Find and hire a senior
Our senior vp of digital and social media marketing recruiters brings operator-level judgment to your team. Executive search for VP and SVP of Digital and Social Media Marketing. We place leadership-team operators who own the brand's whole digital and social presence, owned and earned social, community. Digital acquisition together, set the cross-channel strategy, and build the org of directors beneath them. Short list in 30-45 days.
Our senior vp of digital and social media marketing recruiters brings operator-level judgment to your team
This VP seat is rare because it sits on top of two disciplines that usually report separately: the social and community presence, and digital acquisition. We assess each short-list candidate on whether they have genuinely owned both, set a coherent cross-channel strategy, and made the trade-offs between brand presence and performance, not just managed one side and inherited the other.
A VP of Digital and Social carries the brand's presence and the digital number into the exec team, defends budget and headcount across the business, and builds an org of directors beneath them. We assess for the commercial judgment, org-building track record, and executive presence the seat demands, because a mis-hire at this level stalls the whole channel for a year.
Our search is led by a Partner who runs digital and social searches inside a collective deep in consumer, creative, and performance talent. She reads a VP candidate's cross-channel ownership and org-building record the way a peer on the leadership team would, not the way a resume presents it.
We run retained executive search for the senior leader who owns digital and social together. VP of Digital and Social Media Marketing, SVP of Digital and Social. VP of Digital Marketing and Social Media Strategy. These searches open when a brand decides its presence and its performance should answer to one leader: a consumer company unifying social, community. Digital acquisition under a single VP, a business standing up the combined seat on the leadership team for the first time, or an organization that needs one executive to own the brand's voice in culture and the digital number behind it.
Every retained search starts with a 60-minute working session that ends in a written scope. For this VP seat the scope names the full mandate the role owns, social and community, digital acquisition and the site, the brand-in-culture narrative, the budget scale, the org being built or inherited, where it sits on the leadership team. Who it reports to. We calibrate to the combined-channel leadership mandate, not a senior-director profile with a bigger title.
This search turns on two things a resume understates: whether the candidate has truly owned both social and digital rather than one. The org they built and led to run them. We assess each short-list candidate on the combined presence and performance they were accountable for, how they set cross-channel strategy. How they hired and structured the directors beneath them. The written candidate document maps each candidate's cross-channel scope and org-building track record to your business.
Searches surface candidates from our direct-placement network first, deep in digital, social. Consumer leadership, then expand via targeted, often confidential, outbound to sitting VPs. Short list lands at roughly 6-8 named candidates with a written assessment per name.
Our retained agreements carry a no-fee replacement if the placement leaves or is asked to leave within 12 months. We invest heavily in mandate and cross-channel calibration at the VP level, where a mis-hire is most expensive. We rarely have to use it.
Most retained searches at this level bundle these workstreams.
| Feature | Chameleon Collective | Traditional retained search firm | Contingency recruiter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time to short list | 14-21 days | 30-45 days | Variable, volume-driven |
| Cross-channel + org-building assessment | Yes, written per short-list candidate | Variable, often a polite glance | Rarely, resume-keyword driven |
| Owns-both-social-and-digital verification | Yes, assessed explicitly | Inconsistent | No |
| Leadership-team / budget readiness read | Yes, exec-presence assessment | Inconsistent | No |
| Engagement fee structure | Retained, fixed cap | Retained, % of comp (typically 25-30%) | Contingency, % of comp on placement |
| Replacement guarantee | 12 months, no fee | 6-12 months variable | 30-90 days typical |
| Interim VP bridge | Yes, from internal collective | No | No |
| Onboarding support | 90-day post-placement bridge | Limited to start date | None |
Common questions from CMOs, CEOs, and brand leaders evaluating a VP of Digital and Social Media search.
