The process of hiring a VP of marketing can be equally thrilling and stressful.
This employee will work closely with your chief marketing officer to spearhead the development and execution of your marketing initiatives. It’s a major opportunity – not just for your team, but also for the candidates themselves.
When it comes time to write the VP of marketing job description, it’s nothing to take lightly.
You’ll need to comprehensively cover the role’s high-level responsibilities and expectations in order to attract the right talent and ultimately, set the new executive up for success.
Vice President of Marketing Responsibilities
Your VP of Marketing will work closely with the CMO to define, implement, and manage marketing strategy, craft messaging, review budget, and set short- and long-term goals.
Missing out on key points or failing to be explicit in your requirements may lead to unrealistic or incomplete expectations from both your team and the candidates. Keep in mind that you’re both taking a big risk on eachother.
If you’re hiring a VP, you’re probably spending quite a bit of time sourcing candidates, and your corporate team is prepared to pay them a pretty sum. On the other hand, candidates are already taking a huge gamble by applying. Ensuring your job description clearly communicates expectations is critical.
When it comes time for your team to seek out this essential new employee, the following job description can be a helpful starting point. Keep in mind that due to the seniority and increased responsibilities of a VP position, you’ll likely beef it up with company-specific requirements and your desired requirements. You’ll notice that the three companies featured as examples did just that.
Hiring more marketers than just a VP? Be sure to check out our full list of marketing job descriptions. Not looking to grow your marketing department? We’ve still got you covered! Check out our comprehensive guide to job descriptions.
VP of Marketing Job Description
Title: VP of Marketing
Location: Chicago
With more than 400 percent growth since 2015, ACME Corporations is North America’s leading energy provider, with the single largest retail customer base nationwide. Since its founding in 2007, ACME Corporations has strived to meet the highest standards of energy delivery, customer service, and cost efficiency. Our mission is to be the top-tier energy provider while fostering a collaborative, diverse, and inclusive workplace.
ACME Corporation is looking to hire a VP of Marketing to oversee, develop, and employ various marketing initiatives and branding efforts to achieve our long- and short-term organizational goals. This individual should have a successful track record of establishing and leading marketing strategy in a dynamic environment. The ideal candidate has significant expertise building brand awareness and being a thought leader with the ability to execute scalable strategies that drive impactful results.
Responsibilities:
- Build and enhance recognition of ACME brand and products
- Work closely with chief marketing officer to define, implement, and manage ACME’s marketing strategy for optimal performance and results
- Craft messaging and positioning in the market; conduct competitive and market analysis to determine and highlight ACME’s key differentiators
- Build, further develop, and leverage relationships with industry media to evangelize the ACME brand, mission, and movement in the market.
- Work with internal stakeholders to plan, create, and launch creative campaigns and compelling stories around ACME announcements and initiatives that resonate with audiences
- Lead customer-centric thinking and craft programs to meet those target markets
- Establish goals and create strategy for meeting marketing deliverables and metrics; work with marketing directors to establish team and individual goals and metrics
- Attend and speak at industry events to evangelize the ACME brand
- Work closely with VP of sales and sales directors to enhance and align efforts
- Be an effective leader and ensure all marketing programs are successful, metrics-driven, and goal-oriented
Requirements:
- Bachelor’s or Master degree in marketing or related discipline; MBA preferred
- 10+ years of marketing experience, preferably in related industry
- 5+ years of marketing leadership experience
- Proven leadership experience carrying out marketing efforts, including planning, prioritizing, and implementing strategy
- Experience in building brand awareness and recognition
- You are a reputable marketing leader and an effective public speaker
- Strong leadership and communication skills
- You are entrepreneurial and work well in a rapidly changing environment
- You are creative and innovative
- You are customer-centric and can identify and meet customer needs
- You have experience working cross-functionally to ensure marketing programs are in line with company objectives
- You are metric driven and have the ability to draw insight from complex marketing data
For even more help in writing your own VP of marketing job description, we’ve sourced the following examples from three popular brands.
The following examples show three popular companies that have followed a typical job description structure, but customized it based on their unique needs and expectations.
VP of Marketing Job Description Examples
To see how real employers are writing their VP of marketing job descriptions, check out the examples below!
Groupon:
VP of Marketing
Chicago, Illinois
We are seeking a Vice President of Marketing for our North American business. You will be responsible for leading teams to develop and execute marketing plans to achieve both short and long-term strategic and financial objectives with a single cohesive customer experience. You will directly lead owned marketing channels and platform teams - including Email, Push Notifications, Promotions, Creative Services, Merchandising, Revenue Management and Analytics for both Groupon and LivingSocial. You will partner closely across the business to exceed our goals.At Groupon you’ve got the "best of both worlds"; we're big enough to have resources and scale, but small enough that a single person has a surprising amount of autonomy and can make a meaningful impact. We're curious, fun, a little intense, and obsessed with helping local businesses thrive. Does that sound like a compelling place to work?
