CMO salary · permanent base, bonus and package · 2026
What a CMO earns, in base, bonus and package
The CMO salary in Robert Half’s 2026 salary guide runs from £110,250 to £183,750 in base pay, with a median of £147,000.
In London, Robert Half puts the range at £150,000 to £250,000, median £200,000.
Intelligent People’s 2026 guide gives an average CMO salary of £187,500 from offers accepted through the agency.
Company size moves the figure most.
Exec Capital’s 2026 guide puts CMO base pay at £100,000–£180,000 in the mid-market and £180,000–£350,000 at large corporates, with a bonus on top.
When you hire a CMO through us, permanent, interim or fractional, 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
Fast Company 16 leaders on when fractional C-suite hires make sense · 24 Jun 2026
Leaders disagree on when a part-time C-suite hire makes sense and when a role needs a full-time owner. Read it before you commit to a permanent CMO salary.
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 roles jobs on the board
No CMO roles 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 roles roles appear here as our pipeline finds them.
On the board: CMO and marketing leadership roles
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 role
Chief marketing officer salary: what sets the figure
A chief marketing officer salary depends first on the size of the business.
Exec Capital’s 2026 executive salary guide puts CMO base pay at £100,000–£180,000 in mid-market companies and £180,000–£350,000 at large corporates.
Robert Half’s national figures sit inside the lower band: the range runs from £110,250 to £183,750, median £147,000.
Scope comes next.
In one business the CMO runs brand and communications.
In another the role owns the whole revenue engine: demand generation, pricing, product marketing and customer marketing, with a seat on the board.
The second job pays more than the first, whatever the title says.
Benchmark against a business of your size with a similar remit, not against the national figure.
The seat below the CMO is a useful check.
Robert Half’s 2026 medians are £79,500 for a marketing director and £66,250 for a head of marketing, against £147,000 for a CMO.
If the remit you are writing looks like a marketing director’s, the salary will follow it.
See marketing director salary and head of marketing salary.
Marketing has a chartered professional body: the Chartered Institute of Marketing sets standards and awards Chartered Marketer status.
It is worth asking about.
It is not a requirement for the role.
For what the seat covers day to day, see what a CMO does.
03/ scope
How to hire a CMO
1. Write the remit first
Say what the role owns: brand, demand generation, pricing, product marketing, the marketing budget.
Say who reports in and who the role reports to.
The remit sets the salary band, so write it before you name a figure.
2. Choose the route
A permanent hire suits a business that needs a marketing owner every day: hire a CMO on that basis, or see CMO recruitment for how a search runs.
For full-time cover for a fixed term, see interim CMO.
For senior leadership on a few days a week, see fractional CMO.
3. Set base, bonus and equity together
The CIPD’s introduction to reward separates fixed base pay from variable pay, which is not guaranteed.
Tie the bonus to what the role controls, such as pipeline or revenue contribution, and write the measures and payment dates into the offer.
4. Assess against the work
Ask for the targets they were set and what they delivered, and check it with references.
A useful task is a real one: a review of your positioning or your pipeline, and a plan for the first quarter.
What we do on a CMO brief
We recruit permanent, interim, fractional, part-time and temporary marketing leaders, and non-executive directors.
We send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, and every candidate goes through our five-stage vetting first.
Open roles are on CMO jobs.
04/ 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.
05/ 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.
06/ rates by stage
CMO salary national, London and by company size
CMO salary UK figures for 2026: Robert Half’s salary guide (base salary projections), Intelligent People’s guide (offers accepted through the agency, July 2025 to July 2026) and Exec Capital’s executive salary guide. All three are recruiters. Each figure is quoted as its source publishes it.
07/ economics
CMO pay beyond base salary: bonus, equity, notice and employer costs
CMO pay is more than the base.
Exec Capital’s 2026 guide puts the annual bonus at 20–40% of base in the mid-market and 50–100% at listed level.
A bonus can be contractual or discretionary, and Acas explains why the written terms decide which.
HMRC treats a cash bonus as earnings, with PAYE and Class 1 National Insurance deducted through payroll.
Equity matters most at growth stage.
Qualifying companies can grant Enterprise Management Incentive options, which carry tax advantages but include a minimum working-time test.
Exec Capital also notes that notice periods at C-suite level are typically six to twelve months, so a new CMO may not start for some time after they accept.
The salary is not the whole cost.
For 2026 to 2027, employer’s National Insurance is 15% on earnings above £5,000 a year (HMRC rates and thresholds).
Under automatic enrolment the employer must pay at least 3% into a workplace pension on qualifying earnings, and those earnings include bonuses (GOV.UK).
Many schemes pay more.
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/ cmo salary london
CMO salary in London: what the capital adds
Robert Half’s London figures for a CMO salary in London run from £150,000 to £250,000, with a median of £200,000.
Its national range runs from £110,250 to £183,750, median £147,000.
The gap holds a step down too: Robert Half’s London medians are £108,000 for a marketing director and £90,000 for a head of marketing.
Exec Capital’s 2026 guide says London and the South East command a premium of 20–30% over the Midlands, the North of England and Scotland for most C-suite functions.
That is a statement about the C-suite as a whole, not a CMO figure, so use it as context and benchmark a chief marketing officer salary in London against the London range itself.
London roles also tend to sit in larger businesses with wider remits, which is part of why the figures differ.
For marketing leadership in London on a few days a week, see fractional CMO jobs.
10/ average cmo salary
Average CMO salary: which figure to quote
Ask for the average CMO salary and you get different answers, because each source measures something different.
Intelligent People gives an average of £187,500, typically £125,000–£250,000, from offers accepted through the agency between July 2025 and July 2026.
Robert Half gives a median of £147,000 from its own base salary projections.
An average is pulled up by a few large packages; a median is the middle figure.
Before you compare CMO salaries, check three things about each one: average or median, base or total package, national or London.
Then compare like with like.
The official series is the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, which reports employee earnings by occupation.
Its occupation groups are broader than a single C-suite title, so use it as a cross-check on the market, not as a CMO figure.
11/ three routes
Permanent, interim or fractional: three ways to pay for the seat
A permanent CMO is paid a salary, with bonus, pension and benefits on top, and the employer carries National Insurance.
An interim is paid by the day for a full-time, fixed-term mandate and funds their own pension and gaps between assignments: see interim CMO salary.
A fractional CMO is paid a day rate or monthly retainer for a few days a week: see fractional CMO salary.
Each page sets out its own sourced figures; the costs of a fractional engagement are on fractional CMO cost.
12/ questions
CMO salary questions 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.
