Fractional CMO for hire · find a fractional CMO
Fractional CMO jobs provide marketing leadership for an agreed part of the working week. The remit should explain customer insight, positioning and commercial priorities, alongside the team or suppliers delivering campaigns. Before applying or hiring, confirm authority across marketing, sales and product and who handles decisions between working days.
Hire a fractional CMO for strategic marketing leadership, 1–3 days a week, at a scale-up or growth-stage business.
Find a fractional CMO for hire who owns positioning, demand generation and brand without the full-time cost.
Or browse the fractional CMO jobs on the board below.
Part 01 / 04
Audience
Part 02 / 04
Commercial context
Part 03 / 04
Authority
Part 04 / 04
Continuity
In the press
Marketing Week Demand for fractional CMOs ‘driven by expertise over cost’ · 27 May 2026
Marketing Week reports UK research finding that companies bring in a fractional CMO mainly for senior expertise at a growth moment, not to save money. That is the brief we recruit for.
Financial Times The executives going ‘fractional’, not freelance (paywall)
The FT on senior people who choose to lead inside several companies at once rather than freelance, which is how most fractional CMOs now work.
15 minutes · video or phone
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with fractional CMO candidates, their day rates and availability.
Pick a day that suits · live availability
How fractional recruitment agencies compare is set out in one place, including how we work: a brief and a shortlist of three to five.
Fractional CMO jobs · last 3 months
No Fractional CMO roles on the board in the last three months. Showing marketing and growth leadership roles instead.
The fractional CMO board includes fractional and interim heads of marketing and marketing directors: the same seat, part of the week.
Full-time · permanent as posted · last 3 months
Full-time CMO roles, posted by the employer as full-time and listed as the posting states them. We recruit permanent CMOs as well as fractional and interim. Hiring a permanent CMO: CMO headhunter.
Full-time · permanent as posted · last 3 months
Full-time marketing leader roles, posted by the employer as full-time and listed as the posting states them. We recruit permanent marketing leaders as well as fractional and interim. Head of marketing recruitment.
GWI · London
Atos · London
Evergreen Finance · United Kingdom
Avvoka · United Kingdom
VE3 · Taplow
Royal Drawing School · Greater London
01/ the cross
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.
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
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 board
A read of the roles on the board above, counted as they stand: how each is engaged, whether the posting gives the days and the rate, and where the work happens.
On this board, last 90 days · 1 role · marketing and growth leadership
Engagement
Days a week
Day rate
Work arrangement (as the job feed classifies it)
Newest posting on the board: 14 Oct 2026.
04/ the shape
The seat’s roles, open now and closed in the last 90 days, split two ways: the days a week each posting asks for, and the IR35 position it gives.
0 open (0 confirmed open, 0 not confirmed still open), 13 closed in the last 90 days · fractional and interim CMO and marketing leadership · as of 22 Oct 2026
Days a week
IR35, as the posting states it
IR35 status is decided by how an engagement runs, not by the posting; this is what each posting says.
05/ the asks
The skills and tools the seat’s job descriptions name most, open now and closed in the last 90 days, matched to our skills list.
A term that is not on the list is left out.
0 open (0 confirmed open, 0 not confirmed still open), 13 closed in the last 90 days · fractional and interim CMO and marketing leadership · as of 22 Oct 2026
Named in the job descriptions of 13 roles (open now, or closed in the last 90 days), matched to our skills list. A skill counts once per role.
06/ the model
A fractional CMO — a fractional chief marketing officer — is a part-time Chief Marketing Officer who owns your marketing 1–3 days a week.
Not an agency, not a consultant: the CMO.
Fractional CMO jobs are how experienced marketing leaders work across more than one company at once.
Often searched as “parttime CMO” or “fractiional CMO”, it is the same role.
01 · cadence
Senior CMO capability across a defined slice of the week. The marketing leadership you need without a full-time salary or a five-day commitment.
02 · role
Unlike an agency or a consultant, a fractional CMO is in the leadership team: owns positioning, the demand engine, the brand and the marketing team.
03 · structure
Usually engaged through their own company rather than employed, on a scope that names the outcome, the days and the notice. IR35 status depends on how the engagement runs in practice, and a medium or large client makes the determination.
04 · horizon
Scoped to an outcome — a repositioning, a demand-engine build, a pre-exit story — often ending in a clean handover to a permanent CMO.
07/ find
Tap the situation closest to yours.
