Chief Marketing Officer

The Barnes Firm | Downtown Buffalo, New York Full-Time, In-Office Position | Monday–Friday Starting Salary: $140,000 plus a generous performance-based bonus The Opportunity The Barnes Firm, a leading personal injury law firm with offices throughout New York and California, is seeking an accomplished Chief Marketing Officer to lead the firm’s marketing organization and drive its continued growth. This is a senior, hands‑on executive role for a strategic marketing leader with deep experience in brand development, creative direction, media investment, digital marketing, and client acquisition. The CMO will be responsible for the firm’s overall marketing vision while also ensuring that campaigns, channels, vendors, and internal teams consistently deliver measurable results. The CMO will lead an in‑house team of six marketing professionals and oversee an eight‑figure annual marketing budget . This position is based at The Barnes Firm’s downtown Buffalo office and requires working from the Buffalo office full‑time, five days per week . This is not a remote or hybrid position. Key Responsibilities Develop and execute The Barnes Firm’s comprehensive marketing, advertising, and brand strategy across its New York and California markets. Serve as the senior decision‑maker for all major marketing, creative, media, digital, and strategic initiatives. Lead, develop, and manage an in‑house marketing team of six professionals. Oversee an eight‑figure annual marketing budget, including allocation, forecasting, performance measurement, and return‑on‑investment analysis. Direct all media planning, buying, placement, negotiation, and optimization across traditional and digital channels. Create and lead a comprehensive digital marketing strategy focused on increasing brand exposure, generating qualified leads, and improving client acquisition. Oversee search engine optimization, including technical SEO, local SEO, content strategy, link‑building initiatives, and organic search performance. Direct paid search and pay‑per‑click advertising, including campaign structure, bidding strategy, keyword performance, conversion tracking, and ongoing optimization. Lead paid and organic social media strategy across relevant platforms, with an emphasis on audience growth, engagement, lead generation, and brand reputation. Oversee streaming, connected television, over‑the‑top media, online video, streaming audio, programmatic advertising, and other emerging digital channels. Improve the firm’s website and overall digital experience, including usability, mobile performance, conversion paths, landing pages, content, and calls to action. Guide the development of advertising campaigns, brand messaging, creative concepts, video content, digital assets, and marketing materials. Establish clear performance standards for agencies, media partners, digital vendors, technology providers, and other outside resources. Implement a disciplined, data‑driven approach to measuring lead quality, cost per lead, cost per signed case, conversion rates, client‑acquisition costs, channel attribution, and overall marketing effectiveness. Use analytics, call tracking, CRM data, intake data, and attribution platforms to evaluate performance and guide budget decisions. Work closely with firm leadership, attorneys, intake personnel, and operations teams to improve the client journey from initial marketing contact through signed representation. Identify new media channels, geographic markets, partnerships, technologies, and opportunities for growth. Monitor competitors, consumer behavior, platform changes, and emerging marketing trends to maintain the firm’s competitive position. Ensure all advertising and marketing activities comply with applicable attorney‑advertising rules and professional‑responsibility requirements. Present marketing strategies, budgets, campaign results, performance reports, and recommendations to firm leadership. Required Qualifications Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business Administration, Communications, or a closely related field from an accredited university. MBA strongly preferred. At least 12 years of progressive marketing experience . Recent, substantial experience serving as a Director of Marketing, Vice President of Marketing, Head of Marketing, Chief Marketing Officer, or comparable senior marketing executive . Demonstrated experience managing an annual marketing budget of at least eight figures . Significant experience developing and managing integrated marketing strategies across traditional, digital, and emerging media channels. Strong working knowledge of SEO, paid search, PPC, paid social, organic social, streaming media, connected television, online video, programmatic advertising, and digital analytics. Proven experience improving website performance, digital user experience, lead‑generation funnels, landing pages, and conversion rates. Experience managing and developing a multidisciplinary in‑house marketing team. Strong command of media buying, agency management, performance marketing, brand strategy, creative development, and marketing analytics. Demonstrated ability to connect marketing investment to measurable business results. Strong financial judgment, analytical ability, negotiation skills, leadership skills, and executive‑level communication skills. Ability and willingness to work full‑time from The Barnes Firm’s downtown Buffalo office, five days per week . Preferred Experience Marketing leadership experience within a personal injury law firm, legal‑services organization, or other high‑volume consumer‑services business. Experience generating and converting consumer leads in highly competitive and high‑cost advertising markets. Experience developing marketing strategies across multiple geographic markets. Demonstrated success managing significant investments in television, streaming media, paid search, social media, and other performance‑driven channels. Familiarity with Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, social advertising platforms, call‑tracking systems, CRM platforms, attribution tools, and marketing‑automation technology. Experience working with SEO agencies, media‑buying firms, creative agencies, production companies, and digital performance partners. Experience working directly with business owners, managing partners, or other senior executives in an entrepreneurial and results‑oriented environment. A record of successfully scaling a regional or multi‑market consumer brand. The Ideal Candidate The successful candidate will be a decisive and commercially minded marketing executive who combines strong creative instincts with rigorous financial and analytical discipline. This individual will understand how traditional media and digital marketing work together to build brand recognition, increase exposure, generate qualified leads, and produce measurable growth. The ideal candidate will be comfortable setting strategy while remaining closely involved in campaign performance, creative direction, media allocation, digital execution, and team leadership. The successful candidate will also understand the rapidly changing digital landscape and know how to use SEO, PPC, social media, streaming platforms, analytics, and emerging technologies to strengthen the firm’s competitive position. Compensation and Benefits The Barnes Firm offers a competitive executive compensation and benefits package, including: Starting base salary of $140,000 per year , with final compensation based on experience and qualifications. Generous performance‑based bonus opportunity. Employer-sponsored 401(k) retirement plan with firm contributions. Paid parking in downtown Buffalo. The Barnes Firm is an equal opportunity employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to any status protected by applicable law. #J-18808-Ljbffr The Barnes Firm Injury Attorneys