Head of GTM · meaning and remit
What does a head of GTM do?
The short answer · updated
A head of GTM (GTM means go-to-market) leads a company’s sales, marketing, customer success and revenue operations as one function. The leaders of those teams report in, and the head of GTM sets the plan they share, owns the hand-offs between teams and answers to the CEO for the revenue it brings.
Head of GTM meaning
GTM stands for go-to-market: how a company finds customers, wins them and keeps them.
A head of GTM is the head of go-to-market, the same seat under its short name.
The title means one leader above several commercial teams.
Sales, marketing and customer success each have a lead, and those leads report to the head of GTM.
Read the org chart, not the advert.
If nobody reports in, the job is closer to a GTM lead or, at an early company, a founding GTM lead.
What a head of GTM does: the remit
The remit is the joins between teams as much as the teams themselves.
Most seats cover these areas:
- Sales: the head of sales reports in, with the pipeline, the forecast and the sales process.
- Marketing: positioning, demand and the leads marketing passes to sales.
- Customer success: onboarding, renewals and the customers who would otherwise churn.
- Revenue operations (RevOps): the CRM, reporting and the stage definitions every team reports against.
- Partnerships: where a company sells through partners, the partner channel often sits here too.
- The plan: one ideal customer profile, one set of targets and one weekly review across all of it.
What a head of GTM needs to know
A head of GTM speaks for selling and marketing without running either by hand.
The Institute of Sales Professionals’ Sales Capability Framework sets out the knowledge, skills and behaviours behind effective and ethical selling.
On the marketing side, the Chartered Institute of Marketing’s Global Professional Marketing Framework covers capabilities such as customer experience, commercial judgement and data.
A good head of GTM can hold a sensible conversation in each of those areas.
The rest is leadership: hiring and coaching the leaders who report in, and settling arguments between teams on evidence.
Our reading of how the title is used; no published standard defines it.
Head of GTM vs CRO vs VP of sales vs founding GTM lead
Four seats that overlap.
Read what reports in and what the person owns.
- Founding GTM lead: the first commercial hire at an early company, hands on, usually with nobody reporting in. See founding GTM lead.
- VP of sales: runs the sales team and is judged on what it closes. Marketing and customer success sit elsewhere.
- Head of GTM: leads the leaders of sales, marketing and customer success to one plan, and reports to the CEO.
- Chief revenue officer (CRO): owns every revenue line, including pricing and renewals, and usually sits with the board. See what a chief revenue officer does.
Head of GTM salary
No published salary survey reports pay under the title head of GTM.
The Ravio and Erevena European Executive Salary Survey 2026 has no head of GTM line at all.
The nearest published figure is for an adjacent title.
IT Jobs Watch puts the median advertised salary for a head of sales at £75,000, from IT-sector permanent job ads.
That is advertised base for a different seat, not head of GTM pay.
We set out each candidate’s pay or day rate on every shortlist; see also sales director salary.
Head of GTM at Series A
Series A typically comes once a start-up has a product and real market traction.
The British Business Bank describes the money as going on scaling the business, hiring more people and growing the customer base.
That is often when a head of GTM seat first makes sense: when the teams hired after the round need one leader.
Before then, the job is usually the founding GTM lead’s.
No published survey gives head of GTM pay at Series A, so we do not quote one.
Hire for the company you are now, not the one you plan to be.
How to hire a head of GTM
Write down who will report in on day one, and name the gap between teams that costs you most.
That gap is the first 90 days.
A fractional head of GTM leads the function on agreed days while the teams are small.
An interim head of GTM holds an empty seat full time for a fixed term.
Where a fractional or interim leader works 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.
“Head of” is a job title, not an office.
If the seat joins the board, the general duties of a company director apply.
To hire a head of GTM through us, send the brief; our head of GTM jobs page sets out the seat in full.
We send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, after our five-stage vetting.
Questions people ask
What does head of GTM mean?
Head of go-to-market.
GTM stands for go-to-market, so the head of GTM is the leader of the go-to-market function: sales, marketing, customer success and revenue operations, run to one plan.
What is a head of GTM?
The leader the heads of sales, marketing and customer success report to.
They set the shared plan, own the hand-offs between teams and answer to the CEO for the revenue.
What is the head of GTM salary?
No published survey reports pay under the title.
The nearest adjacent figure: IT Jobs Watch puts the median advertised salary for a head of sales at £75,000, from IT-sector job ads.
We set out pay or day rate on every shortlist.
Is a head of GTM the same as a CRO?
No. A CRO owns every revenue line, including pricing and renewals, and usually sits with the board.
At a scale-up the head of GTM may be the most senior revenue person; at a larger company the seat usually sits under a CRO.
What is the difference between a head of GTM and a VP of sales?
A VP of sales runs the sales team and its number.
A head of GTM has the sales leader reporting in, alongside marketing and customer success, and owns the joins between them.
When does a company need a head of GTM?
When there are teams in sales, marketing and customer success that need one leader above them.
For many start-ups that is after a Series A round, once the new hires are in.
How do I hire a head of GTM?
Name who reports in on day one and the gap between teams to fix first, then choose fractional, interim or permanent.
Send us the brief: the shortlist of 3–5 sets out pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position.
See head of GTM jobs.
