Hire a Virtual CMO · Virtual CMO Jobs UK
Hire a Virtual CMO · Virtual CMO Jobs UK
Hire a virtual CMO — a virtual chief marketing officer who leads your marketing for the days you need, working mostly remotely. Browse live 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
Live roles · last 3 months
Live Virtual CMO jobs
No live Virtual CMO roles in the last three months. Showing live marketing leadership roles instead.
- FractionalSyndicated
Fractional Digital Marketing Manager
Biscuiteers · Wimbledon
est £550/day3 d/wk - FractionalSyndicated
Fractional Marketing Manager
Great State · Bristol
Rate n/a2 d/wk - FractionalSyndicated
Commercial Marketing Manager (Fractional)
aqueris (formerly NovNat Tech) · Brierley Hill
£481–£625/day3 d/wk
Current virtual CMO opportunities
Fractional recruitment works differently from a permanent search — shorter, scoped by days a week, and priced on the engagement. Send a Virtual CMO brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.
01/ 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.
02/ 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.
03/ 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.
04/ 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.
05/ 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
06/ 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.
07/ 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.
08/ 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.
