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Growth directors: What they do & how to hire one

Article originally published in February 2024 by Stuart Brameld. Most recent update in April 2024.

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Hiring a growth director can provide the decisive strategic insight to spur your company’s expansion. They can devise innovative tactics, swiftly adapt amidst dynamic market scenarios, and ensure substantial profit growth.

“Every modern business should have a Growth Director because this role is critical for driving a company’s long-term growth strategies, using data-led insights to test, optimise and scale marketing efforts in a fast-changing business environment.”


Stuart Brameld, Growth Method CEO & Growth Advisor

Growth & growth marketing on the rise

According to Google Trends, worldwide interested in growth marketing has increased substantially over the last 15 years, and continues to grow.

The LinkedIn 2023 Jobs on the Rise list examines millions of jobs started by LinkedIn members across the last 5 years. The results reveal the 25 fastest-growing job titles over the past five years, the most in-demand roles and emerging trends defining the future world of work.

Growth and growth marketing related roles were consistently placed in the top 10 fastest-growing roles worldwide, with 2 growth-related roles in the UK’s top 10 fastest-growing jobs.

What is the role of a growth director

A Growth Director’s job is pivotal to a company’s expansion. Their role encompasses planning and executing robust growth strategies that aid a company’s success. They achieve this by keenly understanding the whole customer lifecycle. The acronym AARRR stands for Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral and Revenue, which are key stages of a customer’s journey with a company. This lifecycle helps a Growth Director identify potential growth opportunities and areas to improve.

In addition to strategic planning, a Growth Director promotes a growth culture within the company. This encourages a mindset of continuous learning and development, vital for creating a dynamic and agile organisational environment. They also oversee experiments in marketing. Through these experiments, they can test new approaches and strategies, learn from their successes or failures and adapt accordingly. These constant iterations enable a Growth Director to optimise outcomes and drive sustainable growth effectively.

What makes a great growth hire?

A modern growth hire requires a wide base level of knowledge, along with deep expertise in one or two areas well-suited to your business.

The T-Shaped Marketer framework popularised by Buffer illustrates the concept well.

“The vertical bar on the T represents the depth of related skills and expertise in a single field, whereas the horizontal bar is the ability to collaborate across disciplines with experts in other areas and to apply knowledge in areas of expertise other than one’s own.”


https://buffer.com/resources/t-shaped-marketer/

Required skills for a growth director

Here are some of the core traits and skills of a good growth director.

Traits Description/Detail
Strategic Thinker A great growth director always plans and develops strategies for business growth.
Analytical Skills They have the ability to analyse data to understand trends, make predictions and formulate effective plans.
Competitive They are driven by a desire to outperform competitors and they continually look for new ways to achieve this.
Innovation-oriented As a key trait, they always seek innovative approaches and solutions for enhancing company growth.
Excellent Communicator They have the power to communicate their thoughts and strategies clearly to their team and stakeholders.
Results Driven A growth director is deeply driven by achieving tangible results and improvements in their organisation.
Leadership Skills The ability to lead, motivate and inspire teams is crucial for driving growth and achieving targets.

Growth director salary

Depending on experience and location, salaries for skilled growth director’s are typically in the ranges below:

For more information you can view active job postings for growth marketing manager roles on LinkedIn here.

  • The average Growth Director salary in the UK is £85,000 per year.
  • The average Growth Director salary in the US is $120,000 per year.

Hiring a growth director

Looking to hire a growth director? Here are our top 10 job boards for growth and growth marketing related roles.

About Growth Method

Growth Method is the growth platform designed for experiment-led and data-driven marketers.

Learn more at on our homepage, connect with Stuart on LinkedIn or schedule a call today.