Roles we recruit
Seven practices, 27 functions. Start at the practice when you cannot yet name the title; go straight to the function when you can.
Browse all 229 roles Brief us on a seatFlat 15% of first-year base · shortlist in 10 working days
Fourteen seats sit under go-to-market leadership, from the VP who runs one function to the chief revenue officer who owns the whole number. We split them by the part of the revenue engine each leader owns, screen for results they can show and teams they built, and run every search on contingency at the same flat 15%.
Most leadership briefs start with a title and a wish list. We start with the part of the revenue engine that is not working, then the leader who owns it.
The revenue engine, and the leader who owns each part
Moves: pipeline created and how the market sees you
5 seats
Brand, demand and product marketing at company level: how the market sees you, the pipeline marketing commits to, and the budget behind both.
Brief us when marketing needs an executive owner who can set strategy with the CEO and answer for pipeline to the board.
Hire a Chief Marketing OfficerThe marketing function's plan, team and budget, measured on pipeline and on how the market understands the product.
Brief us when you have marketing specialists and no leader setting priorities, or marketing activity that sales does not feel.
Hire a VP of MarketingThe pipeline marketing creates: channels, programs, budget and the team that turns spend into opportunities sales accepts.
Brief us when pipeline from marketing is unpredictable and the budget grows faster than the opportunities.
Digital channels at scale: web, search, paid media, marketing technology and the analytics that tie them to revenue.
Brief us when most of your demand runs through digital channels and they need an executive owner with technical depth.
Positioning, messaging, launches and enablement across the portfolio, and the market's voice inside product decisions.
Brief us when several products or segments need one story, and win rates depend on how the product is positioned.
Moves: new bookings and win rate
2 seats
The new-business number: sales strategy, team structure, compensation, hiring and the forecast leadership relies on.
Brief us when sales has outgrown founder-led selling, or the current leader cannot scale the team you need next year.
Hire a VP of SalesA revenue line or region end to end, often combining new business and account growth, with the team and forecast that come with it.
Brief us when a region, segment or product line needs a single owner for its whole number.
Moves: net revenue retention
1 seat
Retention and expansion: onboarding, account management, renewals and the customer experience that drives net revenue retention.
Brief us when churn is eroding growth, or renewals and expansion have no single owner.
Moves: forecast accuracy and go-to-market efficiency
2 seats
The systems, data, process and planning behind the revenue team: CRM, forecasting, territories, compensation and reporting.
Brief us when leadership argues about which numbers are right, or the plan cannot be modeled from your own data.
Cross-functional go-to-market programs: market entry, launches, segment plays and the operating rhythm between sales, marketing and customer success.
Brief us when you are entering a new market or segment and need one person to coordinate every team involved.
Moves: total revenue growth and efficiency
4 seats
Every revenue-generating function under one leader, usually sales, customer success and revenue operations and sometimes marketing, accountable for total revenue and the forecast to the board.
Brief us when sales, marketing and customer success each hit their own numbers and the company still misses its own.
Hire a Chief Revenue OfficerThe commercial model end to end: sales, pricing, partnerships and contracts, common in services, industrial and later-stage companies.
Brief us when revenue depends on pricing, contracts and channels as much as on direct selling.
Hire a Chief Commercial OfficerGrowth across acquisition, monetization and expansion, often spanning marketing, product-led growth and partnerships.
Brief us when growth depends on product, pricing and marketing working as one system, and nobody owns the joins.
Hire a Chief Growth OfficerThe growth model and experiment roadmap across acquisition, activation and expansion, with the analysis to show what worked.
Brief us when growth has flattened and the argument is about tactics instead of a model.
Measured on
Leadership interviews reward fluency, and every candidate at this level is fluent. We screen for what fluency hides: the number they actually owned, the team they built and kept, and whether what they did fits the stage you are at.
We ask for the plan, the result and the gap, year by year, and who else could claim it. Results shared with five other leaders are where we dig.
Who they hired, who they promoted, who left and why. We take references from both directions: someone they reported to and someone who reported to them.
We ask how they presented a missed quarter and what they changed afterwards, and check it with a CEO or board member they worked with.
A leader who scaled a team of two hundred can struggle to build one of five. We compare what they did at your stage, with your budget, rather than at a later one.
