Hire a Part-time CMO · Part-time CMO Jobs UK

Part-time CMO Role Definition

Part-time Chief Marketing Officers are senior marketing executives who work part-time for companies that need strategic marketing leadership without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire. Companies hire a part-time CMO for brand strategy, demand generation, product marketing, and growth planning.

As marketing complexity has increased, companies need senior expertise in digital marketing, marketing automation, customer acquisition, and brand positioning, but often can't justify a full-time CMO salary in early growth phases — Robert Half's 2026 UK median for a CMO is £147,000.

Part-time vs Fractional CMO — the difference

Part-time CMO roles tend to be longer-term arrangements with a specific company, on a consistent weekly schedule. Fractional CMOs often work across multiple clients simultaneously and may have more flexible, project-based arrangements. Both models serve similar strategic needs. The same operator is often advertised as a freelance CMO, usually for a project-scoped mandate rather than a standing seat.

How to hire a part-time CMO

To hire a Chief Marketing Officer part-time, define the marketing mandate — demand generation, brand, product marketing — and the days per week it needs, then brief a shortlist against it. A shortlist of 3–5 part-time CMOs arrives with rate, fit and IR35 position set out.

The part-time Chief Marketing Officer — what the role owns and how it is set up

A part-time chief marketing officer is the company's senior marketing leader for a fixed share of the week — usually one to three days — with the same accountability as a full-time CMO: the marketing strategy, the budget, the team and agencies, and the numbers reported to the board. The difference from an agency or a consultant is ownership. A consultant recommends; a part-time CMO decides what gets built and what stops, and answers for the result. Often searched as “parttime chief marketing officer”, it is the same role.

There are two ways to set the role up, and they carry different obligations. Employed part-time, the CMO is on your payroll and the law protects them from less favourable treatment than a comparable full-time employee, with pay, holiday and pension pro rata — see GOV.UK on part-time workers' rights and Acas's guidance. Engaged through their own limited company, the off-payroll working (IR35) rules apply instead: status depends on how the engagement runs in practice, a medium or large client makes the determination, and HMRC's guidance for clients sets out who is in scope. HMRC's CEST tool gives HMRC's view on a specific engagement, and our IR35 guide covers the rest.

Scope the remit before you brief it. A part-time chief marketing officer who owns email, paid media and campaigns also owns the compliance that comes with them — the ICO's direct marketing and PECR guidance and the ASA's UK Advertising Codes — so write it into the mandate. If the work is closer to running the marketing function than setting its direction, a fractional marketing director may be the better fit; if the leader will split time across several companies, you are looking for a fractional chief marketing officer.

Fractional marketing consultant or part-time CMO — which do you need?

A fractional marketing consultant and a part-time CMO can work the same days a week and charge in the same way, but they are hired for different things. The consultant is brought in to answer a question — a positioning review, a channel plan, an audit of the marketing stack — and hands back a recommendation. The part-time CMO owns the marketing function: the budget, the team and agencies, and the numbers reported to the board. If nobody in the business will own the plan once it is written, you need the CMO.

The same test applies to a digital marketing fractional CMO. If the gap is paid media, SEO or marketing automation run well, a specialist or a fractional marketing director may be enough; if it is deciding where the budget goes across every channel and answering for the result, it is a CMO-level seat.

Location matters less than it did. A part time remote CMO can own strategy and reporting well, provided the in-person days — board meetings, planning, team sessions — are agreed up front. For virtual CMO recruitment, where the seat is mostly remote, see hire a virtual CMO. Either way, brief the outcome and the days a week, and we come back with a shortlist of 3–5.