How To Become A Director Of Marketing And Product Management: What It Is and Career Path

What is a director of marketing and product management and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted experts

Stephanie Dellande,

Sachin Tuli

The Director of Marketing and Product Management is responsible for the production and management of the whole Product Marketing Department. The job of the Director of Marketing and Product Management is to synthesize industry, customer, product, and competitive inputs in order to generate the maximum possible revenue for the company.

The responsibility of the Director of Marketing and Product Management is to carry out activities such as product pricing, product strategy, and research. The Director of Marketing and Product Management is also in charge of product placement to reach customers, sales message growth, competitive analysis, and product differentiation, among others. This position is a collaborative role that includes a number of sales promotion tasks, such as the development of sales resources, coordination, and preparation.

The Director of Marketing and Product Management must have a Master's degree or preferably a Ph.D., in Marketing, Advertising, Economics, or some other related area. Some employers prefer candidates to have experience working in the company. The appropriate candidate would spend at least 10 years in a high-ranking position in the product marketing department, for example as Senior Product Marketing Manager or Head of Product Marketing.

What general advice would you give to a director of marketing and product management?

Stephanie Dellande

Professor, Menlo College

Most likely, some 2020 graduates are feeling discouraged about their future. Particularly for those in fields in which job opportunities are generally less abundant, e.g., communication, psychology, majority of the humanities. Young adults, ages 18-35 years, have experienced and/or are experiencing, directly or indirectly, some of the country's most difficult times, the great recession December 2007 - June 2009, for many much longer, and now the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. Fortunately, or unfortunately, Congress has a significant role in determining the timeline of the fate of COVID-19 and a thriving economy. While the well-being (physical, financial, emotional, educational) of the American people is top of mind for this administration, if the economy is going to recover in a more expedient way, congress ultimately must agree to the administration's proposed recommendations, bills. If they do, recent graduates will likely be in good stead. It would be in the best interest of graduates to take a mindful approach (Celsi, Nelson, Dellande, Gilly, 2017) to their career. While the economy is in a state of collapse, young adults may have a difficult time launching their career. However, food for thought, accepting most any work although it may not be in a preferred field is suggested. Also recommended, while in a less desirable position, take advantage of or create opportunities to perform tasks related or only tangentially related to an aspirational career. Doing so will likely go a long way in helping to realize an ideal position.

ScoreDirector Of Marketing And Product ManagementUS Average

Salary

9.1

Avg. Salary $158,044

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.5

Growth rate 10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.23%

Asian 8.15%

Black or African American 3.04%

Hispanic or Latino 8.67%

Unknown 5.32%

White 74.58%

Gender

female 32.60%

male 67.40%

Age - 38

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 38

Stress level

7.5

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.5

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a director of marketing and product management

Explore director of marketing and product management education requirements

Most common director of marketing and product management degrees

Bachelor's

72.0 %

Master's

22.6 %

Associate

2.4 %

Start to develop specific director of marketing and product management skills

Skills	Percentages
Product Management	10.10%
Digital Marketing	8.26%
CRM	6.68%
Project Management	5.09%
Marketing Campaigns	4.71%

Complete relevant director of marketing and product management training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New directors of marketing and product management learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a director of marketing and product management based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real director of marketing and product management resumes.

Research director of marketing and product management duties and responsibilities

Lead database marketing team to conceptualize, design, build, and QA new CRM database on schedule.
Lead creation of outbound digital campaign targeting professional Java developers to extend apps and skills to mobile (SaaS).
Deploy CRM system to effectively manage customer relations.
Develop uniform strategy, metrics, and kpis that lead to quicker implementations increase flexibility while maintaining governance model.

Get director of marketing and product management experience

Generally, it takes 8-10 years to become a director of marketing and product management. The most common roles before becoming a director of marketing and product management include product manager, marketing manager team lead and marketing director.

Prepare your director of marketing and product management resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your director of marketing and product management resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a director of marketing and product management resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable director of marketing and product management resume templates

Build a professional director of marketing and product management resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your director of marketing and product management resume.

Apply for director of marketing and product management jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a director of marketing and product management job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

Average director of marketing and product management salary

The average director of marketing and product management salary in the United States is $158,044 per year or $76 per hour. Director of marketing and product management salaries range between $109,000 and $227,000 per year.

Average director of marketing and product management salary

$158,044 Yearly

$75.98 hourly

How do directors of marketing and product management rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Director of marketing and product management reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Aug 2023

Pros

Solve tough problems, work on agile teams, outlet for creativity,

Cons

high expectations, constantly evolving technology, broad range of topics to learn (product management specifics, industry, technology, software development methods

A zippia user wrote a review on Jun 2020

Pros

Its not a specific job, As a product manager your job responsibilities cover many different areas and that's what i love about it.

Cons

all other teams think that they are doing a task for you instead of thinking that they are part of a team on a project

A zippia user wrote a review on Aug 2019

Cons

Agendas

Pros

Making strategic decisions in product development is pretty exciting for me

What is a director of marketing and product management and how to become one

What general advice would you give to a director of marketing and product management?

Director of marketing and product management career paths

Key steps to become a director of marketing and product management

Explore director of marketing and product management education requirements

Most common director of marketing and product management degrees

Start to develop specific director of marketing and product management skills

Complete relevant director of marketing and product management training and internships

Research director of marketing and product management duties and responsibilities

Get director of marketing and product management experience

Prepare your director of marketing and product management resume

Choose from 10+ customizable director of marketing and product management resume templates

Apply for director of marketing and product management jobs

How did you land your first director of marketing and product management job

Average director of marketing and product management salary

How do directors of marketing and product management rate their job?

Director of marketing and product management reviews