Thelander IF Digest: June 2026

Marketing & Communications Roles at Investment Firms. How’s the Comp?

Dedicated in-house marketing teams at investment firms is still relatively rare, but that’s changing. Firms like Lightspeed are leading the shift, with their CMO describing the firm as “much more than capital providers. They’ve become media companies.” How common are dedicated Marketing & Communications roles across the broader investment firm ecosystem, and what does it take for a firm to build one in-house? We pulled data from the Thelander-PitchBook Investment Firm Compensation Survey to find out.

It Starts with AUM

The clearest predictor of whether a firm has a Marketing & Communications function is AUM.

Overall, Marketing & Communications positions are most common at firms with over $1 Billion in AUM – almost 2/3rds of firms that report having those positions are at that level. 

As you move down the AUM ladder, prevalence drops significantly. Only 21.5% of firms that have Marketing & Communications positions are at less than $500 million AUM, compared to 15.2% at the $500 – $999M tier. 

Key takeaway: Smaller firms are building the function early on; larger firms have already built it. 

But, the data changes by job seniority. 

When you break our prevalence by job seniority – VP, Director and Manager – the story changes.

At the VP level, AUM concentration is steep: 64.5% of firms with a VP of Marketing & Communications have more than $1 Billion in AUM, compared to 19.4% of firms with $500 – $999.9 million and 16.1% with less than $500 million. Directors follow a similar pattern.

Managers, however, are more evenly distributed across AUM levels than VPs or Directors. This suggests that firms don’t need to be large to justify the role, even if the senior hires tend to cluster at bigger firms.

Compensation follows the same logic. We see a larger difference in total cash compensation between AUM levels for VPs and Directors than for Managers.

A Layer Deeper: How the Number of Funds Comes into Play

AUM isn’t the only signal. When we look at the data by the number of funds currently under management, the pattern holds – and sharpens at the VP level. 

Only 6.9% of firms managing 1-2 funds have a VP of Marketing & Communications. That jumps to 41.4% at the 3-4 funds and 51.7% with more than 5 funds. Director and Manager Level roles follow the same direction but are more evenly distributed.

What’s the bottom line? Whether a firm has a Marketing & Communications function – and how senior that function is – is closely tied to both AUM and number of funds under management. The larger and more complex the firm, the more likely it is to have invested in dedicated marketing talent, and the more that investment shows up in comp. 

Whether your firm already has this team in place or are looking to hire, the data is a valuable resource for benchmarking what the market is paying for these roles. Access real-time cash and carry benchmarks for every role – including these – on the Thelander Platform for no charge.