Each answer names the seat that fits it and the page for that seat.
Where is your marketing now?
The seat that fits
Fractional CMO1–3 days a week, ongoingThe strategy needs an owner in the leadership team; the delivery can sit with a small team or an agency. That is the fractional seat, and this page is the place to brief it.
The seat that fits
Interim CMOFull-time, for a fixed termA vacancy needs the whole seat covered, every day, until the permanent hire starts or the job is done.
The seat that fits
Part-time CMOFixed days, employed pro rataThe same leadership on an employment contract with one company, rather than a contracted, multi-client mandate.
The seat that fits
Freelance CMOScoped to the projectA deliverable with an end date is a project, not a seat. Scope it, price it and hand it back.
The seat that fits
Fractional marketing directorPart of the weekA director-grade seat runs the plan and the team day to day; it reports to the CEO rather than shaping the board’s view.
The seat that fits
Permanent CMOFive days a week, no end dateWhen positioning, demand and a growing team need daily leadership, hire the CMO for good. We recruit permanent executives too.
The seat that fits
Compare the seatsAny cadenceCMO, marketing director, head of marketing or head of growth: the seats side by side, and where to hire each.
To find a fractional CMO yourself, start with referrals from investors, advisers and founders who have hired one.
Check professional standing where it exists: the Chartered Institute of Marketing keeps a directory of Chartered Marketers, and The Marketing Society is a membership body for senior marketers.
Or brief us: we come back with a shortlist of 3–5, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
08/ scope
What fractional CMOs own versus what they delegate.
09/ alternatives
How a fractional CMO compares to other marketing solutions.
→ A fractional CMO owns the whole marketing engine. A Head of Growth runs acquisition.
→ A CMO sets the strategy and directs agencies. An agency executes against a brief.
→ Fractional CMOs run marketing. Consultants advise on it — part-time CMO consulting is a diagnosis or a plan, handed back to you to run.
→ Fractional buys senior marketing judgement for the days you need it; full-time buys it every day.
10/ the choice
A fractional CMO takes responsibility for an agreed part-week share of the role.
Confirm its duration, review point and continuity; the label does not determine when it ends.
An interim CMO covers the seat for a defined period of absence or change, such as a vacancy, transaction or turnaround.
Agree the hours, authority and handover for the actual assignment.
Agree responsibility, hours, duration and between-day cover separately.
Fractional and interim describe different aspects of a brief and can overlap.
The calculator illustrates fees at the stated days and assumptions.
Confirm employment, tax and benefit obligations before using it as a total-cost comparison.
11/ rates
Day rates vary with company maturity and complexity.
The stage bands below are the published UK table from Mateerz (2026); the wider market band is £750–£1,400 with the mid-market around £1,000 (Connectd, April 2026).
Published UK day-rate bands · £ a day · the marker is the calculator’s day rate
The permanent band is the published salary ÷ 220 working days — our arithmetic, for comparison only.
These are published asking prices, not transacted rates; no source publishes a per-stage median, so none is shown.
12/ economics
Model the cost against a permanent CMO over the same months, or what one fractional mandate earns.
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.
13/ the week
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.
14/ tax
The general position under UK rules, with the HMRC source for each point.
Not tax advice: check your own case with your accountant.
01 · DEDUCTIBLE
A fractional CMO’s fees, like a salary, are deductible against profits when incurred wholly and exclusively for the trade (HMRC BIM37000). At the 25% main rate, each £1,000 of fees costs a profitable company £750 after relief.
02 · EMPLOYER NI
A permanent CMO carries employer National Insurance at 15% above £5,000 a year. A fractional CMO engaged through their own company carries none when the engagement is outside IR35; inside IR35, the fee-payer deducts tax and NI and pays employer NI. Status depends on how the engagement runs in practice.
03 · WHO DECIDES
Medium and large clients determine the status themselves; for a small private-sector client, the fractional CMO’s own company decides (HMRC off-payroll guidance).
15/ timing
Four scenarios where fractional marketing leadership delivers highest impact.
Which sounds like you?
You’ve grown on product and founder-led sales. Now you need professional marketing to scale.
Your current channels are maxed. You need new growth levers and strategic repositioning.
The market has shifted or you’re entering new segments. Message-market fit needs work.
An exit is on the horizon. You need the equity story, category position and pipeline built.
16/ the first year
How a typical twelve-month mandate is sequenced — our reading of the work, not a published benchmark.
