Chief Marketing Officer
A chief marketing officer sets the marketing strategy for a business and leads the teams that deliver it, from brand and campaigns to digital acquisition and customer data.
- Median salary*
- $148,200
3.6%vs last year, before tax
- People employed*
- 2,800
0.0%vs last year
- Projected growth*
- +3.2%
to 2035
- AI exposure*
- Moderate
- automation risk
- Average hours*
- 45/wk
+5h vs all jobs
- Shortage status*
- Not in shortage
national
A chief marketing officer is the most senior marketing role in a business, usually reporting to the chief executive and sitting on the executive team. The job covers brand positioning, digital marketing, customer acquisition and market research, and carries accountability for how marketing spend turns into revenue. What separates it from a marketing manager is scope: a marketing manager runs a slice of strategy within a budget the chief marketing officer has already set.
How much do chief marketing officers earn?
The median full-time salary for a chief marketing officer is $148,200 per annum, before tax, up $31,600 since 2018.
At this level, pay reflects the size of the company and the marketing budget it controls, and it usually arrives as a package rather than a single salary figure. Base salary is commonly paired with a short-term incentive tied to revenue or growth targets, and sometimes with shares or options. Contract and fractional arrangements are also common, so compare offers on the total package rather than the base alone.
What does a chief marketing officer do day to day?
The list below is what fills most weeks; the exact mix shifts with seniority and whatever stage the current work is at.
- Setting the brand strategy and market positioning that guides every campaign and product launch
- Leading marketing teams across digital, content, campaigns and analytics, and restructuring them as channels shift
- Reviewing customer data and campaign performance in tools like Tableau or Power BI to decide where budget should move next
- Managing the annual and quarterly marketing budget, and defending it when results fall short of projections
- Presenting strategy and performance to the board and chief executive, especially during annual planning
What skills do chief marketing officers need?
Employers look for strategy development, marketing analytics, data analysis, backed by Salesforce Marketing Cloud fluency and strong people leadership.
Specialist skills
- Strategy development
- Marketing analytics
- Data analysis
- Budgeting and forecasting
Software and tools
- Salesforce Marketing Cloud
- Google Analytics
- Tableau or Power BI
- HubSpot
- Asana or Monday.com
General skills
- People leadership
- Written communication
- Stakeholder management
Is the job growing?
About 2,800 people work as chief marketing officers in Australia, and employment is projected to grow 3.2% over the decade to 2035. That's modest growth: demand is steady rather than booming.
How do you become a chief marketing officer?
Here's the path most chief marketing officers take, step by step.
- 1Start with a degree in marketing, business or communications
A bachelor degree is the standard entry point, and 52% of people working as chief marketing officers hold one. Internships and graduate programs in larger companies are the usual way to get a first marketing job with real budget behind it.
- 2Build depth in one or two channels
Early roles in campaign management, brand, digital or analytics are where you learn how spend translates into customers. Most people spend several years here before managing anyone.
- 3Move into marketing management
A marketing manager role is the first with genuine budget ownership and a team to lead. Brand managers and advertising managers often move into the chief marketing officer role from here as well, bringing a narrower but deeper specialism.
- 4Take on a head of marketing or general manager role
This is where you own the whole marketing function rather than one channel, and where you start reporting to the executive team on performance against revenue targets. It is often the longest step on the path.
- 5Step up to the executive team
Chief marketing officer roles are usually filled from another company rather than promoted from within, so the move depends on a track record running a full function. Postgraduate study, held by 26% of people in the role, is common and can help when switching sectors.
Ready to apply as a chief marketing officer?
Whether you're working toward becoming a chief marketing officer or already are one and want a hand with the next step (sharpening your resume for ATS screening, tightening your cover letter, or knowing what you'll actually be asked at interview), here are examples grounded in this specific role, not generic templates.
What jobs can a chief marketing officer move to?
None of the roles chief marketing officers typically move into pay more than the role itself. Communications Manager is the closest match. If a bigger salary is the goal, moving up into a senior or principal position within the role is usually the faster route than moving sideways.
| Move to | Typical pay change | Overlap | Retraining |
|---|---|---|---|
| Communications Manager A chief marketing officer brings brand positioning and audience strategy to communications management, adding media and stakeholder engagement depth. | −$9,000 | 35% | reskill |
| Regional Manager A chief marketing officer brings strategic planning, customer insight and team leadership to a regional management role with broader profit and loss responsibility. | −$36,400 | 67% | minimal |
Moves are chosen from Jobs and Skills Australia's Data on Occupation Mobility, which follows income tax records between 2011-12 and 2020-21, together with entry requirements and skill overlap. A known move is one people were seen making in that data. Pay change compares median full-time pay for the two roles.
Who works as a chief marketing officer?
The typical chief marketing officer is 47 years old; 62% are men, 95% work full-time, and full-timers average 45 hours a week.
- 47
- Median age
- 38%
- Female share
- 95%
- Full-time
- +5h
- vs all-jobs avg
What's it like being a chief marketing officer?
