Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Recruitment Marketing Manager

🎯 Role Definition

The Recruitment Marketing Manager develops and executes multi-channel marketing strategies that position the organization as an employer of choice, drive targeted candidate acquisition, and support recruiting goals across early-career, technical, and leadership roles. This role blends employer branding, content marketing, paid social and search, candidate experience optimization, CRM/ATS strategy, analytics, and close partnership with Talent Acquisition and People teams to convert passive and active talent into applicants and hires.

Keywords: recruitment marketing, employer branding, talent acquisition marketing, candidate experience, talent pipeline, social recruiting, EVP, recruitment advertising, recruitment CRM, talent analytics.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Recruitment Marketing Specialist / Coordinator (internal progression)
Talent Acquisition Specialist with strong marketing experience
Employer Brand or Content Marketing Coordinator from corporate marketing

Advancement To:

Senior Recruitment Marketing Manager / Head of Recruitment Marketing
Director of Employer Brand & Talent Attraction
Global Head of Talent Marketing or VP of Talent Acquisition (with expanded TA leadership responsibilities)

Lateral Moves:

Employer Brand Manager (Corporate Communications)
Talent Branding & Communications Manager
Candidate Experience or Sourcing Enablement Lead

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Develop and lead an integrated recruitment marketing strategy aligned to hiring forecasts, diversity goals, employer value proposition (EVP), and business priorities, ensuring measurable impact on applicant quality and time-to-fill.
Own employer brand positioning and narrative across channels by crafting an authentic EVP, messaging frameworks, tone of voice, and personas tailored to technical, early-career, and leadership talent segments.
Create and manage multi-channel recruitment advertising campaigns (LinkedIn, Meta, TikTok, X/Twitter, Google Search/Display, programmatic job ads), optimizing for conversions, cost-per-apply, and quality-of-hire with ongoing A/B testing.
Design and produce high-impact content (video, long-form articles, employee stories, role-specific landing pages, email sequences, social content) that drives awareness, engagement, and candidate conversion while amplifying employee testimonials and culture.
Build, segment, and nurture candidate pipelines using recruitment CRM (talent pools), implementing lifecycle marketing campaigns (drip, re-engagement, event follow-up) to reduce time-to-hire and fill recurring roles faster.
Partner with Talent Acquisition leaders and hiring managers to translate hiring demands into channel plans, targeted campaigns, and calendarized recruitment marketing roadmaps that prioritize critical roles and geo expansion.
Collaborate with People Ops, DE&I, and hiring teams to develop inclusive recruitment campaigns that attract diverse candidate slates and communicate equitable hiring practices.
Manage recruitment marketing budget, media plans, vendor relationships, and performance reporting — forecasting spend, negotiating contracts, and reallocating budget to highest-impact channels.
Optimize job descriptions and careers site content for search (SEO) and conversion by applying keyword research, candidate intent mapping, and structured data best practices to increase organic discovery and apply rates.
Implement analytics frameworks and dashboards (source-to-hire, funnel conversion, CPA, CAC, quality-of-hire, retention of hires) to measure campaign ROI and inform strategic decisions across TA and executive stakeholders.
Oversee the careers site experience and apply flow, conducting UX audits and testing to reduce friction, increase mobile conversion, and integrate ATS/CRM tracking for seamless candidate journeys.
Lead creative briefs and cross-functional production for photoshoots, video shoots, microsites, and campaign assets; manage in-house and agency creative partners to deliver on-time and on-brand materials.
Run paid social and search acquisition experiments, tracking cohorts and conversion attribution to scale channels that deliver high-quality applicants and hires.
Source and manage external partners (recruitment advertising networks, agency partners, SEO specialists, videographers) and evaluate their performance against KPIs and contractual SLAs.
Coordinate and promote employer brand events — campus programs, hackathons, meetups, webinars, and diversity recruiting events — to build pipeline and raise brand visibility in target talent communities.
Lead internal communications briefs to mobilize employee advocacy programs and social amplification efforts, including training and playbooks to increase referral traffic and authentic content creation.
Execute candidate experience initiatives (pre-apply and post-apply communications, nurture flows, interview preparation content) that increase offer acceptance and improve candidate Net Promoter Score (NPS).
Manage segmentation and personalization strategies across email, SMS, and in-platform messaging to improve engagement with passive talent and reduce spam complaints.
Partner with data teams to instrument tracking across ATS, careers site, ad platforms, and analytics tools to ensure accurate source attribution, conversion tracking, and privacy-compliant data handling.
Lead quarterly performance reviews and strategic planning with TA leadership to align recruitment marketing KPIs and resource allocation with hiring objectives and business outcomes.
Mentor and coach junior recruitment marketing staff, including content creators, paid media specialists, and program coordinators, to develop capabilities and scale programs across regions.

