Hire a Virtual CMO · Virtual CMO Jobs UK
Virtual CMO Jobs · Hire a virtual CMO
Hire a virtual CMO — a virtual chief marketing officer who leads your marketing for the days you need, working mostly remotely.
Browse the virtual CMO jobs across the UK, or brief us for a shortlist of 3–5.
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 virtual CMO
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with Virtual 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
Virtual CMO jobs on the board
Current virtual CMO opportunities
How fractional recruitment agencies compare is set out in one place, including how we work: a Virtual CMO brief and a shortlist of three to five.
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.
- The fractional CMO at 2 days a week never passes permanent inside 24 months.
- Interim passes permanent at month 3.
Our arithmetic, cumulative. Permanent = the salary’s 30% search fee in month 0, then salary ÷ 12 plus 15% employer NI each month. Interim = the midpoint of the published interim band (£1,350 a day, Exec Capital 2026) × 5 days × 4.33 weeks. Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for each month.
02/ 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 CMO.The work fills part of the week, so buy the days it needs.
A fractional CMO 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 CMO.The work fills the week, and it has an end: a programme, a cover, a transaction.
An interim CMO 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 CMO after.The seat is full time and long term, and the need is now.
An interim CMO holds it while the permanent search runs, so the seat is not left empty.
The route · Permanent
A permanent CMO.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.
03/ the role
Hire a Virtual CMO — what a virtual chief marketing officer is
A virtual chief marketing officer is a senior marketing leader who holds the CMO seat for part of the week and does most of the work remotely: strategy and positioning, the budget, the team and agencies, and the numbers reported to the board.
Companies hire a virtual CMO for the same reason they hire a fractional one — they need CMO-level judgement, but not five days of it.
Be clear about the labels.
Virtual, fractional and part-time CMO describe largely the same engagement: a senior marketer on a share of the week, paid for days rather than a salary.
"Virtual" adds one thing — the work is mostly remote, with the CMO in the room for board meetings, planning days and team sessions.
Our main guides are fractional CMO jobs and part-time CMO jobs; this page covers what changes when the seat is remote.
Remote senior work is ordinary now.
The ONS found that 28% of working adults in Great Britain hybrid worked between January and March 2025, and that managers, directors and senior officials were among the most likely to (ONS).
How to hire a Chief Marketing Officer who works remotely
To hire a Chief Marketing Officer on a virtual basis, set out the mandate, the days a week, how often you need them on site, and the tools the team already works in.
Then brief a shortlist against it: 3–5 candidates, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
04/ scope
What virtual CMO jobs involve
Strategy and positioning
Virtual CMO jobs start with the plan: who the company sells to, what it says, which channels carry it and what the budget buys.
The difference from an adviser is ownership — the virtual CMO decides, and answers for the result.
Leading a team you rarely sit with
Remote leadership depends on written briefs, a regular operating rhythm and clear reporting.
Expect a virtual CMO to set weekly priorities, run agencies and freelancers against targets, and keep performance visible to the founders between site visits.
Board reporting and compliance
A virtual CMO reports marketing performance to the board and owns the rules that come with the channels: the ICO's direct marketing and PECR guidance for email and text campaigns, and the CAP Code the ASA enforces for advertising claims.
05/ 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.
06/ 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.
07/ 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 · 1 role · Virtual CMO
Engagement
- Temporary1
Days a week
- Stated in the posting0
- Not stated1
Day rate
- Verified rate0
- Estimated (est)0
- Rate not stated1
Work arrangement (as the job feed classifies it)
- Remote0
- Hybrid0
- On-site1
Newest posting on the board: 16 Oct 2026.
08/ comparison
Virtual, fractional, part-time or interim CMO — the labels compared
General guidance, not data: the first three overlap heavily, and candidates use the labels interchangeably.
09/ timing
When to hire a virtual CMO
Three situations where a remote, part-week CMO tends to fit.
Scenario 01
The founder still runs marketing
Marketing decisions queue behind everything else on the founder's desk.
A virtual CMO takes the seat, sets the plan and frees the founder to run the company.
Scenario 02
A team spread across locations
Your marketers, agencies and freelancers already work remotely.
A leader who runs the function the same way fits how the team already operates.
Scenario 03
Spend with no senior owner
Marketing budget is committed but no one senior decides where it goes or judges what it returned.
A virtual CMO owns that call and reports it to the board.
10/ vetting
How we vet virtual CMOs
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify Virtual 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
11/ the director seat
Virtual marketing director — London, near you, or fully remote
A virtual marketing director does the same remote, part-week work one level below the CMO: more hands-on, closer to campaigns and the team, and usually reporting to the chief executive rather than sitting on the board.
If your need is running the marketing function rather than setting company-level strategy, that is the better brief — see fractional marketing director and part-time marketing director roles for the fuller picture.
People searching for a virtual marketing director "near me" or in London are usually asking a practical question: how often will this person be in the room?
Because the work is mostly remote, location matters less than for a full-time hire, but it still matters for workshops, board meetings and time with the team.
Write the on-site expectation into the brief — one day a month in London, say — rather than filtering candidates by postcode.
Then test candidates on evidence: the teams and budgets they ran, the results they were accountable for, and how they manage people they rarely see.
Professional standing helps — CIM Chartered Marketer status requires graded membership, two consecutive years of CPD and an online assessment — but it is a signal, not proof.
12/ recruitment
Virtual CMO recruitment — how the process works
Virtual CMO recruitment follows the same steps as any senior hire, with two additions: you test for remote leadership, and you agree the on-site pattern up front.
Start with the brief — mandate, stage, sector, days a week, budget and on-site expectation — then decide how the engagement will be contracted.
Our part is stated plainly.
We take the brief on a 15-minute call, then come back with a shortlist of 3–5 candidates, each taken through our five-stage vetting with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
Contracting follows the ordinary rules.
Engaged through their own company, the off-payroll working (IR35) rules apply: status depends on how the engagement runs in practice, and a medium or large client makes the determination — see HMRC's guidance for clients and our IR35 guide.
Buyers looking for an outsourced CMO in the UK usually mean the same engagement bought through a firm rather than directly; the client's duty to decide status is the same either way.
13/ questions
Virtual CMO FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in a virtual 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.
