Mayday! Interns Are Steering the Ship and CMOs Are Lost at Sea

Ah, the marketing title conundrum. Why do our job titles rarely align with responsibilities?

Over the past seven years, I've held various marketing and communications roles across agencies, in-house teams, and freelance positions. I've been in charge of ordering company lunches and being scolded for a missing Diet Coke on the same day I launched a multi-million dollar campaign. I've written for CEOs who put their name on my work and blasted it around Forbes without me knowing until I was reading an article one day that seemed eerily familiar. I've been in roles from Coordinator to CMO and everything in between.

One recurring theme I’ve encountered, and am encountering daily now during the post-layoff job hunt, is the wild inconsistency between marketing job titles and actual responsibilities.

Very often, I see entry- to mid-level specialist roles tasked with running full-blown marketing strategies — work that typically falls under the job description of a director or senior manager. I have also worked as a specialist expected to guide the company's entire marketing strategy straight out of college making $11 an hour while the senior marketers did, well, who knows what. We've all been there.

This title-to-responsibility misalignment creates confusion, unequal expectations, and even career roadblocks as professionals struggle to climb the corporate ladder across different companies with vastly different standards.

I've seen Marketing Manager roles with laundry lists of responsibilities and requirements advertised for $45K a year and others for $180K with completely different expectations and scopes of work. Similarly, I’ve worked for CMOs who didn’t know we had a blog or where to find it on our website, or that we even had a website (true story), while the marketing coordinators, specialists, or interns managed entire sales and marketing strategies.

WHY Does This Happen?

Mix one part 'marketing is ever-evolving' with one part 'resistance to change,' and you've got yourself a recipe for chaos. With new tools, tactics, best practices, tips and tricks, search engine updates, and niche specialties emerging constantly, it's a living entity that must be respected.

However, hiring managers and recruiters don’t always have the daily updated expertise to align job titles with the actual scope of work needed. I know, we get cozy in our roles and close LinkedIn when someone starts talking about email privacy changes that negatively affect email open rates, and you JUST perfected the email open rates part of your monthly PowerPoint. Resistance to learning is the marketer's downfall.

Sometimes, the problem stems from legacy job descriptions that haven’t been updated to reflect the complexity and nuances of modern marketing. Other times, companies create new roles without a clear understanding of what responsibilities each position should entail, an unfortunate reality that I have run into the past two months of interviewing for organizations. When you say "support organizational growth," do you mean write pretty newsletters or strategize a 365-day inbound marketing plan for website, email, social, and direct mail?

The result is a lack of alignment with industry norms, which not only makes it hard for marketers to advance in their careers but also creates a disconnect between hiring managers and candidates. This inconsistency is especially apparent when comparing marketing roles across companies, especially title for title. While every company is different and every marketing team is unique, below is a breakdown of typical marketing roles and what their responsibilities should generally include.

It's worth mentioning that I have never worked at a company with all of these roles on one team, as they start to get repetitive from Director to CMO with the overarching strategy and company vision and launching the company to the moon, etc. There are also niche role off-shoots like Content Marketing Managers and Marketing Communication roles.

Some companies don't follow any sort of formula and have Marketing Coordinators with 10 years of experience making $120k+ per year. Large companies will (obviously) operate their marketing teams much differently than small companies. Established companies will not look similar to start-ups. You get it.

These are some most common titles and what they should and shouldn't be expected to do based on my experiences over the years.

General Marketing Team Roles & Responsibilities

1. Marketing Coordinator

• Typical Salary: $45K–$75K
• Responsibilities: A Marketing Coordinator is an entry-level role that should support the whole marketing team. They often handle administrative tasks, coordinate campaigns, create recurring meetings and keep meeting minutes, assist with event planning, and provide general support (like copywriting, scheduling, graphic designs, and video editing) to higher-level marketers. They should have a solid foundation in the principles of marketing and show promising business acumen. They are typically learning the ropes of marketing, assisting with the execution of strategies rather than developing or advising them.
• Common Disconnects: Coordinators are sometimes expected to create marketing strategies, manage campaigns, and report on analytics — tasks that should typically fall to more senior roles. Don't get me wrong, it's great to involve coordinators in brainstorms and have an open-door policy for ideas. But don't expect them to directly ideate, organize, and run end-to-end campaigns. And don't automatically delegate them to clean the team breakrooms and stock the fridge!

2. Marketing Specialist

• Typical Salary: $65K–$85K
• Responsibilities: Marketing Specialists can (and should) focus mainly on a specific area, like SEO, content creation, website upkeep, article writing, or social media. They should have at least a year of professional experience under their belt, with most job postings requiring 2-3+ years. It's typical to have several specialists on one team, each handling different tasks. They are responsible for executing small- to medium-sized campaigns, analyzing and presenting results, and optimizing strategy in their area(s) of expertise. While they often play a key role in strategy execution, they should not be responsible for crafting the overall marketing strategy.
• Common Disconnects: In many cases, specialists are expected to run entire marketing strategies, including social media, blog articles, email marketing, content creation, graphic designs, video production, and analytics reporting, which are responsibilities that more accurately belong dispersed among specialists and/or to a manager or director.

