Growth roles explained: head of growth, growth strategist, growth marketing manager, growth engineer

Last updated October 31, 2026. Pay figures come from Legion's jobs feed as captured on that date, and from Salary.com for the five roles the feed does not track.

What I look for in a growth hire, whatever the title

I've hired six people in one year, and it took about a thousand candidates and 100 interviews to get there. The biggest thing I got wrong going in: I tried to clone myself. When I did hire someone like me, they didn't last long. They were highly effective, and they left to start their own thing.

What I want now is a lazy general. A leader, with a sense of duty, who is lazy in the useful way: they look at a problem and find the shortcut, then fix the process so they can go home. I want people who don't see grinding as the only answer to a problem.

Three more things I hold to, whichever title you hire for:

• The right hire gives you peace of mind, and the wrong hire gives you dread.
• Ask what communities they spend time in. Then ask whether any of them relate to the role. The answer shows whether they care about the work or only the job.
• Hire for taste and leverage. The team members you need are the most tasteful people you can find, given as much leverage as possible: people who know what good looks like and can orchestrate AI to produce it. My ideal org is growth, developers and customer success, and developer hires have given me the most leverage of any.

Growth titles overlap, and companies use them loosely. This guide puts seven of them side by side: head of growth, director of growth, growth strategist, growth marketing manager, growth lead, growth engineer and GTM engineer. For each one you get what it owns, what it builds, who it usually reports to, what it pays in the US, and when a company hires it. There is a decision flow for choosing which one to aim for, and a short job description for each role that you can copy.

The seven growth roles in one table

The first five pay figures are Salary.com US averages as of October 1, 2026. The last two are posted ranges from Legion's jobs feed. Sources and ranges for each are in the next section.

"Reports to" describes the usual setup at startups and small companies, not a rule. Larger companies add layers.

What growth roles pay, and who hires them

Legion's /jobs page tracks GTM engineering roles with the salary, posted date and likely hiring manager for each one, and the hiring signals feed lists 374 GTM engineering and systems job posts with source links. We read the feed on October 31, 2026. Here is what it showed for the roles in this guide.

Growth engineer. Seven US growth engineer postings listed a salary. Their posted ranges ran from $140K to $180K at the low end to $160K to $280K at the high end. The median posted range was $150K to $220K.

GTM engineer. Twenty-nine US GTM engineering postings listed a salary. The median posted range was $150K to $190K. The lowest bottom of a range was $96K and the highest top was $275K. These include senior titles such as Sr. Manager and Director of GTM Engineering.

Who hires growth engineers. Of 26 growth engineer postings in the feed, 12 named a likely hiring manager with growth in their title, such as a head, director or VP of growth or a head of growth engineering. Five more named a founder or CEO. So a growth engineer often works for a growth leader, and at an early startup the founder plays that part.

Head of growth, director of growth, growth strategist, growth marketing manager and growth lead. The jobs feed tracks GTM and growth engineering titles, so it had no pay data for these five roles. For them we use Salary.com's US figures, dated October 1, 2026 and read on October 31, 2026. Each figure is from Salary.com's "Salary" view; it shows bonus in a separate "Salary + Bonus" view. The middle half is the 25th to 75th percentile.

These are averages from one data provider, not posted ranges, so they will not match any single job. Director of growth averages $32,105 more than head of growth here. Companies use both titles for different scopes, so compare the job's scope and team size before you compare the pay.

Postings are a snapshot. Each one is a single company's posted range, and the feed changes every day. The /jobs page always shows the current list.

What does a head of growth do?

A head of growth owns the growth number and the system of experiments that moves it. In a typical week that means:

1. Reading the numbers by stage (visits, sign-ups, activated users, paying customers, retained customers) and finding the stage that leaks the most.
2. Choosing the few experiments most likely to fix that leak, with a guess at the impact and a date to judge each one.
3. Getting the people who can run those experiments (marketing, product, engineering, sales) to run them.
4. Writing down what each experiment taught, so the next quarter does not repeat it.

At a startup the head of growth often runs the first experiments with their own hands. At a larger company the role manages a team of growth marketers, growth engineers and analysts.

What is a growth director?

A director of growth sits between a head of growth and the people who run the experiments. Where the head of growth sets the number and the plan, the director runs a part of it, often one stage (acquisition, or retention) or one product line, and manages the managers who run the channels. At companies without a head of growth, "director of growth" is the top growth title.

