Head of GTM jobs · Head of go-to-market · What is a head of GTM
Head of GTM jobs · hire a head of GTM, fractional or permanent
Head of GTM jobs are go-to-market leadership roles: the head of GTM, or head of go-to-market, runs sales, marketing and customer success as one function, with the leaders of each reporting in, and answers to the CEO for the revenue plan. To hire a head of GTM, first name the teams that will report in on day one.
We place heads of GTM fractional, interim and permanent, and we can put a senior GTM lead into the work directly. On every brief we send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, after five-stage vetting. Looking for work? Live GTM leadership roles are on the board below.
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
International Finance Renting the C-suite, and why the fractional executive era has arrived · 17 Sep 2026
The piece argues that fractional leadership has moved from a startup stopgap to a normal way for mid-market companies to hire. A head of GTM is often the first leadership seat those companies fill that way.
15 minutes · video or phone
Book 15 minutes to hire a head of GTM
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with head of GTM 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
Live roles · last 3 months
Live Head of GTM roles jobs
No live Head of GTM roles roles in the last three months. Showing live fractional executive roles instead.
- FractionalSyndicated
Fractional CISO (Contract / Project Based)
Cambridge Spark · United Kingdom
est £1,500/day2 d/wk - FractionalSyndicated
Head of Medical Compliance, Governance & Diligence (Fractional)
CNX Therapeutics Ltd · Greater London
est £1,000/dayGreater London - FractionalSyndicated
Head of Applied Legal – AI Product (Fractional)
Stealth Startup · London
est £1,600/day2 d/wk - FractionalSyndicated
Fractional Product Practice Leader - 9 Month Contract
Tails.com · London
est £1,000/day2 d/wk - FractionalSyndicated
Fractional CPO
Log my Care · City of London
est £3,250/day3 d/wk - FractionalSyndicated
Fractional Finance Directors
PWF Associates Limited · Manchester
est £750/dayManchester - FractionalSyndicated
Fractional legal counsel
Nifina · London
est £750/dayLondon - FractionalExclusive
Fractional COO
Confidential client (Fractional Quest mandate) · London
Rate not statedLondon - FractionalSyndicated
Fractional Financial Controller
MarcoPolo Learning · City of Westminster
est £750/day2 d/wk
Live GTM leadership roles
Fractional recruitment works differently from a permanent search — shorter, scoped by days a week, and priced on the engagement. Send a head of GTM brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.
01/ the role
What is a head of GTM? the meaning, in one line
A head of GTM is the leader of a company’s go-to-market function: the heads of sales, marketing, customer success and revenue operations report in, and the head of GTM sets the one plan they share and answers for the revenue it brings. That is the head of GTM meaning. GTM stands for go-to-market, so a head of go-to-market is the same job under its long name.
The test is the org chart, not the title. If leaders report in, it is a head of GTM seat. If the person does the selling and marketing themselves with a small team or none, it is closer to a GTM lead or, at an early company, a founding GTM lead, whatever the advert calls it.
Head of GTM vs head of sales
A head of sales runs sellers and a sales number. A head of GTM has the head of sales reporting in, alongside marketing and customer success, and owns the joins between them: the lead that marketing passes and sales ignores, the deal that closes and churns in month three. The same logic runs through growth. Kyle Poyar of Growth Unhinged argues that a head of growth is most effective at scaling a product-led company that already has product-market fit, not building one from zero. A head of GTM arrives at the same moment: when there is an engine to run.
Where the seat sits on the ladder
From the bottom: a GTM specialist or GTM manager does the work or runs one part of it; a GTM lead or founding GTM lead owns a motion; the head of GTM leads the function; a GTM director or VP GTM owns strategy and operations across it at a larger company; the CRO owns every revenue line. Small companies merge rungs. The whole ladder is on our GTM jobs hub.
02/ scope
How to hire a head of GTM
1. Draw the org chart for day one
Write down who will report to the head of GTM on the first morning. A head of sales, a marketing lead, someone in customer success, a RevOps owner? If the answer is nobody, you are hiring a player, not a head, and the brief should say so. If the answer includes every revenue line and a seat with the board, you are closer to CRO recruitment.
2. Name the join that is failing
Heads of GTM are hired to fix the gaps between teams. Pick the one that costs you most: marketing and sales arguing about lead quality, a forecast nobody believes, customers who buy and leave, a price that sales discounts every quarter. That problem is the first 90 days, and the interview should turn on it.
