Head of marketing recruitment · Permanent, interim, fractional or part-time

Head of marketing recruitment: how to hire a head of marketing

Head of marketing recruitment starts with the job the marketing team must do: leads for sales, a brand to build, a product launch, or a team and agencies to run. To hire a head of marketing, fix that, decide who they report to and which channels matter most, then test candidates on a real plan and budget from your business.

We recruit permanent, interim, fractional, part-time and temporary marketing leaders. 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.

Brief us on a head of marketing hire →See the roles

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

Marketing Week Demand for fractional CMOs ‘driven by expertise over cost’ · 27 May 2026
UK research on why companies bring in senior marketing leaders for part of the week: mainly for expertise at a growth moment, not to save money. Useful if you are weighing a part-week lead against a permanent head of marketing.

3–5

Shortlist · with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 set out

Vetting · stages before a candidate reaches you

£66,250

Head of marketing, national median · 50th percentile

Robert Half, 2026

15 minutes · video or phone

Book 15 minutes to hire a head of marketing

Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with Head of Marketing 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

Prefer email? Use the booking page →

Pick a day that suits · live availability

Open the booking calendar →

On the board · last 3 months

Head of marketing roles jobs on the board

0 Head of marketing roles · 9 fractional executive

No Head of marketing roles roles on the board in the last three months. Showing fractional executive roles instead.

Browse every role on the board →

Live head of marketing and marketing 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 Marketing brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.

01/ the role

What the seat covers, and when you need it

A head of marketing leads the marketing team and the programme it runs: campaigns, channels, content, agencies and the leads handed to sales. They turn the strategy into a plan, run the budget and report the results. In a larger business they report to a marketing director or CMO; in a smaller one, to the chief executive.

When a company needs a head of marketing

The usual triggers: the founder or a sales leader is running marketing on the side; several marketers and agencies report to no one senior; sales wants more and better leads than marketing can show; or a launch, a rebrand or a new market needs someone accountable for it. If the board needs marketing strategy at executive level, the seat is a marketing director or CMO; see marketing director recruitment.

The rules the seat answers for

A head of marketing signs off what the business says and how it contacts people. Advertising, sales promotions and direct marketing must follow the CAP Code, which the Advertising Standards Authority enforces, and email, text and phone marketing must follow the ICO’s guidance on direct marketing and PECR. Ask candidates how they have handled both.

02/ scope

How to hire a head of marketing

1. Write the brief around the commercial goal

Set out what the head of marketing will own (the plan, the budget, the team, the agencies, the numbers they report), what sales expects from them, and what should be different after the first year. A head of marketing for a business-to-business firm that sells through a sales team and one for a consumer brand are different hires.

2. Choose the route: permanent, interim, fractional or part-time

A permanent head of marketing suits a business that needs the programme run every week. An interim covers a vacancy or a launch full-time for a fixed term; at director level, see interim marketing director. For senior marketing leadership for part of the week, hire a head of marketing on a fractional basis; for set days on your payroll, see part-time marketing director roles.

3. Assess against a real plan

Marketing titles vary widely, so test the work. The CIPD’s guidance on selection favours structured interviews and skill-based tasks: the same questions in the same order for every candidate, scored against criteria agreed in advance, by a panel. Give a real brief and budget from your business. Professional standing is one signal among several: CIM describes Chartered Marketer status as the mark of a professionally certified marketer, kept current through continuing professional development.

4. Run the checks before the offer

For an employee, you must check their right to work before they start. Take references from a sales leader and a chief executive or marketing director who worked with the candidate, and ask what results they could attribute to marketing.

What we do on a head of marketing brief

We send a shortlist of 3–5 candidates, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out. Every candidate goes through our five-stage vetting first.

03/ comparison

Head of marketing, marketing director or CMO?

Three marketing seats that are often confused. Choose by what the person will own, not by the title.

Head of marketingMarketing directorCMO

OwnsThe marketing programme: campaigns, channels, content, agenciesMarketing strategy, the budget and the marketing functionMarketing at executive-committee level, across brands and markets

Typically reports toThe marketing director, CMO or CEOThe CEO, CMO or commercial directorThe CEO

Judged onPipeline, campaign results and cost per lead or saleGrowth, brand and the return on the marketing budgetCommercial growth across the business

SuitsA business that needs its marketing run wellA business that needs marketing strategy owned below the CEOA larger or multi-market business

04/ vetting

How we vet head of marketings

What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.

01
Qualification screen
Verify Head of Marketing 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/ what to test for

Head of marketing interview questions: what to test for

Test the four things the seat turns on. The plan: give your last year’s marketing numbers and ask what they would stop, start and keep in the first quarter. Attribution: ask which results they can show came from marketing, and how they proved it to sales and finance. The team: ask about an agency or a hire they replaced, and why. Compliance: ask how they have checked a claim before it ran, and how they keep email and phone lists within the rules.

Add a short task: a one-page plan for a campaign from your own business, with the budget split and how they would measure it. Ask every candidate the same questions in the same order and score each answer against the same criteria.

06/ what the seat costs

What a marketing lead costs: Robert Half’s 2026 medians

Robert Half’s 2026 salary guide gives a national median of £66,250 for a head of marketing, £79,500 for a marketing director and £147,000 for a CMO. These are Robert Half’s starting-salary projections, based on its own placements and third-party vacancy data; bonus and pension are agreed on top. For more, see head of marketing salary.

An interim or fractional head of marketing is paid a day rate, often through their own company. Then the off-payroll working rules (IR35) may apply: status depends on how the engagement runs, and a medium or large client makes the determination; for a small client outside the public sector, the worker’s own company decides. Our IR35 guide sets out the tests. On every brief we set out each candidate’s pay or day rate on the shortlist.

07/ questions

Head of marketing recruitment FAQ

The questions people ask before bringing in a head of marketing.

Write the brief around the commercial goal: what the head of marketing will own, what sales expects and who they report to. Then choose permanent, interim, fractional or part-time, assess candidates with a structured panel interview and a real campaign brief from your business, take references from a sales leader and a chief executive, and check right to work before the offer. For part of the week, hire a head of marketing on a fractional basis.

Robert Half’s 2026 salary guide gives a national median of £66,250 for a head of marketing, against £79,500 for a marketing director. On every brief we set out each candidate’s pay or day rate on the shortlist, so you can compare like with like.

A head of marketing runs the marketing programme: campaigns, channels, content and agencies. A marketing director owns the marketing strategy, the budget and the function, and often sits on the senior team. In a smaller business one person may do both; as it grows, the roles separate.

Ask what they would stop, start and keep in the first quarter, which results they can show came from marketing and how they proved it, about an agency or hire they replaced, and how they check claims and contact lists against the rules. Add a one-page campaign plan with a budget.

No qualification is required by law. Professional standing is one signal among several: CIM’s Chartered Marketer status shows a graded member keeping up continuing professional development. Most hirers weigh results from similar businesses more heavily.

Permanent when the programme needs running every week. Interim when the seat is empty or a launch needs a full-time lead for a fixed term. Fractional when you need senior marketing judgement for part of the week, through their own company. Part-time when you want set days on your payroll. See fractional head of marketing roles for the part-week route.

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.

Book a call →Submit a brief