How to hire a marketing director · in-house or agency · permanent, fractional or part-time

Hire a Marketing Director · in-house or agency

To hire a marketing director, first decide what you are buying: someone to own the whole marketing function and its results, or someone to do defined work.

If it is ownership, choose permanent, fractional or part-time by how much of the week the job needs; if it is defined work, an agency may do it without a hire at all.

We recruit fractional, interim, part-time, temporary and permanent executives, and non-executive directors.

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 marketing director 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

Fast Company 16 leaders on when fractional C-suite hires make sense · 24 Jun 2026
Leaders disagree on when a part-week senior hire makes sense: many back it for a defined mandate, others want a full-time owner. The same trade-off sits under this decision.

3–5

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

Vetting · stages before a candidate reaches you

£79,500

Marketing director median salary · permanent, 2026

Robert Half, 2026

£750–£900

Fractional, director grade · a day, published band

Mateerz, 2026

15 minutes · video or phone

Book 15 minutes to hire a marketing director

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

Marketing director roles jobs on the board

0 Marketing director roles · 9 fractional executive

No Marketing director roles roles on the board in the last three months. Showing fractional executive roles instead.

Browse every role on the board →

Current marketing director roles on our board

Fractional recruitment works differently from a permanent search — shorter, scoped by days a week, and priced on the engagement. Send a Marketing Director brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.

01/ the role

Hire a marketing director: ownership or capacity?

A marketing director runs the marketing function and answers for what it delivers: brand, demand and pipeline, the budget, the agencies and the team.

They usually report to the CEO or a CMO.

An agency does marketing work; it does not own your marketing.

That difference decides most of what follows on this page.

Signs the business needs an owner

The founder can no longer run marketing alongside everything else.

Or agencies and freelancers are each doing good work, with nobody joining it up.

The board asks what the marketing budget returns and nobody can answer.

Or a new market, product or rebrand needs one person accountable for it.

The rules the seat answers for

Email, text and phone marketing fall under the ICO’s direct marketing and PECR guidance.

Ads fall under the CAP Code, which all advertisers, agencies and media must follow, so outsourcing the work does not outsource the responsibility.

Director, CMO or head of marketing

If the job is strategy at board level, the seat is a CMO; if it is delivery of the plan, a head of marketing may be enough.

Robert Half’s 2026 medians are £79,500 for a marketing director and £147,000 for a CMO, so the title changes the budget as well as the brief.

02/ scope

How to hire a marketing director: the decision, step by step

1. Name the gap

Most advice on how to hire a marketing director starts with the search; start with the gap instead.

Write down what is not happening today, and who should own it.

2. Decide whether it needs a hire at all

If the gap is a channel, a campaign or a skill your team lacks, an agency or a specialist may close it without a hire.

If the gap is ownership of the plan, the budget and the results, it needs a person inside the business.

3. Choose the route

Permanent, fractional, part-time or interim: the sections below set out which fits which situation.

Decide this before you set a budget, because the cost basis differs.

4. Then run a fair search

Acas notes there is no set recruitment process in law, but employers must follow a fair one.

Our page on marketing director recruitment sets out how the search runs, what to test and the checks before an offer.

CIM Chartered Marketer status shows continuing professional development and a passed assessment.

It is a useful signal, not a requirement.

What we do on a brief

We send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.

Every candidate goes through our five-stage vetting first.

03/ economics

What each route costs, from published figures

Robert Half’s 2026 salary guide puts a permanent marketing director at £70,000 to £90,000, with a median of £79,500.

Exec Capital’s director salary guide gives £120,000–£300,000 base in mid-market businesses with £20m–£200m revenue, so scope and company size move the number a long way.

Employer National Insurance adds 15% on pay above £5,000 a year (HMRC, 2026/27), before pension, benefits and any bonus.

Mateerz publishes £750–£900 a day, or £3,000–£5,000 a month, for a fractional marketing lead at director grade.

Intelligent People puts an interim marketing director at £700–£1,000 a day.

These are figures published by firms in the market, not a survey of your sector.

More detail sits on marketing director salary, and current marketing director jobs show how other businesses frame the seat.

04/ comparison

Permanent, fractional, part-time or an agency?

Three ways to put a person in the seat, and one way to buy the work instead.

