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What is a market development director and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025
3 min read
Quoted experts
Andrew Spicer,
Harlan Spotts Ph.D.

A market development director plays a significant role in directing the business strategies of a company or organization. They work hand in hand with the sales, marketing, and customer solutions departments in ensuring high revenue and client growth.

To be an effective market development director, one has to nurture partner and client relationships, research on the company's target market, and analyze the company's performance based on key metrics. Thus, they have to possess efficient research skills, interpersonal communication skills, and fluency in the sales and marketing industry.

Being a market development director is a high-level position that requires at least 8 years of experience in corporate development and a Bachelor's degree in business, marketing, or related fields. An MBA or graduate degree is also usually preferred.

Because of these requirements and the nature of work that a market development director handles, they earn an average of $75.72 per hour, with a chance to be one of the executives in the company they're working for.

What general advice would you give to a market development director?

Andrew Spicer

Associate Professor, Website

Resiliency is a particularly important skill for international business and career progression. Resiliency – the ability to recover quickly in the face of obstacles and failures – has always been a critical part of successful international assignments. The only constant of working abroad is that there will be miscommunication and mistakes. Successful international business careers depend on the ability to learn from these inevitable setbacks to improve over time. The constant change in the global business environment also leads to the demand for resiliency among international business specialists. An important role for those with a global mindset is to help companies adapt to the massive disruption to the global business environment for international trade and investment presently taking place across the world.
ScoreMarket Development DirectorUS Average
Salary
8.8

Avg. Salary $147,338

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 31.21%

male 68.79%

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

Market development director career paths

Key steps to become a market development director

  1. Explore market development director education requirements

    Most common market development director degrees

    Bachelor's

    75.6 %

    Master's

    19.4 %

    Associate

    2.4 %
  2. Start to develop specific market development director skills

    SkillsPercentages
    Healthcare15.86%
    Market Development12.16%
    Business Development10.01%
    CRM7.61%
    Business Relationships3.95%
  3. Complete relevant market development director training and internships

    Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New market development directors 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 market development director based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real market development director resumes.
  4. Research market development director duties and responsibilities

    • Lead global project to commercialize expand portfolio of adhesive utilizing company synergies to establish a strong, highly-competitive distribution channel.
    • Conceptualize and direct the development of a mainframe relational marketing customer database (CRM).
    • Create an accountability base culture through utilization of company CRM by running regular reports for sales team to track their progress.
    • Maximize equipment productivity by ensuring proper placement and usage by developing working relationship with suppliers, distributors and their sales force.
  5. Get market development director experience

    Generally, it takes 8-10 years to become a market development director. The most common roles before becoming a market development director include account executive, marketing manager team lead and sales representative.
  6. Prepare your market development director resume

    When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your market development director 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 market development director resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

    Choose from 10+ customizable market development director resume templates

    Build a professional market development director 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 market development director resume.
    Market Development Director Resume
    Market Development Director Resume
    Market Development Director Resume
    Market Development Director Resume
    Market Development Director Resume
    Market Development Director Resume
    Market Development Director Resume
    Market Development Director Resume
    Market Development Director Resume
  7. Apply for market development director jobs

    Now it's time to start searching for a market development director job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

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

How did you land your first market development director job

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Average market development director salary

The average market development director salary in the United States is $147,338 per year or $71 per hour. Market development director salaries range between $102,000 and $211,000 per year.

Average market development director salary
$147,338 Yearly
$70.84 hourly

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Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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