your union before relying on them.
A search plan for the next two weeks
Put the pieces together and the search looks like this. Set up saved searches on two general boards using the phrases employers actually write, not just the part-time filter. Add one flexible-work board or agency that lists roles at your level. Write a two-line message describing exactly the role and hours you want, and send it to people who have seen your work. If you have a specialism, look at what fractional and interim roles exist in it.
Then make your documents match. Separate guides cover the CV for a part-time job and the cover letter that goes with it. If you are searching during parental leave, or coming back after a career break, those situations have their own plans too. And if your LinkedIn profile is more up to date than your CV, a tool like Postulit can turn it into a clean CV to start from.
The hours are usually decided in a conversation, not in a listing. Find those conversations early and say exactly what you want.