QUARTER 1
Message-market fit, ICP definition, competitive positioning. The strategic foundation that everything else builds on.
QUARTER 2
Channel strategy, conversion architecture, pipeline velocity. Building the repeatable engine for growth.
QUARTER 3
Category narrative, content engine, thought leadership. Creating the pull that reduces CAC over time.
QUARTER 4
Build the permanent team, select agencies, write playbooks. Set up for scale beyond the fractional mandate.
17/ the buyer’s guide
Scope the mandate against one measurable gap — pipeline coverage, a launch, a repositioning — rather than an open-ended “do our marketing” brief.
Easier to scope, measure and extend.
STEP 1
Clarify what you need — positioning and category work, a demand generation engine, brand and comms, or a team build. £5,000–£10,000 a month at 4–8 days a month is the common market range (The Marketing Centre).
STEP 2
Specialist fractional recruiters shortlist against your brief; to find fractional CMO candidates yourself, investor, advisor and founder networks are the other route. Weight sector-relevant wins and professional standing — Chartered Marketer status with the CIM is a useful marker.
STEP 3
Portfolio review: which companies at your stage have they grown? Scenario test: how would they attack your pipeline problem? References: two or three recent clients, asked about specific outcomes rather than satisfaction.
STEP 4
Start small — a 1–3 month engagement with defined deliverables; a positioning sprint or demand-gen diagnostic scopes cleanly. Review monthly, extend on evidence, and contract via limited company with IR35 assessed properly.
18/ the terms
Five things to settle before a fractional CMO starts, so the days you buy go on the work.
01
Write down what has to be true at three, six and twelve months. Days a week follow from that list, not the other way round.
02
Fix the days a week, which days, and a review point where either side can change them. Most of the value is in the rhythm.
03
Put in writing what the role can see, sign and decide: systems, data, budget and the board. A part-week leader without access is an adviser.
04
Agree notice on both sides and the handover: documents, logins and who inherits each piece of work.
05
Settle how the engagement will run before it starts, because IR35 status follows the working practice. See the IR35 guide.
19/ the brief
Five taps write the brief we work from.
Copy it into your own document, or send it to us.
Your brief · fractional CMO
A fractional CMO for hire fits only as well as the brief is specific: the gap, the days a week, the on-site days, your stage and what must be true at the end of the first mandate.
Written up, that is your fractional CMO job description, with fractional CMO responsibilities set as outcomes, not tasks.
If you need to hire CMO-level leadership full-time instead, say so: we recruit fractional, interim, part-time and permanent executives.
For permanent chief marketing officer recruitment by retained search, see CMO headhunter.
20/ the broad hire
When a company decides to hire a CMO, the first choice is the shape of the seat, not the candidate.
A permanent CMO is an employee, full-time, owning brand, positioning, demand and the marketing team for the long run.
An interim CMO works for a defined term with agreed hours — a relaunch, a rebrand, or cover while a permanent hire is found.
A fractional CMO sets the marketing strategy and leads the team for part of each week, on an ongoing basis.
A part-time CMO holds the same seat on fixed days with one company; a freelance CMO is scoped to a project and finishes when it does (see freelance CMO jobs); a virtual CMO leads mostly remotely.
The test is how much CMO-level work the business has in a normal week.
If positioning, the demand engine, the marketing budget and a growing team need daily leadership, hire a CMO permanently — the CMO headhunter page covers that search.
If the strategy needs a senior owner but the execution sits with a small team or an agency, a fractional CMO fills the seat without a full-time package; fractional CMO cost sets out the published figures.
However you hire a CMO, bring the same brief: scope, stage, the team and agencies already in place, days a week, budget and IR35 position.
From that brief we build a shortlist of 3–5, and you interview.
If the CMO works through their own company, IR35 status depends on how the engagement runs in practice, not on the label in the contract — check it with HMRC’s CEST tool and our IR35 guide.
21/ where
The fractional CMO UK market is national rather than local: positioning, the plan and agency direction travel, so engagements are often hybrid — on site for planning and leadership meetings, remote for the rest.
We shortlist across the UK for hybrid or remote engagements.
Need a fractional CMO?
Birmingham, Manchester or Bristol, the search runs the same way.
A fractional remote CMO can run the plan from an agreed location; agree when they will be in the room with sales, or the plan drifts from the pipeline.