Not sure which leader you need? Tell us which number is missing and who owns it today, and we will tell you which of the fourteen seats fits, or whether you need a leader at all.
Public US benchmarks, read October 2026. Leadership pay swings with company size, stage and equity, and published sources disagree more here than anywhere else, so read these as a frame rather than a price.
Each bar runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile, the middle half of reported pay.
Base salaryMedian base salaryAverage total pay, base plus variable
VP of Sales
Salary.com base, Built In total
$209,153 to $243,047 base$350,465 average total
VP of Marketing
Salary.com base, Built In total
$230,302 to $265,731 base$251,059 average total
Chief Marketing Officer
Built In, self-reported
$220,000 median base$293,575 average total
Chief Revenue Officer
Built In, self-reported
$240,000 median base$416,766 average total
VP rows: base salary, 25th to 75th percentile, Salary.com benchmarks for the United States as of October 1, 2026, with Built In average total compensation (self-reported). CMO and CRO rows: Built In median base salary and average total compensation, self-reported, reviewed September 29 and October 1, 2026. Salary.com’s own C-level benchmarks run higher: $313,212 to $373,741 base for chief revenue officers and $335,832 to $418,085 for chief marketing officers. Public aggregates, not ZaphyrRecruit placement data.
The clock starts when the brief is signed and stops when three to five calibrated candidates are in front of you. Most of that time is spent talking to people, not searching for them.
Day 1
Forty-five minutes with whoever the hire reports to. We leave with the number the seat owns, the range you can pay and the two or three things that genuinely disqualify.
Days 2 to 7
We build the list from people doing the job now, approach them directly and screen every name against the brief before it reaches you.
Days 8 to 10
Three to five people, each with a page: what they have run, why they fit this seat, pay expectations, notice period and where they are weak.
After the shortlist
Interviews run at your pace. We handle scheduling, references and the counter-offer conversation, and nothing is payable until your hire starts.
Three clients, quoted as they wrote to us about searches we ran for them. We publish no names or logos without permission.
A VP of Sales owns new business: the sales team, its process and its number. A chief revenue officer owns every function that produces revenue, usually sales, customer success and revenue operations and often marketing, and answers to the board for the total. Companies add a CRO when the handoffs between those teams, not any one team, are costing growth.
No. We run every leadership search on contingency at a flat 15% of first-year base, the same rate as every other seat, with nothing payable until your hire starts and no exclusivity. Retained search suits confidential board-level mandates where exclusivity is the point; if that is what you need, we will say so on the first call.
A flat 15% of the hire’s first-year base salary, payable only once they start. On a $250,000 base that is $37,500. Bonus and equity are not part of the calculation, there is no retainer, and nothing is payable if the search does not produce a hire.
Self-reported data on Built In puts the median base for chief revenue officers at $240,000, with average total compensation of $416,766 (September 2026). Salary.com’s benchmark is higher, at $313,212 to $373,741 base for the 25th to 75th percentile (October 2026). Company size, stage and equity explain most of the gap.
VP searches run on the same ten working days from a signed brief to a shortlist of three to five calibrated candidates. For C-level seats we agree the shortlist timeline at intake, because calibration with the CEO and board takes longer and the strongest candidates are rarely looking. Notice periods at this level are often longer, so plan the start date with that in mind.
Usually a VP of Sales first, unless the problem is coordination between functions that each work on their own. A CRO hired before there is a team to lead often ends up doing a VP’s job at a CRO’s price. If sales, marketing and customer success leaders already exist and miss the company number together, that is the case for a CRO.
We ask what the candidate did at your size, with your budget and your team, rather than what they oversaw later. References come from both directions, a CEO or board member above them and someone who reported to them, and we check whether the teams they built held up after they left.
Tell us which number is missing, who owns it today and what the board expects. We reply within one business day with which of the fourteen seats it is and how we would run the search.
Most of our leadership searches are confidential and never reach a job board. Set up a job alert, or send your CV and we will come to you when a seat that fits your stage opens.
Executive Leadership sits in our Revenue Leadership practice, next to the strategy and enablement seats that work for these leaders. If the gap sits below the leadership line, start with the function.