Interim head of growth salary · day rates, 2026
What an interim head of growth earns, by the day and by the assignment
An interim head of growth is paid a day rate, not a salary.
Robert Walters’ 2026 salary survey puts the London contract rate for a head of growth at £530 to £790 a day through PAYE, with an average of £660.
Across all interim functions, the IIM’s 2026 survey puts the average day rate at £907, and £1,004 in the private sector.
What an interim head of growth salary comes to over a year depends on the days billed, not the rate alone.
When you hire an interim head of growth through us, we send a shortlist of 3–5, each with 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 an interim head of growth
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with Interim 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
Interim head of growth jobs on the board
No Interim head of growth 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 Interim head of growth roles appear here as our pipeline finds them.
Interim growth and marketing roles on the board
Fractional recruiting starts with the brief, not the CV pile. Send a Interim Head of Growth brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five candidates, each through five-stage vetting.
01/ the role
How an interim head of growth is paid, and why the unit is the day
An interim head of growth holds the seat full-time for a defined period: a departure, a stalled growth number, a launch, or the months before a permanent hire starts.
The interim invoices the business for the days worked, or is paid for them through payroll.
The rate buys days, not a salary: pay stops when the assignment ends.
That makes the day rate the real unit of pay.
Across all functions, the Institute of Interim Management’s 2026 survey puts the average assignment at 10.0 months, the average gap between assignments at 3.2 months and the average days billed in a year at 148.
The rate has to cover the gaps.
Robert Walters’ figure is a PAYE contract rate: tax and National Insurance come off through payroll, as they would for an agency worker.
An interim who works through their own company instead pays themselves through salary and dividends from what the company earns, after its costs and Corporation Tax.
Neither day rate is take-home pay.
02/ scope
How to hire an interim head of growth
1. Define the mandate and its end
Say what the interim must move and by when: the activation rate, the cost of acquisition, the experiment backlog, a handover to a permanent hire.
A defined mandate is easier to price and easier to judge at the end.
Paid experiments still have to meet the CAP Code that the Advertising Standards Authority enforces.
2. Decide IR35 status at the start
If your business is medium or large, you make the status determination for the engagement and give the interim your reasons.
Settle it before you go to market, because it decides whether candidates quote a PAYE rate or a limited-company rate.
3. Match the record to the mandate
Ask for outcomes from comparable assignments: the metric on arrival and on exit, the experiments that worked and the ones that did not.
A business with no tracking in place needs someone who has built it, within the ICO’s rules on cookies and similar technologies.
Roles on the board are on head of growth jobs.
What we do on an interim brief
We recruit interim, fractional, part-time, temporary and permanent growth and marketing leaders, and non-executive directors.
We send a shortlist of 3–5, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, and every candidate goes through our five-stage vetting first.
If the seat needs a permanent owner after the interim, see head of growth salary for the permanent benchmarks.
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
Interim head of growth salary day rates by source
Day rates as each publisher states them, 2026. Robert Walters, a recruiter, publishes contract rates paid through PAYE for London, from roles advertised over 12 months; its averages are the mean of those roles. The IIM figures cover every interim function, not growth alone, and most interims in its survey work through their own company.
05/ economics
Interim pay and IR35: who decides, and what it changes
Tax status turns on how the engagement runs, not on the title or the contract alone.
Under the off-payroll working rules (IR35), a medium or large client makes the status determination; for a small client outside the public sector, the interim’s own company decides.
The rules apply contract by contract, so one interim can have engagements on both sides.
It shows in the rates.
The IIM’s 2026 survey puts the average interim day rate at £949 outside IR35 and £830 inside, across all functions.
HMRC’s CEST tool gives its view on a specific engagement.
Our IR35 guide sets out the tests.
06/ vetting
How we vet interim head of growths
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify Interim 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/ interim head of growth day rate
Interim head of growth day rate in London, and against the wider market
The interim head of growth day rate Robert Walters reports for London is £530 to £790 through PAYE, with an average of £660.
That sits beside its head of marketing rate (£520 to £830, average £673) and below its marketing director rate (£660 to £1,070, average £865).
Robert Walters publishes the head of growth rate for London only, and as a PAYE rate.
Across all functions, the IIM’s 2026 survey puts the average at £907 a day: £949 outside IR35 and £830 inside.
Ask which basis a quote is on before you compare it.
08/ the year
Interim head of growth salary, annualised
An interim head of growth salary is a figure people search for, but no interim is paid one.
To compare, multiply the day rate by the days worked.
At Robert Walters’ £660 London average, 220 days would bill £145,200.
At the IIM’s all-function average of 148 days billed in a year, the same rate bills £97,680.
Both are our arithmetic, a comparison and not a salary.
Across Robert Walters’ London range, 148 days runs from £78,440 at £530 a day to £116,920 at £790 (our arithmetic).
A full month of cover, at about 22 working days and £660 a day, comes to £14,520 (our arithmetic).
For scale, Robert Walters’ 2026 London average for a permanent head of growth is £98,300 in a medium enterprise and £157,800 in a large one, in base salary before employer costs.
See head of growth salary for the permanent benchmarks in full.
09/ the other routes
Interim, permanent or fractional: which pay basis fits
Interim cover buys a full-time growth lead for a fixed period.
A permanent hire is paid a salary and package; see head of growth salary.
If the work fits into part of the week, a fractional head of growth on a day rate may cost less over the same months; no UK source we can cite publishes a fractional rate for the seat yet, so see fractional head of growth jobs and compare the rates candidates quote.
Fractional head of growth salary spreads the permanent salary across part-week days (our arithmetic).
10/ questions
Interim head of growth salary FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in an interim 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.