Searching for a fractional CMO Plymouth businesses can use, or a fractional CMO Wirral firms can call on?
We shortlist UK-wide, for hybrid or remote engagements, so put the days you need someone on site in the brief.
If you want a London fractional CMO who can join the weekly leadership meeting in person, put the on-site days in the brief.
If you searched “find fractional CMO near me”, the answer is the same: fix the days that need someone present and let the rest be remote.
22/ the contract
A fractional CMO engagement is written around a mandate — the outcome, the days a week and the notice.
IR35 status depends on how the engagement runs in practice, and a medium or large client makes the determination.
Reference: HMRC off-payroll working (IR35) guidance and the CEST tool.
TEST 1
HMRC looks at whether the CMO could send a suitably qualified substitute, and whether that right is genuine in practice.
✓ In the contractTEST 2
HMRC looks at who decides how, when and where the work is done — whether the company sets the outcome or directs the working pattern.
✓ In the contractTEST 3
HMRC looks at whether there is an obligation to offer or accept work beyond the agreed mandate.
✓ In the contractA fixed mandate with clear deliverables, other clients, own equipment and workspace, employment benefits or paid leave, how invoicing is set up, and professional indemnity insurance are all weighed alongside the three tests. No single factor decides status.
From 6 April 2026 the company-size thresholds rise (turnover £10.2m → £15m, balance sheet £5.1m → £7.5m), so more end clients qualify as “small” — moving IR35 status determination back to the contractor’s own company for those engagements (BDO; HMRC guidance). The test looks at the client’s previous financial year.
23/ the title
A fractional chief marketing officer holds the whole CMO remit — positioning, the demand engine, brand, the marketing team and the budget that funds them — for part of the week.
The fraction is the time, not the seniority, and the title only means something if the authority comes with it.
Before day one, write down what the role decides alone (agency appointments, channel spend, marketing hires), what it recommends to the CEO, and what it reports to the board.
If you hire a fractional chief marketing officer without that in writing, the title is decoration.
The officer title is not a legal appointment.
Most fractional CMOs sit in the leadership team without joining the board.
If yours is appointed a director — or acts as one without a formal appointment — the general duties of a company director apply to them, including the duty to avoid conflicts of interest (Companies House guidance).
Agree the position in writing, because a portfolio operator works for more than one company.
When you set out to find fractional chief marketing officer candidates, remember the CMO title carries no accreditation of its own, so look for a standard you can check.
Chartered Marketer status from the Chartered Institute of Marketing has to be kept up with continuing professional development and is listed in CIM’s Chartered Marketer Directory.
If the brief is a hands-on director-grade seat rather than a board-facing one, see fractional marketing director roles; if a permanent CMO has left and you need full-time cover, see interim CMO.
Every shortlist we send sets out each candidate’s IR35 position — the IR35 guide explains how status is decided.
24/ the leadership team
A fractional CMO earns the seat by tying marketing to the numbers the CEO and CFO already run the business on.
The CEO’s part is to define marketing’s remit at the outset, rather than leave the CMO to infer it.
The CFO’s part is to agree one measurement model with the CMO that the whole leadership team trusts.
For a part-week seat, put three things in writing before the first day.
First, what the CMO decides alone: agency appointments, channel spend within budget and marketing hires.
Second, what comes back to the CEO: positioning changes, pricing and anything that changes the plan.
Third, the two or three measures the CFO and the CMO agree to report each month.
Start with the work that needs doing, not the title.
Then treat the fractional leader as part of the leadership team, present at the meetings that matter.
If the CMO is to answer for brand as well as pipeline, agree how brand will be measured at the start.
The IPA’s effectiveness research is the standard UK reference for how advertising pays back over time.
25/ the rules
A CMO owns the marketing plan, and with it the rules the plan has to follow.
Ask every candidate how they have handled these three.
Email, text and call campaigns sit under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations and UK GDPR.
The ICO’s direct marketing guidance sets out when consent is needed, and how business and consumer marketing differ.
Advertising claims sit under the CAP Code, which the Advertising Standards Authority enforces across print, online, social and influencer marketing.
Consumer pricing, reviews and promotions sit under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.
The CMA’s unfair commercial practices guidance covers fake reviews and drip pricing, both now banned outright.
A fractional CMO is not your lawyer.
They should know where the lines are, write them into every agency brief, and know when to ask for advice.
26/ providers
Search for fractional CMO companies and quite different purchases come back under one label.
