Scope
What a VP of marketing actually owns
The question this role exists to answer: How do we build a repeatable demand engine and a message the sales team can actually carry.
Owns
- Demand generation strategy and channel execution
- Messaging and content across the funnel
- Marketing team management and program budget
- Website, campaigns and marketing technology stack
- Pipeline contribution against a stated target
Shares
Does not own
- Quota carrying and deal negotiation
- Board level category strategy at a large company where a CMO exists
- Sales team hiring and territory design
Timing
When to hire a VP of marketing
Too early
Below roughly one million in ARR this is usually a first marketing hire question rather than a VP question, and the person you want is a builder who will write the copy themselves.
The right window
One million to forty million in ARR. This is the most common marketing leadership hire at pre IPO companies.
Outgrown
Past roughly seventy five million in ARR the strategic and organizational scope usually justifies a CMO title, if only to compete for candidates.
How much work this actually is
At Series B, with none of it covered today, the functions in this role's scope represent roughly 4.8 full time equivalents. The scope represents roughly 5 people of work at this stage. A leader can carry that only with a team underneath them. If the plan is a solo hire, the description needs to shrink.
| Function in scope | Group | Full time equivalents |
|---|---|---|
| Positioning and messaging Value proposition, message hierarchy, proof architecture, and the words the whole company uses. |
Strategy and positioning | 0.43 |
| Demand generation and paid Campaign strategy, paid channels, nurture, pipeline targets and channel mix. |
Demand and awareness | 1.02 |
| Content and editorial Thought leadership, research reports, blog, video, and the editorial calendar. |
Demand and awareness | 0.85 |
| Product marketing and launches Launch management, pricing and packaging input, sales narrative, competitive positioning. |
Demand and awareness | 0.85 |
| Website, SEO and answer engine visibility Site conversion, organic search, schema and structured data, visibility inside AI answers. |
Demand and awareness | 0.60 |
| ICP definition and market research Who the buyer is, what triggers a purchase, TAM and segmentation work. |
Strategy and positioning | 0.34 |
| Events and field marketing Conferences, booths, dinners, regional programs, and the pipeline that comes off them. |
Demand and awareness | 0.68 |
Run your own coverage grid to see what this number looks like at your stage, with your team and your existing coverage.
Compensation
What a VP of marketing costs
Structure matters as much as the number
A modest bonus tied to company or function performance. The role is not commission driven.
Equity: Commonly 0.2 to 0.6 percent at Series B, trending lower at later stages.
Bands are directional, for scoping a description or a target range rather than making or accepting an offer. Benchmark figures are triangulated from the sources listed and refreshed with the data file. Live posted ranges come from GTM Radar and are only shown once enough matched postings exist to be meaningful.
Title confusion
Titles a VP of marketing gets confused with
Most mis hires in go to market are not bad candidates. They are the right candidate for a different job than the one the company actually needed.
VP of Marketing versus Chief Marketing Officer
Scope and altitude. A VP of Marketing runs the function. A CMO is expected to define the category and answer to the board for it. At companies under forty million in ARR the work overlaps heavily.
VP of Marketing versus Demand Generation Lead
A Demand Gen Lead owns campaigns and channels against a strategy someone else sets. A VP of Marketing sets that strategy and owns content, product marketing and brand alongside demand. Trying to get VP level strategic output from a demand gen scope and salary band is the most common version of this mistake.
VP of Marketing versus Head of Growth
Growth biases toward experimentation, performance channels and product led loops. A VP of Marketing carries the full funnel including content, product marketing and brand.
Requirements
What to actually require
Non negotiable
- Owned a pipeline number and hit it in a comparable motion
- Wrote or rewrote positioning that sales adopted
- Ran demand generation across at least three channels with real budget
- Managed a team of three or more
Genuinely optional
- Category or segment experience matching the buyer
- Product led and sales led motion experience
- Hands on with the current marketing automation platform
Everything in this column belongs under a preferred heading, or out of the description entirely. Requirements lists that mix these two columns filter out strong candidates who self select away.
Tools this role works in
- CRM
- Marketing automation
- Analytics and BI
- Intent and signal data
- Content and design production
- Search and visibility
Name the specific platforms in the description. Platform experience is not fully transferable in operations and automation roles, and candidates screen themselves in or out on exactly this detail.
Before you post
Red flags in a VP of marketing job description
Screening
Interview questions that reveal fit
| Area | Question |
|---|---|
| Demand | What was your pipeline target at your last company, what did you actually deliver, and what drove the gap in either direction. |
| Messaging | Show me a message you wrote that a sales team used unchanged. How did you get them to adopt it. |
| Channel judgment | Which channel did you kill at your last company, and what evidence made the call. |
| Hands on scope | What in this job description would you do personally in the first six months, and what would you need help on. |
| Sales alignment | Describe the worst state of sales and marketing alignment you inherited and what you changed first. |
Measure the role on
- Marketing sourced pipeline against quarterly target
- Cost per opportunity and blended customer acquisition cost
- Opportunity to close rate on marketing sourced deals
- Content and campaign output against plan
First 90 days
First 30 days
- Audit the funnel end to end and find the leak
- Sit in on ten sales calls
- Meet every rep and ask what they need that they do not have
By day 60
- Deliver a revised message and campaign plan
- Fix the highest impact funnel leak
- Publish the shared lead definition and service level with sales
By day 90
- Report a full quarter of clean pipeline attribution
- Ship the repositioned core assets
- Present the team and budget plan for the next two quarters
Questions
VP of Marketing hiring questions
What does a VP of Marketing do at a startup?
They own the full marketing function: positioning and messaging, demand generation, content, the website and the marketing technology stack, and a pipeline contribution number. At companies under about ten million in ARR they are also doing a large share of the work personally rather than directing a team.
When should a company hire a VP of Marketing?
Most commonly once there is a validated sales motion and revenue somewhere between one million and five million in ARR. Before that, a senior individual contributor or a fractional leader usually delivers more, because the work is execution rather than organization building.
What is a realistic VP of Marketing salary at a venture backed company?
Base salary generally runs one hundred eighty thousand to two hundred fifty thousand with a fifteen to twenty five percent bonus, adjusted up for high cost metros and later stages. Equity commonly falls between 0.2 and 0.6 percent at Series B.
Should the VP of Marketing report to the CEO?
Yes, in almost every case. Marketing and revenue are peer functions with different time horizons, and the reporting line is what protects that difference. A VP of Marketing reporting to the CEO keeps brand, positioning and category work inside the mandate. Reporting into a CRO subordinates a function measured in years to one measured in quarters, and the consistent result is that marketing gets scoped down to lead volume and the positioning work is the first thing cut when the number is at risk. If the structure is already set that way, the question worth asking in the interview is which specific budget and scope decisions the CMO or VP of Marketing makes without needing revenue sign off.
Next step
Turn this into a job description scoped to your company
The reference above describes the role in general. The builder takes your stage, your team, your existing coverage, your territory and your stack, and produces a description scoped to the gap you actually have, with a scope load check before you post it.
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