Head of growth salary · base and package, 2026
What a head of growth earns, in base, equity and package
A head of growth salary in 2026 averages £100,000 on Intelligent People’s placement data from July 2025 to July 2026, with most roles between £80,000 and £120,000.
In London, Robert Walters’ 2026 survey puts the average at £98,300 in a medium-sized business and £157,800 in a large one.
Ultimate Asset’s survey of emerging-media businesses gives £90,000 to £140,000, with a median of £115,000.
Company size moves the number more than the title does.
When you hire a head of growth through us, 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 head of growth
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with Head of Growth 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
Head of growth roles jobs on the board
No Head of growth 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 Head of growth roles roles appear here as our pipeline finds them.
Head of growth roles on the board
Fractional Quest is a fractional recruitment agency: send a Head of Growth brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.
01/ the role
What a head of growth does, and what sets the pay
A head of growth owns the numbers between a first visit and a renewal: acquisition, activation, conversion and retention.
The seat runs experiments across marketing, product and data, and is measured on paying and retained customers rather than leads.
For the full remit, see what a head of growth does.
Company size sets the pay first.
Robert Walters puts a London head of growth at £72,000–£124,000 in a medium enterprise (50 to 250 staff), with an average of £98,300.
In a large enterprise (250+ staff) the range is £103,000–£206,000, with an average of £157,800.
Its averages are the mean of the roles it saw advertised.
Sector comes next.
Ultimate Asset, a recruiter, surveys emerging-media businesses: the creator economy, social-first and digital media.
It puts a head of growth there at £90,000–£140,000, with a median of £115,000.
Read it as one sector’s view, not the whole market.
There is no official figure for the title itself.
The nearest ONS occupational group is SOC 2020 code 1132, marketing, sales and advertising directors.
For full-time employees in that group in 2025, the middle half earned from £65,527 to £134,962, with a median of £94,135.
The group is broader than the head of growth seat.
02/ scope
How to set the pay when you hire a head of growth
1. Name the number the seat owns
Write down which metric is stuck: acquisition cost, activation, conversion or churn.
A seat that also owns a team, a budget and the product surfaces pays more than one that runs experiments alone.
Experiments that email or text people are direct marketing under the ICO’s rules, and ads and promotions must follow the CAP Code the ASA enforces, so ask candidates how they have worked within both.
The head of growth job description sets out what to put in the brief.
2. Choose the route
A permanent appointment suits a business with product-market fit and enough volume to test against every week.
If the work fits into part of the week, look at fractional head of growth jobs and the people on them.
If the seat needs cover now, see interim head of growth salary for the day rates.
3. Set base and equity together
In a venture-backed business, part of the package is often equity.
HMRC’s Enterprise Management Incentives are the tax-advantaged share option scheme most smaller companies look at first.
The salary figures on this page are base pay: Robert Walters says its figures exclude bonuses and benefits.
4. Pay for the range you need
Most candidates come up through performance marketing, product or analytics.
Ask for evidence across all three, and pay for the range the seat needs, not the discipline the candidate came from.
CIM’s Global Professional Marketing Framework sets out the marketing capabilities by level.
What we do on a growth brief
We recruit permanent, fractional, interim, part-time and temporary growth and 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.
Roles on the board are listed on head of growth jobs.
03/ 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 head of growth.The work fills part of the week, so buy the days it needs.
A fractional head of growth 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 head of growth.The work fills the week, and it has an end: a programme, a cover, a transaction.
An interim head of growth 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 head of growth after.The seat is full time and long term, and the need is now.
An interim head of growth holds it while the permanent search runs, so the seat is not left empty.
The route · Permanent
A permanent head of growth.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.
04/ rates by stage
Head of growth salary by source, place and company size
Permanent head of growth pay as each publisher states it, for 2025–26. Intelligent People’s figures come from its own placements; Robert Walters’ from roles advertised in London over 12 months; Ultimate Asset’s from its work in emerging-media businesses. All three are recruiters. The ONS figure covers a wider occupational group, not the title.
05/ economics
What the salary costs the business, beyond the base
A salary is not the whole cost of an employee.
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; in most schemes that is on earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 a year (GOV.UK).
Many schemes pay more.
On a £100,000 salary, employer’s National Insurance comes to £14,250 and the minimum pension to about £1,321, so the business pays about £115,600 before any bonus or benefits (our arithmetic).
A bonus is pay too.
HMRC treats a cash bonus as earnings, with PAYE tax and Class 1 National Insurance deducted through payroll, so budget employer’s National Insurance on the bonus as well as the base.
06/ vetting
How we vet head of growths
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify Head of Growth 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
07/ head of growth salary uk
Head of growth salary UK: the national benchmarks side by side
The national figures measure different things.
Intelligent People’s head of growth salary UK figure, an average of £100,000 with most roles between £80,000 and £120,000, comes from its own placements between July 2025 and July 2026.
Ultimate Asset’s £90,000–£140,000, with a median of £115,000, covers emerging-media businesses only.
For an official view, the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings reports employee earnings by occupation.
Its nearest group, marketing, sales and advertising directors, had a full-time median of £94,135 in 2025.
That group includes sales and marketing directors, so it describes senior commercial pay as a whole rather than this seat.
Read any single figure as one view of the market.
The useful question is which band your business sits in: its size, its sector and where the role will be based.
08/ head of growth salary london
Head of growth salary London, by company size
The head of growth salary London employers pay depends most on headcount.
Robert Walters puts it at £72,000–£124,000 in a medium enterprise, with an average of £98,300, and £103,000–£206,000 in a large enterprise, with an average of £157,800.
Robert Walters publishes the head of growth figure for London only.
No source we can cite publishes a figure for each region, so for a role outside London start from the national figures above.
09/ the other routes
Salary, day rate or retainer: the other ways to pay for the seat
A permanent salary buys a growth lead every day, with notice on both sides.
An interim is paid by the day for full-time cover over a fixed period; see interim head of growth salary for the day rates.
One who works through their own company falls under the off-payroll working rules (IR35), and a medium or large client decides their status.
No UK source we can cite publishes a fractional head of growth rate yet; each candidate on a fractional shortlist sets out their own.
Fractional head of growth salary spreads this salary across part-week days (our arithmetic, not a market rate).
For the board-level seat, see chief growth officer salary.
10/ questions
Head of growth salary FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in a head of growth.
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.
