CMO jobs · Chief marketing officer vacancies · Permanent, interim and fractional
CMO jobs · permanent, interim and fractional
CMO jobs are chief marketing officer roles: the most senior marketing seat in a company, owning brand, demand, customer insight and the marketing budget, and reporting to the chief executive or the board.
They come as permanent full-time posts, interim assignments and fractional or part-time seats.
The board below shows the CMO roles on our board, permanent roles first where the posting says full-time.
We recruit permanent, interim, fractional and part-time marketing leaders, and non-executive directors.
Hiring rather than looking?
On every brief we send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
How a brief runswhat we undertake
- 01Brief30-MINUTE SCOPING CALLDay 0
- 02Shortlist of 3–5VETTED · RATE BENCHMARK · IR35After the brief
- 03InterviewsYOU MEET THE SHORTLISTYour diary
- 04Scoped startFIRST-MONTH OUTCOMES AGREEDYou set the date
- 05Fractional, interim and permanentIR35 POSITION SET OUTOn every brief
Shortlist3–5
In the press
Marketing Week Demand for fractional CMOs ‘driven by expertise over cost’ · 27 May 2026
Research on why companies bring in senior marketing leaders for part of the week: for expertise at a growth moment rather than to save money. It shows one of the ways the CMO seat is now held.
15 minutes · video or phone
Book 15 minutes to hire a CMO
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with CMO candidates, their day rates and availability.
- 0115 minutes, video or phone
- 02We scope the role and the days a week
- 03A shortlist of 3–5 after the call
- 04Fractional, interim and permanent briefs
Pick a day that suits · live availability
On the board · last 3 months
CMO jobs jobs on the board
No CMO jobs roles on the board right now.
We only show real vacancies from the last three months, each marked whether we could confirm it is still open — we never pad the board. New CMO jobs roles appear here as our pipeline finds them.
Current CMO roles on our board
Fractional recruitment works differently from a permanent search — shorter, scoped by days a week, and priced on the engagement. Send a CMO brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.
01/ the cross
Where a permanent hire becomes cheaper.
Move the day rate and the days a week: the rising line is a month of part-week cost, the flat line a permanent hire’s month. Where they cross, the seat should go full-time.
At 3.8 days a week a permanent hire costs less.
Our arithmetic. Permanent a month = the salary ÷ 12 plus 15% employer NI, plus the 30% search fee spread over 12 months — the calculator’s inputs. Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for each step.
Permanent = the £147,000 Robert Half 2026 median salary. The full calculator below adds the months, the totals and the currency tabs.
- The fractional CMO at 2 days a week never passes permanent inside 24 months.
- Interim passes permanent at month 3.
Our arithmetic, cumulative. Permanent = the salary’s 30% search fee in month 0, then salary ÷ 12 plus 15% employer NI each month. Interim = the midpoint of the published interim band (£1,350 a day, Exec Capital 2026) × 5 days × 4.33 weeks. Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for each month.
02/ the route
Fractional, interim or permanent?
Four taps. The answer names the route for the seat and the page that covers it.
The route · Fractional
A fractional CMO.The work fills part of the week, so buy the days it needs.
A fractional CMO holds the seat on agreed days for as long as the seat is needed, and works for other clients on the rest.
The route · Interim
An interim CMO.The work fills the week, and it has an end: a programme, a cover, a transaction.
An interim CMO takes the seat full time for that stretch and hands it over when it is done.
The route · Interim, then permanent
Interim now, a permanent CMO after.The seat is full time and long term, and the need is now.
An interim CMO holds it while the permanent search runs, so the seat is not left empty.
The route · Permanent
A permanent CMO.A full-time seat that sits at the table for years is a permanent hire.
There is time to run a search, so run one.
03/ the role
CMO jobs: what the board holds
The board on this page holds the CMO roles on our board: chief marketing officer, group CMO and CMO roles in every mode of work.
Roles whose posting says full-time come first.
Interim, fractional and part-time CMO roles follow, and where a posting states how the role is engaged, the listing says so.
When there are few CMO roles, the board widens to the marketing director and head of marketing seats below it, and says that it has.
What the seat does
A CMO sets the marketing strategy and answers for it at board level: positioning and brand, the demand that feeds sales, pricing input, customer research, the marketing team and its agencies, and the budget that pays for all of it.
For the full picture, see what is a CMO.
The seat also carries the rules that govern what a company says.
Advertising in the UK runs under the UK Advertising Codes; marketing by email, text or phone runs under the ICO’s direct marketing and PECR guidance; and environmental claims are tested against the CMA’s Green Claims Code.
A CMO is expected to know where those lines sit.
One seat, several ways to hold it
A permanent CMO is employed full-time and owns marketing for years.
An interim CMO holds the seat for a set period, to cover a departure, a relaunch or a sale.
A fractional CMO holds it for agreed days a week, often in a growing business that needs senior marketing judgement before it needs a full-time chief.
The title is the same; the contract, the days and the tax position are not.
04/ scope
How to get a CMO job
1. Build the professional base
No law requires a qualification for the seat, and many CMOs hold none.
