Content Role Job Description Templates (Free, Copy-Paste)
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The short answer
Four ready-to-use job description templates for B2B content roles, free and ungated. Each one lists real responsibilities, the must-haves worth screening for, a 2026 US salary band, and 30/60/90-day expectations. They're built from the language that actually appears in content job ads — we counted the recurring requirements across a hundred of them, and the top five were narrative and storytelling, thought leadership, content systems and cadence, editorial operations, and distribution.
The four templates
| Role | 2026 US base salary | Hire this when | Template |
|---|---|---|---|
| Head of Content | $140,000–$190,000 | Content is a named company priority and you have 2+ people to lead | Below |
| Content Marketing Manager | $85,000–$125,000 | You have demand for content and someone senior to direct it | Below |
| Founder / Executive Ghostwriter | $75,000–$115,000 (or $1,500–$5,000/mo contract) | Leaders have the ideas and none of the hours | Below |
| Content Operations / Editorial Manager | $90,000–$130,000 | Output exists but shipping is inconsistent | Below |
Before you post any of them: the scope check
The single most common failure in content job ads is bundling. A job ad that asks for narrative strategy, executive ghostwriting, SEO, editorial operations, and social distribution is describing four or five different jobs. People who are genuinely excellent at narrative are rarely also excellent at publishing systems, and almost never also at technical SEO.
Before you post, mark each responsibility as must-own, nice-to-have, or can-be-supported. If the must-own list spans more than two of the disciplines below, split the role, hire the senior half, and buy the rest.What we found in 100 content job ads
- Narrative and positioning — what the company argues and why anyone should care.
- Thought leadership and executive voice — turning leaders' thinking into published work.
- Editorial operations — calendar, briefs, review, publishing, quality control.
- Distribution — LinkedIn, newsletter, communities, employee amplification.
- Search — SEO, and increasingly AEO and GEO for AI assistants.
Template 1 — Head of Content
About the role
We're hiring our first Head of Content to own what we say publicly and how it reaches the people who buy from us. You'll set the narrative, build the publishing system behind it, and make our founders and subject-matter experts visible in the market. This is a builder role: there is no content machine to inherit, and you'll have the mandate to design one.
What you'll own
- The company narrative: the two or three arguments we make consistently, and how every piece ladders back to them.
- The editorial calendar across blog, newsletter, LinkedIn, and launch moments.
- Founder and executive visibility — interviewing leaders, shaping their point of view, and getting it published on a reliable cadence.
- Content's contribution to pipeline: what we measure, how we report it, and what we stop doing when it doesn't work.
- Hiring and managing writers, editors, freelancers, and agency partners.
- Search and AI discoverability, working with whoever owns the website.
What we're looking for
- 5+ years in B2B content, including at least one role where you built the function rather than inherited it.
- Published work you can point to that changed how a market talked about a category.
- Experience writing in someone else's voice — a founder, a CEO, a technical expert.
- Comfort with a publishing cadence you keep during quarters when nobody has time.
- Judgment about what not to publish.
First 30/60/90 days
- 30 days: interview 10 customers and every internal leader. Produce a written narrative document and a 90-day editorial plan.
- 60 days: a working weekly cadence live on at least two channels, with at least one founder publishing consistently.
- 90 days: the system runs without you writing every piece. First reporting cycle delivered, with a clear recommendation on what to double down on.
Compensation
$140,000–$190,000 base plus equity, depending on stage and location. Expect the total cost of employment to be 15–25% above base once payroll taxes, benefits, and tooling are included.
Template 2 — Content Marketing Manager
About the role
You'll be the person who turns our strategy into published work, week after week. This role suits someone who writes quickly and well, enjoys owning a calendar, and wants the range that only an early-stage team gives you.
What you'll own
- Writing and editing: long-form articles, customer stories, launch content, and email.
- The content calendar — planning it, protecting it, and shipping against it.
- Repurposing: turning one substantial piece into the social, email, and sales versions of itself.
- Working with subject-matter experts to extract material they don't have time to write themselves.
- Reporting on what published and what it did.
What we're looking for
- 2–5 years writing B2B content, with a portfolio of published pieces (not just briefs and plans).
- The ability to interview an engineer or a salesperson and come away with something worth reading.
- Working knowledge of search, and of how LinkedIn distribution actually behaves.
- A track record of hitting a cadence.
First 30/60/90 days
- 30 days: shipping on the existing calendar, with a documented voice and style guide.
- 60 days: owning the calendar end-to-end and running the expert-interview process yourself.
- 90 days: a measurable lift in published volume without a drop in quality, plus one repeatable format that works.
Compensation
$85,000–$125,000 base plus equity, US market, 2026.
Template 3 — Founder / Executive Ghostwriter
About the role
Our founders and executives have more to say than they have time to write. You'll be the person who extracts it and publishes it in their voice — mostly on LinkedIn, sometimes as bylines, op-eds, and conference talks.
