Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Head of Growth Marketing

🎯 Role Definition

The Head of Growth Marketing is a pivotal leadership role, acting as the primary driver of sustainable, scalable growth for the organization. This isn't just about managing channels; it's about architecting the entire engine of customer acquisition, activation, retention, and revenue. You are the strategic mind responsible for connecting our product to its market, owning the full marketing funnel, and building a high-performing team that executes with precision and creativity. This role blends deep analytical rigor with a test-and-learn mindset, requiring a leader who can navigate ambiguity, inspire cross-functional teams, and translate high-level business goals into actionable marketing strategies that deliver measurable results.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Director of Marketing / Digital Marketing
Senior Growth Marketing Manager
Head of User Acquisition

Advancement To:

VP of Marketing
Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)
Chief Growth Officer (CGO)

Lateral Moves:

Head of Product Marketing
VP of Revenue Operations

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Develop and Own the Overarching Growth Strategy: Design, articulate, and execute a comprehensive growth marketing strategy that aligns with our company's ambitious revenue and user acquisition targets.
Lead and Mentor a High-Performing Team: Build, manage, and inspire a multidisciplinary team of marketing professionals, fostering a culture of experimentation, accountability, and continuous improvement.
Full-Funnel Ownership and Optimization: Take complete ownership of the marketing funnel, from awareness and acquisition to activation, retention, and referral, identifying and addressing bottlenecks at every stage.
Manage Marketing Budget and ROI: Strategically allocate and manage a significant marketing budget across various channels, ensuring all investments are tracked, optimized, and deliver a positive return.
Spearhead Multi-Channel User Acquisition: Lead the strategy and execution of paid and organic acquisition campaigns across channels like SEM, SEO, paid social, content marketing, affiliates, and partnerships.
Champion a Data-Driven Experimentation Culture: Implement and oversee a robust A/B testing and experimentation framework (CRO) across our website, landing pages, and marketing campaigns to constantly improve performance.
Define and Report on Key Growth Metrics: Establish the key performance indicators (KPIs) for growth, build dashboards to track performance, and regularly present insights, results, and strategic recommendations to the executive team.
Drive Customer Lifecycle & Retention Marketing: Develop and implement sophisticated lifecycle marketing strategies, including email, in-app messaging, and retargeting, to increase customer engagement, reduce churn, and maximize lifetime value (LTV).
Lead Content & SEO Engine: Oversee the content and SEO strategy to build our organic presence, establish thought leadership, and create a powerful, scalable inbound marketing engine.
Collaborate with Product and Sales Leadership: Work in close partnership with Product to inform the roadmap with user insights and launch new features, and with Sales to ensure seamless lead handoffs and alignment on revenue goals (S&M alignment).
Master Marketing Technology Stack: Own and optimize our marketing technology stack (e.g., HubSpot, Salesforce, Google Analytics, Segment) to ensure we have the data infrastructure needed for sophisticated targeting, personalization, and analysis.
Explore and Validate New Growth Channels: Constantly research and test new, emerging channels and innovative marketing tactics to diversify our acquisition portfolio and find untapped growth opportunities.
Develop Go-to-Market (GTM) Strategies: Lead the cross-functional planning and execution of GTM strategies for new product launches, feature releases, and entries into new market segments.
Refine Brand Positioning and Messaging: Collaborate with brand and product teams to ensure our messaging is consistent, compelling, and resonates with our target audience across all marketing touchpoints.
Analyze Market and Competitive Landscape: Maintain a deep understanding of market trends, customer behavior, and the competitive environment to identify strategic opportunities and potential threats.

Secondary Functions

Manage Agency and Vendor Relationships: Select and manage relationships with external agencies, contractors, and technology vendors to supplement the in-house team's capabilities and drive results.
Provide Strategic Input on Pricing and Packaging: Collaborate with finance and product teams to provide market-driven insights that inform pricing strategies and product packaging.
Contribute to the Organization's Data Strategy: Work with data and engineering teams to define data requirements and ensure the marketing team has access to the information needed for deep analysis.
Act as a Public-Facing Ambassador: Represent the company at industry events, on webinars, and through thought leadership content to build brand awareness and credibility.
Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis to uncover new, actionable insights that can fuel growth initiatives.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies where marketing's involvement is crucial for product or engineering-led growth projects.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Advanced Data Analysis: Deep proficiency in using analytics platforms (e.g., Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Amplitude) to analyze complex datasets and extract actionable insights. SQL proficiency is highly desired.
A/B Testing and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO): Expertise in designing and implementing controlled experiments using platforms like Optimizely, VWO, or Google Optimize.
Marketing Automation & CRM: Hands-on mastery of marketing automation platforms (e.g., HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot) and their integration with CRMs like Salesforce.
Paid Acquisition Channel Mastery: In-depth, practical knowledge of managing large-scale campaigns on platforms such as Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Facebook Ads, and Capterra.
SEO & Content Strategy: Strong understanding of technical SEO, on-page optimization, link building, and how to build a content strategy that drives organic traffic and conversions.
Financial Modeling & Budget Management: Ability to build models to forecast performance, manage a multi-million dollar budget, and calculate key financial metrics like CAC, LTV, and payback period.

Soft Skills

Strategic & Analytical Mindset: The ability to switch seamlessly between high-level strategic thinking and detail-oriented analysis to connect the dots between actions and outcomes.
Inspirational Leadership & Mentorship: A proven ability to attract, develop, and retain top talent, fostering a positive and results-driven team environment.
Exceptional Communication & Storytelling: The skill to distill complex data and strategies into clear, compelling narratives for executive-level audiences and the broader company.
Radical Collaboration: A natural ability to build strong relationships and influence across departments (especially Product, Sales, and Engineering) to achieve shared goals.
Resilience & Adaptability: Thrives in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment and can pivot strategies quickly in response to new data or changing market dynamics.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's Degree

Preferred Education:

Master's Degree or MBA

Relevant Fields of Study:

Marketing
Business Administration
Economics or Statistics
Communications

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 8-12+ years of progressive experience in marketing, with at least 4-5 years in a leadership role focused specifically on growth, demand generation, or user acquisition.

Preferred:

Demonstrable track record of scaling user acquisition and revenue for a B2B SaaS or tech-enabled B2C company.
Direct, hands-on experience managing a multi-million dollar annual marketing budget with a clear focus on measurable ROI.
Proven success in building and leading a high-performing, data-driven marketing team from the ground up.
Experience in a product-led growth (PLG) environment is a significant plus.
A history of successful cross-functional collaboration that directly led to significant business impact.