How to hire a senior director of marketing

How to hire a senior director of marketing, step by step

Here's a step-by-step senior director of marketing hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a senior director of marketing job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new senior director of marketing
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a senior director of marketing do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you post your senior director of marketing job, you should take the time to determine what type of worker your business needs. While certain jobs definitely require a full-time employee, it's sometimes better to find a senior director of marketing for hire on a part-time basis or as a contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A senior director of marketing's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, senior directors of marketing from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   Here's a comparison of senior director of marketing salaries for various roles:

   Type of Senior Director Of Marketing	Description	Hourly rate
   Senior Director Of Marketing	Advertising, promotions, and marketing managers plan programs to generate interest in products or services. They work with art directors, sales agents, and financial staff members.	$53-108
   Marketing Vice President	Marketing vice presidents (VPs) are responsible for a company's overall marketing efforts and strategies. They plan and develop marketing strategies to bolster their company's market positioning and attain business goals... Show more	$58-124
   Marketing Supervisor	Marketing Supervisors oversee the performance of employees in the marketing department. They ensure that the employees in the department adhere to company standards, policies, and guidelines... Show more	$21-43

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Digital Marketing
   • Email Marketing
   • SR
   • Integrated Marketing
   • Marketing Campaigns
   • Market Research
   • Marketing Mix
   • Saas
   • B2B Marketing
   • CRM
   • ROI
   • Content Strategy
   • Channel Marketing
   • Lead Generation

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Architect EMEA demand creation/direct response model to manage and measure sales pipeline.
   • Create and lead WW standard deployment of marketing tools for EMEA and APAC.
   • Manage and initiate the development of first marketing department for regional start-up healthcare chain.
   • Lead support of marketing programs for the dealer partner channel co-op programs, MDF and advertising campaigns.
   • Lead cross functional teams of company operations, franchisees and finance to build co-op marketing plans to drive profitable sales.
   • Rehabilitate Salesforce implementation that lead to proper pipeline management, sales forecasting, and customer communication.

   More senior director of marketing duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the senior director of marketing job description is a good way to get more applicants. A senior director of marketing salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

   For example, the average salary for a senior director of marketing in South Dakota may be lower than in California, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level senior director of marketing. Additionally, a senior director of marketing with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average senior director of marketing salary

   $159,916yearly

   $76.88 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level senior director of marketing salary

   $112,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 18, 2026

   Average senior director of marketing salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$184,638	$89
   2	Washington	$178,008	$86
   3	Oregon	$172,101	$83
   4	Utah	$160,669	$77
   5	New Jersey	$153,632	$74
   6	Texas	$153,303	$74
   7	North Carolina	$152,862	$73
   8	Arizona	$152,555	$73
   9	Maryland	$151,791	$73
   10	New York	$151,363	$73
   11	Massachusetts	$151,102	$73
   12	Virginia	$149,706	$72
   13	Georgia	$149,134	$72
   14	Indiana	$145,537	$70
   15	Florida	$145,066	$70
   16	Illinois	$145,049	$70
   17	Nevada	$140,371	$67
   18	Colorado	$139,020	$67
   19	District of Columbia	$135,729	$65
   20	Missouri	$131,772	$63

   Average senior director of marketing salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Washington Prime Group	$240,394	$115.57
   2	Aspiration	$209,804	$100.87
   3	Apple	$209,035	$100.50	16
   4	PayPal	$208,756	$100.36	63
   5	Dermalogica	$202,224	$97.22	3
   6	eBay	$200,161	$96.23	20
   7	DoorDash	$198,984	$95.67	70
   8	Condé Nast	$198,153	$95.27	9
   9	Mayo Clinic	$194,393	$93.46
   10	Grubhub	$192,635	$92.61
   11	Tapad	$187,157	$89.98
   12	Chime	$185,864	$89.36	10
   13	Audible	$185,609	$89.24	5
   14	Omnicom Media Group	$183,191	$88.07	31
   15	VF	$183,021	$87.99	4
   16	Sanofi US	$182,453	$87.72	56
   17	ViacomCBS	$180,836	$86.94
   18	Eisai	$180,006	$86.54	5
   19	Adobe	$179,103	$86.11	88
   20	Exelixis	$177,114	$85.15	29

4. Writing a senior director of marketing job description

   A job description for a senior director of marketing role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a senior director of marketing job description:

   Senior director of marketing job description example

   Every day, Global Payments makes it possible for millions of people to move money between buyers and sellers using our payments solutions for credit, debit, prepaid and merchant services. Our worldwide team helps over 3 million companies, more than 1,300 financial institutions and over 600 million cardholders grow with confidence and achieve amazing results. We are driven by our passion for success and we are proud to deliver best-in-class payment technology and software solutions. Join our dynamic team and make your mark on the payments technology landscape of tomorrow.
   
   Heartland continues to build a best-in-class Revenue Generation function within Marketing. We're conducting a search for a resourceful and creative leader responsible for delivering growth through both inbound and outbound lead generation.
   
