Vice President of Marketing Engineering

Ruder Finn is seeking a Vice President of Marketing Engineering to join its analytics and research team and build AI-powered systems for marketing and communications. This is a senior, hands-on role for someone who can connect business and communications needs with technical execution, using AI agents, automation and data integrations to improve how teams conduct research, analyze information, develop content and report results.

The Vice President will personally design, build, test and deploy solutions while working directly with clients and internal teams to identify valuable applications. The role spans Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and AI visibility, research, monitoring, content development and reporting workflows.

This role combines hands-on technical delivery with team leadership. It is designed for an experienced technical practitioner who can independently build working systems, own technical workstreams and lead analysts and specialists to deliver effective solutions in collaboration with communications professionals and technology partners.

Key Responsibilities

- Identify and prioritize opportunities for AI agents and automation across client programs and agency operations. Translate business and communications needs into clear use cases, technical requirements and measures of success.
- Personally design, build, test and deploy AI agents, multi-agent systems and automated workflows for research, monitoring, content development and reporting.
- Develop AI applications for communications needs such as crisis response, influencer research, audience analysis, competitive intelligence and audience-specific content.
- Build API integrations and data workflows that connect AI tools with client knowledge bases, media and marketing platforms, content management systems and other relevant sources. Establish reliable data flows and maintain clear technical documentation.
- Test and improve prompts, retrieval methods, agent instructions and workflow logic. Evaluate output accuracy, reliability and usefulness, incorporating appropriate human review before client delivery or publication.
- Conduct GEO and AI-visibility engagements, including audits, prompt and citation analysis, competitive assessments and optimization recommendations.
- Build systems that support ongoing AI-visibility monitoring and connect findings with content, communications and reputation strategies.
- Work with earned, owned, social and audience data to inform AI applications and connect findings with broader research and analytics frameworks.
- Serve as a senior technical resource for clients and internal teams. Participate in discovery sessions, workshops, demonstrations and planning discussions, explaining technical decisions and recommendations clearly to both technical and nontechnical audiences.
- Partner with account, strategy, communications, creative, digital, analytics and technology colleagues to incorporate marketing engineering solutions into client programs.
- Own technical workstreams across multiple projects, including requirements, timelines, testing, documentation and quality. Partner with account and project leads on scopes, budgets, staffing and overall engagement management.
- Lead and develop analysts, specialists and developers through clear direction, coaching and quality review while remaining directly involved in the work. Take full ownership of team-produced systems, analysis and recommendations, and present them to senior clients with full command of the methodology, evidence and technical decisions.
- Turn successful builds into reusable tools, templates, workflows and playbooks. Evaluate emerging technologies and work with Profound and other partners where appropriate.
- Train colleagues and clients to use, evaluate and improve the systems developed.
- Contribute technical expertise, demonstrations and solution recommendations to proposals, pitches and scopes of work.

Qualifications

- 8+ years of relevant experience in marketing technology, marketing engineering, applied AI, analytics, research, digital strategy or a related field.
- Demonstrated hands-on experience designing, building and deploying AI-powered agents, automations or marketing systems that teams use in practice. Candidates should be able to share working examples and explain the problem addressed, technical approach, design decisions and results.
- Programming ability in Python, JavaScript or a comparable language, with experience building API integrations, data pipelines and automated workflows.
- Practical experience with large language models, prompt design, retrieval-augmented generation, grounding outputs in source material, agent orchestration and AI evaluation.
- Ability to troubleshoot technical systems, improve performance and reliability, and collaborate with developers when solutions require additional engineering support.
- Experience independently owning complex technical workstreams from discovery and requirements gathering through testing, deployment, documentation and adoption.
- Strong client-facing communication and stakeholder-management skills, including the ability to conduct discovery sessions, demonstrate working systems and explain technical decisions to nontechnical audiences.
- Working knowledge of marketing, communications, analytics or research workflows and the ability to identify where AI, automation and data integration can provide practical value.
- Hands-on GEO or Answer Engine Optimization experience, including AI-visibility audits, prompt and citation analysis, competitive assessment and actionable recommendations.
- Familiarity with Profound or comparable AI-visibility platforms and content-discovery fundamentals such as structured data and content architecture.
- Sound judgment regarding data quality, AI limitations, privacy, output reliability and the appropriate use of human review.
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information systems, analytics, marketing, communications or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Experience

- Agency or consultancy experience working directly with clients and cross-functional teams.
- Familiarity with SQL, CMS platforms, publishing APIs, research and monitoring platforms, and workflow-orchestration tools.
- Experience working with earned, owned, social, audience or media-intelligence data.
- Examples of reusable systems, integrations, technical tools or automation projects personally developed and deployed.
- Experience contributing technical expertise to proposals, demonstrations and scopes of work.

Benefits and More

- You will receive a competitive base salary and bonus opportunity
- You will also be able to enroll in our Health, Dental, Vision, company paid Life Insurance, Flexible Spending Account, as well as 401k (match) plan.
- Monthly allowance for cell phone, office equipment, etc.
- Generous PTO policy with paid maternity/paternity leave
- Transit benefits
- Professional learning and development opportunities
- Workplace flexibility
- On-site and off-site social gatherings

The anticipated salary range for this position, at the time of posting, is $130,000 - $190,000. The salary of the applicant selected for this role will be based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to, education, internal equity, geography, relevant years of experience, certifications, skills, abilities of the selected applicant, and other job-related qualifications. In addition, a range of medical, dental, vision, disability, 401(k) matching, paid time off, and/or other benefits also are available by the company

Ruder Finn provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy (including childbirth, lactation and related medical conditions), national origin, age, physical and mental disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, military and veteran status, and any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Ruder Finn will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. Ruder Finn believes that diversity and inclusion among our employees is critical to our success as a global company, and we seek to recruit, develop and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool.