Digital Marketing Strategy Roles in the United States: Evidence from 100 Current Vacancies
Author: MTF Institute Research Team
Independent reviewer: MTF Institute Research QA
Research date: 16 September 2026
Geography: United States
Executive summary
This report examines what U.S.-eligible employers asked digital marketing strategy professionals to do in 100 current vacancies observed on 15–16 September 2026. The sample is structured and purposive. It is designed to cover six connected role families rather than estimate their frequency in the U.S. labor market: Growth / Funnel (31 vacancies), Marketing Operations / Measurement (21), Lifecycle / CRM (18), Campaign / Integrated (11), Digital / Cross-channel (11), and Performance / Acquisition (8).
The evidence describes digital marketing strategy as connected operating work. In the 100-vacancy publication cohort, 91 vacancies contained campaign-planning signals, 88 contained lifecycle-orchestration signals, 87 contained funnel-and-journey signals, 87 contained measurement-and-attribution signals, 61 contained integrated-marketing-planning signals, and 59 contained channel-strategy signals. These broad signals overlap; they are not mutually exclusive job categories.
The underlying requirements were more concrete than the word “strategy” sometimes implies. Employers asked for campaign and program ownership in 63 of 100 vacancies, measurement or reporting responsibilities in 51, marketing systems or automation work in 46, and funnel, demand, or growth optimization in 43. Common work products included dashboards, reports, insights, or recommendations (76/100); campaign, program, or growth plans (69/100); and journeys, workflows, or automated sequences (57/100). The leading hard-skill patterns were analytics, measurement, and attribution (68/100), experimentation and conversion optimization (52/100), and segmentation and personalization (48/100).
The role also depended on observable behavior. Communication and stakeholder influence appeared in 59 of 100 vacancies, analytical or commercial judgment in 53, and cross-functional collaboration in 46. Interfaces most often included Sales, SDR, or Revenue Operations (69/100), Product (56/100), and Data, Analytics, or Engineering (51/100). Decision evidence most often concerned channel, campaign, or audience prioritization (67/100). These findings support a practical view of digital marketing strategy: selecting and coordinating channels, journeys, campaigns, measurement, systems, and cross-functional decisions to improve defined business outcomes.
All figures in the main report use exactly the 100-record publication cohort. A separate 20-record holdout is used only for directional robustness and is never added to a report numerator or denominator.
Research question and scope
The study asked: What responsibilities, outputs, skills, tools, qualifications, work rhythms, interfaces, and decision responsibilities are stated in current U.S.-eligible vacancies that collectively define digital marketing strategy work?
The intended capability boundary was declared before the public-report cohort was selected. It covers channel strategy, funnel and journey management, campaign planning, attribution and measurement, lifecycle work, and integrated marketing planning. Pure sales, content-only, product-marketing-only, and data-science-only roles were outside the accepted evidence frame.
“Current” means that the public vacancy page was observed as open or active on its recorded retrieval date. It does not mean that every vacancy will remain open after 16 September 2026.
Method
Evidence frame and exact-100 selection
The accepted v4 evidence frame contained 120 unique, substantively coded U.S.-eligible vacancies. None was a metadata-only record. To match the reserved report title exactly, the publication cohort was fixed at 100 vacancies using predeclared family targets:
| Role family | Publication cohort |
|---|---|
| Growth / Funnel | 31 |
| Marketing Operations / Measurement | 21 |
| Lifecycle / CRM | 18 |
| Campaign / Integrated | 11 |
| Digital / Cross-channel | 11 |
| Performance / Acquisition | 8 |
| Total | 100 |
Selection was deterministic within each family. For every accepted record, the process calculated SHA-256 over the UTF-8 bytes of its stable source ID, sorted records in ascending hash order, used the stable source ID as a tie-breaker, and selected the first records up to that family’s target. The remaining 20 records formed a disjoint robustness holdout. The cohort and holdout contain zero overlapping IDs and together reconstruct all 120 accepted records.
The selected cohort and the separate holdout are retained as structured evidence with stable source IDs, selection hashes, family assignments, and public-source provenance.
Sources, currentness, and rights
Within the publication cohort, 52 records came from first-party employer or canonical applicant-tracking pages, 43 from employer-authored public LinkedIn pages, and 5 from public full-text directory mirrors. Eighty-two records were observed on 15 September 2026 and 18 on 16 September 2026. Every record retains its public evidence URL, U.S. location or explicit U.S. eligibility, current/open observation, employer, title, and minimal supporting evidence.