   The Sr. Director of Revenue Marketing will continuously enhance the inbound and outbound direct revenue marketing function. This position is responsible to drive new small business acquisition through direct channels, including cross-sell and up-sell programs to meet the growth objectives of the company. The candidate will possess skills and experience with strong emphasis on lead generation and pipeline creation, along with prospect nurturing, lead prioritization and reporting used to refine marketing programs. The ideal candidate's disposition is results-driven but with a focus on building teams and developing people to improve marketing performance.
   What will you be doing?
   Create forecasts and develop a predictable funnel of marketing and sales qualified leads that ultimately result in revenue.Design, plan and manage integrated demand generation campaigns that reach all identified personas to create pipeline.Manage performance through KPIs such as cost per lead, cost per acquisition and disqualification rates, adjusting the channel mix and messaging as needed.Design the inbound playbooks through SEO, PPC, remarketing and various paid programs.Allocate and manage a budget that meets company goals for pipeline contribution from Marketing.Administer the Marketing team's technology strategy for maintaining a clean and valuable contact database.Enhance marketing automation understanding across the business, with emphasis on lead nurturing, lead prioritization, lead routing, and drive optimal funnel stage progression.Actively monitor and analyze the health of marketing contribution to sales pipeline, program ROI, customer acquisition and penetration, contact acquisition and activity. Design campaigns and plays for the Channel Marketing teams to use for cobranded campaigns.Develop a demand framework and library of assets and campaigns designed to drive new opportunities.Identify and develop effective marketing and sales collateral - using both internal and agency resources - for use with channel programs Identify opportunities and execute strategies to optimize the use of Pardot, such as personalization, audience segmentation and scoring.Understand and report on the health of the Pardot database (data quality, gaps/areas for growth, etc.) and perform regular maintenance and data cleansing.Implement marketing automation best practices and ensure proper end-to-end testing of programs prior to launch, ensuring adherence to General Data Protection Regulation and email laws such as CCPA/CAN-SPAM.Provide Marketing, Sales, and Business leaders with analyses and recommendations for marketing investments and revenue impact.Contribute to overall database health, including analyzing gaps in data while implementing practices that ensure data quality.Create a standard of excellence in process and support and when working with internal Marketing and Sales stakeholders.
   
   What are the requirements?
   
   Bachelor's degree (B.A) from a four-year college or university; or equivalent combination of education and experience.5+ years' experience in B2B marketing and demand generation. Small business technology or Fintech experience is a plus.Possess a clear understanding of both inbound, targeted outbound, funnel development, and channel marketing (both to and through).Passionate about marketing best practices and emerging channels.Results-driven with very strong ability to analyze quantitative data to determine program effectiveness and ROI.Must have budget management experience and financial analysis ability.Demonstrated results in hitting lead conversion and revenue targets.Proven track record of leading successful demand generation programs with a breadth of knowledge from marketing databases, segmentation, email sequences, lead processes, reporting & analysis.Proven manager with a track record of building and developing high-performing teams.Deep understanding of partner ecosystems and how they work with direct sales organizations.Packaging and delivery of channel demand programs to partners, including creative approaches to marketing to, through and for partners.Excellent verbal and written communication skills; capable of building strong working relationships across all levels of the company, including field teams.High-energy, creative, team-oriented individual with a passion for building businesses and brands.Thrives in a fast-paced environment with the ability to change-manage and problem-solve.Experience with Google Analytics, Google Data Studio, VWO and other analytics tools highly desirable.Strong with systems, data analysis and CRM skills, ideally Salesforce.com.Direct administration of an enterprise level Marketing Automation tool including Eloqua, Pardot, Marketo, Adobe or similar.Extensive experience with data and audience segmentation including data flows and data architecture. Excellent written and communication skills.Proven capability to serve as a collaborative team player across multiple functions and geographies.
   Global Payments Inc. is an equal opportunity employer.
   Global Payments provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, veteran status, genetic information or any other basis protected by law. Those applicants requiring reasonable accommodation to the application and/or interview process should notify a representative of the Human Resources Department.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   There are various strategies that you can use to find the right senior director of marketing for your business:

   • Consider promoting from within or recruiting from your existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
   • Attend job fairs at local colleges to find candidates who meet your education requirements.
   • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to reach potential job candidates.

   To find senior director of marketing candidates, you can consider the following options:

   • Post your job opening on Zippia or other job search websites.
   • Use niche websites that focus on engineering and technology jobs, such as swipe files, exit five, marketinghire, american marketing association.
   • Post your job on free job posting websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting senior directors of marketing requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   Remember to include a few questions that allow candidates to expand on their strengths in their own words. Asking about their unique skills might reveal things you'd miss otherwise. At this point, good candidates can move on to the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new senior director of marketing

   Once you have selected a candidate for the senior director of marketing position, it is time to create an offer letter. In addition to salary, the offer letter should include details about benefits and perks that are available to the employee. Ensuring your offer is competitive is vital, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and it is important to be open to discussion and reach a mutually beneficial agreement. After the offer has been accepted, it is a good idea to formalize the agreement with a contract.

   It's also important to follow up with applicants who do not get the job with an email letting them know that the position is filled.

   To prepare for the new senior director of marketing first day, you should share an onboarding schedule with them that covers their first period on the job. You should also quickly complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Finally, Human Resources must ensure a new employee file is created for internal record keeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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