Principal Marketing Manager, Marathon (Contract)

The Bungie Publishing team is seeking a Principal Marketing Manager (Contract) to lead integrated global go-to-market strategy and planning for Marathon. Reporting to the Director, Marathon Franchise Marketing, this role will translate franchise strategy, product roadmaps, audience insights, and business objectives into cohesive marketing plans that acquire new players, reengage existing owners, and deepen the commitment of Marathon’s active community. You will serve as a senior cross-functional leader across Brand, Product Marketing, Growth, Community, Communications, Creative, Analytics, Finance, regional teams, and Development. The ideal candidate combines strategic judgment with operational leadership: someone who can create clarity from complexity, align senior stakeholders around difficult decisions, and continually improve our plans through player insight and performance data. Responsibilities · Own the development of integrated global GTM strategies for major Marathon releases, seasons, and franchise moments, ensuring plans support franchise priorities, player needs, and business goals. · Translate franchise strategy, product roadmaps, audience priorities, and business objectives into clear marketing strategies, launch architectures, milestones, and investment recommendations. · Develop audience-led plans spanning acquisition, reactivation, retention, engagement, and long-term player value across paid, owned, earned, community, platform, and regional channels. · Establish and lead the cross-functional GTM operating rhythm, including planning milestones, readiness reviews, decision points, dependency management, risk tracking, and post-launch learning. · Align senior stakeholders and executional partners around priorities, roles, tradeoffs, and success measures, ensuring critical information and decisions are communicated clearly and consistently. · Identify GTM risks and opportunities early, develop actionable recommendations, and drive timely resolution across Publishing, Development, and regional teams. · Partner with Brand and Creative teams to translate Marathon’s positioning and creative strategy into consistent, audience-relevant campaigns and player experiences across channels and markets. · Partner with regional marketing teams to adapt global strategies for North America, EMEA, APAC, and LATAM while maintaining a cohesive franchise approach. · Partner with Analytics, Insights, Product Management, and Finance to establish audience targets, performance benchmarks, measurement plans, and budget-efficiency goals. · Define, monitor, and report against franchise and campaign KPIs, including awareness, consideration, acquisition, conversion, reactivation, retention, engagement, revenue, and ROI. · Lead marketing performance reviews and translate player, market, and campaign insights into optimization plans that inform future campaigns, product beats, and investment decisions. · Guide global paid media strategy, budget allocation, and agency partnerships as part of the broader integrated GTM plan, optimizing investment across channels, audiences, and regions. · Partner with Product Management and Development to unlock value from first-party platform relationships and identify opportunities that strengthen reach, engagement, and commercial performance. · Provide clear direction to agencies, vendors, and executional partners through strong briefs, aligned scopes, disciplined budget management, and timely feedback. Required Skills and Experience · 7+ Years experience leading integrated marketing, product marketing, or GTM strategy within gaming, technology, entertainment, or another complex consumer business; experience operating at a global scale is strongly preferred. · Demonstrated success leading complex, cross-functional launches or live-service marketing programs with meaningful audience and business impact. · Deep familiarity with game franchises and online player communities, ideally within first-person shooters, extraction shooters, or live-service games. · Strong understanding of the full marketing mix, including brand, product marketing, community, communications, creative, partnerships, lifecycle marketing, organic channels, paid media, and player acquisition. · Ability to translate product strategy, audience insight, and business goals into clear GTM choices, integrated plans, and investment recommendations. · Proven ability to influence senior leaders, align teams without direct authority, and resolve competing priorities across complex organizations. · Strong analytical and commercial judgment, with experience defining success measures and using performance data, research, and player insight to improve strategy and execution. · Exceptional written, verbal, and presentation communication skills, with the ability to make complex topics clear, compelling, and actionable for executive and cross-functional audiences. · Demonstrated ability to create clarity across multiple complex workstreams, establish priorities and decision points, and drive stakeholders toward timely resolution. · Sound judgment and adaptability when navigating changing product plans, emerging player sentiment, competitive disruption, or other high-pressure business challenges. Nice-to-Have Skills · Deep familiarity with Marathon, its evolving player community, and the broader competitive landscape. · Expertise marketing live-service games across launch, seasonal, reactivation, and long-term lifecycle moments. · Experience developing global strategies that can be effectively adapted for regional markets. · Experience managing major media investments, external agencies, and first-party platform partnerships. At SIE, we consider several factors when setting each role’s base pay range, including the competitive benchmarking data for the market and geographic location. Please note that the base pay range may vary in line with our hybrid working policy and individual base pay will be determined based on job-related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location. In addition, this role is eligible for SIE’s top-tier benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, matching 401(k), paid time off, wellness program and coveted employee discounts for Sony products. This role also may be eligible for a bonus package. Click here to learn more. The estimated base pay range for this role is listed below. $156,000—$185,000 USD Please note, Sony Interactive Entertainment conducts background checks at the offer stage for all new employees (which may include criminal background checks for some roles) and will need to process personal information to support these checks. Please refer to our Candidate Privacy Notice for more information about what personal information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and your data protection rights.