The study stores derived coding and short evidence, not bulk job descriptions. Public links are retained so readers can inspect representative source pages. Examples include Blossom’s Growth Marketing Manager, Aspora’s U.S. Growth Marketing Manager, GrowthLoop’s marketing analytics and experimentation role, and Wpromote’s Senior Manager, Lifecycle Marketing.
Coding and denominators
Each vacancy was coded, where stated, for responsibilities, outputs, hard skills and methods, observable behavioral skills, tools and systems, education, experience, required and preferred criteria, seniority, cadence, interfaces, decisions and authority, handoffs, and escalation.
For responsibilities, outputs, hard skills, behavioral skills, tools, cadence, interfaces, and decision authority, all 100 records contained coded evidence, so the denominator is 100. Other dimensions used explicit stated-field denominators:
| Dimension | Stated | Not stated | Denominator used for requirement rates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Education | 56 | 44 | 56 |
| Experience | 97 | 3 | 97 |
| Required criteria | 100 | 0 | 100 |
| Preferred criteria | 95 | 5 | 95 |
| Handoffs | 2 | 98 | 2 |
| Escalation | 93 | 7 | 93 |
An unstated field is unknown, not a negative observation. Percentages in those dimensions therefore use only the stated-field denominator shown above. Broad capability and same-vacancy co-occurrence measures use the complete 100-record publication cohort.
Findings
1. The field connects six capabilities
| Capability signal | Vacancies | Cohort denominator |
|---|---|---|
| Campaign planning | 91 | 100 |
| Lifecycle orchestration | 88 | 100 |
| Funnel and journey | 87 | 100 |
| Measurement and attribution | 87 | 100 |
| Integrated marketing planning | 61 | 100 |
| Channel strategy | 59 | 100 |
These are coded breadth signals, not claims that 91% or 87% of all U.S. digital marketing jobs have the same requirement. Their value is relational: the same purposive cohort repeatedly joined campaign, lifecycle, funnel, measurement, channel, and integration work. Public examples include Aspora’s growth role, Surge AI’s Growth & Lifecycle Marketing Lead, Anthropic’s Enterprise Integrated Campaign Manager, and Graphite’s performance-marketing director role.
The pattern suggests a role boundary wider than single-channel execution. Channel choices must connect to funnel stages; campaigns must connect to measurement; lifecycle programs must connect to segmentation and contact rules; and the resulting work must be integrated with product, sales, data, creative, and leadership decisions.
2. Duties center on ownership, measurement, systems, and growth
| Responsibility pattern | Vacancies | Denominator |
|---|---|---|
| Campaign and program ownership | 63 | 100 |
| Measurement, analysis, and reporting | 51 | 100 |
| Marketing systems and automation | 46 | 100 |
| Funnel, demand, and growth optimization | 43 | 100 |
| Lifecycle, journey, and retention management | 39 | 100 |
| Cross-functional coordination explicitly coded as a duty | 23 | 100 |
Campaign ownership was not limited to asset delivery. The coded duties included planning, launches, program design, audience or channel decisions, and performance review. Measurement work included defining success, reading results, producing reports, and recommending changes. Systems work linked campaigns to CRM, automation, integration, data, and workflow design. Representative examples include Blossom’s growth vacancy, Stripe’s Campaign Strategy & Operations Manager, and Higgsfield’s Senior Lifecycle Marketing Manager.
3. Employers expect decision-ready work products
| Output pattern | Vacancies | Denominator |
|---|---|---|
| Dashboard, report, insight, or recommendation | 76 | 100 |
| Campaign, program, or growth plan | 69 | 100 |
| Journey, workflow, or automated sequence | 57 | 100 |
| Experiment, test plan, or learning agenda | 27 | 100 |
| Audience, segment, or personalization model | 22 | 100 |
| Budget, forecast, or business case | 16 | 100 |
The most common outputs combine execution with interpretation. A dashboard without a decision, or a campaign without a measurement loop, would cover only part of the stated work. Plans and roadmaps were paired with reports and recommendations; journeys and workflows were paired with tests, segments, and performance evidence. Relevant public examples include Curri’s Growth AI Lead, OnePay’s Marketing Analytics Lead, and Lyra Health’s Lifecycle Marketing Lead.
4. Hard skills join analytics with experimentation and orchestration
| Hard-skill pattern | Vacancies | Denominator |
|---|---|---|
| Analytics, measurement, and attribution | 68 | 100 |
| Experimentation and conversion optimization | 52 | 100 |
| Segmentation and personalization | 48 | 100 |
| Automation, integration, and workflow design | 44 | 100 |
| Campaign and channel planning | 39 | 100 |
| Lifecycle and journey design | 28 | 100 |
Several same-vacancy combinations illustrate how these skills connect. Campaign ownership co-occurred with measurement or attribution skills in 43 of 100 vacancies. Reporting outputs co-occurred with analytics, BI, or data tools in 43. Automation responsibilities co-occurred with CRM or automation tools in 38. Funnel responsibilities co-occurred with experimentation skills in 25, while lifecycle responsibilities co-occurred with segmentation or personalization skills in 24.
