Interim Fractional Chief Marketing Officer - B2C Growth Focused

Job Title: Interim / Fractional Chief Marketing Officer

Location: Remote

Duration: 6 months - with a possibility to extend

Job Type: Contract (20–40 hours per week (variable)

Job Description:

Our client is seeking an Interim Chief Marketing Officer to provide decisive, hands-on leadership during a critical period of transition and transformation.

This leader will stabilize marketing operations, drive near term performance improvements, and help position the organization to compete more effectively in a rapidly evolving B2C market shaped by:

• AI driven discovery
• Changing consumer behavior
• Increased competition
• Rising customer acquisition costs
• Greater pressure to improve conversion and revenue performance

This role requires a marketing executive with deep B2C growth experience. The organization’s revenue is heavily driven by consumer facing channels, so the Interim CMO must bring a proven track record in:

• B2C customer acquisition
• Digital marketing
• Conversion optimization
• Enrollment or consumer revenue growth
• Personalization
• Full funnel performance marketing

B2B experience alone will not be sufficient for this role.

The Interim CMO will step into a lean environment and serve as a builder and operator, not a caretaker. This person must be able to quickly assess current capabilities, align teams, strengthen consumer demand generation, improve channel performance, and modernize marketing practices while creating greater accountability and measurable business impact.

Context for the Role

• The marketing leadership role has been vacant for several months, with senior leadership covering responsibilities in the interim.
• Marketing capabilities are distributed across functions and require stronger integration, clearer operating rhythms, better performance visibility, and improved focus on B2C revenue growth.
• The organization is looking for a leader who understands consumer acquisition, enrollment growth, digital conversion, lifecycle marketing, personalization, and customer journey optimization.
• Organic visibility has declined as the market shifts toward AI powered discovery, increasing reliance on paid channels.
• The organization needs a leader who can strengthen technical SEO, Answer Engine Optimization, Generative Engine Optimization, content strategy, and paid performance while improving overall marketing effectiveness.

What You Will Do

Drive B2C Growth and Revenue Performance

• Lead full funnel B2C demand generation strategy to drive qualified demand, conversion, enrollment, and revenue performance.
• Improve performance across paid search, paid social, organic, website, email, content, and other digital channels.
• Strengthen consumer acquisition strategies across the full customer journey.
• Improve conversion from awareness to inquiry, inquiry to application, and application to enrollment or purchase.
• Drive near term performance improvements while strengthening long term marketing foundations.
• Rebalance channel mix toward more sustainable organic and owned growth.
• Strengthen personalization, audience segmentation, ICP strategy, and lifecycle marketing.

Lead Modern Search and AI Discovery Strategy

• Strengthen technical SEO, content architecture, and site performance.
• Lead strategy across SEO, Answer Engine Optimization, and Generative Engine Optimization.
• Improve visibility across traditional search engines, AI answer engines, and large language model discovery environments.
• Ensure content is structured for question-based search, AI mediated discovery, and consumer decision making.
• Use analytics and search insights to identify content, visibility, and conversion opportunities

Stabilize Marketing Operations

• Establish clear operating cadence, priorities, and performance expectations.
• Create accountability across internal teams, agencies, and external partners.
• Improve coordination between brand, performance marketing, analytics, content, enrollment, and digital teams.
• Partner with executive leadership to align marketing efforts with organizational priorities and revenue goals.
• Assess current capabilities and identify gaps in people, process, technology, data, and agency support.

Provide Executive Leadership

• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior leadership.
• Provide clear recommendations and decisive leadership.
• Help guide the organization through a period of transition.
• Bring a practical, hands-on leadership style that balances strategy with execution.
• Translate marketing activity into business outcomes and executive level reporting.

Team Scope

The Interim CMO will provide leadership and oversight across:

• Brand and product marketing
• B2C performance marketing
• Consumer demand generation
• Enrollment or customer acquisition marketing
• SEO, website strategy, and digital experience
• Marketing analytics, reporting, and attribution
• Content strategy and AI driven discovery
• External agencies and partners
• A smaller B2B marketing function, with the primary focus remaining on core B2C growth initiatives

Technologies and Environment

The Interim CMO will operate across a modern marketing ecosystem that may include:

• CRM and marketing automation platforms such as Salesforce or similar environments
• Digital analytics, dashboards, and attribution tools
• Performance marketing platforms supporting paid search, paid social, and other paid media channels
• SEO tools and content optimization platforms
• Content management systems
• AI and generative tools supporting content, search, workflow acceleration, and personalization
• Experimentation and conversion optimization tools
• Video and digital distribution platforms including YouTube
• Collaboration tools supporting distributed teams

The Interim CMO will assess current capabilities and ensure the technology environment supports performance, measurement, personalization, and future readiness.

Must Haves

• Proven experience operating at the CMO or senior marketing executive level.
• Deep B2C marketing experience is required.
• Demonstrated success driving B2C customer acquisition, consumer demand generation, enrollment growth, or direct to consumer revenue growth.
• Strong experience leading digital marketing, performance marketing, paid media, organic growth, and conversion optimization.
• Experience managing a business where the majority of revenue is driven by consumer facing channels.
• Ability to improve full funnel performance from awareness through conversion.
• Strong understanding of consumer behavior, audience segmentation, ICP development, personalization, and lifecycle marketing.
• Hands on leadership style with ability to engage directly in execution.
• Demonstrated experience stabilizing or transforming marketing organizations.
• Deep expertise in technical SEO and organic growth strategy.
• Strong understanding of Answer Engine Optimization, Generative Engine Optimization, and AI driven discovery.
• Experience improving visibility across both traditional search and emerging AI channels.
• Experience working in lean or resource constrained environments.
• Ability to drive near term performance improvements and create accountability.
• Strong data driven mindset, executive presence, and ability to communicate clearly with senior leadership.

Preferred Background

• Experience in higher education, education, EdTech, workforce development, or mission driven organizations.
• Experience leading enrollment marketing, student acquisition, consumer education, or complex customer decision journeys.
• Experience leading through periods of change, transformation, or interim leadership.
• Experience working with both B2C and B2B marketing, with B2C as the primary area of expertise.

Leadership Style

• Action oriented and pragmatic
• Comfortable with ambiguity
• Low ego and collaborative
• Decisive and accountable
• Builder mindset focused on outcomes
• Able to balance strategic leadership with hands on execution

Why This Role Matters

This is an opportunity to step into a meaningful leadership role and help guide an organization through a period of change.

The Interim CMO will play a critical role in:

• Strengthening marketing foundations
• Improving B2C revenue performance
• Modernizing digital and AI driven discovery strategies
• Improving consumer acquisition and conversion
• Helping the organization adapt to changing consumer behavior and market dynamics

The right leader will bring more than general marketing leadership. They must bring proven B2C growth expertise, strong performance discipline, and the ability to quickly improve how the organization attracts, engages, converts, and retains its core consumer audience.