AI enthusiasts believe it conveys a new rigor. Others think it’s nothing more than a surface-level rebrand. The industry that previously fell in love with job titles like “digital ninja” and “storyteller” has become fascinated with its latest newly minted function: the marketing engineer. It’s a role made for the era of AI agents, the opening speaker at a marketing conference said in April.
“This person is going to be part builder—meaning they’re able to understand this technology and build and deploy and tinker with these agents—but part marketer, in that they’re very human and they have good taste and judgment,” said James Cadwallader, co-founder of Profound. Job listings with the term “marketing engineer” increased 29% last year. Just 173 people started jobs as marketing engineers in the 12 months through August, up from 98 a year earlier.
Greg Bresnitz, head of growth marketing at Optimism, updated his LinkedIn profile to “marketing engineer” after hearing Cadwallader speak. The role includes building AI systems to automate tasks like competitor analysis and personalized ads. Figma began advertising for a marketing engineer, measuring success by AI agents deployed and time saved.
Critics like brand consultant Miranda Shanahan call it a flimsy attempt to counter the perception that marketing is frivolous. She noted it follows similarly reworked titles like “narrative engineer.” But those in the role believe it is a distinct, new function.
來源: Wall Street Journal US Business · 由HeadlinesBriefing整理摘要