Hire a Freelance CMO · Freelance CMO Jobs UK
Freelance CMO Jobs · Hire freelance CMO
Hire a freelance CMO for a defined piece of work — a launch, a reposition, a funding round, a campaign that needs a senior marketing head on it.
Scoped to the deliverable rather than a standing seat, at £750–£1,400 a day (Connectd's published fractional CMO band).
Or browse the freelance CMO jobs across the UK.
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 freelance CMO
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with Freelance 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
Freelance CMO jobs on the board
Live freelance CMO mandates
How fractional recruitment agencies compare is set out in one place, including how we work: a Freelance CMO brief and a shortlist of three to five.
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 freelance CMO.The work fills part of the week, so buy the days it needs.
A fractional freelance 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 freelance CMO.The work fills the week, and it has an end: a programme, a cover, a transaction.
An interim freelance 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 freelance CMO after.The seat is full time and long term, and the need is now.
An interim freelance CMO holds it while the permanent search runs, so the seat is not left empty.
The route · Permanent
A permanent freelance 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
What is a freelance CMO?
A freelance CMO is a chief marketing officer engaged for a defined piece of work rather than an ongoing seat.
The remit is the deliverable — take the product to market, reposition the brand, build the demand engine before the raise, cover a launch — and the engagement ends when the work does.
Freelance CMO vs fractional CMO.
The seniority is identical; the shape of the engagement is not.
A fractional CMO holds an ongoing seat in the leadership team.
A freelance CMO is scoped to an outcome, works variable days against it, and is not necessarily in the leadership team at all.
Companies searching for one usually have a project in mind, not a vacancy.
The terms are used interchangeably in job ads, which is why this page exists alongside the fractional one — if you have a standing gap rather than a project, the fractional page is the better fit and the rate bands are the same either way.
When freelance is the right shape
A freelance CMO fits when the work has an end: a launch window, a rebrand, a fundraise narrative, a category entry, or cover for a marketing lead on leave.
It fits badly when what you actually need is someone accountable for marketing quarter after quarter — that is a seat, and a seat wants a fractional or permanent hire.
04/ scope
What a freelance CMO actually delivers
Typical scoped mandates: go-to-market for a new product or market, brand and messaging reposition, demand-generation engine build before a raise, marketing due diligence for an investor, launch leadership, or a defined turnaround of an underperforming channel mix.
What comes with the seniority: positioning and category work, pricing and packaging input, agency selection and direction, marketing team assessment, board and investor-facing narrative.
A freelance CMO directs agencies rather than replacing them.
Many senior marketers hold Chartered Marketer status from the Chartered Institute of Marketing, which requires graded membership and continuing professional development.
How the engagement is structured: a written scope with a defined outcome and end date, and variable days against it rather than fixed weekly days.
IR35 status depends on how the engagement runs in practice.
How to hire a freelance CMO
Write down the outcome and the date it has to be true by — that scope is the whole brief.
Then set the budget band and brief us; we come back with a shortlist of 3–5 freelance CMOs matched to the mandate and the sector.
If the outcome has no end date, say so, and we will point you at a fractional CMO instead.
05/ rates
Freelance CMO rate comparison
Published day-rate bands for a CMO, each with its source. The full-time band is a salary divided by 220 working days — our arithmetic.
Published UK day-rate bands · £ a day · the marker is the calculator’s day rate
- Fractional£750–£1,400Connectd 2026£1,100
- Interim£700–£2,000Exec Capital 2026
- Permanent, per day£501–£835Robert Half 2026 salary ÷ 220 days
The permanent band is the published salary ÷ 220 working days — our arithmetic, for comparison only.
06/ 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.
07/ 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.
08/ the board
What the board holds.
A read of the roles on the board on this page, 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 · Freelance CMO
Engagement
- Temporary1
Days a week
- Stated in the posting0
- Not stated1
Day rate
- Verified rate0
- Estimated (est)0
- Rate not stated1
Work arrangement (as the job feed classifies it)
- Remote0
- Hybrid0
- On-site1
Newest posting on the board: 16 Oct 2026.
09/ vetting
How we vet freelance CMOs
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify Freelance 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
10/ the scope
Freelance chief marketing officer — what the statement of work should say
A freelance chief marketing officer is bought against a scope, so the written scope is the part of the contract that matters most.
Name the outcome and the date it has to be true by, the deliverables rather than the hours, the budget the CMO controls, who they report to, and how the engagement ends.
Then settle two things that are easy to leave out.
The first is who owns the work.
When you commission someone who is not your employee, the IPO's guidance on ownership of copyright works is clear that the creator is the first owner of the copyright — in the positioning, the messaging, the campaign assets — unless you agree otherwise in writing; without that, you may get only a limited licence to use what you paid for.
Put an assignment of the deliverables in the contract, and let the CMO keep their own pre-existing methods and templates.
The second is the rules the campaign has to follow.
A freelance CMO who runs email, calls or paid media also owns the compliance that comes with them — the ICO's direct marketing and PECR guidance and the ASA's UK Advertising Codes — so write it into the mandate.
Cookie-based tracking and retargeting fall under the ICO's guidance on storage and access technologies.
Any environmental claim in the copy should meet the CMA's Green Claims Code.
IR35 status still depends on how the engagement runs in practice; our IR35 guide sets out the tests.
If the work has no end date, hire a fractional CMO instead; if you sell to other businesses, see B2B fractional CMO.
11/ questions
Freelance CMO FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in a freelance 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.