Secondary Functions

Support employer brand research initiatives including candidate surveys, brand perception studies, and competitive benchmarking to refine EVP and channel strategies.
Produce monthly and ad-hoc talent marketing performance reports for stakeholders, including visual dashboards and actionable insights.
Assist People & Culture teams with internal employer brand programs and onboarding communications that reinforce external messaging.
Contribute to creative concept development for recruitment campaigns, including sourcing employee stories and subject matter experts for thought leadership content.
Maintain compliance with recruitment advertising regulations and privacy requirements (GDPR, CCPA) when collecting and processing candidate data.
Help coordinate campus recruiting logistics and materials, including careers fair booths, presentation decks, and swag aligned to recruitment campaigns.
Provide support for executive employer branding initiatives such as leadership profiles, speaking engagements, and thought-leader content planning.
Evaluate and pilot emerging talent acquisition tools, platforms, and AI-assisted recruitment marketing technologies to identify new efficiencies.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Employer branding strategy development and EVP creation
Paid social and search advertising for recruitment (LinkedIn Ads, Meta Ads, Google Ads, programmatic)
Recruitment CRM and candidate lifecycle orchestration (Phenom, Beamery, SmashFly, or equivalent)
ATS integration and source attribution (Greenhouse, Lever, Workday, iCIMS) and proficiency in mapping source-to-hire
Web analytics and reporting (Google Analytics, GA4), conversion rate optimization, and UTM tagging strategy
SEO for careers pages and job postings, including keyword research and structured data
Marketing automation and email campaign tools (HubSpot, Marketo, Braze) and cohort-based nurture strategies
Content strategy and production (video scripting, editing basics, storytelling for candidate narratives)
Paid media analytics, budget management, and bid optimization
A/B testing methodologies, experiment design, and statistical significance for campaign optimization
Basic HTML/CSS or experience working with web developers for careers site updates and landing page builds
Experience with creative tools (Adobe Creative Suite, Figma, Canva) and asset management workflows
Data visualization and dashboard tools (Looker, Tableau, Power BI) or advanced Google Sheets/Excel
Familiarity with privacy and compliance best practices for candidate data (GDPR, CCPA)

Soft Skills

Strong cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder management with TA, People Ops, Marketing, and Hiring Managers
Exceptional storytelling and copywriting with ability to tailor messaging for multiple talent audiences
Analytical mindset with ability to translate metrics into strategy and action
Project management skills and ability to run multi-channel campaigns and production calendars
Creative problem-solving and ideation for talent attraction challenges
Comfortable with ambiguity and rapid experimentation in a fast-paced hiring environment
Coaching and mentoring skills to grow junior team members and influence peers
Empathy for candidate experience, including excellent communication and presentation skills
Attention to detail and strong organizational skills to manage vendors and budgets
Change management and influence to drive adoption of new recruitment marketing processes

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Communications, Human Resources, Business, or a related field.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree with coursework or certification in digital marketing, employer branding, or talent acquisition.
Certifications in Google Analytics, LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, or marketing automation platforms are a plus.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Marketing, Communications, Journalism
Human Resources, Organizational Psychology
Business Administration, Digital Media

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

3–7+ years in recruitment marketing, employer branding, or talent acquisition with demonstrable campaign ownership.

Preferred:

5+ years leading recruitment marketing or employer branding programs in a tech, professional services, or high-growth environment; experience working with global or scaled hiring programs and a track record of improving funnel metrics (apply rate, time-to-fill, quality-of-hire).