These combinations were derived only when both coded elements occurred in the same vacancy. Sources illustrating the connected skill set include GrowthLoop, Wpromote, and Graphite.
5. Behavioral expectations are observable at work
| Behavioral pattern | Vacancies | Denominator |
|---|---|---|
| Communication and stakeholder influence | 59 | 100 |
| Analytical and commercial judgment | 53 | 100 |
| Cross-functional collaboration | 46 | 100 |
| Ownership and autonomous execution | 34 | 100 |
| Adaptability and ambiguity handling | 28 | 100 |
| Organization and delivery discipline | 27 | 100 |
These are not generic personality labels. The coded behavior concerned actions: explaining performance, influencing priorities, translating between technical and commercial teams, making evidence-based tradeoffs, coordinating delivery, documenting learning, and progressing work under ambiguity. Ownership behavior and stated decision authority co-occurred in 32 of 100 vacancies. Curri, Jasper, and Avetta provide public examples of this combination of analysis, communication, and cross-functional delivery.
6. Tools form a connected marketing operating stack
| Tool or system pattern | Vacancies | Denominator |
|---|---|---|
| AI and workflow-automation tools | 79 | 100 |
| CRM and marketing automation | 77 | 100 |
| Analytics, BI, and data systems | 62 | 100 |
| Paid-media and advertising platforms | 34 | 100 |
| Email and lifecycle platforms | 26 | 100 |
| Project and work-management systems | 7 | 100 |
The high AI-tool count reflects the source frame’s explicit inclusion of contemporary AI-enabled marketing work; it should not be generalized to all U.S. marketing vacancies. More broadly, the tool evidence shows that digital marketing strategy work often spans systems rather than one application. CRM and automation support audiences and journeys; analytics systems support measurement and attribution; paid platforms support acquisition; email and lifecycle platforms support triggered communication; and workflow tools support delivery. Aspora, Higgsfield, and OnePay illustrate different parts of that stack.
7. Qualifications emphasize experience more consistently than education
Education was stated in 56 vacancies and not stated in 44. Within the 56 stated-education vacancies, 14 referenced relevant-field education, 6 referenced a bachelor’s or undergraduate degree, and 5 explicitly allowed a degree-or-equivalent formulation. These patterns overlap. The report does not treat the other 44 records as evidence that education was unnecessary.
Experience was stated in 97 vacancies and not stated in 3. Within the stated group, 50 of 97 specified an explicit number of years. Required-criteria coding across all 100 vacancies identified campaign, channel, or growth execution in 66; an experience threshold or role track record in 53; analytics, measurement, or experimentation in 40; CRM, martech, or automation capability in 35; AI-enabled workflow capability in 26; and lifecycle, segmentation, or journey capability in 25.
Preferred criteria were stated in 95 vacancies. Within that denominator, AI, automation, or technical fluency appeared in 49/95; SaaS, B2B, or enterprise experience in 31/95; and industry-specific domain experience in 24/95. Public qualification examples can be traced through Aspora, Afresh, and Wpromote.
8. Seniority is broad, but title labels do not prove people management
Senior-level wording appeared in 46 of 100 records, manager-level wording in 37, director/head/executive wording in 15, and lead/principal wording in 12. These categories overlap because a title such as “Senior Manager” can enter more than one label. Six records carried specialist, associate, coordinator, intern, or junior wording. Twenty-eight records carried individual-contributor, mid-senior, mixed, or unspecified level coding.
These figures describe title or source labels. They do not establish that every “senior” vacancy included direct reports, and they should not be read as a management-prevalence estimate. A same-vacancy combination of explicit experience years with manager, senior, director, head, or lead level appeared in 46 of 100 cohort records.
9. Work runs on several cadences at once
| Cadence pattern | Vacancies | Denominator |
|---|---|---|
| Sprint, launch, or test cycle | 69 | 100 |
| Daily, ongoing, or continuous operation | 67 | 100 |
| Weekly or biweekly review | 41 | 100 |
| Monthly or quarterly planning/reporting | 29 | 100 |
| Lifecycle, triggered, or event-driven cadence | 23 | 100 |
| Annual or multi-month roadmap cadence | 12 | 100 |
The overlaps matter. The work is not simply a quarterly planning exercise or a daily campaign desk. Many roles combine ongoing execution, launch or experimentation cycles, regular performance reviews, and longer-horizon planning. Lifecycle cadence and lifecycle/journey responsibility occurred together in 19 of 100 vacancies. Blossom, Surge AI, and Stripe illustrate this layered rhythm.
