Part-time CMO · Part time chief marketing officer · Cost · How to find one
Part-Time CMO · a chief marketing officer on fixed days each week
A part-time CMO is a part time chief marketing officer: a senior marketing leader who holds the CMO seat on the same one or two days every week, on contract at a day rate or on your payroll pro rata.
They own the marketing plan, the budget and the team, and answer to the CEO, without a five-day salary.
This page covers what the role is, what it costs and when it fits.
To hire a part-time CMO, or to see part-time CMO jobs, go to the hub.
If the days need to flex, look at a fractional CMO instead.
We recruit fractional, interim, part-time, temporary and permanent marketing leaders.
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 part-time CMO
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with CMO 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
Part-time CMO jobs on the board
No Part-time CMO roles on the board in the last three months. Showing fractional executive roles instead.
- FractionalSyndicatedFractional Finance Director
Signature Associates · England
est £750/dayEngland - FractionalSyndicatedFractional CFO
KeelCFO · England
Rate not statedEngland - FractionalSyndicatedFractional CFO
fin-house · London
£700–£1,000/dayLondon - FractionalSyndicatedFractional General Counsel
Ffern · London
est £1,000/day1 d/wk - FractionalSyndicatedPerformance & Development Lead (Fractional)
Unity Advisory · London
Rate not stated3 d/wk - FractionalSyndicatedFractional COO / Operations Director
genesis labels & packaging · Leeds
est £750/day2 d/wk - FractionalSyndicatedFractional CFO
Amitours · United Kingdom
Rate not statedUnited Kingdom - FractionalSyndicatedFractional CISO (Contract / Project Based)
Cambridge Spark · United Kingdom
est £1,500/day2 d/wk - FractionalSyndicatedHead of Medical Compliance, Governance & Diligence (Fractional)
CNX Therapeutics Ltd · Greater London
est £1,000/dayGreater London
Current CMO and marketing leadership roles
Fractional Quest is a fractional recruitment agency: send a CMO brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.
01/ the cross
Where a permanent hire becomes cheaper.
Move the day rate and the days a week: the rising line is a month of part-week cost, the flat line a permanent hire’s month. Where they cross, the seat should go full-time.
At 3.8 days a week a permanent hire costs less.
Our arithmetic. Permanent a month = the salary ÷ 12 plus 15% employer NI, plus the 30% search fee spread over 12 months — the calculator’s inputs. Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for each step.
Permanent = the £147,000 Robert Half 2026 median salary. The full calculator below adds the months, the totals and the currency tabs.
02/ the role
What is a part time chief marketing officer? the full seat, on fewer days
A part time chief marketing officer holds the whole CMO job: positioning, the marketing plan, the budget, the agencies and the team, and a seat at the leadership table.
What changes is the week.
The days are fixed, often one or two, and the arrangement is ongoing.
People search for it as “CMO part time” as often as the other way round; it is the same role.
The defining choice is the contract.
A part-time CMO can be your employee on reduced hours, or an independent who sells you the same fixed days at a day rate.
Our page on what a CMO does covers the full remit; this page is about doing it on fewer days.
Part-time or fractional?
The words are often used for the same person.
The useful difference: part-time means the same days every week for one company, often on payroll; fractional usually means an independent on agreed days that can flex, often with other clients.
Searches such as “fractional interim part-time CMO” lump the three together, which is why the comparison below sets them side by side.
Employee or contractor
On payroll, a part-time CMO is protected from being treated less favourably than a comparable full-time employee on pay rates, pension, holidays and training, as GOV.UK sets out under the Part-time Workers Regulations 2000.
On contract, they invoice for the days and the off-payroll rules may apply (below).
03/ scope
Part-time CMO: what one does on fixed days
Fixed days make a rhythm.
The team knows when the CMO is in, decisions queue for those days, and the work that only a CMO should do gets done on them.
In practice the days go on five things.
The plan and the budget
Who the company sells to, the position it takes, the channels it funds, and a budget compared with results every month.
The team and the agencies
Briefing and reviewing the people who do the work in between: an in-house marketer or two, the agencies, the freelancers.
A part-time CMO leads them; they do not replace them.
Pipeline with sales
An agreed definition of a good lead, a regular review with the sales lead, and one view of what marketing contributes to revenue.
Brand and the rules
Claims that can be backed up: advertising must follow the CAP Code, which the Advertising Standards Authority enforces.
Business-to-business email and calls fall under PECR and the UK GDPR, as the ICO’s B2B marketing guidance explains.
The board conversation
Reporting to the CEO and the board in their terms: cost, pipeline and growth, not activity.
Skills to look for
The Chartered Institute of Marketing’s Global Professional Marketing Framework sets out the direction, capability and professionalism a marketer needs at each level.
A good part-time CMO also has the discipline to work in fixed blocks and leave the team clear instructions for the days between.
04/ the maths
What the seat costs, by the days a week
Move the day rate, the days a week and the months: the totals and the permanent comparison for the period. The curve above shows where a permanent hire becomes the cheaper seat.
The slider runs across the published band for a fractional CMO: £750–£1,400 a day (Connectd 2026).
