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Tracey Johnson said she had the perfect job as a full-time institutional trader for a firm on Wall Street. But she was forced to quit after time devoted to the care of her son born with Fragile X Syndrome and autism was beginning to take its toll on her career.

Johnson left her job and went back to school to get a graduate degree in Journalism. After she started a business centered around financial writing and editing, Johnson went looking for clients.

“I saw a story in the Wall Street Journal about Flexible Executives,” she said. “They had testimonials from parents of special needs kids, and I saw that they helped raise money for autism in their area.”

For Johnson, it was a perfect match. “They understand the need for a flexible schedule and work to fill that for their clients.”

Flexible Executives is an Atlanta-based search firm specializing in providing contractors for outsourced projects. Co-founders Jamie Pennington and Cammi Jones, who also has a child with autism, started the company in order to provide companies access to blue-chip talent at affordable rates. But Pennington said that with the added perspective of a mother with a special needs child, they began to look at a different audience to serve their clients’ needs.

Now over 10 percent of Flexible Executives’ contractor list is made up of the parents of special needs children.

“The flexibility of our format appeals to these parents,” Pennington said. “They want to be known for something other than having a child with special needs. They would also like to say, hey, I’m a great advertising executive, or I’m a great lawyer, too.”

MiRia Mukasa-Cambie, a mother of twins that have special needs challenges, said that she found out about Flexible Executives after Jones, the mother of her son’s classmate, sent out an email looking for contractors in various fields, one of which was Web Design.

“With all the therapists coming and going from my home during the day, I needed to find work that would offer interesting projects and challenges while still affording me time to address my family needs from home,” she said.

Mukasa-Cambie began as a contractor with Flexible Executives and soon found herself re-designing a Web site for a financial consultant.

“It was a fantastic opportunity for me to maintain my design skills without the pressure of full-time work hours,” she said. “I could work on my schedule, at my own pace, as long as project deadlines were met and the client was satisfied with the outcome.”

Pennington said that they currently have several hundred executives across the U.S. working in management consulting, marketing, sales, and advertising roles, to name a few.

“Word of mouth has just spread like wildfire,” she said. “And we are so honored to have all of these people involved.”