You’ll spend time on the following:
• Translating business priorities into marketing strategies and tactics in conjunction with other teams to achieve broad financial and strategic goals
• Exceed near term Customer and Gross Profit targets while building the foundation for long-term growth; managing all the necessary trade-offs in between
• Drive incremental Customer Value through management of all promotional spend
• Maximize return from current platform product capabilities and develop new product requirements to further improve consumer experience and business growth
• Lead analysis across all platforms and channels to measure overall performance drivers, including calendar optimization, steering decisions, and conversion optimization. This includes solving unstructured problems using complex data and moving past simple insights into actionable recommendations
• Build amazing, diverse teams and a winning culture that encourages innovation and mentorship. Establish motivating stretch objectives for team members that align with company objectives. Encourage coaching and mentoring, focus on the development needs of employees and ensure collaboration and teamwork
• Effectively balance efficiency improvements and placing bold bets on growth
We’re excited about you if you have:
• Bachelor’s Degree in Business or Marketing required, MBA preferred
• 10+ years of experience in digital marketing and e-commerce; general management and strategy consulting experience preferred
• You have a breadth of experience within e-commerce: marketing, business strategy, analytics, product, and strategic consulting
• You have owned the P&L with a mix of brand, push, and platform marketing oversight within an e-commerce company with revenues exceeding $500M
• A demonstrated track record of development and execution of creative, innovative strategies to meet objectives - both short and long-term
• Demonstrated strength in conceptual strategy and execution while still maintaining a roll-up-your-sleeves management style
• You’re able to see the bigger picture and understand relationships between complex issues when problem solving
• You anticipate, mitigate, and handle risk to top and bottom line
• You're an analytical decision-maker who also knows when to trust their instincts to innovative ways to ensure all goals are met
• You have experience leading and influencing across diverse groups, communicating goals, plans and strategy across all channels
• You’re a polished yet scrappy, entrepreneurial self-starter who can handle multiple projects simultaneously and drive them to completion effectively in a high energy, fast-paced company environment
Amazing.com
VP of Marketing
Austin, Texas
The Vice President of Marketing is responsible for managing all aspects of the brand’s marketing campaigns and operations, and for leading an existing team of marketing specialists. This leader will create and execute innovative marketing strategies to profitably increase revenue and grow the brand. This leader possesses refined communication and leadership skills, with proven success in innovative marketing campaigns across the continuum of today’s marketing channels. The ideal candidate is an accomplished Director or VP of Marketing with a bias for hands-on, growth-focused leadership in the development and execution of marketing campaigns and programs.
Responsibilities
- Pioneer and implement measurable strategies that profitably increase revenue and grow the brand.
- Plan and execute well-performing, well-coordinated product launches of new and existing products.
- Develop channel, segment and market strategies to enable targeted marketing.
- Continue to strengthen the brand’s unique and compelling image, personality and voice to build relevance and equity among target consumer audiences, and maintains and improves the reputation of the company and its stakeholders
- Mobilize the execution of the team to deliver high ROI results with speed and efficiency.
- Establish a best-in-class social, digital and web presence that drives consumer awareness, engagement, affinity and purchase. Empower and motivate consumers to grow the brand, and achieves short and long-term marketing goals while maintaining stability of email and social media reputation.
- Develop and execute high-ROI, marketing programs.
- Work cross-functionally with Product Managers, Dev Manager, and Customer Service Manager to make sure all marketing promotions can be and are delivered with a high level of quality exceeding customer expectations.
- Ability to work within a limited budget and ability to pivot quickly
Qualifications:
- Experience driving significant revenue and profit with a small team of marketing specialists
- Deep, demonstrable understanding of marketing strategy development, execution for new and existing brands, and ability to plan effective promotions
- Will create and execute innovative marketing strategies to profitably increase revenue and grow the brand
- Expertise in copywriting components of marketing promotions and their impact on success
- Expert knowledge of paid advertising (Facebook and Google Adwords, etc.)
- Social media strategy expertise and influencer marketing
- Deep skills in marketing campaign development, execution and leveraging data and analytics (CPC, CTR, open rate, CPL, CPA, EPC, etc.) to improve results and increase ROI
- A proven track record of aligning the organization and owners around the brand and marketing strategy, while building a symbiotic partnership with sales and distribution partners
- Minimum of 6 years documented success as a marketing leader within the ecommerce industry, with a preference on successfully growing an emerging brand.
- An entrepreneurial, agile, creative mindset
- A focus on leadership by example, a bias for results and execution, and the humility and confidence to put team success ahead of self.
- Bachelors’ degree required. Master’s Degree preferred.
Compensation and Benefits:
-
Market based compensation with bonus based on personal and company performance.
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Executive-level equity package and incentive.
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Comprehensive benefits and generous paid-time-off.
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A fun, energetic, team-based culture and a team that is passionate about their brand and their mission to improve the lives of others.
