Marketing Communications Manager Job Description

A Marketing Communications Manager decides what an organization says about itself, through which channel, and in what order. In a software company that might mean the launch narrative for a new release; at a hospital system, a service-line campaign and the statement ready for a data incident; at a university, enrollment messaging and the president's op-ed. The common thread is one consistent story told across earned, owned and paid media.

O*NET treats the title as a marketing job: it appears among the reported titles for Marketing Managers (11-2021). The work also overlaps heavily with public relations. BLS describes public relations managers as people who "direct the creation of materials that will enhance the public image of their employer or client," designate spokespeople for media inquiries and write press releases. A marcom manager does much of that while also owning campaign copy, sales collateral and brand guidelines.

The weekly rhythm

The core document is the messaging framework: a positioning statement, proof points for each product or service line, approved boilerplate and the vocabulary the brand avoids. Every press release, landing page, email and executive post is checked against it. From there the manager runs a calendar that lines up announcements with product dates, earnings, trade shows and seasonal campaigns, and decides which stories go to reporters, which go to the company blog or newsletter, and which become paid placements.

Agency management can fill much of the week. A setup might include a PR firm for media relations, a creative or content shop for assets, and freelancers for overflow writing. The manager writes the briefs, approves pitch lists, reviews drafts and decides whether the coverage justified the retainer. Inside the company, the manager edits work from a small team of writers, designers and specialists and pushes copy through legal, product and executive review.

When things go wrong

The crisis plan belongs here too: holding statements for likely scenarios, a notification chain, named spokespeople and a log of what was said and when. In USC Annenberg's 2026 Global Communication Report, released April 23, 2026 and drawn from a global survey of public relations professionals, 91% said polarization has increased the importance of public relations within their companies. "Polarization has magnified the value of PR, even though many companies are communicating less," said Fred Cook, director of the USC Annenberg Center for Public Relations. Knowing when to stay quiet is part of the job.

Rules on endorsements and AI

Marcom managers who run influencer, testimonial or review programs work under the Federal Trade Commission's Endorsement Guides, which the FTC revised in June 2023 to cover the ways advertisers reach consumers, including social media and reviews. Generative AI brings a second set of guidance. PRSA's ethics board lists the risks of unsupervised AI use as spreading "hallucinated" content, exposing confidential or proprietary data and masking AI authorship, so a written team AI policy belongs right next to the style guide.

Education

As a rough guide, the job starts from a bachelor's degree in marketing, communications, PR, journalism or English. BLS says a bachelor's degree and years of work experience are typically needed for public relations or fundraising manager positions, and O*NET places Marketing Managers in Job Zone Four, where most occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not. A master's in strategic communication, integrated marketing communications or an MBA can help with director-track roles, but it substitutes for experience only partly.

Experience

As a rough guide, the manager title comes after roughly 5 to 8 years in agency PR, corporate communications, content marketing or journalism. The most useful résumé shows three things. First, a portfolio of published work: releases that earned coverage, bylined articles ghostwritten for executives, campaign copy with results attached. Second, people management, even if that means directing freelancers and an agency team rather than direct reports. Third, at least one live incident handled from first statement to wrap-up.

Former reporters bring a sense of what a usable pitch looks like. Agency account supervisors bring client handling and budget discipline. Content marketers bring analytics and SEO. Each path leaves a gap the others fill, so expect interviewers to probe for the missing piece.

Tools and skills

• Media databases and monitoring: Cision, Meltwater or Muck Rack for media lists, coverage tracking and sentiment.
• Content and web: a CMS such as WordPress or a headless platform, plus Google Analytics 4 for traffic and conversion data.
• Email and automation: HubSpot, Marketo or Salesforce Marketing Cloud for newsletters and nurture programs.
• Social: Sprout Social or Hootsuite for scheduling, listening and reporting.
• Generative AI: drafting and summarizing tools used under a written policy that covers disclosure, verification of every claim and which data can never go into a prompt.
• Writing standards: AP style, tight headline writing and the habit of cutting a 600-word draft to 300 without losing the news.

