Marketing Director Job Description: A Template for UK Founders

A marketing director job description should define the commercial outcomes the role owns, the decisions it can make and the resources it controls. For a UK business, that means spelling out responsibility for qualified enquiries, pipeline and won revenue by source, alongside budget authority, team leadership and a realistic starting position.

What should a marketing director own?

Appoint a director when your business needs someone to make marketing investment decisions and lead the function, with authority to act on those decisions.

The role should connect marketing expenditure to commercial performance, while recognising that sales follow up, pricing and delivery capacity also affect revenue.

Give the director ownership of the marketing contribution to qualified enquiries and pipeline, including the definitions and reporting that make those measures usable.

Won revenue by source belongs in their reporting, but revenue targets need shared accountability with the person leading sales.

A director should be able to explain where investment is going, what evidence supports it and what should change next. They also need enough delivery capacity to put those decisions into effect.

Do you need a marketing director, a head of marketing or a manager?

Titles vary between businesses, so compare the authority and work behind the title before choosing one.

Role	Main responsibility	Typical decision scope
Marketing manager	Deliver the agreed marketing plan and manage its execution	Campaign and supplier decisions within an established plan and budget
Head of marketing	Lead the marketing function and translate commercial objectives into a plan	Team priorities and channel allocation within an agreed remit
Marketing director	Set marketing direction and take responsibility for investment decisions at leadership level	Propose the budget, allocate approved expenditure and negotiate priorities with other directors

A head of marketing may already carry director level responsibility in a smaller business. The distinction is whether the person contributes to company decisions and has authority over the resources needed to deliver their remit.

If you already have a credible strategy and mainly need someone to run delivery, the marketing manager job description template may describe the vacancy more accurately.

An agency can remain responsible for specialist delivery under any of these arrangements, provided someone inside the business owns the brief and investment decisions.

What should your marketing director job description say?

Copy the block below and replace every bracketed field before publishing it. Remove responsibilities your business cannot support, particularly where the proposed director would have neither delivery resource nor approval authority.

### Role details

Job title: Marketing Director

Reports to: [Managing Director or Chief Executive]

Location and working arrangements: [Insert details]

Employment basis and salary range: [Insert approved details]

Direct reports: [List roles and any approved vacancies]

Agency support: [List retained agencies and their responsibilities]

### Purpose of the role

Lead marketing for [business], translating its commercial objectives into an agreed strategy and funded delivery plan.

Take responsibility for marketing investment and the function's contribution to qualified enquiries, sales pipeline and won revenue by source.

Work with the sales leader to agree which customers and opportunities the business should pursue.

### Commercial outcomes

Agree targets with the managing director using the current baseline, available budget and normal sales cycle.

Own the marketing contribution to qualified enquiries, using an agreed definition of customer fit and buying intent.

Track how those enquiries become accepted opportunities, including their pipeline value and progression through the CRM.

Report won revenue by source using a documented attribution method, with shared revenue accountability agreed with sales.

Monitor acquisition expenditure alongside conversion and commercial return, distinguishing recorded results from forecasts.

Investigate gaps between enquiry volume and sales outcomes with the sales leader.

### Decision rights and budget authority

Propose the marketing budget and explain the assumptions behind the investment plan.

Allocate the approved budget between activities and suppliers within [agreed limits].

Approve campaign expenditure up to [delegated approval limit] and supplier commitments within [agreed contract limits].

Seek managing director approval for increases to the total budget, permanent appointments and commitments outside delegated authority.

Agree any changes to pricing or commercial promises with [responsible director] before publication.

### Team and agency management

Set priorities for the marketing team and agree individual responsibilities.

Assess whether the existing team and agency capacity can deliver the approved plan, identifying gaps for the managing director to resolve.

Brief agencies against agreed commercial objectives and review their work against contracted scope and performance.

Maintain company ownership of accounts and data, with appropriate access for employees and suppliers.

### Reporting and working rhythm

Hold a weekly delivery review covering progress, blockers and decisions required.

Lead a monthly commercial review with sales and the managing director, using the agreed dashboard.

Explain expenditure against budget and changes in qualified enquiries, opportunity conversion and won revenue by source.

Record decisions, their owners and when the evidence will be reviewed.

### First 90 days

Days 1 to 30: Review customer economics and existing commitments, meet the team and agencies, and establish the reliability of the current performance baseline.

Agree CRM stage definitions and shared responsibilities with sales, identifying any missing tracking or access.

Days 31 to 60: Present the marketing plan and budget allocation for approval, including priorities, delivery capacity and measurement gaps that need resolving.

