Fractional CMO - Sydney
A Sydney fractional CMO, in the room and in the numbers.
Twenty years of marketing leadership run out of Sydney - Intertek SAI Global, Westpac Group, Fox Sports, Vodafone, ING Direct and WPP. Now available to Sydney businesses as a fractional CMO: one to three days a week, owning the function end-to-end, in-flight within weeks rather than a six-month executive search.
Why fractional, why Sydney
Sydney businesses need CMO-grade thinking far more often than they need a full-time CMO.
A permanent Sydney CMO is one of the most expensive hires on the org chart, and the search alone runs three to six months before anyone starts. For a scale-up, a founder-led business hitting its ceiling, or a mid-market team between leaders, that is a long time for marketing to drift.
Fractional closes the gap. You get the seniority, the board-level fluency and the operating discipline on the days you actually need them - and you keep the flexibility to scale the arrangement up as the business grows or wind it down cleanly once a permanent hire lands.
Being Sydney-based matters more than it sounds. Same time zone, same week, and in the room for the sessions that decide things. If your remit is national rather than city-specific, the Fractional CMO Australia page covers the wider view, and marketing consultant in Sydney covers the broader advisory work.
What you get
Four things a fractional CMO should be accountable for.
IN-MARKET, IN THE ROOM
Sydney-based, same time zone, same week. Board papers, exec offsites and team workshops in person when it matters - not a calendar invite three weeks out.
THE FUNCTION, NOT THE ADVICE
I run marketing: strategy, team, budget, agencies, stack and reporting. You get an operator inside the business, not a consultant with a recommendation deck.
AI-NATIVE EXECUTION
MIT-trained in AI, enterprise-proven in martech. I make the stack you already pay for produce pipeline, with human-in-the-loop guardrails your risk team will accept.
A TEAM THAT LIFTS
Coaching, org design, hiring and capability building - so the function is stronger on the day I hand over than the day I arrived.
Ways to engage
Three models, one operator.
Fractional CMO
1-3 days/week, ongoing
I join your Sydney exec team as CMO on a part-time basis - owning the function, the plan and the board reporting. Best for scale-ups and mid-market businesses that need seniority without a permanent package.
Interim CMO
Full-time, defined window
Cover for a vacant CMO seat or a parental/secondment gap. I stabilise the team, keep the plan shipping, and hand over cleanly to the permanent hire when they land.
Project or Advisory
Scoped engagement
A single defined piece of work - martech replatform, AI enablement, go-to-market, brand repositioning or team redesign. Fixed scope, fixed outcome, clear end date.
The full breakdown of how I work sits on the services page.
Sydney track record
Two decades of marketing leadership, run from Sydney.
Intertek SAI Global
CMO, Inform Global & Assurance ANZ
Westpac Group
Head of Group Social & Brand Marketing
Fox Sports
Marketing integration across the network
Vodafone
Social at scale
WPP - PPR
National marketing
FAQ
Hiring a fractional CMO in Sydney - the common questions.
What does a fractional CMO in Sydney cost?
Most Sydney engagements run as a monthly retainer against an agreed number of days per week, or a fixed fee for a defined project. Against a permanent Sydney CMO package - base, super, STI/LTI and on-costs - a one to three day a week fractional arrangement typically lands at a fraction of the total, and it flexes up or down as the business changes. Everything I take on is scoped to outcomes, not billable hours.
How often are you on-site in Sydney?
As often as the work needs. The default rhythm is remote-first with regular in-person days in the Sydney CBD or at your office - always for kick-offs, board and exec sessions, team offsites, launches and workshops. Being local means I can be in the room the same day when something needs a face-to-face, which is the practical advantage of hiring in-market rather than offshore.
How is a fractional CMO different from a Sydney marketing agency?
An agency delivers against a brief you write. A fractional CMO writes the brief - the strategy, the operating model, the org design, the martech stack, the metrics - and carries the accountability for the result. I regularly work alongside Sydney agencies, help select them and manage them, but the responsibility for marketing performance sits with me inside your business, not on a statement of work.
Which Sydney industries have you worked across?
Financial services and banking (Westpac Group, ING Direct), media and sport (Fox Sports), telecommunications (Vodafone), assurance, standards and B2B information services (Intertek SAI Global), and agency-side across a broad national client set at WPP's PPR. Every one of those roles was run out of Sydney, most with national or global remit.
How quickly can you start?
Usually within two to three weeks of an agreed scope - versus a three to six month executive search for a permanent CMO. The first fortnight is diagnostic: function, team, stack, pipeline and plan. From there you get a prioritised ninety-day plan and I start executing against it rather than presenting it.
Related read - Playbook
The Fractional CMO: Senior Marketing Leadership Without the Permanent Hire
When a fractional CMO works, when it doesn't, and how to structure the engagement - with honest Sydney numbers on cost, cadence and the exit.
Read nowReady when you are
Executive firepower, without the overhead.
Tell me what you're working on. I'll come back within one business day.