Where one is asked for, it is usually from the Chartered Institute of Marketing: its qualifications run from a Level 3 foundation certificate to Level 7 postgraduate study for experienced marketers who want to lead at a strategic level.
CIM’s guide to becoming a Chartered Marketer sets out the route to CMktr: graded membership, two consecutive years of CPD, then an assessment (waived for a CIM Level 7 qualification).
2. Run a marketing function first
The usual path runs through head of marketing and marketing director, with a budget, a team and a commercial target of your own.
A CMO shortlist is decided on what marketing delivered for revenue, not on campaigns alone.
See marketing director jobs and head of marketing jobs for the seats below.
3. Show the board work
Expect to be tested on how you set and defended a marketing budget, how you measured its return, and how you worked with sales and finance.
If the seat carries a board appointment, the duties of a company director come with it: directors stay legally responsible for the company’s records, accounts and performance.
4. Pick the route in
Not every CMO job is permanent.
Interim CMO jobs cover a gap or a relaunch; fractional CMO jobs and part-time CMO jobs hold the seat for set days a week.
If you work through your own company, the off-payroll working rules (IR35) may apply: status turns on how the engagement runs, and a medium or large client makes the determination.
Our IR35 guide sets out the tests.
05/ the maths
What the seat costs, by the days a week
Move the day rate, the days a week and the months: the totals and the permanent comparison for the period. The curve above shows where a permanent hire becomes the cheaper seat.
The slider runs across the published band for a fractional CMO: £750–£1,400 a day (Connectd 2026).
Cost over 12 months
£114,400
104 working days · 2 d/wk · 12 mo · before tax
Fractional costs less over 12 months£98,750
Fractional CMO, 12 months£114,400
Fractional CMO, a month at 2 d/wk£9,526
Permanent CMO, same period£213,150
Fractional CMO, 12 months$151,569
Fractional CMO, a month at 2 d/wk$12,621
Permanent CMO, same period$282,402
Converted from £ at $1.3249 per £1 (Bank of England spot rate), 2 Oct 2026. A conversion, not a US market rate. Source ↗
Fractional CMO, 12 months€134,374
Fractional CMO, a month at 2 d/wk€11,189
Permanent CMO, same period€250,366
Converted from £ at €1.1746 per £1 (Bank of England spot rate), 2 Oct 2026. A conversion, not a EU market rate. Source ↗
Our arithmetic, indicative. Permanent = the £147,000 Robert Half 2026 median salary pro rata for the same months, plus 15% employer NI, plus a 30% search fee on the annual base (UK retained search runs 25–35%, Headhunters.co.uk). Excludes pension, bonus and equity.
06/ the week
How a week divides.
The days you buy are yours; the rest of the week goes to other clients. Move the days a week in the calculator above and the week redraws.
Illustration only: one way a fractional CMO’s week can divide at 2 days a week for you. Each block is half a day.
07/ related roles
CMO jobs by type
Every page we keep for the CMO seat, one per kind of role or question. We recruit permanent, interim, fractional and part-time CMOs.
08/ vetting
How we vet CMOs
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify CMO tenure, sector context and stage fit.
SOURCING - 02
Mandate fit
Match to your situation — stage, board dynamics, timing.
MATCHING - 03
Reference deep-dive
We take references ourselves, from recent past clients — real outcomes, not titles.
VERIFY - 04
Shortlist
Three to five candidates with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
SHORTLIST OF 3–5
09/ chief marketing officer jobs
Chief marketing officer jobs the seat and its titles
Chief marketing officer jobs are advertised under several titles.
Chief marketing officer and CMO are the same seat; group CMO runs marketing across a group of companies; chief growth officer and chief customer officer cover some of the same ground with a different emphasis.
In owner-managed and mid-sized businesses the top marketing seat is often called marketing director, and the job is much the same.
Read the posting for who the seat reports to and what it owns.
A CMO who reports to the chief executive and owns brand, demand and the budget is in a different job from one who runs campaigns under a commercial director, even with the same title.
Ask whether sales, product marketing or customer success sit inside the remit.
Search chief marketing officer, CMO, marketing director and head of marketing together; employers use all four for the top seat.
10/ permanent cmo jobs
Permanent CMO jobs the market and the pay
Permanent CMO jobs are full-time employed roles, and they are the ones listed first on this page.
Robert Half’s 2026 salary guide puts a full-time CMO at £110,250 for a candidate still developing the skills, £147,000 at the median and £183,750 for one with above-average experience.
For London it gives a median of £200,000.
Robert Half is a recruiter, and these are its own starting-salary projections.
Base pay is one part of a permanent package.
Bonus, equity, pension and notice period vary widely by company stage and ownership, so compare offers line by line.
For pay across permanent, interim and fractional seats, see our chief marketing officer salary guide.
Some permanent CMO searches are run by a headhunter rather than an open advert.
Our CMO headhunter page sets out how a permanent CMO search works from the hiring side.
11/ questions
CMO jobs FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in a CMO.
Book 15 minutes · shortlist of 3–5
Bring the brief. We architect the team.
A shortlist of 3–5 with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, after five-stage vetting.