Our vp of digital and social media marketing recruiters advises: A VP of Digital Marketing leads acquisition and performance. A Director of Social Media runs the social function hands-on. This VP seat sits on top of both: it owns the brand's combined social-and-digital presence, sets cross-channel strategy, carries the budget. Builds the org of directors beneath it. We assess for executives who have genuinely owned both halves, which is the rare profile this hire requires.
Our vp of digital and social media marketing recruiters advises: We assess it explicitly. Many VP candidates owned one side and inherited the other. Our written assessment covers the combined presence and performance each candidate was accountable for, the cross-channel strategy they set. The directors they led on both sides, with targeted back-channel to confirm it.
Our vp of digital and social media marketing recruiters advises: Most retained searches at this level close in 45-60 days from kickoff to signed offer, with the short list in 14-21 days. Searches run longer when the combined seat is being defined for the first time. We flag during calibration.
Most Chameleon retained searches at the VP level run $45K-$95K with a fixed cap, depending on the breadth of the combined mandate and the size of the org beneath the seat. We quote a fixed number after calibration, not a percentage of comp.
Both. We screen against the leadership mandate first, then you and your exec team review every short-list candidate yourselves with our written cross-channel and org-building assessment as a reading aid.
Yes. Our collective includes Fractional and Interim VP-level digital and social operators who can hold the leadership seat while the search closes, then hand off cleanly to the permanent hire.
Our retained agreements carry a 12-month no-fee replacement guarantee. If the placement leaves or is asked to leave within 12 months, we run the search again at no fee. At the VP level, where a mis-hire is most expensive, the calibration depth is what keeps us from using it.
Directly. The engagement partner runs your search end to end, with no junior researcher layer between you and the recruiter.
The brand's presence and its digital number cannot drift for a 45-60 day search. Our collective includes Fractional and Interim VP-level operators who can hold the combined seat and steady the org while the search closes, then hand off cleanly to the permanent hire.
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Tell us whether this seat truly owns both halves, the budget it carries, and the org being built beneath it. We'll tell you what kind of search fits, how long it should take, and what the fixed cap will be.
VP and SVP of Digital and Social Media placements across consumer brands, retailers, and B2B companies, where the seat sits on the leadership team and owns the combined digital-and-social mandate: the social presence and community, digital acquisition and the website, the brand's voice in culture, the budget, and the org of directors running it.
Tell us whether this seat truly owns both social and digital, the budget it carries, and the org being built beneath it. We'll tell you what kind of VP search fits and what the leadership-team bar should be.
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A deeper read on a few of the operators above: who they are and what they bring.
Featured Case Study
Mansur Gavriel
Retail & eCommerce
Luxury retail brand Mansur Gavriel was transitioning into a direct-to-consumer business model and needed to rebuild their marketing team to align with this new direction. The challenge was not just about hiring top talent but also ensuring that the new hires seamlessly integrate with Mansur Gavriel's brand values and the new business model.
Chameleon Collective's Dan Clifford stepped in as Mansur Gavriel's Interim CMO. He collaborated with the Mansur Gavriel team to create a marketing and hiring plan that aimed to fill 12 critical roles in brand, eCommerce, and creative fields. The approach involved extensive candidate identification and hiring, with a keen focus on the candidates' alignment with Mansur Gavriel's business transformation.
Under the interim leadership of Dan, Mansur Gavriel successfully hired for crucial roles including Creative Director, Social Media Manager, Growth Marketing Manager, Retention Marketing Manager, PR Coordinator, and eCommerce Manager. In addition, they also successfully replaced their former Director of eCommerce. The transition led to the creation of a strong and culture-aligned marketing team. Chameleon Collective continues to maintain a robust relationship with Mansur Gavriel's leadership, further aiding their growth plans. The placement of their full-time CMO in 2022 marked a significant milestone in the transformation journey.
“When a scaling business needed a leader who could own the combined digital and social mandate and build the team beneath the seat, Chameleon ran the search calibrated to leadership-team scope, placing an executive who could own presence and performance together rather than one side of the channel.”
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