3. Choose fractional, interim or permanent
A fractional head of GTM on two or three days a week can run the function while it is still small. If the seat is empty and the team needs a leader every day, look at interim head of GTM jobs. Once the plan is proven and the team fills a week, hire permanent.
4. Test for the stage you are at
Stage 2 Capital advises looking for people who have done well at the stage your company is at now, and warns how different the job is at each stage. For a head of GTM, ask for a function they took over, what they changed first and what the numbers did afterwards. Ask a seller and a marketer from their last team for references. Membership of the Institute of Sales Professionals or the Chartered Institute of Marketing is one signal among several.
What we do on a head of GTM brief
We send a shortlist of 3–5 candidates, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, after our five-stage vetting. We recruit fractional, interim, part-time, temporary and permanent executives, and non-executive directors. If the function cannot wait for a search, we can put a senior GTM lead on it directly.
03/ comparison
Head of GTM vs GTM lead vs founding GTM lead
Three seats that share the letters GTM. Read what reports in and what the person does by hand, not the title on the advert.
04/ vetting
How we vet heads of GTM
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify head of GTM 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/ head of gtm jobs
Head of GTM jobs: who hires one, and how to read the advert
Head of GTM jobs appear when a company has more than one go-to-market team and nobody between them and the CEO. Most hirers are scale-ups that have outgrown a founding GTM lead, and established companies that want sales, marketing and customer success run to one plan. Some buy the seat part-time first, as fractional GTM, and hire permanent once the plan works.
Read the advert for what reports in. A head of GTM job that lists no team is a GTM lead job with a bigger title; one that lists every revenue line, pricing and a board seat is a CRO job. The real head of GTM seat sits between: several leaders reporting in, one plan, one number.
Candidates who get these roles have usually led at least two of sales, marketing and customer success, and have taken over a function rather than only built one. If you want the go-to-market plan itself in depth, our sister site gtm.quest covers it, and our go-to-market strategy page sets out who should own it. Live head of GTM jobs are on the board on this page.
06/ which seat
Head of GTM vs GTM lead vs founding GTM lead: which one you are hiring
Stage first. If the founders still close every deal and there is no commercial team, the seat is a founding GTM lead: one person, hands on, building the first playbook. If some selling, marketing or customer success exists and needs to become one motion, it is a GTM lead. If each of those has a team and a leader, and they need one plan above them, it is a head of GTM.
The wrong choice costs a year. Hire a head of GTM too early and you pay for a leader with nobody to lead, who then has to do the founding job by hand. Hire a GTM lead too late and they spend their time on internal politics between teams that outrank them. Stage 2 Capital makes a related point about the first hire: it is not always a seller, and the right choice depends on what the founders already cover.
At a small company one person can hold two of these seats, and titles drift. Settle it by writing down what the person will own on day 30 and who will report to them. The table above sets the three side by side.
07/ head of gtm salary
Head of GTM salary: what the published data shows
No published UK salary survey reports pay under the title head of GTM. The Ravio and Erevena European Executive Salary Survey 2026 covers chief executive, sales, marketing, finance and engineering leadership, and has no head of GTM line at all. Both sides of a hire therefore price the seat against adjacent titles.
The nearest are in sales leadership. IT Jobs Watch puts the median advertised salary at £75,000 for a head of sales and £100,000 for a sales director, from IT-sector permanent job ads. Those are adjacent titles, not head of GTM pay, and advertised base, not agreed OTE. For day rates on the sales side, see fractional sales director jobs.
08/ what else it owns
Outbound, IR35 and the board seat for a head of GTM
A head of GTM sets how the team contacts prospects, so they answer for doing it lawfully. The ICO’s business-to-business marketing guidance explains that UK GDPR applies to a named business contact’s personal data, and that sole traders and some partnerships are treated as individuals under PECR. Ask candidates how they ran outbound, from SDRs to automation, within those rules.
A fractional or interim head of GTM is either employed or works through their own limited company. Where they work through their own company, the off-payroll working rules (IR35) may apply. A medium or large client makes the status determination; for a small client outside the public sector, the worker’s own company decides. Status turns on how the engagement runs in practice. Our IR35 guide sets out the tests.
“Head of” is a job title, not an office. If a head of GTM joins the board, the seven general duties of a company director apply, and GOV.UK notes they still apply to someone who acts as a director without being formally appointed. Agree in writing whether the seat is a board seat.
09/ questions
Head of GTM jobs FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in a head of GTM.
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.