An independent fractional CMO contracts with you directly, usually through their own limited company.
A network or firm introduces one of its associates and often keeps a management layer above them.
A CMO marketing agency sells leadership bundled with its own delivery team — useful when you need hands, less neutral when its lead is choosing which channels to fund.
A search firm introduces candidates and steps back; that is what we do, with a shortlist of 3–5.
The structure changes your tax position.
If you buy a genuinely contracted-out service from a firm, HMRC’s off-payroll guidance for clients puts the rules on the supplier.
If a firm simply sits in the chain between you and a CMO who works through their own company, you are still the client: a medium or large client makes the status determination, and the rules for agencies set out who then deducts tax.
Before signing with any of them, look the company and its directors up on the Companies House register, and ask who exactly will do the work, whether that person can be swapped without your agreement, and who keeps the plans and data when the engagement ends.
To compare search firms, see fractional executive search firms; for how we screen candidates, see our five-stage vetting.
We know of no independent ranking of the best fractional CMO companies (UK or elsewhere), so compare fractional CMO firms on those questions rather than on a list.
A fractional CMO company that sells fractional CMO consulting — a diagnosis and a plan, then an exit — is selling a project, not a seat.
When a provider offers fractional CMO services (UK or international), ask which of the two you are buying.
If you are comparing a Marketing Centre fractional CMO with one from The Part Time CMO or with an independent, ask each the same questions: who does the work, can that person be swapped, and who keeps the plans and data at the end.
27/ team and tech
A fractional marketing team for tech businesses puts fractional CMO marketing leadership over part-time specialists — content, performance, product marketing, marketing operations — so a software or tech-enabled company gets the plan and the delivery without hiring a full department.
It suits the stage where a founder has outgrown running marketing alone but a full in-house team would be premature.
The order matters.
Fractional CMO and marketing hires work best when the fractional CMO comes first and shapes the team: a fractional CMO team assembled before anyone owns positioning risks producing activity without a plan.
Some providers sell fractional CMO packages — a set number of days a month with named deliverables; compare them with a named individual you contract with directly, and ask who does the work day to day.
Fractional CMO tech briefs have their own tests.
Has the candidate marketed a product to a technical buyer, worked with product and engineering on launches, and made the marketing tech stack decisions — CRM, automation, attribution — the team will live with?
For fractional marketing support below leadership level, such as a fractional marketing expert (UK-based or remote) in paid, content or operations, see fractional marketing team and fractional marketing jobs.
We don’t run searches for a fractional creative director, or for a fractional head of SEO London or remote; those are specialist seats under the CMO, and the same two pages are the place to start.
28/ vetting
What we undertake on every brief — four checks before a candidate reaches you.
Verify a real track record leading marketing at your stage — positioning, demand, brand, team. No Head of Growth presenting as a CMO.
SOURCINGMatch to your situation — first senior marketer, a growth ceiling, a repositioning or pre-exit.
MATCHINGWe take references ourselves, from recent clients, founders and boards: pipeline and brand outcomes, not titles.
VERIFY3–5 candidates, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
SHORTLIST OF 3–529/ names
The same role is advertised under several names — fractional, freelance or part-time CMO, fractional marketing officer, virtual marketing officer, virtual chief marketing officer — and the label changes what you get.
Pick the one you were searching for; for remote-first roles, see virtual CMO jobs.
For the marketing seats side by side, see fractional marketing leadership.
→ In practice the two overlap — freelance CMO is how the same operator is often advertised; see freelance CMO jobs for project-scoped mandates. The difference is whether they hold a seat: if you want to hire freelance CMO support for one project, a freelance chief marketing officer on a deliverable-scoped contract is the cleaner buy.
→ “Part-time CMO” usually describes the same work on an employment contract. A fractional appointment can also be employed part-time; confirm the actual terms and capacity for other work. To hire a part-time CMO on a pro-rata contract, or to find a part-time CMO for the same days each week, see part-time CMO jobs.
→ Interim describes a defined period of cover or change. Fractional describes agreed part-week responsibility; agree hours and duration separately. See interim CMO roles.
→ The seat is the same. A fractional Chief Marketing Officer buys the judgement without the full-time package.
A B2B fractional CMO is hired against a pipeline number, not a brand one.
The mandate is usually positioning, category definition and demand generation into a long, multi-stakeholder sales cycle — which is why B2B briefs favour operators who have carried a revenue target alongside sales rather than pure brand backgrounds.