Bed Bath and Beyond:
VP, Digital Marketing
Union, New Jersey
Founded in 1971, Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. and subsidiaries is an omnichannel retailer offering a wide selection of domestics merchandise and home furnishings. The Company’s mission is to be trusted by its customers as the expert for the home and “heart-related” life events. These include certain life events that evoke strong emotional connections such as getting married, moving to a new home, having a baby, going to college and decorating a room, which the Company supports through its wedding and baby registries, new mover and student life programs, and its design consultation services. The Company’s ability to achieve its mission is driven by three broad objectives: first, to present a meaningfully differentiated and complete product assortment for the home, of the right quality product, at the right value; second, to provide services and solutions that enhance the usage and enjoyment of its offerings; and third, to deliver a convenient, engaging, and inspiring shopping experience that is intelligently personalized over time.
Position Background
Over the last 5 years, Bed Bath & Beyond’s digital marketing capabilities and digital media spend have increased at a significant pace, supporting double-digital growth in our online channels and driving critical in-store traffic. In combination with significant investments in our eCommerce platforms, we have set the stage for our next level of achievement for brands that the VP, Digital Marketing will lead. The VP, Digital marketing will drive digital strategy and tactics for Bed Bath & Beyond, buybuy Baby, Christmas Tree Shops andThat!, Face Values, and One Kings Lane.
Based in Union, NJ (Bed Bath & Beyond world headquarters), and reporting directly to the Chief Marketing Officer (Eric Steinberger), the VP, Digital Marketing will be responsible for the strategic planning and tactical execution of the company’s digital marketing initiatives that support both our eCommerce and in-store traffic and revenue goals.
Scope of responsibilities includes:
- Overseeing the vision, strategy, tactics and day-to-day management of our online marketing channels focused on driving both online and in-store activity:
- Paid search – including brand and non-brand text ads and shopping compaigns
- SEO
- Affiliate marketing
- Display – including core display and paid social media (Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, etc.)
- Comparison Shopping Engines
- Organic Social Media (dependent on candidate background)
- Public Relations (dependent on candidate background)
- Consumer Insights (dependent on candidate background)
- Leading innovation and advancement of the overall digital marketing agenda through the development and execution of a multi-year roadmap
- Driving increased adoption of our cross-channel attribution solution to accelerate improvements in overall marketing efficiency and customer acquisition
- Partnering with the larger organization (specifically senior business leaders across the company) to understand their business objectives and be seen as THE subject matter expert on Digital Marketing within the company
- Working with the larger marketing team supporting the execution of omnichannel, personalized programs targeted to specific consumer segments
- Building a world-class Digital marketing team by defining the optimal internal organization structure, necessary roles/headcount, and an appropriate set of 3rd party partner relationships as we continue to grow and mature the business
Performance Measures
- Help increase revenue growth and profit for both the eCommerce channels and in-store channels
- Driving incremental new-to-file customers (both eCommerce and Store) via digital channels
- Supporting acquisition and fulfillment value goals for our key life stage businesses: wedding registry, baby registry, movers, and college students
- Deliver against established ROAS targets (by program and channel)
- Retention and value measures (incremental LTV, Reduced Attrition)
- 360-degree feedback from internal teammates; external customer feedback
- Growth in social media and PR KPIs (based on candidate background)
Ideal Candidate Profile
- Digital Marketing - Candidates should have recent experience developing Digital Marketing plans with a strong understanding of the current online customer acquisition channels and agencies/suppliers. Must have expertise with a variety of digital channels, including Display Advertising, Affiliate, SEO/SEM, Social Media, and Mobile. Experience with Marketplaces and International Marketing is also a plus. Must have a keen sense of tactical execution in this space.
- Retail Expertise – Candidate should have a deep background in Retail or other high SKU count, large traffic eCommerce business - ideally at a large, complex ‘clicks and mortar’ retailer with multiple brands. An understanding of gift registry businesses (e.g., bridal and baby) is also a plus.
- Functional Development - Demonstrated success in building organizational capabilities and teams through process design, organizational development, and technology, recruiting and training high-performing Marketing teams.
- Agile Mindset – while experience leading digital marketing at a large, multi-brand, highly collaborative corporation is needed, a small company mentality (e.g., test quickly, fail quickly, fix quickly) is needed to make ambitious progress is a dynamic field where innovation and speed are necessary.
- World-class Direct Marketing and Digital skills (technically proficient)
- Innovative and creative thinking (fresh, imaginative thinking)
- Organizational leadership and team development (leads through influence)
- Intellectual horsepower (highly analytical & strategic)
- Drives for results in a prioritized manner (balanced sense of urgency)
- Listening skills, minimal ego (listen first, then respond)
- Complex problem-solving (explores all options, then converges)
- Organized and attention-to-detail approach (strong tactical execution)
- Highly resourceful (stretches people and money; compresses time)
- Collaborative (works with peers across many functions within the company)
Administrative assistants help people in higher positions lighten the load. Learn how to write an administrative assistant job description so you can begin your search for the right candidate.
by Derek Doeing
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