What you'll own
- A weekly interview rhythm with each leader you write for — 30 to 45 minutes, recorded.
- Drafting posts, bylines, talk abstracts, and internal-to-external announcements in each person's voice.
- Building and maintaining a running idea bank drawn from sales calls, customer conversations, and product decisions.
- Comment and reply support in the first hour after a post goes live.
- Reporting on reach, conversations started, and inbound mentions.
What we're looking for
- Proven ghostwriting samples where the voice is clearly not yours.
- Interview skill — the ability to ask the follow-up question that produces the real answer.
- Editorial judgment about what is honest, defensible, and legally safe to publish for an executive.
- Speed. Drafts within 48 hours of the conversation, or the material goes stale.
First 30/60/90 days
- 30 days: voice captured for each leader, interview rhythm established, first posts live.
- 60 days: a consistent weekly cadence per leader with approvals taking under 10 minutes.
- 90 days: a visible lift in profile reach and at least one documented inbound conversation traced to a post.
Compensation
$75,000–$115,000 base for a full-time hire, or $1,500–$5,000/month on contract depending on the number of leaders and cadence. Many companies start on contract because the workload rarely fills a full week for one leader.
Template 4 — Content Operations / Editorial Manager
About the role
We don't have a writing problem. We have a shipping problem. You'll own the machinery — briefs, review, scheduling, publishing, and the quality bar — so that good work stops dying in drafts.
What you'll own
- The editorial calendar and the process that keeps it honest.
- Briefs and review workflow, including who approves what and how fast.
- Publishing and scheduling across every channel we run.
- The style guide, the voice documentation, and quality control before anything goes live.
- Freelancer and agency coordination: sourcing, briefing, and paying.
- Reporting: what shipped, what it cost, what it produced.
What we're looking for
- 3+ years in editorial operations, managing editing, or content program management.
- Evidence you've raised output without raising headcount.
- Strong editing skill, even if writing isn't the main job.
- Comfort chasing busy executives for approvals without becoming annoying.
First 30/60/90 days
- 30 days: current pipeline documented and a working calendar with named owners and dates.
- 60 days: review cycle time cut measurably, with a published style guide in use.
- 90 days: a predictable weekly shipping rhythm and a freelancer bench that can absorb spikes.
Compensation
$90,000–$130,000 base plus equity, US market, 2026.
If the templates made the role look too big
That's the usual reaction, and it's useful information. If your must-own list spans narrative, ghostwriting, operations, and distribution, you're describing a function rather than a person — and the market rate for that function as one salary doesn't exist.
The two honest ways forward are to hire the senior half and buy the rest, or to buy the whole function while you decide. We run the second option: strategy, writing in each person's voice, publishing, and reporting, done for you. It starts at $900/month for one person on one channel, which is less than a month of an entry-level content salary. See what a content hire really costs · Price your exact setup
Questions hiring managers ask
Can I use these job description templates as-is?
Yes. They're free, ungated, and meant to be copied into your ATS. Replace the compensation bands with your own and cut any responsibility you can't genuinely support in the first quarter — an honest, narrower ad attracts better candidates than an ambitious one.
What should a content job description include?
Five things: what the person owns, what success looks like in 90 days, who they work with, what's already in place versus what they'll build, and a real salary band. Ads without a band get fewer and worse applicants, and several US states require one.
What's the first content role a B2B startup should hire?
Below roughly 30 employees, a Content Marketing Manager who can write and ship beats a Head of Content who plans. Above that, or when several leaders need to be visible, hire the senior role and give them budget for execution support.
Should ghostwriting be part of the content manager's job?
Only if it's explicitly scoped and protected. Ghostwriting needs a recurring interview slot with each leader. When it's added as an extra to a full content role, it's the first thing dropped in a busy quarter — which is why it's usually the first piece companies outsource.
How long does it take to hire a content lead?
Budget 8–12 weeks from posting to signed offer for a senior role, plus notice period, plus 3–6 months of ramp before output is fully independent. Plan for roughly two quarters between deciding to hire and seeing a steady cadence.
Is it cheaper to hire or to outsource content?
At high volume, in-house is cheaper per piece. At startup volume it usually isn't, because you pay a full salary for a role that isn't full — and you pay it during the ramp too.The full comparison
Sources
- Invisible Keyboard analysis of 100 B2B content job advertisements posted in 2026, counting recurring requirement themes (method described in the accompanying research post).
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for advertising, promotions, and marketing managers (bls.gov/oes).
- Levels.fyi and Glassdoor reported US base salary ranges for content marketing manager, head of content, and content operations roles, 2026.
- Invisible Keyboard published pricing for done-for-you founder and team content (invisiblekeyboardai.com/pricing).