The responsibilities of a growth marketing director follow the same pattern for marketing channels alone: setting channel budgets and targets, managing growth marketing managers, and reporting on the cost and quality of new customers by channel.

Growth strategist, growth lead and growth marketing manager

A growth strategist diagnoses and plans. The job is to find where growth is stuck and write the plan to fix it: the market, the segments to target, the offer, the channels and the order to try them. A strategist often hands the plan to someone else to run, an in-house team or a client. This is the role I'd least expect AI to replace. An AI SDR automates the execution of what may be a weak strategy, and better timing and more volume on bad positioning only scale the problem. Diagnosing the situation and choosing the angle stay with a person.

An example of a growth strategy a strategist might write: "Our trial-to-paid rate is the leak. For the next six weeks, onboard every trial by email within one hour, track activation in week one, and test two pricing pages. Judge it on paid conversions per 100 trials." It names one leak, one set of actions, a time limit and one measure.

A growth lead is a hands-on owner, usually of one growth area or of the whole function at a small startup. The title often means "the first growth hire": someone who plans and runs experiments and does not manage a team yet.

A growth marketing manager runs channels and experiments inside marketing: paid ads, email, SEO, referral programs and landing pages. The manager is judged on new customers and the cost of each one by channel, not on brand reach.

Head of growth vs CMO vs CGO

These three titles answer different questions.

• Chief marketing officer (CMO): "Does the market know us, want us and choose us?" A CMO owns brand, positioning, demand and the marketing team. It is an executive role and one of the senior positions in a company; a CMO usually reports to the CEO.
• Chief growth officer (CGO): "Is the company growing, across every team that affects it?" A CGO is an executive who owns the growth number across marketing, sales, product and customer success. Some companies create the title instead of a CMO, some alongside one.
• Head of growth: the same question as a CGO, one level down. A head of growth owns the number and the experiments but usually reports to a CEO, CMO or CGO and leads through other teams rather than owning all of them.

The key difference between a CMO and a CGO is scope. A CMO owns marketing. A CGO owns growth, which includes marketing plus the parts of product, sales and retention that affect it.

Pay shows the gap between a CMO and a head of growth. Salary.com puts the US CMO average at $374,298, with the middle half between $335,832 and $418,085 (Salary.com, Chief Marketing Officer, as of October 1, 2026, read November 1, 2026). That is about twice the $179,232 head of growth average. Salary.com has no chief growth officer page, so we give no CGO figure.

Which growth role should you aim for?

Answer three questions in order.

1. Do you write code, or want to? If yes, look at growth engineer and GTM engineer. A growth engineer builds inside the product (sign-up flows, experiments, onboarding); the growth engineer guide covers what the role builds and how to get in. A GTM engineer builds outside it (lists, enrichment, outbound and the automations that join them). The way I put it: your job as a GTM engineer is to find signals that tell you how a buyer sees their world, so the message can match it. If no, go to question 2.
2. Do you like channels or systems? If you like running one channel well and seeing its numbers every day, aim for growth marketing manager. If you like finding the leak and deciding what to try next, aim for growth strategist or growth lead.
3. What stage of company do you want? At a seed or Series A startup, the first growth hire is often a growth lead or a GTM engineer who can do several jobs. Head of growth and director of growth roles appear once there is a team to lead.

If you are starting from zero, the fastest way in is to build something real and show it. A GTM engineer can show a working outbound system; the outbound AI SDR article and the three Claude Code GTM skills article show the kind of build that makes a portfolio. It's how I've grown too: I build CLIs, scrapers and workflows and give them away in public, and more opportunities come back the more I give away. Legion's first 90 days roadmap shows what a growth system looks like after twelve weeks.

Job descriptions you can copy

Each one is short on purpose. Add your company, your number and your stage.

Head of Growth
You own [growth number, e.g. new paying customers per month] across acquisition, activation and retention.
- Find the stage that leaks the most each quarter and set the plan to fix it.
- Run a weekly experiment review across marketing, product and sales.
- Hire and lead growth marketers, growth engineers and an analyst as the team grows.
- Report the number, what moved it and what we learned to the CEO every month.
You have owned a growth or revenue number before and can show the experiments that moved it.

Director of Growth
You run [stage or product line] inside our growth plan and lead the managers who run its channels.
- Turn the head of growth's targets into channel plans, budgets and experiments.
- Manage growth marketing managers and review their tests weekly.
- Report cost and quality of new customers by channel.
You have managed people who run paid, lifecycle or SEO channels and can read the numbers yourself.