PermanentFractionalPart-timeAgency

TimeFull-time, open-endedAgreed days a week or month, often alongside other clientsA fixed part of the week, often employedThe hours the scope of work buys

OwnsThe marketing function and its resultsThe plan and its results, for agreed daysThe plan and its results, for a fixed part of the weekIts own deliverables, not your marketing

Published cost£79,500 median salary (Robert Half, 2026), plus employer NI and benefits£750–£900 a day at director grade (Mateerz, 2026)Set out on each shortlistQuoted per scope of work

ContractEmployment, on payrollServices; IR35 decided by how the engagement runsUsually employment, on payrollA supplier contract, with data terms if it handles customer data

05/ vetting

How we vet marketing directors

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

01
Qualification screen
Verify Marketing Director 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

06/ hire a marketing director or outsource to an agency

Hire a marketing director or outsource to an agency: how to choose

Whether to hire a marketing director or outsource to an agency turns on one question: do you need someone to own the results, or someone to do defined work?

A search for "hire marketing director or outsource" is weighing exactly that.

An agency suits a defined job with a clear brief: a campaign, a website, paid media, a rebrand.

It brings specialists you could not employ one by one, and you can change it when the contract ends.

An agency does not set your strategy, sit in the leadership team or answer for the marketing budget as a whole.

Without someone in-house to brief it and judge the work, it is hard to tell good agency work from busy agency work.

If you go to an agency, run a fair selection.

The Finding an Agency guide from the IPA and ISBA covers whether a review is the right step, how to choose who to invite, the pitch brief and how to evaluate it.

If the agency will handle your customer data, the ICO says that every time a controller uses a processor to process personal data, there must be a written contract binding the processor.

One option sits between the two: a fractional or part-time marketing director who owns the plan and manages the agencies.

07/ permanent, fractional or part-time marketing director

Permanent, fractional or part-time marketing director: which route

A permanent, fractional or part-time marketing director is the next choice, and it comes down to how much of the week the work needs, and for how long.

A permanent marketing director suits a business that needs a senior marketing owner every day.

A fractional marketing director works agreed days, often alongside other clients.

Knowing when to hire a fractional marketing director is mostly about scope: the business needs senior judgement, but not five days of it.

The roles and the route are on fractional marketing director jobs.

A part-time marketing director works a fixed part of the week, usually as an employee.

Under part-time workers’ rights, they must not be treated less favourably than an equivalent full-timer just because they are part time.

An interim marketing director covers a vacancy, a launch or a turnaround full-time for a fixed term.

If the marketing director works through their own company, the off-payroll working rules (IR35) may apply.

Status depends on how the engagement runs in practice, and a medium or large client makes the determination; our IR35 guide sets out the tests.

Whichever route, compare every marketing director for hire UK-wide on the same basis: days, rate, term and IR35 position.

08/ questions

Hire a marketing director FAQ

The questions people ask before bringing in a marketing director.

Name the gap first: what is not happening and who should own it. Decide whether it needs a person or an agency, then choose permanent, fractional, part-time or interim, and run a fair search that tests candidates on a real brief from your business.

Robert Half’s 2026 salary guide puts a marketing director at £70,000 to £90,000, with a median of £79,500; employer National Insurance adds 15% above £5,000 a year (HMRC, 2026/27). Intelligent People puts an interim marketing director at £700–£1,000 a day. On every brief we set out each candidate’s pay or day rate on the shortlist.

Four: name the gap, decide whether it needs a hire at all, choose the route, then run a fair search. The second step is the one most often skipped, and it decides whether you need a person or an agency.

Hire when you need someone to own the plan, the budget and the results; outsource when the work is defined and someone in-house can brief and judge it. A part-week marketing director can own the plan and run the agencies. If an agency handles customer data, the ICO requires a written contract.

Permanent when the business needs a senior marketing owner every day. Fractional when you need senior judgement for agreed days, often alongside other clients; part-time when you want a fixed part of the week, usually on payroll. For full-time cover over a fixed term, look at an interim marketing director.

When marketing needs an owner but not five days of one: a founder stepping back from marketing, agencies with nobody joining up their work, or a plan that needs setting before a full-time hire. Mateerz publishes £750–£900 a day for a fractional marketing lead at director grade.

A marketing director usually runs the marketing function and its budget, reporting to the CEO or a CMO; a CMO sets marketing strategy at board level. Robert Half’s 2026 medians are £79,500 and £147,000 respectively.

It can, if they work through their own company. Status depends on how the engagement runs in practice, and a medium or large client makes the determination (HMRC). We set out each candidate’s IR35 position on the shortlist.

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