Fractional Retail Development Director Service

Retail development challenges rarely sit within a single team. They appear when multiple development streams move in different directions, priorities compete and no one owns delivery at a senior, cross-functional level.

The Fractional Retail Development Director Service from Cogent2 provides senior, part time leadership for retailers that need oversight across multiple development teams, platforms and partners. This role operates above individual teams, focusing on delivery alignment, execution governance and ensuring development investment delivers real commercial and operational value.

It is designed for retail businesses with scale or complexity, where Head of Development roles exist but lack a unifying leader to coordinate priorities, manage risk and maintain delivery momentum.

Cogent2’s Fractional Retail Development Directors work inside the organisation, partnering closely with leadership teams. Alongside senior oversight, you gain access to a joined-up technical and integration team that can execute, refine and stabilise delivery when required.

When to hire a Fractional Retail Development Director

This service is particularly well suited to retailers that:

• Run multiple development teams or suppliers

• Have parallel ecommerce, in-store and operational programmes

• Experience delivery conflicts or prioritisation issues

• Lack senior ownership across development functions

• Need strategic delivery leadership on a part time basis

Hiring a Fractional Retail Development Director brings clarity, coordination and accountability across all development activity.

What the service delivers

Cogent2 Fractional Retail Development Directors operate at a senior delivery level with a strong execution mindset.

This typically includes:

• Acting as a Fractional and Part Time Retail Development Director

• Owning delivery governance across multiple teams

• Aligning development roadmaps to retail and trading priorities

• Managing dependencies, risk and delivery sequencing

• Improving communication between technology and the wider business

• Supporting Heads of Development and Tech Leads

Because Cogent2 combines leadership with delivery capability, direction turns into action.

Retail-wide delivery coordination and execution

Retail development spans ecommerce, stores, ERP and operational systems.

The Fractional Retail Development Director Service focuses on ensuring all development activity moves in the same direction.

This includes:

• Coordinating releases across teams and platforms

• Reducing delivery bottlenecks and conflicting priorities

• Improving visibility of progress and risk at leadership level

• Supporting safe delivery around peak trading periods

• Ensuring development spend delivers measurable outcomes

The emphasis is joined-up execution, not isolated delivery.

Standards, governance and delivery discipline

As retail businesses scale, governance becomes critical.

Cogent2 Fractional Retail Development Directors establish:

• Clear delivery frameworks and decision-making processes

• Consistent standards across teams and suppliers

• Practical reporting for leadership teams

• Strong ownership of delivery outcomes

This reduces noise, risk and wasted effort.

Cross-functional senior leadership

Development Directors sit at the intersection of delivery and the business.

Cogent2 Fractional Retail Development Directors work closely with:

• Ecommerce and trading leadership

• Operations and store teams

• Finance and commercial stakeholders

• Technology and integration teams

This ensures development activity supports how the retail business actually operates.

Programme support and delivery stabilisation

Fractional Retail Development Directors are often engaged when programmes become complex or delivery confidence drops.

This can include:

• Stabilising large or multi-stream delivery programmes

• Supporting replatforming or transformation initiatives

• Improving delivery ahead of peak trading

• Reducing reliance on reactive decision making

• Protecting operational stability during change

Cogent2’s joined-up delivery capability allows issues to be addressed decisively.

Ongoing leadership and continuity

Many clients retain this role as ongoing senior oversight rather than a short engagement.

This can include:

• Regular executive-level delivery reviews

• Cover during leadership transition or growth

• Supporting long-term delivery planning

• Acting as a consistent senior development authority

This model provides leadership without adding permanent executive overhead.

The Cogent2 Difference

Cogent2 works alongside retail platforms and delivery teams so our Fractional Development Directors can focus entirely on execution, coordination and delivery outcomes. We do not sell software. We take ownership of how development supports the retail business.

By combining Fractional Retail Development Director leadership with a joined-up technical team, Cogent2 removes the gap between delivery strategy and reliable execution.

Strengthen retail development leadership

Retail development fails when ownership is fragmented.

Hire a Retail Development Director from Cogent2 on a Part Time, Fractional basis to bring clarity, coordination and accountability across your retail delivery landscape.