Growth Strategist
You find where our growth is stuck and write the plan to fix it.
- Audit our market, segments, offer and channels.
- Write a plan with one leak, the actions, a time limit and one measure of success.
- Hand the plan to the team that runs it and check the results with them.
You can show plans you wrote and what happened when someone ran them.

Growth Marketing Manager
You run [channels] and own new customers and cost per customer for them.
- Plan, launch and measure experiments every week.
- Build landing pages, emails and ads, or brief the people who do.
- Report results by channel and recommend where the next dollar goes.
You have run at least one channel with a budget and can explain what worked and why.

Growth Lead
You are our first growth hire. You plan and run the experiments yourself.
- Pick the one growth number that matters this quarter.
- Run experiments across channels and the product with your own hands.
- Write down what worked so we can hire around it.
You have shipped growth experiments end to end, including the ones that failed.

Growth Engineer
You build the experiments the growth team designs, inside our product.
- Ship sign-up, onboarding, pricing and referral experiments.
- Instrument each test so we can trust the result.
- Work with the head of growth on what to build next.
You write production code and have shipped A/B tests or product-led growth features.

GTM Engineer
You build the systems that find, research and reach our buyers.
- Build lists from signals such as funding, hiring and product launches.
- Run enrichment and outbound with automation, and keep the data clean.
- Connect the tools so replies and results flow back to sales.
You can script or automate across APIs and can show an outbound system you built.

FAQ

What does a head of growth do?

A head of growth owns one growth number, usually new revenue or new active customers, and runs experiments across marketing, product and sales to move it. They find the stage that leaks the most, choose what to test, get the right team to run it and record what each test taught.

What are the key differences between a CMO and a CGO?

Scope. A CMO owns marketing: brand, positioning, demand and the marketing team. A CGO owns the growth number across marketing, sales, product and retention. Both are executives, and some companies have one or the other, or both.

Is CMO a high position?

Yes. A CMO is a C-level executive, usually reporting to the CEO, and is one of the most senior roles in a company's leadership team. Salary.com puts the US CMO average at $374,298 as of October 1, 2026, about twice the $179,232 head of growth average.

What is a growth director?

A director of growth runs one part of the growth plan, often a stage of the funnel or a product line, and manages the people who run its channels. Where there is no head of growth, it is the top growth title.

What are the responsibilities of a growth marketing director?

Setting budgets and targets for each marketing channel, managing the growth marketing managers who run them, reviewing experiments, and reporting the cost and quality of new customers by channel.

What is the salary of a growth manager?

For a growth marketing manager, Salary.com put the US average at $122,276 as of October 1, 2026, with the middle half between $110,782 and $133,511 (Salary.com, read October 31, 2026). For growth engineers, seven US postings in Legion's jobs feed listed ranges from $140K to $180K at the low end up to $160K to $280K at the high end. Check live postings for current pay.

What does a growth strategist do?

A growth strategist finds where a company's growth is stuck and writes the plan to fix it: the segments, the offer, the channels and the order to try them. They often hand the plan to an in-house team or a client to run.

What does a digital strategist do?

A digital strategist plans how a company uses digital channels (search, social, email, ads and the website) to reach its goals, then sets the targets and briefs the people who run each channel. A growth strategist covers the same ground but is judged on growth, not channel activity.

Can you provide an example of a growth strategy?

"Trial-to-paid is our leak. For six weeks, onboard every trial by email within one hour, track activation in week one, and test two pricing pages. Judge it on paid conversions per 100 trials." A good growth strategy names one problem, the actions, a time limit and one measure.

What growth roles do startups hire first?

Usually a growth lead or a GTM engineer: one person who can plan and run experiments, or build the outbound system, without a team. A head of growth comes once there are people to lead.

Recap

1. A head of growth owns the growth number; a CMO owns marketing; a CGO owns growth at the executive level.
2. Directors run a part of the plan, strategists write it, growth leads and managers run it, and engineers build it.
3. In the jobs feed on October 31, 2026, US growth engineer postings had a middle range of $150K to $220K and US GTM engineering postings a median range of $150K to $190K.
4. Pick your role by three questions: do you code, do you like channels or systems, and what stage of company do you want.
5. Build something real and show it. That is the fastest way into any of these roles.

Ready to put these ideas to work? Explore Legion and build your marketing agents.