How To Become A Senior Brand Manager: What It Is and Career Path

What is a senior brand manager and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted Expert

Dr Rick Baldwin

A senior brand manager has to oversee the marketing lifecycle of a product or service, from research and development to sales. He/She is responsible for the advertising for the product. Similarly, he/she directs the marketing research and manages distribution. He/She supervises all activities related to the brand and acts as the key source of information for the brand in the organization and on competitive products. Moreover, he/she collaborates with all internal departments and external suppliers involved in the sales and marketing of the brand.

To become a senior brand manager, you need a minimum of a bachelor's degree and at least five years of experience in a similar role. You must be familiar with industry-specific data and Microsoft Office. You must possess leadership, management, organization, and communication skills. Senior brand managers earn a sum of $142,982 on average yearly. This ranges from $101,000 to $202,000.

What general advice would you give to a Senior Brand Manager?

Dr Rick Baldwin

Associate Professor of Practice, Prairie View A&M University

To begin their career, I suggest that the graduate pursue their career as an entrepreneur. Based on the career interest, actually develop a business plan to launch this career as a business. I would use this as a platform in beginning the career as entrepreneur, consultant, or as an employee of a marketing organization.

ScoreSenior Brand ManagerUS Average

Salary

8.1

Avg. Salary $118,740

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

7.5

Growth Rate 10%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.23%

Asian 8.15%

Black or African American 3.04%

Hispanic or Latino 8.67%

Unknown 5.32%

White 74.58%

Gender

female 50.98%

male 49.02%

Age - 38

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 38

Stress Level

7.5

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

9.0

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

3.5

Work Life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

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Key steps to become a senior brand manager

Explore senior brand manager education requirements

Most common senior brand manager degrees

Bachelor's

70.4 %

Master's

25.7 %

Associate

1.9 %

Start to develop specific senior brand manager skills

Skills	Percentages
Brand Management	7.96%
Digital Marketing	7.28%
Brand Marketing	5.80%
Project Management	5.21%
Consumer Insights	4.44%

Complete relevant senior brand manager training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New senior brand managers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a senior brand manager based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real senior brand manager resumes.

Research senior brand manager duties and responsibilities

Manage the development and execution of in-store media, POS, and other merchandising vehicles to drive product trial.
Develop and manage new health brand strategy including creation of healthcare professional/dietitian program.
Provide branding, copywriting, and marketing with a dash of technical advisory.
Measure and analyze ROI of marketing programs then work with agency and brand team on recommend improvements.

Get senior brand manager experience

Generally, it takes 8-10 years to become a senior brand manager. The most common roles before becoming a senior brand manager include brand manager, associate brand manager team lead and marketing manager.

Prepare your senior brand manager resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your senior brand manager resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a senior brand manager resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Senior Brand Manager Resume templates

Build a professional Senior Brand Manager resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Senior Brand Manager resume.

Apply for senior brand manager jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a senior brand manager job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do senior brand managers rate their job?

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Senior Brand Manager reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on May 2019

Cons

Unreasonable deadlines.