The practical test when you hire a B2B fractional CMO — UK market or international — is whether the candidate has built a pipeline engine at your stage.
A marketplace or DTC background does not transfer cleanly, and the rate band does not change: the published mid-market sits around £1,000/day (Connectd), as in the calculator above.
The reverse holds for a fractional ecommerce CMO: UK retail and DTC briefs turn on contribution margin, repeat purchase and channel mix, where a B2B pipeline builder is rarely the right fit.
A fractional CMO agency is a different purchase again: a firm that places one of its bench into your business, or sells fractional CMO services with a team behind the lead.
To find a fractional CMO who is one named person accountable for the plan, brief us or search the market directly — and if you need hands as well as a head, a fractional marketing team puts delivery under the CMO.
If the gap is acquisition rather than the whole engine, a fractional head of sales or a fractional CRO may be the better seat.
If you want the market view before committing, see our fractional recruitment agency or compare firms in the fractional executive search firms guide.
30/ the map
The seat’s roles by region, open now and closed in the last 90 days, London first, from each posting’s location.
Remote roles are counted on their own.
0 open (0 confirmed open, 0 not confirmed still open), 13 closed in the last 90 days · fractional and interim CMO and marketing leadership · as of 22 Oct 2026
By region
Remote (as the job feed classifies it)
Practical guide · Updated
The working brief · 01
Before hiring, connect the marketing mandate to customer evidence and commercial decisions.
Name the uncertainty
Explain whether the business is uncertain about its audience, proposition, route to market or marketing execution. List the evidence already available and what is missing. A leadership brief becomes clearer when it states the question to resolve rather than only the growth it hopes for.
Align the interpretation
Agree with sales and finance what the reporting terms mean and what evidence supports each judgement. Separate activity, customer response and commercial results. A shared definition is more useful than a dashboard whose teams interpret the same label differently.
Set the authority
Name who chooses positioning, who approves spend and who owns delivery. CIM’s planning guidance connects insight, strategy, execution and evaluation; use that sequence as a discussion aid, not as a claim that a particular appointment guarantees growth.
The working brief · 02
Fictional worked example, not a client case study: different teams describe the same product in incompatible ways.
Inspect the evidence
In this fictional company, product explains features while sales sells a different promise to each audience. The brief asks a leader to review customer conversations and existing claims. It does not assume that a rebrand or extra media spending is the answer.
Make the choice
The leader proposes a defined audience and proposition, showing what is supported and what still needs testing. Product checks the promise, sales checks the buying context and the CEO approves the commercial direction. Delivery owners then receive a coherent brief.
Keep it testable
The team records the assumptions and the evidence that would prompt revision. No pipeline increase or conversion gain is invented. The example shows a way to connect leadership decisions with delivery while allowing the evidence to challenge the plan.
The working brief · 03
Fractional, interim and permanent are different working choices; none removes the need for clear delivery ownership.
Defined recurring leadership
Fractional leadership can suit an ongoing strategic mandate supported by people who execute. Confirm the decisions the leader owns and how urgent questions reach them between sessions. Be clear whether campaign management is included or sits elsewhere.
Temporary executive cover
Interim leadership can suit a vacancy, transition or defined change needing sustained attention. Give the leader authority to keep the function running and state the exit condition. A temporary title should not hide an open-ended operational expectation.
Ongoing daily responsibility
Permanent leadership may suit continuing management of a marketing organisation and its commercial relationships. Describe that lasting responsibility explicitly. Choosing permanent employment should follow the business need, not an assumption that every fractional engagement must end in a permanent hire.
The working brief · 04
For applicants: demonstrate judgement across marketing, sales, product and finance, with clear personal ownership.
Give the context
Describe the customer, business model and uncertainty you faced. State your decision rights and the team available to deliver. An anonymised example can be useful if it explains the setting without exposing a former employer’s confidential plans or figures.
Trace your contribution
Show how insight informed the choice and how you secured agreement across functions. Distinguish what you led from what agencies, sales and colleagues delivered. Explain how you reviewed the work, including evidence that caused you to change your recommendation.
Ask the difficult questions
Ask who owns positioning, sales qualification and the customer promise. Clarify delivery capacity, data access and executive sponsorship. Confirm commitment and location before assuming a CMO vacancy offers either strategic authority or a realistic operating scope.
The working brief · 05
A staged handover leaves choices, assumptions and responsibilities available to the next leader.
