The new shape of senior marketing, digital and technology roles, and why London is leading it
Organisations used to separate senior leadership neatly. The CMO owned marketing, the Sales Director owned sales, the CTO owned technology. Each role had its own budget, its own metrics and, often, its own view of the customer.
That separation is breaking down. The walls between marketing, sales, digital, data and technology are coming down, and some of the most interesting senior appointments we see now sit across those boundaries. New combined roles are appearing as a result, and our view is that London will be one of the cities driving them.
This piece is for hiring managers (CEOs, Boards, Chairs, investors, HR Directors and Talent leaders) deciding how to shape their next senior hire.
What's changing in senior leadership roles?
Boards are asking senior leaders to deliver three outcomes: growing revenue, customer value and transforming the business. Those outcomes don't respect functional boundaries, so the roles built to deliver them no longer do either. Six shifts sit behind this:
Marketing is becoming increasingly commercially accountable. Boards expect senior marketers to show their contribution to pipeline, revenue, acquisition and retention. The strongest combine brand craft with commercial understanding, data and AI, and in some businesses the line between the CMO and the Chief Growth Officer is hard to see.
Growth leadership spans the whole customer lifecycle. Demand is moving towards leaders who own the complete growth engine, from acquisition through sales and conversion to retention and expansion. They are judged on revenue growth, customer acquisition cost, lifetime value and marketing ROI.
Digital is merging with technology, product and customer. Businesses want digital leaders to deliver a business outcome, not simply manage channels. We increasingly see digital combined with growth, customer experience, product, transformation, or data and AI.
Technology leadership is a transformation role. Technology leaders are expected to contribute directly to business transformation, not only infrastructure and delivery. Their remit now often covers AI adoption, automation, data, product, customer experience and cyber resilience.
Data and AI have become a Board-level question. Boards need leaders who can answer how data and AI can materially transform the organisation. That takes strategic judgement on governance, ethics and commercial outcomes as much as technical expertise.
Customer experience is becoming a growth discipline. As customer acquisition gets more expensive, organisations are looking harder at retention, loyalty, expansion and lifetime value, particularly in subscription and recurring-revenue businesses.
The common thread is that senior roles are increasingly defined by the outcome they own rather than the function they sit in. As Suzie Walker, MD & Founder of Suzie Walker Executive Search, puts it: “Increasingly, the most valuable appointments span more than one area: marketing leaders accountable for revenue, digital leaders driving transformation, technology leaders shaping how the business competes, and data and AI leaders turning AI investment into measurable commercial returns.” She adds: “The most successful marketing leaders speak the language of the boardroom. They’re as comfortable discussing commercial strategy and growth as they are brand and customer experience.”
Which new roles are emerging?
Chief Growth Officer. This role brings marketing, sales and customer experience together behind one revenue number. It solves the problem of three teams optimising for three different targets. We saw this in a search for a PE-backed B2B SaaS business, where the scorecard effectively became the role.
Marketing and Revenue Director / Chief Marketing and Revenue Officer. Brand, marketing, pricing and revenue management sit in one P&L. In a recent London-based role at a premium hospitality group, combining them meant the commercial levers worked together instead of competing for priority.
Data & AI Director / Chief AI Officer. Data strategy, AI adoption and business transformation, at executive level. In a search for a hospitality and leisure travel business, the lesson was that the definition is the search: until the business agreed what the role was for, no candidate could be judged fairly.
Director of Growth / Head of Growth. Acquisition, conversion, retention and lifetime value, with the unit economics behind them. We saw this at a London-based consumer technology scale-up that needed customer acquisition, conversion and retention scaled into one predictable, economically sustainable engine.
Revenue-focused Marketing Director. Marketing built as a revenue engine, often for the first time. That was the brief at a London-based business services firm building a marketing function with a revenue remit from the ground up, where the harder half of the job was bringing the firm's culture with it.
Combined product and technology, and digital and information roles (CPTO, CDIO). Product and technology together, or digital, information and technology together. We see this in two directions: technology leaders whose remit now covers AI adoption, automation, data, product and customer experience, and digital leaders asked to deliver a business outcome rather than manage channels.
Why London is leading the change
The roles above are London roles, and many of our clients are global businesses with head offices in London. We are headquartered here too, with work across the UK, New York and Dubai, and our London events are where we often hear these shifts described first-hand.
This is Suzie's personal view: "London has always held its place as one of the leading global cities for senior marketing and digital professionals. The calibre and level of expertise are extremely high, and people relocate here to pursue their careers. For marketing, it sits alongside New York."
Suzie also points to other cities. Amsterdam, Berlin and increasingly Lisbon are attractive hubs for technology talent. In marketing, though, she sees London's community as particularly active, thanks to professional bodies such as The Marketing Society and The Marketing Academy, which are global and have a vibrant community of world-class leaders.
What this means if you're hiring
Start with the outcome, not the job title. As Suzie puts it in The Successful Candidate: “Exceptional hiring starts with understanding the outcome you’re trying to achieve.”
Get the role design right first. A combined role compounds value where two separate roles would compete, but only if the remit, the authority and the measures are clear from day one.
Consider interim leadership while the structure settles. If you are still working out what the role should be, an interim appointment can deliver results while you do. As a specialist search firm, we are able to work extremely efficiently and target a shortlist for interim roles within 7 to 14 days, and 28 days for permanent roles. For context, this can often mean that we have interviewed 30 to 40 candidates within that time frame for each specific role.
What this means if you're a senior leader
The career paths opening up are broader than the traditional ladder. The leaders who will be best placed are those who can show evidence of operating across functions: owning a revenue number rather than a channel, connecting data to decisions, and working as comfortably with a CFO or CTO as with a creative team.
It's also worth being clear-eyed about how the market has shifted. Suzie's observation is that three days a week in the office is now the bare minimum, four is increasingly common, and some companies want five. 18-24 months ago candidates would turn roles down over this. In today's highly competitive market, they are accepting it as the new norm.
Talk to us
If you're shaping a senior marketing, digital, data or technology role, or considering your next move into one, we'd be glad to talk. To find out how we can support you with senior leadership hires, connect with a Consultant. You can also follow Suzie's profile, our company page and her newsletter, The Successful Candidate: Tips from Inside the Hiring Room, on LinkedIn.
Suzie Walker Executive Search is a specialist headhunting firm dedicated to finding exceptional interim and permanent senior marketing, digital, and technology leaders for both B2C and B2B organisations. We partner with FTSE 350 and private equity–backed companies, recruiting for roles at Head, Director and Chief (C-suite) level.
If you’re ready to make your next move, we regularly post new opportunities on our LinkedIn company page. If you apply for a role on the platform, it requires a 1st connection for us to respond, so please make sure to connect with Suzie Walker. Our company page is also frequently updated with the latest hiring news, expert interviews, and candidate guidance, so well worth following.
