MarketerJob.com

For employers · VP of marketing

Hire a VP of marketing: VP of marketing salary, recruiter fees and job description

A VP of marketing runs the marketing function day to day. They own the plan, the budget, the team and the number, and they report to a CEO or a CMO depending on how the company is built. The distinction that matters when you write the job ad is scope: a CMO sets company-level strategy and sits at the executive table, while a VP of marketing is usually the most senior operator in the building, closer to the work and accountable for whether it ships.

See all posting plans

Flat $199 for 30 days · no percentage of salary · marketers only

Marketing jobs board
Sort
Remote
Level

No roles match those filters yet. Widen your search.

1,200+ marketing roles · updated daily

The board your role appears on. Listings are illustrative.

The short answer

A VP of marketing in the United States typically earns $170,000 to $260,000 in base salary, with total cash compensation commonly $200,000 to $330,000 once bonus is included, plus equity at venture-backed companies. Reported medians cluster around $200,000 to $250,000 and vary widely by stage, region and company size, so treat any single figure as a starting point. If you use a recruiter, a contingency search adds 15% to 25% of first-year base ($25,500 to $65,000 on that band) and a retained search adds 25% to 35%. Posting the role directly on a marketing job board costs $199 for a 30-day listing.

Typical US salary

$170,000 to $260,000 base

Typical agency fee on that

$25,500 to $65,000

A 30-day post here

$199

What it costs

Every way to fill this role, priced

Honest ranges for the United States. Agency percentages are the industry-standard bands, and the right answer depends on how hard your role is to fill.

Option Typical cost (USD) Speed Best for
In-house VP of marketing, full time Base $170,000 to $260,000; total cash commonly $200,000 to $330,000 with bonus 8 to 16 weeks to fill A marketing team that needs a senior operator to own the plan and the number
Contingency recruiter Typically 15% to 25% of first-year base, so $25,500 to $65,000 4 to 10 weeks Paying only on placement, in a market where you have no bench
Retained executive search Typically 25% to 35% of first-year compensation 4 to 8 weeks to a signed offer A confidential search or a replacement for a sitting leader
Fractional CMO or VP $5,000 to $15,000 per month for 10 to 20 hours a week Days to two weeks Senior judgment now, while the team is still too small to lead full time
Post on MarketerJob $199 for a 30-day post Live the same day Reaching senior marketers directly with no percentage of the package

Salary and fee ranges are typical US figures for 2026 and vary by market, seniority and company stage.

Why post here

A board built only for marketing roles

A flat fee against a six-figure package

A contingency recruiter on a $210,000 VP of marketing base typically bills $31,500 to $52,500 for one hire. A 30-day post on a marketing-only board is $199, and you keep the relationship with every applicant.

Senior marketers, not a general pool

The listing is tagged to a marketing specialty and shown to people who browse marketing roles for a living, so a leadership ad is not buried under every other function on a general board.

Name the real seat

VP, head of marketing and CMO describe different scopes at different company sizes. Stating team size, budget and reporting line in the ad is what keeps senior candidates from withdrawing at offer stage.

How it works

From posting to a signed offer

01

Decide VP or chief before you write the ad

If the person will build and run the function under a CEO who still owns company strategy, it is a VP seat. If marketing needs a voice in company-level decisions and owns a P&L conversation, it is a chief seat. Getting this wrong costs a full search cycle.

02

Write the ad around the number and the scope

Team size, budget, reporting line, the target for the first four quarters, and the compensation range. Senior candidates screen on scope and ownership, not on a duties list.

03

Interview on your actual numbers

Give finalists your real funnel and ask what they would do in the first 90 days and what they would stop doing. People who have run a function answer in tradeoffs; people who have presented about one answer in channels.

How to evaluate

What to look for in a vp of marketing

Most companies between roughly twenty and three hundred people are hiring a VP, not a chief, even when the job ad says otherwise. Titling it CMO to attract better candidates backfires: senior executives read the team size and budget, work out the real remit, and withdraw. Name the seat honestly, put the compensation range in the ad, and put it where senior marketers actually look. MarketerJob lists marketing roles and nothing else, at a flat $199 for 30 days rather than a percentage of a six-figure package.