10. Interfaces and authority make integration operational
| Interface pattern | Vacancies | Denominator |
|---|---|---|
| Sales, SDR, or Revenue Operations | 69 | 100 |
| Finance, Legal, or Operations | 57 | 100 |
| Product | 56 | 100 |
| Data, Analytics, or Engineering | 51 | 100 |
| Creative, Content, or Brand | 44 | 100 |
| Leadership or executive stakeholders | 35 | 100 |
| Decision or authority pattern | Vacancies | Denominator |
|---|---|---|
| Channel, campaign, or audience prioritization | 67 | 100 |
| Testing, optimization, or scaling decisions | 38 | 100 |
| Budget, spend, or investment decisions | 27 | 100 |
| Roadmap, backlog, or program sequencing | 15 | 100 |
| Journey, lifecycle, or contact-policy decisions | 13 | 100 |
| Measurement, KPI, or reporting definitions | 8 | 100 |
Growth or funnel responsibilities co-occurred with a Sales/RevOps interface in 30 of 100 vacancies. Campaign planning co-occurred with a Creative/Content/Brand interface in 27. Technical or data escalation co-occurred with a Data/Analytics/Engineering interface in 36. These findings make “integrated” concrete: the strategist often has to align upstream inputs, downstream handoffs, specialist constraints, and decision rights.
Only 2 vacancies retained explicit handoff evidence. Both described cross-functional growth handoff coordination, and 1 specifically described passing reactivated prospects to Sales. The other 98 vacancies are not stated, not evidence of no handoff. Escalation was stated in 93 vacancies. Within that stated group, 59/93 referenced data, tracking, integration, or technical constraints; 55/93 referenced brand, legal, compliance, or reputational risk; and 23/93 referenced budget, investment, or commercial risk. Public examples include GrowthLoop, Lyra Health, and Anthropic.
Directional robustness holdout
The 20-record holdout was analyzed separately and never pooled with the publication cohort. Its family composition is the residual created by the same within-family selection rule. The six broad capability signals remained directionally present: channel strategy 13/20, funnel and journey 16/20, campaign planning 19/20, measurement and attribution 20/20, lifecycle orchestration 16/20, and integrated marketing planning 12/20.
Several substantive patterns also remained visible: campaign/program ownership 11/20, dashboard/report/insight outputs 17/20, analytics/measurement/attribution skills 15/20, communication/stakeholder behavior 11/20, Sales/RevOps interfaces 11/20, and channel/campaign/audience prioritization 14/20. Because the holdout contains only 20 purposively residual records, these comparisons are descriptive. They do not validate population prevalence and do not alter any main-report figure.
Limitations
- The study is a structured purposive sample, not a random or representative sample of U.S. vacancies.
- Role-family targets were selected to test a broad capability boundary. They must not be interpreted as the U.S. occupational mix.
- The 100-record cohort was drawn from a source frame with substantial AI-enabled marketing coverage. Tool frequencies, especially the AI-tool signal, reflect that frame.
- Currentness is bounded to the recorded observation on 15–16 September 2026. Vacancies may close or change later.
- Fifty-two cohort records retain first-party employer or canonical ATS pages; 48 rely on employer-authored LinkedIn pages or public full-text mirrors. All retain record-level public evidence, but future first-party reconciliation is weaker where an ATS target was not preserved.
- Coding captures what a vacancy stated. It cannot establish how the employer actually allocates time, authority, or resources after hiring.
- Requirement themes overlap. Counts across rows should not be summed.
- Education, experience, preferred criteria, handoffs, and escalation use stated-field denominators. Missing text is unknown, not an affirmative absence.
- The 20-record holdout is a directional robustness check only and is never pooled with the main cohort.
- Public links support source inspection, but external pages may later move or close.
Conclusion
Within this exact 100-vacancy U.S.-eligible cohort, digital marketing strategy work was repeatedly expressed as a connected system rather than a single channel or planning document. The role combines campaign and program ownership, funnel and lifecycle design, measurement and attribution, experimentation, segmentation, automation, and cross-functional decision-making. Its outputs must be usable: plans, journeys, dashboards, recommendations, tests, and prioritization decisions.
The evidence also sets a boundary on that conclusion. It supports the existence of a coherent cross-channel capability across the sampled roles. It does not show how prevalent these requirements are in the full U.S. labor market, predict hiring demand, guarantee employment outcomes, or establish recognition or accreditation. The appropriate use of the findings is to describe the sampled work accurately and transparently.