Write the reasoning
Transfer the relationships
Accept the next decisions
The working brief · 06
For remote and hybrid arrangements, specify customer access and executive collaboration alongside location.
Remote collaboration
Planning and performance review can work remotely when sales, product and finance share useful evidence. Confirm the people the leader can reach and the decisions that can be made asynchronously. A distributed calendar should still produce accepted choices.
Purposeful attendance
Ask whether customer research, leadership meetings or delivery work requires presence. State the reason and location before candidates apply. An unexplained office requirement does not tell an applicant how the commercial mandate will actually work.
Working agreement
Record availability, approval routes and travel expectations. Explain who handles delivery decisions between scheduled sessions. Review the arrangement if the scope changes so a role described as remote does not acquire hidden obligations.
The working brief · 07
Assess evidence and cross-functional judgement using a bounded hypothetical problem.
Share the setting
Give candidates the same account of the product, audience and commercial uncertainty. State the constraints and missing information. Ask what they would investigate before making a recommendation rather than rewarding a ready-made growth plan.
Probe the trade-off
Ask how they would respond when sales wants volume, finance wants confidence and product questions the promise. Explore who should decide and what evidence could change the recommendation. The assessment should expose judgement and collaboration, not just presentation style.
Record the evidence
Use criteria agreed around the mandate and distinguish a persuasive hypothesis from a supported conclusion. Avoid requesting campaign plans the business can use as unpaid work. Allow candidates to question whether the proposed authority and delivery capacity are adequate.
The working brief · 08
Connect positioning decisions to the product and service that customers will actually receive.
Check the promise
Name who confirms what the product or service can deliver before marketing commits to a message. Make unsupported assumptions visible. A leader should be able to challenge a promise that depends on work the company has not agreed to do.
Agree the interface
Identify how product, service and sales owners approve changes affecting customers. Record dependencies and who resolves conflict. Marketing should not own an outcome that requires unacknowledged decisions in another function.
Review the experience
Use customer evidence and delivery feedback alongside campaign reporting. Explain how a mismatch between promise and experience will be addressed. Keep the relationship with product and service owners usable when the leadership appointment changes.
31/ questions
Common questions from buyers and from working fractional CMOs.
A part-time chief marketing officer who owns marketing within a defined scope — positioning, demand, brand and team.
Not an agency, not a consultant: the CMO, 1–3 days a week.
The published UK band is £750–£1,400/day, mid-market around £1,000 (Connectd, 2026).
At £1,000, two days a week is roughly £92K in day fees for the year, against a £147,000 median full-time CMO salary before employer costs (Robert Half 2026).
Retainer engagements commonly run £5,000–£10,000 a month for 4–8 days a month (The Marketing Centre).
Use the calculator above for your numbers.
You send a brief — the gap, the days a week, stage and budget — and we come back with a shortlist of 3–5 fractional CMOs, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
You interview and choose.
It depends on how each engagement runs in practice — HMRC looks at control, substitution and mutuality of obligation.
A medium or large client makes the status determination; each engagement can be checked against HMRC’s CEST tool on its own facts.
Submit a brief and we come back with a shortlist of 3–5 fractional CMOs, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
When assessing candidates yourself, sector-relevant track record and professional standing — such as Chartered Marketer status with the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) — are useful signals.
The same process applies if you want to hire a Chief Marketing Officer on a part-time or interim basis — scope the mandate first, then match the engagement model to it.
That is also the short answer to how to hire a CMO at any level: the brief first, then the route.
Three routes.
Referrals from investors, advisers and founders who have hired one.
Professional bodies: the Chartered Institute of Marketing keeps a directory of Chartered Marketers.
And a search firm that shortlists against your brief: we come back with a shortlist of 3–5, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
The seat finder above helps you check the seat first.
No. A fractional CMO for hire is one named person in your leadership team who owns the plan and directs whoever delivers it.
An agency sells delivery against a brief.
Many companies use both: the CMO writes the brief and holds the agency to it.
They direct them rather than run them.
A fractional CMO sets the strategy, the channel mix and the targets, and holds the team or agency to them; day-to-day campaign execution, ad optimisation and email deployment sit with the team, freelancers or an agency.
If you need hands as well as a head, pair the CMO with a fractional marketing team.
Four, depending on the gap: a fractional CMO (senior leadership 1–3 days a week, ongoing); an interim CMO (full-time for a fixed period); a marketing consultant (a scoped project or diagnosis); or an agency (execution capacity).