The job runs on a planning cycle: strategy is set in the annual plan, execution runs through the year, and performance is reported each quarter. Weeks are heavy with meetings, because the role sits between the chief executive, sales, product and finance, and much of the work is persuading rather than producing. It suits someone comfortable being accountable for results they reach mainly through other people.
What people like
- Influence across the whole business. Marketing decisions touch product, pricing, sales and customer service, so you see the effect of your thinking well beyond the marketing team.
- Work that goes public. Campaigns and brand work appear in market where customers and competitors can see them, which makes progress easier to point to than in roles where the output is internal.
- Building the team. You decide how the function is structured, which skills to hire for and which channels to invest in, and you watch people you hired grow into senior roles.
- A mix of commercial and creative problems. A week can move from pricing and attribution modelling to brand positioning and creative review, which keeps the work varied at a senior level.
What people find hard
- Accountability without full control. You own the growth target, but sales execution, product quality and market conditions all shape the result, and the marketing function carries the blame when numbers fall short.
- Budget pressure when trading slows. Marketing spend is among the first lines reviewed in a downturn, so you can be defending the budget and holding the same target at the same time.
- Long hours around planning and launches. Full-time hours average 45 a week, and annual planning, a major rebrand or a product launch pushes well past that for several weeks.
- A lot of the week goes to meetings and reporting. Executive updates, agency reviews and cross-functional meetings fill the calendar, leaving less time than most people expect for the actual marketing.
Based on our synthesis of professional-body surveys and public accounts of the role, not first-person verified reviews.
Which industries employ chief marketing officers?
Professional Services and Consulting employs the largest share of chief marketing officers, followed by Financial and Insurance Services.
Top employing industries
- 1Professional Services and Consulting
- 2Financial and Insurance Services
- 3Technology and Telecommunications
- 4Retail Trade and E-commerce
- 5Media, Advertising and Publishing
Ranked by employment share; the source doesn't publish an exact percentage per industry.
| Bachelor degree | 52% | |
|---|---|---|
| Postgraduate | 26% | |
| Diploma / Advanced Diploma | 13% | |
| Other | 9% |
Will AI replace chief marketing officers?
Marketing is moderately exposed to AI: the measurement and content layers of the job are being automated quickly, while the strategy and accountability layers are not. Tools such as Google Analytics and Salesforce Marketing Cloud already handle audience segmentation and campaign reporting that once took an analyst days, and generative tools draft copy and creative variants at a volume a team could not match by hand. The decisions that stay with the chief marketing officer are which markets and channels to back and how much of the budget goes to each.
Share of typical working time by exposure level
- Reading campaign and customer data to move budgetAttribution modelling and platform dashboards now run largely on their own, so the work has shifted to interrogating the numbers and deciding which campaigns to cut.30%high
- Setting brand and market positioningAI can summarise market research and competitor activity in minutes, but choosing which audiences and propositions the business competes on is still a judgement call made with the chief executive.25%moderate
- Leading the marketing team and hiringRestructuring a team around channels that change every few years, and developing the people who run them, happens in performance conversations and interviews rather than in software.25%low
- Presenting strategy and results to the boardA tool can build the deck, but the board and chief executive expect the person who owns the target to explain the shortfall in the room.20%moderate
Common questions about becoming a chief marketing officer
Straight answers to the questions people ask most.
How much does a chief marketing officer earn in Australia?
Chief marketing officers earn a median of $148,200 per annum, before tax. Pay at this level varies widely with company size, sector and how much of the package sits in incentives and equity.
How do you become a chief marketing officer?
Most chief marketing officers start with a bachelor degree in marketing, business or communications and spend a decade or more in marketing roles. The path usually runs through campaign or brand management, then a marketing manager role with budget ownership, then a head of marketing position before the step onto the executive team.
Are chief marketing officers in demand in Australia?
Chief marketing officers are currently not in shortage, and employment is projected to grow 3.2% over the decade to 2035. The field is small, with about 2,800 people working in the role nationally, so openings tend to appear when an executive moves on or a growing business creates the position.
Will AI replace chief marketing officers?
AI is unlikely to take the role, but it is changing which parts of it take the time. Audience segmentation, campaign reporting and first-draft creative are increasingly automated, which shifts the senior marketer's attention to positioning, customer insight and the commercial case for spend.
Where can a chief marketing officer move next?
Marketing managers, brand managers and advertising managers move into the role, and a chief marketing officer earns $9,000 more than a marketing manager. Moves out include regional management, which adds profit and loss responsibility, and communications management, which leans on media and stakeholder work; both pay less, at $36,400 less and $9,000 less respectively.
Do you need an MBA to become a chief marketing officer?
No, but postgraduate study is common, with 26% of people in the role holding a postgraduate qualification. A bachelor degree remains the standard entry point, and an MBA or postgraduate marketing qualification helps most when moving between sectors or into a much larger company.
Related roles
- Regional Manager
- Communications Manager
- Marketing Manager
- Brand Manager
- Advertising Manager
- Digital Marketing Specialist
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