Drives business growth by owning acquisition, activation, retention and revenue, with structured experimentation as the discipline that produces the results.
Head of growth recruitment
A Head of Growth is responsible for driving scalable and sustainable growth across your organisation. This role connects marketing, product and data to accelerate performance and identify new opportunities.
We support companies in recruiting growth leaders who combine strategy, experimentation and execution to deliver measurable results.
The head of growth role
A Head of Growth is accountable for the numbers that come out of acquisition, activation, retention and revenue, and for the systems that produce them. The work sits at the intersection of marketing, product and analytics, with one discipline running through all of it: continuous experimentation that turns hypotheses into validated growth drivers, and validated drivers into scaled results.
In daily work, that means designing experiments across channels, analysing what the data says about what is actually moving the business, and scaling the initiatives that prove themselves. It also means running cross-functional teams where marketers, product managers and data analysts have to deliver together rather than within their own silos. Marketing campaigns, funnel optimisation, onboarding flows, retention mechanics and pricing tests all fall within the remit, which makes the role fundamentally different from a classic marketing lead: marketing is an important tool in the growth toolkit, not the scope of the role.
Skills and profile
A strong Head of Growth combines commercial instinct with genuine comfort in data. Experience running structured experimentation programmes, reading funnel metrics and translating them into prioritised actions is a baseline. What separates credible candidates from suitable ones is the ability to move between the strategic question of where growth should come from and the operational question of what to test next week, without losing the thread of either.
The second defining skill is cross-functional leadership. A Head of Growth rarely has full authority over the teams that deliver the work. Marketers report into a marketing line, product managers into product, and engineers into engineering, yet the growth agenda depends on all of them moving together. The people who succeed in the role build credibility with those functions through results and shared ownership, not through organisational authority they do not have.
Variants and adjacent roles
The Head of Growth title is used broadly, which hides meaningful differences between how companies define the role. A Head of Digital Growth concentrates on acquisition channels and funnel performance in digital environments. A Head of Product Growth sits closer to product management, with the remit to build growth loops into the product itself. A Head of Strategic Growth takes a longer view, often including new market entry or partnership-led expansion, and some organisations combine the remit explicitly into titles such as Head of Growth and Partnerships.
The distinction with adjacent roles also matters. A Head of Marketing typically owns brand, positioning and demand generation, with campaigns as the main instrument. A Head of Growth overlaps with marketing but is measured on revenue movement rather than marketing output, and draws on product and pricing levers that sit outside a classic marketing scope. Compared to a Head of Product, the Head of Growth has a narrower product focus but a broader commercial one, with acquisition and revenue as the measures of success rather than product capability. Every search starts with clarity on which variant the organisation actually needs.
Triggers for a head of growth search
A head of growth search is typically triggered by one of three situations. The first is a scale-up moment, where the business has found a working go-to-market and now needs someone to build the system that makes growth repeatable and compounding. The second is a performance plateau, where acquisition is slowing, retention is drifting or a channel that used to work has stopped delivering, and the organisation recognises it needs a dedicated owner to diagnose and rebuild. The third is a transition from founder-led growth to a growth function that can scale beyond any individual, often as the business prepares for a new funding round or strategic phase.
Demand for experienced growth leaders has risen sharply as more organisations treat growth as its own discipline rather than a split responsibility between marketing and product. That makes the market competitive. Candidates who have genuinely scaled growth in a comparable business are rare, and many of the people with the title on their profile have held it only at a level that does not match what a dedicated senior search requires.
Salary and compensation
Compensation for a Head of Growth depends heavily on company stage, sector and geography. Base salary is the foundation, with variable pay tied to specific growth metrics such as monthly recurring revenue, acquisition cost or retention benchmarks, and equity often making up a significant share of the package in scale-ups and venture-backed businesses.
Levels shift with the maturity of the organisation. In early-stage companies, the role is often weighted toward equity with a more modest base. In scaled businesses, particularly in software, e-commerce and fintech, Head of Growth roles sit alongside other senior commercial leadership in total compensation, reflecting the direct impact the role carries on revenue outcomes.
How we work
Every search starts with a detailed briefing of the role, the growth context and the specific variant of Head of Growth the business needs. That distinction matters: digital growth, product-led growth and strategic growth draw from largely separate candidate pools, and a targeted search requires clarity on which one applies.
From there, we build a focused longlist of candidates with relevant experience, approach them directly, and deliver a shortlist backed by a written assessment per candidate. Executive search works for growth roles because the function is cross-functional by definition, because experienced candidates are rarely on the market, and because the gap between someone who has held the title and someone who has actually delivered the work is wide enough that a structured search is the most reliable way to tell the difference. You work with a dedicated partner throughout, from briefing to onboarding.
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Looking for a Head of Growth to accelerate your organisation? We are ready to discuss your requirements and identify the right candidate.
Frequently Asked Questions
The answers to questions we hear regularly from candidates. Haven't found what you need? Contact us directly.
When a working go-to-market needs to be scaled into a repeatable system, when performance has plateaued, or when growth has outgrown founder-led or ad-hoc ownership.
A Head of Marketing typically owns brand, positioning and campaigns. A Head of Growth is measured on revenue movement and draws on product, pricing and retention levers that sit outside a classic marketing scope.
Analytical depth, commercial instinct, experience running experimentation programmes and the cross-functional leadership to deliver through teams that do not report directly.
Compensation varies by company stage and sector, with equity often forming a significant share of the package in scale-ups and the highest levels in mature software, e-commerce and fintech businesses.