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.
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A chief growth officer owns the growth model: how customers are acquired, activated, retained and expanded, often across marketing, product-led growth, pricing and partnerships. The title means different things in different companies, so we screen for a model they built, experiments they stopped and leaders they hired.
A new CGO is judged on whether product, marketing and sales start working from one growth model instead of three sets of numbers. Each stage below has a signal that predicts it, and we test for that signal before you meet anyone.
The ramp, and the test behind each milestone
Weeks 1 to 3
Acquisition by channel and cost, activation, retention, expansion and monetization, with cohort data for each stage, plus one-to-ones with the product, marketing, sales and finance leaders.
On track looks like a written growth model with the numbers for each stage, the biggest leak and the evidence for it, shared with the CEO and finance.
How we test for it before you meet them
A case exercise in our screen: anonymized funnel and cohort data from a company at your stage. We score what they notice first and what they would not change yet.
Weeks 4 to 6
Agreed definitions for activation, retention and payback, a named owner for each stage and one dashboard that product, marketing and sales all use.
On track looks like shared definitions and a weekly growth review that product, marketing and sales attend.
How we test for it before you meet them
We ask which metrics they dropped or redefined at their last company and how they got the teams to agree. A former CEO or CFO confirms it.
Weeks 7 to 10
Tests ranked by expected impact, cost and time, a budget by stage and stop rules agreed before each test starts.
On track looks like a ranked roadmap with owners, budgets and stop rules, and the first three tests running.
How we test for it before you meet them
We ask about an experiment they stopped early and one they scaled, with the numbers behind both.
Weeks 11 to 13
A pricing or packaging test planned with finance and product, and one product-led loop such as invites, sharing or upgrade prompts designed with the head of product.
On track looks like a pricing or packaging test and one product loop in flight, agreed with the head of product.
How we test for it before you meet them
A reference call with a head of product about a joint initiative: who owned what, what shipped and what the result was.
After day 90
A monthly review of the model, decisions made on cohorts rather than averages, investment moved between stages on evidence and early warning to the board when a bet is not working.
On track looks like investment moved between stages on evidence, and a growth plan the board has seen.
How we test for it before you meet them
We ask how they told a board that a growth bet failed. A plain account that names the cause and the next move predicts an executive the board will trust.
Five responsibilities. If the seat covers the revenue teams only, it is a chief revenue officer; if it owns brand and demand only, it is a chief marketing officer.
How customers are acquired, activated, retained and expanded, with the numbers for each stage and the biggest leak.
The ranked roadmap of tests, the budget by stage and the rules for stopping or scaling.
How the product is priced and packaged, tested against how customers use it and what they pay.
Loops that need product, marketing and partnerships to work together, such as referral, upgrade and onboarding.
Hiring and aligning the leaders of acquisition, lifecycle and partnerships, and the plan reported to the CEO and board.
Three neighboring seats absorb work people assume belongs here. Drawing the line wrong is how a CGO search ends with a marketing leader in a bigger title.
That seat ownsEvery revenue function, usually sales, customer success and revenue operations, and the forecast to the board.
Hire it instead whenthe gap is how the revenue teams execute together, not the growth model behind them.
That seat ownsBrand, demand and product marketing, and the pipeline marketing commits to.
Hire it instead whenthe gap is how the market sees you and how much pipeline arrives.
That seat ownsThe growth model and the experiment roadmap across acquisition, activation and expansion, with the analysis to show what worked.
Hire it instead whengrowth has flattened and the argument is about tactics, but the model can be owned below the executive level.
The title stays the same; the company does not. Pick the one that matches your motion.
Owns self-serve and trial growth: activation, loops, upgrade and the pricing that supports them.
Joins marketing, partnerships and sales operations under one growth model for a team that sells to buyers.
Adds an enterprise motion to a product that grew bottom-up, with new pricing, packaging and segments.
The questions we ask in our own screen. Use them in yours; the warning signs are as useful as the answers.