Begin the agreed work and establish the reporting rhythm.

Days 61 to 90: Review delivery and early commercial evidence, adjusting investment where the evidence supports a change.

Present the next period's plan, including unresolved dependencies and results that cannot yet be assessed within the normal sales cycle.

### Person specification

Required: Evidence of leading marketing in a business with a comparable sales model and level of complexity.

Required: Experience making budget decisions and explaining commercial performance to senior leadership.

Required: Ability to work with sales on qualification, opportunity progression and revenue reporting.

Required: Experience managing people and holding agencies accountable for agreed work.

Required: Ability to identify limitations in tracking and attribution without overstating what the data proves.

Desirable: Relevant experience of [sector, buying process or regulatory requirements], where this affects the work.

### Support and dependencies

The business will provide access to [CRM, analytics, financial reporting and company accounts].

Available delivery resources are [team roles, agency scope and approved expenditure].

Sales owns [qualification decisions, follow up and closing responsibilities], with shared targets recorded separately.

The managing director will resolve decisions outside the role's delegated authority and review objectives when resources or commercial assumptions change.

What must exist before you can judge the director fairly?

A new director can improve measurement, but you need to distinguish that assignment from an expectation to increase revenue immediately.

Before setting performance targets, establish whether enquiries are recorded consistently and whether their source follows them into the CRM.

Your CRM needs agreed stages with entry criteria, including what makes an enquiry qualified, when it becomes an opportunity and how a win or loss is recorded. Sales must own keeping opportunity records current.

The dashboard should connect marketing expenditure to qualified enquiries, pipeline progression and won revenue by source, using the same definitions each reporting period.

Source attribution records an agreed allocation of credit. It does not establish that marketing alone caused a sale.

Where records are incomplete, show unknown sources separately and make repairing the gaps an explicit responsibility with delivery support.

Targets also need a baseline and a sales cycle. A director whose prospects normally take months to buy can be assessed on delivery and opportunity progression before enough won revenue exists to judge the investment.

Give the hire access to the accounts behind the dashboard, including any platforms administered by an agency. A report without access to its underlying records limits their ability to challenge errors or change the work.

How should you assess candidates and set the salary?

Ask candidates to explain a marketing investment decision they owned, including what evidence they used and what happened after the decision.

Then explore the limits of their authority and the resources available to them. Results achieved with a large delivery team may tell you little about how someone would operate with your current capacity.

Use the same discussion brief for each candidate, built around your actual sales model and the responsibilities in the template. Ask them what they would need to establish before recommending a budget change.

Their questions should expose dependencies, including sales follow up and data quality, without assuming the existing team or agency needs replacing.

For pay planning, the UK marketing director salary guide by company size covers salary and wider employment costs.

Set the range against the authority and resources in the role, then publish it alongside the working arrangements. A director title attached to a delivery role can attract candidates whose expectations do not match the vacancy.

Where does The Growth Install fit?

The Growth Install is for founders about to hire a marketing manager, head of marketing or fractional CMO. Over 90 days we install three agreed growth workflows on your own accounts, with tracking and a live dashboard, next to the people who'll own them. It's one flat fee for three months, then it stops. If you still hire, your new hire has something to take over and improve from day one.

This option fits a hiring decision where agreed growth work needs to be established with the existing team before another leadership role is added.

If your business already has dependable measurement and delivery capacity but lacks senior marketing judgement, recruiting a director may be the right next step. The Growth Install covers the three agreed workflows and does not replace a marketing department.

What else should you check before hiring a marketing director?

Should a marketing director job description include revenue targets?

Yes, where the business has a baseline and can explain how revenue is attributed. State which outcomes the director owns and which are shared with sales, then align the assessment period with the buying cycle. Avoid assigning sole responsibility for revenue while another function controls qualification and closing.

Do I need tracking and a dashboard before recruiting?

You need to describe their current condition accurately before agreeing objectives. The director can take responsibility for improving them if that work has an agreed scope and enough support. Assess that setup work separately from commercial outcomes that depend on the missing data.

Does the director need experience in my industry?

Require sector experience when regulation or the buying process makes it necessary for the role. Otherwise, experience with a comparable sales model and commercial complexity may be more relevant. Ask candidates to explain how they would test assumptions they cannot carry over from a previous business.

How much budget authority should I give the director?

Give them enough delegated authority to execute the approved plan without seeking permission for every routine decision. Record expenditure limits and supplier contract boundaries in writing. The managing director retains approval of the overall budget and commitments outside those boundaries.