Credentials

No license is required. Credentials worth considering include the Accreditation in Public Relations (APR), awarded by the Universal Accreditation Board; the Communication Management Professional (CMP) and Strategic Communication Management Professional (SCMP), awarded by the Global Communication Certification Council; and the Professional Certified Marketer in Marketing Management from the American Marketing Association.

BLS does not project marketing communications managers on their own, so the outlook comes from the two occupations the role straddles. O*NET rates Marketing Managers, the occupation the title falls under, as much faster than average for 2025 to 2035, meaning projected growth of 7% or higher. The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, which groups marketing managers with advertising and promotions managers, projects that combined group to grow 6 percent from 2025 to 2035, faster than the average for all occupations, with about 36,300 openings a year on average over the decade. For public relations and fundraising managers, the PR side of the role, the Handbook projects the same 6 percent growth and about 9,800 openings a year.

Where the jobs are

The PR half of the role gives a useful map of employers. BLS counted about 80,800 public relations manager jobs in 2025. The largest shares were in professional, scientific and technical services (19%), religious, grantmaking, civic, professional and similar organizations (17%), educational services (14%), and management of companies and enterprises (9%). The title appears at agencies, associations, universities and corporate headquarters, and pay differs by employer type: BLS data for Marketing Managers show a May 2025 median of $127,590 at civic and professional organizations against $168,420 in advertising, public relations and related services.

The hours can run long. BLS notes that some public relations and fundraising managers work more than 40 hours per week, and that many travel to deliver speeches and attend meetings and community activities.

A more cautious profession

USC Annenberg's 2026 Global Communication Report describes a "quiet shift" away from broad, purpose-driven messaging toward a situational approach. Respondents to the global survey expected increased investment in artificial intelligence, crisis communication and government relations over the next five years, and declining investment in inclusion, sustainability and purpose-driven initiatives. More than two-thirds of in-house communicators in that survey said their organizations are likely to restructure the PR function in the near future. For a marcom manager, that suggests issue monitoring, crisis readiness and policy-aware messaging as skills to build.

The same global survey found a split by setting: 52% of in-house communicators said silence can sometimes be the most effective strategy, while agency communicators leaned toward playing offense.

AI and the job

PRSA's Board of Ethics and Professional Standards lists the PR work AI agents are already used for, including chatbots and virtual spokespersons, autonomous generation of releases and posts, media monitoring and sentiment analysis, and automated replies. The board addressed those uses in Ethical Standard Advisory #22 on AI agents, stating that "AI systems are tools, not ethical actors" and that public relations professionals are accountable for how the tools they use are deployed and supervised. Its listed improper practices include deploying an AI agent to deal with journalists or consumers without disclosing that it is an AI system. The advisory calls for human-in-the-loop governance over all agent outputs. Under that guidance, the manager acts as editor and approver of machine output and as the author of the team's policy; verification and accountability stay with the human who signs off.

The long-term asset in this career is a record of good calls: stories placed, crises contained and messages that held up under scrutiny.

Dear Hiring Manager,

I am applying for the Marketing Communications Manager position at Lakeshore Health Partners. For the past three years I have led communications for Northfield Diagnostics, a regional lab network, where I report to the vice president of marketing and manage a writer, a designer and our outside PR firm.

When I arrived, our messaging lived in a dozen slide decks that contradicted one another. I interviewed our clinical leads and sales team, built a single messaging framework with approved proof points for each service line, and trained every department that writes for the public to use it. Launch materials that used to take three weeks of back-and-forth now move through review in a few days, and our press coverage finally describes our services the way our clinicians do.

I also rebuilt our crisis plan. We now keep holding statements for six scenarios, a clear approval chain and a named spokesperson for each type of incident. When a courier service failure delayed results for several clinics last spring, we had a patient notice, a physician letter and a media statement out the same afternoon, and the story never grew past one local mention.

Last year I wrote our team's generative AI policy with our compliance officer. It sets what we disclose, requires a human edit and fact check on every AI-assisted draft, and keeps patient information out of every prompt. It has made the team faster without making legal nervous.

Lakeshore's expansion into outpatient imaging is exactly the kind of launch I enjoy: a new service, several audiences and a story that has to be right the first time. I would welcome the chance to talk about how I could support it.

Sincerely, Jordan Ellis