Every candidate we put forward is scored on these five, and the scores travel with the shortlist, gaps included. Four out of five with a named weakness beats a clean sweep you cannot verify.
| What we score | Weak evidence | Strong evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Growth model and results | A channel record, with retention and expansion left to others. | Growth across acquisition, activation and expansion, with cohorts and the numbers before and after. |
| Experiment discipline | Runs many tests and stops none. | Ranked tests with stop rules, and results reported including the failures. |
| Working across product, marketing and sales | Owns marketing metrics only. | Shared metrics and joint initiatives, confirmed by the heads of product and sales. |
| Building the growth team | Inherited a team and kept it unchanged. | Leaders hired and removed, with reasons and results, confirmed by those leaders. |
| Fit with your company | Experience at a different stage or with a different motion. | Has led growth at a company like yours: your stage, your motion and your price point. |
Public US benchmarks, read October 2026. Salary.com’s chief growth officer band sits beside its chief revenue officer band, just below its chief marketing officer band and well above its chief commercial officer band. Built In has no page for the title. Company stage, whether product and marketing report in, and equity move the number most.
Each bar runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile, the middle half of reported pay.
Base salaryAverage total pay, base plus variable
Chief Growth Officer
Salary.com base benchmark
$312,782 to $372,061 base
Chief Revenue Officer
Salary.com base, Built In total, neighboring seat
$313,212 to $373,741 base$416,766 average total
Chief Marketing Officer
Salary.com base, Built In total, neighboring seat
$335,832 to $418,085 base$293,575 average total
Chief Commercial Officer
Salary.com base benchmark, neighboring seat
$147,588 to $165,395 base
Bars: Salary.com base salary, 25th to 75th percentile, United States, as of October 1, 2026. Rings: Built In average total compensation (base plus additional cash, self-reported), reviewed September 29 and October 14, 2026 for Chief Revenue Officer and October 1 and 13, 2026 for Chief Marketing Officer. Public aggregates, not ZaphyrRecruit placement data.
A chief growth officer owns the growth model: how customers are acquired, activated, retained and expanded. They usually span marketing, product-led growth, pricing and partnerships, run an experiment roadmap with budgets and stop rules, and align the leaders of each stage. They report the growth plan and its results to the CEO and board.
Salary.com puts a chief growth officer at $312,782 to $372,061 base, with a median of $339,362 (October 2026). That sits beside the chief revenue officer band at $313,212 to $373,741 and below the chief marketing officer band at $335,832 to $418,085. Company stage, scope and equity move the number. Ask for the full package, not base alone.
A chief marketing officer owns brand, demand and product marketing, and the pipeline marketing commits to. A chief growth officer owns the whole growth model, which also covers activation, retention, expansion, pricing and product-led loops, and works across product and marketing. If the gap is how the market sees you and how much pipeline arrives, hire a CMO; if growth stalls between teams, hire a CGO.
When growth depends on product, pricing and marketing working as one system and nobody owns the joins. Typical signs are a funnel that leaks after signup, experiments owned by three teams with three sets of numbers, or pricing decided apart from how customers use the product. Before that, a strong head of marketing and a growth director may be enough.
We start with a brief on the stage, the motion, the funnel and what must change. We approach people doing this work now, test each for a growth model they built, experiment discipline and leadership, and check references with former CEOs, heads of product and boards. You get a shortlist of three to five in ten working days, with scores. The fee is a flat 15% of first-year base.
Look for someone who has owned growth across more than one stage of the funnel at a company of similar stage, such as marketing and product-led growth, or marketing and monetization. They should have stopped experiments, hired and removed leaders and told a board when a bet failed. We ask for cohort numbers and check them with former colleagues.
Ten working days from a signed brief to a shortlist of three to five calibrated candidates. The rest of the clock is yours: interviews with the CEO, board and team, references and notice periods. Notice periods at this level are often long, and we flag anything beyond a quarter on the shortlist.
Tell us the stage, how customers buy and where growth stalls today. We come back within one business day with how we would run the search and what the seat pays.
We build shortlists from people doing this work now, often before a seat is advertised. Set up a job alert for executive roles, or send your CV and we will come to you, in confidence, when a seat opens.
The chief growth officer is one of fourteen seats in this function. If the gap sits elsewhere, start there.