3. Marketing Manager

• Typical Salary: $85K–$120K+
• Responsibilities: A Marketing Manager should be responsible for researching, developing, and executing high-level marketing strategies, managing a team, overseeing budgets, and ensuring alignment with company goals. They typically report to a Director or VP and are expected to lead and report on projects from ideation through execution.
• Common Disconnects: Some companies hire marketing managers at lower salary levels and expect them to handle everything from strategy to content creation to analytics, even though this role should primarily focus on strategy and oversight. They should not always be in the weeds with day-to-day projects... A very common downfall of managers.

4. Senior Marketing Manager

• Typical Salary: $90K–$110K+
• Responsibilities: This role is typically seen in larger organizations and involves overseeing broader initiatives, often across multiple channels or product lines and in close collaboration with C-Suites and stakeholders. A senior marketing manager is expected to lead complex projects, manage significant budgets, and mentor junior team members. They work closely with the director or VP to ensure long-term strategic goals are met.
• Common Disconnects: Senior managers are often confused with managers, with overlapping responsibilities that sometimes include hands-on execution instead of high-level oversight.

5. Marketing Director

• Typical Salary: $100K–$120K+
• Responsibilities: Directors are responsible for vetting, setting, and approving the overall marketing strategy for an organization. They oversee the marketing team and ensure campaigns align with business objectives across all departments. They can also be the last line of approvals to ensure content and messaging aligns with the brand. They are often involved in cross-functional collaboration with other departments like sales, product, and finance to drive company-wide initiatives.
• Common Disconnects: I’ve seen Directors tasked with everything from creating day-to-day content to ordering company lunches, stocking break rooms, and presenting data analytics. This can be expected in start-up atmospheres but less effective in larger organizations. Directors should have an extremely strong foundation in marketing skills to focus on strategic direction.

6. VP of Marketing

• Typical Salary: $120K–$200K+
• Responsibilities: A VP of Marketing oversees all marketing operations and is responsible for high-level strategic planning, setting long-term goals, and ensuring alignment across departments. They typically report to the CMO or CEO and lead the marketing team in driving business growth. Their role can bridge the gap between executive vision and tactical execution.
• Common Disconnect: In my experience, VPs often come from other industries which presents huge learning curves. While they usually have strong business acumen and impressive backgrounds, it's important to understand the new team's nuances and gain tacit knowledge before advising on marketing strategies.

7. Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

• Typical Salary: $200K+
• Responsibilities: As the top marketing executive, the CMO shapes the overall marketing vision and strategy for the company. They collaborate closely with the executive team and play a key role in major business decisions. A CMO ensures that marketing initiatives align with the company’s broader goals to drive sustainable growth.
• Common Disconnect: CMOs are the highest level marketing role, but should still understand and keep up with key marketing trends as well as possess familiarity with essential tools their teams use (like CRMs).

The Importance of Clear Role Definitions (and Sticking to Them)

Clear expectations and role definitions are essential for the success of both employees and organizations. When job titles don’t align with responsibilities, it creates confusion, burnout, boredom, and missed growth opportunities.

Misaligned roles also make it difficult for marketers to transition from one company to another, as the title “Marketing Manager” at one company could mean something entirely different at another.

My Advice for Marketing Hiring Managers:

• Be clear: When creating job descriptions and selecting titles, align responsibilities with industry standards for that role. This helps attract the right talent and sets accurate expectations. For example, if you're hiring a Marketing Coordinator but expect them to manage and report on full end-to-end social media campaigns, what you're looking for is likely a Marketing Specialist with expertise in social media. Consider the title "Marketing Specialist, Social Media." Also consider adding some day-to-day responsibilities, or mention any large projects the role will be expected to complete in the first year.
• Understand modern marketing: You can find new marketing buzz, updates, and changes every single day. Make sure you’re up to date on the skills and tools required for different marketing roles when you're searching for candidates.
• Align compensation with responsibilities: If you’re hiring a Marketing Manager on a team of two to oversee all marketing operations and build new strategies and content from the ground up, $45K is not going to get you the right candidate. That's how you get high turnover. I was recently contacted to interview for a Marketing Manager role, 100% in-office in one of the most expensive cities in California. This role required a Master's degree and at least 7 years of experience driving campaigns. The pay? $65K. I politely declined and made a mental note to avoid that company in future job searches. In California, a $65K salary will be taxed around $10K. That means the net pay will be around $55K per year in a city where the average house is $1.6 million and a dozen eggs here quite literally hit $7 this year.

My Advice for Marketers:

Ask Questions: When interviewing, dig into what the day-to-day responsibilities will be. I always ask, "What is one project that this role will be expected to complete in the first 90 days?" to gauge expectations. Titles and role descriptions never tell the full story, so make sure you understand what’s actually expected and take advantage of asking everything you want to know during the interview.

Here are a few of my favorite questions: What does the marketing team structure look like? What will this role be ultimately responsible for by the end of the first year? What is the current biggest roadblock for the marketing team? What's the process of submitting projects for approval/launch? How well are the sales and marketing teams aligned today? What is a recent successful marketing campaign that your team has run?

Negotiate: If the job responsibilities skew beyond the typical scope of your role, negotiate for compensation and/or title changes that reflect the level of responsibility.

I'm two months deep into my post-layoff job search, surpassing application number 400 this week. I've seen some pretty crazy asks and even crazier salaries out there folks. Let's get aligned!