I read the July jobs report the same way most people in my business do — fast, and looking for the one number that tells me something I didn’t already know. Payrolls fell by 23,000. Unemployment ticked down slightly to 4.1%. Professional and business services actually added jobs, even as economists flagged a real hesitancy in white-collar hiring, some of it tied to companies wondering out loud whether AI can do the job instead of a person.

If you run value creation at a private equity firm, none of that changes what’s sitting on your desk. You still need a CMO for the platform company that just closed. You still need a VP of Marketing who can walk into a 100-day plan and start moving pipeline in month two. And you’ve probably already noticed that “the market is cooling” and “this search is taking forever” are somehow both true at the same time.

They’re both true because you’re not hiring from the pool the jobs report is describing. You’re hiring from a much smaller, much better-employed pool — and that pool doesn’t loosen up just because the broader economy does.

Growth Is the New Lever, and Everyone Knows It

For years, the CFO search dominated the private equity talent conversation. That made sense when returns came from leverage and financial engineering. It’s changing. Beecher Reagan’s outlook on 2026 private equity talent puts it plainly: as deal flow tightens and funds sit on dry powder longer than planned, the spotlight shifts from buying to building. Demand for CROs, CCOs, and CGOs — operators who can actually design and run a commercial engine, not just manage a sales team — is now outpacing CFO searches in some segments, and Beecher Reagan doesn’t expect it to be close by the time we’re through 2026.

I’d add marketing to that list, because in practice it’s the same conversation. The portfolio companies I talk to aren’t looking for someone to “own the brand.” They’re looking for someone who can be measured in pipeline, in CAC, in payback period — someone who treats marketing as a revenue function with a paper trail, because that’s what a hold-period thesis demands.

Here’s the part that makes this hard: every other fund figured this out at roughly the same time you did. Bespoke Partners’ latest talent report on VP and SVP leaders inside PE-backed companies found that 76% of successful placements at that level come from executives already sitting in a comparable role somewhere else. Translation: the person you need isn’t job-hunting. They’re not on LinkedIn with the little green “open to work” banner. They’re heads-down running someone else’s growth number, and they’re getting calls from three other firms this month, not just yours.

The Title You’re Hiring For Might Not Mean What It Used to

There’s a second wrinkle, and it’s one I think gets underappreciated in board conversations: the CMO role itself is being redrawn. Average CMO tenure at S&P 500 companies now sits around four years — shortest of any C-suite seat — and at the largest advertisers it drops closer to three. Separately, a large share of Fortune 500 companies have quietly dropped the CMO title altogether, folding the scope into Chief Growth Officer, Chief Commercial Officer, or a P&L role that includes marketing as one input among several.

That’s not a footnote. It means the job description you write matters more than it used to, because “CMO” doesn’t automatically signal what you’re actually buying. If your thesis needs someone who can build a demand engine and defend a CAC payback model in an investment committee meeting, and you post a search that reads like a brand-and-communications role, you’ll get a stack of resumes that don’t match the job — and you’ll burn a quarter of your hold period figuring that out.

Compensation Isn’t the Only Currency Anymore

The other shift I’d flag: money alone doesn’t close these searches the way it used to. Bespoke’s data shows equity is increasingly concentrated on the functions sponsors believe most directly drive enterprise value — and go-to-market leaders are seeing real year-over-year gains in equity participation, not just base and bonus. If your offer is competitive on cash but generic on ownership, you’re negotiating with one hand tied behind your back against a competing offer that isn’t.

AI fluency has become table stakes too, not a nice-to-have. Boards aren’t asking whether a marketing leader has “used AI” — they’re expecting it baked into how that person runs demand gen, content production, and attribution from day one. Screen for that explicitly, because a lot of resumes will claim it and fewer candidates can actually operate that way.

What This Actually Means for How You Search

I’ll say the thing a lot of recruiters won’t: a contingency search, or a generalist firm running your CMO search as one of forty open reqs, is the wrong tool for this market. When three-quarters of your best candidates aren’t looking, you don’t win by posting a job and waiting for inbound. You win by having a recruiter who already knows the twelve people who fit the thesis, has a relationship with them independent of this search, and can have a real conversation about why leaving a comfortable seat for a PE-backed hold period is worth it.

That’s the whole premise behind retained search, and it’s why I built MarketSearch around doing exactly one thing — placing senior marketing leadership, full stop. We’ve run these searches for private equity-backed B2B and SaaS companies where the mandate wasn’t “find a marketer,” it was “find the person who turns this into a growth story before the next board meeting.” We’ve worked alongside firms like KKR and Summit Partners on the portfolio side, and the throughline across every one of those searches is the same: the client needed a marketing leader who understood they were being hired against a return, not a job description.

If you’re heading into a platform build, a bolt-on integration, or a leadership gap that’s already cost you a quarter of momentum, the market conditions above aren’t going to resolve themselves in your favor. The talent is out there. It’s just not looking for you — yet.

Let’s Talk About Your Search

If you’re a value creation leader, operating partner, or talent lead at a PE firm trying to fill a CMO, VP Marketing, or growth leadership seat inside a portfolio company, I’d rather have a direct conversation than let you find out the hard way that this market is tighter than it looks. Tell me about the thesis, the timeline, and what “success” needs to look like at the next board meeting, and I’ll tell you honestly whether retained search is the right move and what it would take.

Get in touch with MarketSearch Executive Search →

You can also reach me directly: David Honig, President, MarketSearch Executive Search — 617-835-0444 or on LinkedIn.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why is it harder to hire a CMO now even though the overall job market is slowing down? Because the broader jobs report measures a different labor pool than the one you’re hiring from. Senior marketing leaders capable of running a PE portfolio company’s growth mandate are almost never unemployed. Industry data shows roughly three out of four successful VP/SVP-level placements at PE-backed companies come from executives already working in a comparable role elsewhere. A cooling economy doesn’t loosen that pool; it just means fewer of them are willing to take a risk unless the opportunity and the offer are genuinely compelling.

Should a private equity portfolio company hire a CMO, a VP of Marketing, or a Chief Growth Officer? It depends on the thesis, not the org chart precedent. If the mandate is building a repeatable, measurable demand engine tied to pipeline and revenue, you may be better served by a growth or commercial title than a traditional CMO — CMO tenure and scope have been shrinking industry-wide, and nearly half of Fortune 500 companies have moved away from the title entirely. Define the outcome first, then choose the title that signals it accurately to the market.

What’s the difference between retained search and contingency search for marketing executive roles? A contingency recruiter is paid only if they happen to place a candidate, which tends to produce volume over precision — reactive sourcing from active job seekers. A retained search firm is engaged exclusively for the mandate, paid to run a dedicated process, and expected to reach passive candidates who aren’t actively looking. For senior marketing roles inside PE-backed companies, where the best-fit candidates are almost always employed and not searching, retained search is the model built for that reality.

How long should a private equity firm expect a senior marketing executive search to take? Expect it to take longer than a standard corporate hire, particularly if the role is being filled reactively after a departure. Sourcing passive candidates, vetting for both marketing competence and PE hold-period readiness, and running a competitive offer process all add time. Firms that engage a specialized retained partner early — ideally before the seat is vacant — consistently move faster than those who start the search cold.

What should value creation leaders look for in a marketing executive search firm? Look for a firm that specializes in marketing leadership specifically, not one running it as a side practice inside a generalist search. Ask for direct experience with PE-backed or PE-adjacent placements, evidence they can reach passive candidates rather than relying on inbound applicants, and a track record of matching candidates to revenue-accountable roles rather than brand-only mandates.

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David Honig, President, MarketSearch Executive Search