CPO jobs · Chief product officer vacancies · Permanent, interim and fractional
CPO jobs · permanent, interim and fractional
CPO jobs are chief product officer roles: the executive who decides what a company builds and why, leads product management, design and research, and answers to the chief executive for the product. On this page CPO means chief product officer. For the HR seat, see chief people officer jobs; for buying and supply, procurement director jobs.
The board below shows the roles on our board for this seat, permanent roles first where the posting says full-time. We recruit permanent, interim, fractional, part-time and temporary product 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
15 minutes · video or phone
Book 15 minutes to hire a CPO
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with CPO 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
CPO jobs jobs on the board
Current chief product officer roles on our board
Fractional Quest is a fractional recruitment agency: send a CPO brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.
01/ the role
CPO jobs: what the board holds
The board on this page holds the chief product officer roles on our board, with VP and head of product roles that run the whole product function. Roles whose posting says full-time come first. Interim, fractional and part-time CPO roles follow, and where a posting states how the role is engaged, the listing says so. When there are few CPO roles, the board widens to product and technology leadership and says that it has.
What the seat does
A CPO owns the product strategy and the roadmap: what to build, what to stop and what to buy. The CPO leads the product managers who prioritise the work, often design and user research too, and agrees with the chief executive how product success is measured. The closest peer is the CTO, who leads the engineering that builds the product. For the full picture, see what a CPO does.
Some companies merge the two seats into one chief product and technology officer (CPTO). Mind the Product’s August 2026 piece on the CPTO role tracks that shift, and quotes a recruiter who says demand for the standalone CPO is also at its highest in years. Read a CPTO posting as a product job and an engineering job together, and check which half the company most needs.
One seat, several ways to hold it
A permanent CPO is employed full-time and owns the product for years. An interim CPO holds the seat for a set period, to cover a departure or lead a relaunch. A fractional CPO holds it for agreed days a week, often in a start-up whose founder has run product until now. The title is the same; the contract, the days and the tax position are not.
02/ scope
How to get a CPO job
1. Climb the product ladder
There is no required qualification. Most CPOs have run product management at every level below the seat. The government’s capability framework for product managers sets out five role levels, from associate product manager to head of product, with the skills expected at each. Head of product, then VP or director of product, is the usual step before the C-suite; see head of product jobs and what a head of product does.
2. Own outcomes, not features
A CPO shortlist is decided on what your product decisions did for the business: revenue, retention, the customers won, the roadmap you stopped. Be ready to show the strategy you set, how you measured it, and the product team you built. If the posting names pricing, a platform change or an AI product, expect to be asked for an example of each.
3. Know the rules the product lives under
A product that handles personal data has to be built for it. The ICO’s guidance on data protection by design and by default says privacy has to be considered at the design phase of any product and throughout its lifecycle, which makes it part of the CPO’s brief as much as the lawyers’. If the seat comes with a directorship, the duties of a company director apply and the director must verify their identity with Companies House.
4. Pick the route in
Not every CPO job is permanent. Interim CPO jobs cover a gap or a relaunch for a set period; fractional CPO 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.
03/ related roles
CPO jobs by type
Every page we keep for the chief product officer seat, one per kind of role or question. We recruit permanent, interim, fractional and part-time CPOs.
04/ vetting
How we vet CPOs
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify CPO 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
05/ chief product officer jobs
Chief product officer jobs the seat and its titles
Chief product officer jobs are advertised under several titles. Chief product officer and CPO are the same seat; VP of product is sometimes the top product role, with no CPO above it; head of product can be the top seat in a smaller company or the level below the CPO in a larger one. CPTO or CTPO is the combined product and technology seat.
Three different jobs share the letters. Chief product officer is the product seat this page covers. Chief people officer is the most senior HR role: see chief people officer jobs. Chief procurement officer leads buying and the supply chain, a field whose professional body is CIPS: see procurement director jobs. Salary tables labelled CPO may mean any of the three, so check before you compare.
Read the posting for who the seat reports to and what it owns. A CPO job reporting to a founder before a funding round is a different job from a group CPO seat with several product lines, even with the same title.
06/ permanent cpo jobs
Permanent CPO jobs the market and the pay
Permanent CPO jobs are full-time employed roles, and they are the ones listed first on this page. Pay depends on the company’s size and stage, the sector, the location and how much of the package is equity. In a venture-backed company the base is often only part of it, with share options carrying much of the reward.
Compare offers line by line: base, bonus, equity and its vesting, pension and notice period. For the published pay picture across permanent, interim and fractional seats, each figure with its source, see our CPO salary guide.
For a hirer, a permanent CPO search starts with what the seat owns and who it reports to. Our chief product officer recruitment page sets out how a permanent product search works; to hire for set days a week, see how to hire a CPO.
07/ questions
CPO jobs FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in a CPO.
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.