The comparison table above sets them side by side.
A fractional CMO is strategic — owns the whole marketing engine and is board-facing.
A Head of Growth typically runs acquisition.
We shortlist for both; the calculator lets you compare rates.
An interim CMO provides defined-period cover with agreed hours — UK day rates are in the region of £1,000–£1,500 (Intelligent People) — while a fractional CMO, sometimes advertised as a freelance or part-time CMO, works agreed part-week days for an agreed duration.
See interim CMO roles and part-time CMO jobs for the full comparison.
Not usually.
A fractional chief marketing officer normally sits in the leadership team, reports to the CEO and prepares the marketing view for the board, without a board seat.
If you appoint them a director — or they act as one without a formal appointment — the general duties of a company director apply to them (Companies House), so agree the position in writing.
Either way, set out what they can decide alone and what comes back to you.
Fractional CMO companies range from networks that place one of their associates, to agencies that bundle leadership with their own delivery team, to search firms that introduce candidates and step back.
Hiring directly means one named person contracting with you, usually through their own company.
The difference matters for accountability and for IR35: a genuinely contracted-out service puts the off-payroll rules on the supplier, while a firm that only sits in the chain leaves a medium or large client making the status determination (HMRC on agencies).
We run searches: a shortlist of 3–5, each with IR35 position set out.
You can, but the lead matters most.
A fractional marketing team for tech pairs a senior owner with part-time specialists; without that owner, the specialists deliver activity rather than a plan.
Our steer: start with a fractional CMO and add hands as the plan needs them — see fractional marketing team.
There is no neutral list, and we do not publish one.
The best fit is the leader whose record matches your situation: someone who has marketed a product to a technical or B2B buyer at your stage, built demand alongside a sales team, and hired the team they left behind.
Ask for the pipeline and revenue they were accountable for, and take references from a founder or CEO.
Every shortlist of 3–5 we send has been through our five-stage vetting against your brief.
Sector experience matters more than the postcode.
Put it in the brief — freight, warehousing, ports or shipping, B2B or consumer, and the buyers the CMO must reach — along with the days you need someone in London.
We shortlist UK-wide, for hybrid or remote engagements, and recruit fractional, interim, part-time and permanent executives; each candidate on a shortlist of 3–5 comes with day rate or pay, availability and IR35 position set out.
A fractional CMO can set the plan and direct interns, but is not there to supervise them on the other days of the week.
Name someone in-house to manage their day-to-day work, give interns scoped tasks rather than whole channels, and check their employment status and pay entitlement before they start.
If you need experienced hands rather than trainees, see fractional marketing team.
It can be.
Fractional CMOs typically hold one or more client mandates alongside advisory work.
At the ~£1,000 mid-market rate (Connectd), two days a week across 46 weeks is about £92,000 from one client before tax — our arithmetic.
Check your own IR35 and tax position with an accountant.
At the ~£1,000 mid-market rate (Connectd), two days a week across 46 weeks is ~£92K from one client.
The calculator above models it.
No. Browsing the board and applying is free.
When we run a search, we match on stage, sector, situation and your availability.
Roles on the board are real postings from our jobs feed; each card shows the day rate only where the posting states one.
No. The board carries roles across the UK, and many are remote or hybrid; each card shows the location the posting gives.
A fractional remote chief marketing officer role may still ask for some days on site, so check the posting.
The board on this page lists fractional chief marketing officer jobs and marketing leadership roles from our jobs feed; each card shows the location, and the day rate only where the posting states one.
Full-time chief marketing officer jobs for a fixed term are on the interim CMO jobs board, and employed part-time roles on part-time CMO jobs.
Start from a record you can evidence: CMO or marketing director tenure, with the pipeline, brand or team results you were accountable for.
Choose the stage and sector you will sell into, set up to contract (usually through a limited company — IR35 status depends on how each engagement runs, and a medium or large client makes the determination), and set your day rate against the published band on this page.
If you are asking how to become a fractional CMO without that senior tenure, a fractional marketing director seat is a realistic first step.
Book 15 minutes · shortlist of 3–5
Submit your brief. We come back with a shortlist of three to five.
Book a call or submit your fractional CMO brief; we come back with a shortlist of 3–5 candidates.
Browse the marketing leadership roles from our jobs feed, or get in touch about the searches we run.