  • A pipeline, revenue or growth number they personally owned, and what happened to it
  • Experience at your stage and motion: a $5M to $50M B2B climb is not an enterprise brand job
  • People they hired, promoted and kept, with specifics rather than headcount
  • A budget they set, defended and reallocated when a channel stopped working
  • Hands-on depth in at least one channel, so they can coach rather than only review
  • A point of view on your positioning, offered unprompted in the first conversation
How posting works
Your listing How the role appears on the board
Remote
YC

VP of Marketing

Your company · Remote (US)

Senior VP OF MARKETING
$190k to $250k posted today

Candidates see the salary band before they apply, so the people in your inbox have already accepted the number.

Good questions

Questions employers ask

A VP of marketing in the United States typically earns $170,000 to $260,000 in base salary, with total cash compensation of roughly $200,000 to $330,000 once bonus is included. Published medians range from about $200,000 to $250,000 depending on the source and methodology. Venture-backed companies add equity, and pay scales with team size, budget and revenue stage more than with years of experience.
A VP of marketing runs the marketing function: the annual plan, the budget, the team, and the growth number marketing is accountable for. They set channel strategy, hire and coach the managers underneath them, and report performance to the CEO or CMO. Unlike a chief marketing officer, a VP is usually closest to execution and is measured on whether the plan actually ships and works.
A CMO sets company-level marketing strategy, sits on the executive team, and answers to the board for marketing as a business function. A VP of marketing runs the function underneath that strategy and owns delivery. At companies under roughly 200 people the two titles often describe the same job, and the honest test is whether the role has a seat in company strategy decisions or executes against them.
Name the outcome the role owns in the first year, the size of the team and budget, who it reports to, the company stage and go-to-market motion, and the compensation range. Skip the generic responsibilities list. Senior marketers decide whether to apply based on scope, ownership and pay, and a vague ad filters out exactly the operators you want.
Usually yes in practice. Head of marketing is the common title at earlier-stage companies where the person may be the only senior marketer, sometimes with no team yet. VP of marketing implies managers reporting in and a defined budget. Candidates read both titles as senior operator roles, so the team size and budget in the ad matter more than the label.
Expect 8 to 16 weeks from opening the role to a start date when you run the search yourself, and 4 to 8 weeks to a signed offer with a retained firm driving it. Senior candidates usually give four weeks notice and often more, so build that into the plan rather than treating the accepted offer as the finish line.

Hiring for something else

More roles you can post

Hire an SEO specialist

Post an SEO role to a board of SEO people, not to the entire internet.

Read the guide

Hire a social media manager

Reach social people directly, with the pay band on the card.

Read the guide

Hire a marketing manager

Post a marketing manager role to marketers only, for $199.

Read the guide

Marketing recruitment agencies: cost and alternatives

What marketing recruiters actually charge, when they are worth it, and when they are not.

Read the guide

Hire a content writer or content marketer

Post a content role to writers and content marketers, with the pay band on the card.

Read the guide

Hire a PPC specialist

Post a paid media role to PPC people, with the pay band on the card.

Read the guide

Hire an email marketer

Post an email or lifecycle role to the people who run retention, with pay up front.

Read the guide

Hire a digital marketer

Post one digital marketing role to marketers who filter by specialty.

Read the guide

Hire a brand manager

Reach brand marketers directly, with the pay band on the card.

Read the guide

Hire a marketing coordinator

Post one coordinator role to marketers, not to the whole internet.

Read the guide

Hire a fractional CMO

Executive marketing leadership at a part-time price, found directly.

Read the guide

Hire a marketing consultant

Senior marketing help by the hour or the project, found directly.

Read the guide

Hire a marketing director

Post a marketing director role to senior marketers, for a flat $199.

Read the guide

Hire a growth marketer

Post a growth role to marketers who run experiments, for $199.

Read the guide

Hire a product marketing manager

Post a PMM role to marketers who own positioning and launches, for $199.

Read the guide

Hire a CMO

Post a CMO or VP of marketing role for $199, or read what a retained search really costs first.

Read the guide

Hire a demand generation manager

Post a demand gen role for $199 and reach marketers who are measured on pipeline.

Read the guide

Hire a marketing operations manager

Post a marketing ops role for $199 and reach the people who actually run the martech stack.

Read the guide

Marketing jobs, nothing else.

Post your role to a board of marketers for a flat $199, and keep the fee an agency would have taken.

Compare plans