Fractional Director of Growth Marketing: Fractional Head of Growth and Director of Growth Marketing

Our fractional director of growth marketing advises: A Head of Growth (and similarly a VP Growth or Chief Growth Officer at larger scale) owns the cross-functional growth operating model: paid acquisition strategy, lifecycle and retention programs, conversion optimization, growth analytics, and partnership with sales and product on full-funnel outcomes. The role spans both strategy (board-level growth narrative, capital allocation across channels, hire and team architecture) and execution oversight (program-level decision-making, agency portfolio management, experiment prioritization). Different from a Director of Growth Marketing, who operates at execution altitude, running programs hands-on rather than setting strategy. Different from a fractional CMO, who owns marketing more broadly including brand and communications. Most companies arrive at the Head of Growth conversation needing the role between $10M and $100M revenue, where cross-functional growth complexity has outgrown a single Director but hasn't yet justified a full-time Chief Growth Officer seat.

Altitude. Head of Growth (or VP of Growth) is more strategic, board-facing, executive-team partner, sets cross-functional growth strategy, owns the growth P&L, partners with sales and product on retention and expansion. Director of Growth Marketing is more operational, team-management focused, channel-strategy leaning, owns the execution layer. Smaller companies need Director altitude; larger or more complex companies need Head-of-Growth altitude.

An agency executes against your brief, often inside a single channel. A fractional Head of Growth or Director writes the brief, sits on your side of the table, owns the full funnel across channels, manages the agencies, and develops your in-house team.

Week one: funnel review, channel and agency audit, reporting and analytics review. Weeks 2-4: diagnostic and 90-day plan. Weeks 4-12: execution. Most engagements ship measurable improvement inside the first quarter.

Director-altitude engagements run $15K-$25K per month at two to three days per week. Head-of-Growth or VP-altitude engagements run $25K-$45K per month given the executive-team partnership scope. Scoped to outcome.

Yes. Our Recruit practice runs the search; the fractional leader usually writes the brief and participates in finalist interviews. About 25% of engagements convert to permanent.

Directly. Chameleon Collective is a senior-only collective.