Cost over 12 months
£114,400
104 working days · 2 d/wk · 12 mo · before tax
Fractional costs less over 12 months£98,750
Fractional CMO, 12 months£114,400
Fractional CMO, a month at 2 d/wk£9,526
Permanent CMO, same period£213,150
Fractional CMO, 12 months$151,569
Fractional CMO, a month at 2 d/wk$12,621
Permanent CMO, same period$282,402
Converted from £ at $1.3249 per £1 (Bank of England spot rate), 2 Oct 2026. A conversion, not a US market rate. Source ↗
Fractional CMO, 12 months€134,374
Fractional CMO, a month at 2 d/wk€11,189
Permanent CMO, same period€250,366
Converted from £ at €1.1746 per £1 (Bank of England spot rate), 2 Oct 2026. A conversion, not a EU market rate. Source ↗
Our arithmetic, indicative. Permanent = the £147,000 Robert Half 2026 median salary pro rata for the same months, plus 15% employer NI, plus a 30% search fee on the annual base (UK retained search runs 25–35%, Headhunters.co.uk). Excludes pension, bonus and equity.
05/ the week
How a week divides.
The days you buy are yours; the rest of the week goes to other clients. Move the days a week in the calculator above and the week redraws.
Illustration only: one way a fractional CMO’s week can divide at 2 days a week for you. Each block is half a day.
06/ the board
What the board holds.
A read of the roles on the board on this page, counted as they stand: how each is engaged, whether the posting gives the days and the rate, and where the work happens.
On this board, last 90 days · 9 roles · fractional executive
Engagement
- Fractional9
Seat
- CFO3
- Finance director1
- General counsel1
- HRD1
- COO1
- CISO1
- Other seats1
Days a week
- Stated in the posting4
- Not stated5
Day rate
- Verified rate1
- Estimated (est)5
- Rate not stated3
Work arrangement (as the job feed classifies it)
- Remote2
- Hybrid4
- On-site3
Newest posting on the board: 5 Oct 2026.
07/ comparison
Part-time CMO vs fractional, interim and freelance and full-time
Five ways to get a senior marketer. The differences are in the days, the length and the contract.
08/ timing
When part-time fits and when it does not
A part-time CMO suits a company whose marketing needs a senior owner every week, but not every day. These are the common cases, and the one where part-time is the wrong answer.
Scenario 01
A team without a leader
Two or three marketers and some agencies, doing good work in different directions, with nobody senior to set the plan.
Scenario 02
A start-up after its first round
A CMO part-time startup arrangement: senior judgement on positioning and budget before the company can carry a full-time salary.
Scenario 03
A specialist market
Regulated or technical selling, B2B or crypto, where the right person is senior, scarce and happy on fixed days.
Scenario 04
Not when the work fills the week
A relaunch, a new market or a large team needs someone every day.
That is an interim or a full-time hire.
09/ vetting
How we vet part-time CMOs
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify CMO 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
10/ how to find one
How to find a part-time CMO brief first, search second
To find a part-time CMO, write the brief before you look.
Name the one result marketing must deliver in the next year, the days that work needs, which days of the week they fall on, and who the CMO reports to.
Then decide payroll or contract.
The best part time CMO for your company is the one whose fixed days match the work, not the one with the biggest name.
Asking how to find a part time CMO usually means asking who to trust.
Take references from a CEO they reported to and from someone in their team.
Test the work: give them last quarter’s numbers and ask what they would change first and what they would stop.
The best way to hire part-time CMO talent is with a shortlist you can compare.
We send 3–5 candidates, each with day rate or pay, availability and IR35 position set out, after our five-stage vetting.
The hub sets out how to hire a part-time CMO in full; for a permanent seat on fewer days, see how to hire a CMO.
11/ part-time or freelance
Part-time or freelance CMO: a seat, or a project
A freelance CMO is usually hired for a piece of work: a positioning project, a launch plan, an agency review.
They deliver it and leave.
A part-time CMO holds the seat on fixed days, owns the team and the budget, and stays.
The same person can do both; the question is whether you need an owner or an output.
A CMO freelance engagement is a contract for services, often through the marketer’s own company.
So is a contract part-time CMO.
Where they work through their own company, the off-payroll working rules (IR35) may apply; status depends on how the engagement runs, and a medium or large client makes the determination.
Our IR35 guide sets out the tests.
For project roles, see freelance CMO jobs.
For ongoing flexible days, see how to hire a fractional CMO.
For a full-time leader for a fixed period, an interim CMO fits better.
12/ cost
What a part-time CMO costs by the day, or pro rata
On contract, the cost is the day rate times the fixed days.
No source we trust publishes a part-time CMO rate as such.
The nearest published band is for fractional CMOs: Connectd puts it at £750 to £1,400 a day, with a mid-market figure of £800 to £1,000.
The Marketing Centre puts a fractional CMO at four to eight days a month at typically £5,000 to £10,000 a month.
On payroll, the cost is a salary pro rata to the days, plus employer National Insurance, pension and benefits.
For the full-time reference point, Robert Half’s 2026 guide puts the median CMO salary at £147,000, within a range of £110,250 to £183,750.
An employee on reduced hours can also request flexible working later, so agree how the days may change.
Our page on fractional CMO cost sets out day rates and retainers in depth.
Every shortlist we send states each candidate’s day rate or pay.
13/ b2b and crypto
Specialist seats: B2B, start-ups and crypto
A B2B part time CMO spends the fixed days on the account list, the sales hand-off and pipeline reporting.
They need to know the rules on B2B direct marketing: the email rule for corporate subscribers differs, but the UK GDPR still applies to business contacts.
For the wider B2B picture, see our guide for B2B companies.
A crypto part time CMO needs one more thing: the financial promotions regime.
The FCA explains that promotions of cryptoassets to UK consumers, including on websites, apps and social media, must go through one of four legal routes, and that promotions outside them breach section 21 of FSMA.
Ask how a candidate has handled sign-off before.
For the permanent end of the market, see CMO jobs.
14/ questions
Fractional CMO FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in a part-time CMO.
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.
