Senior Product Marketing Manager

Senior Product Marketing Manager

Merlin Group operates at the intersection of cyber innovation, national security, and technology-driven transformation. With a mission to accelerate the adoption of high-impact technologies across the U.S. public sector and regulated commercial markets, Merlin is uniquely structured around three core tenets – Invest, Enable, and Scale – each designed to address a specific stage of the technology lifecycle. Together, our affiliates – Merlin Ventures, CGC, and Merlin Cyber – form a flywheel that builds enduring capability for customers, partners, and the broader cyber ecosystem, operationalizing technological advancement into mission-ready, enterprise-grade solutions.

At Merlin, we believe our strength lies in our people. Team members are encouraged to be creative, collaborative, and nimble, pursuing paths to deliver the cutting-edge cybersecurity solutions that our customers rely on. From next-generation cyber defense to secure cloud and AI, we are united by one purpose – transforming innovation into mission impact.

The Senior Product Marketing Manager will play a critical role in translating Merlin Group's technology, cybersecurity, cloud, AI, and mission-focused solutions into compelling market propositions that drive awareness, engagement, pipeline, and growth.

Reporting to the Director, Product & Solutions Marketing, this role will own product marketing initiatives across selected solutions and market segments, including positioning and messaging, competitive intelligence, customer and market insights, sales enablement, go-to-market planning, and developing high-impact marketing content.

The Senior Product Marketing Manager will serve as a connective tissue between Technology Partners, Sales, Marketing, Labs, and Leadership, ensuring that Merlin's solutions are clearly differentiated and consistently positioned around customer needs and mission outcomes.

The ideal candidate is a strategic thinker and strong storyteller who can move comfortably between market analysis and hands-on execution. They understand complex technology and can translate technical capabilities into clear, differentiated value propositions for federal, defense, intelligence, and regulated commercial audiences.

Primary Duties & Responsibilities

Product Positioning & Messaging

• Develop and maintain differentiated positioning, messaging, value propositions, and key messages for assigned products, solutions, and capabilities.
• Translate complex cybersecurity, cloud, AI, and technology concepts into compelling customer-focused narratives.
• Collaborate regularly with PMM counterparts across Merlin's technology partner community to create joint messaging and positioning statements, source documents, and external collateral.
• Develop messaging frameworks and detailed messaging source documents tailored to different buyer personas, industries, agencies, mission areas, and stages of the buyer journey.
• Ensure consistency of product and solution messaging across campaigns, website content, presentations, proposals, collateral, events, and sales materials.
• Generate engaging solutions messaging for field events that drives customer attention, mindshare and adoption across featured solution areas.
• Partner with the Director of Product & Solutions Marketing to establish messaging architecture across Merlin's broader portfolio.

Go-to-Market Strategy

• Develop and execute go-to-market plans for new and existing products, solutions, partnerships, and strategic capabilities.
• Partner with Product, Business Development, Sales, and Digital Marketing to translate product strategies into market-facing programs.
• Identify target audiences, buyer personas, use cases, customer pain points, competitive differentiators, and compelling reasons to buy.
• Support launches and major solution announcements with coordinated messaging, content, campaigns, sales enablement, and internal communications.
• Identify opportunities to increase adoption, cross-sell, and expansion of Merlin's solutions across priority markets.

Market & Competitive Intelligence

• Conduct market, customer, industry, and competitive research to identify trends, opportunities, threats, and emerging customer needs.
• Develop competitive intelligence and battlecards that help Sales and Business Development effectively position Merlin against alternatives.
• Monitor evolving cybersecurity, AI, cloud, federal technology, and mission trends and translate relevant developments into actionable marketing strategies.
• Develop insights that inform product strategy, positioning, campaign priorities, and business development efforts.
• Partner with internal stakeholders to capture customer feedback and incorporate market insights into product marketing programs.

Content & Thought Leadership

• Lead the development of high-value product marketing content, including solution briefs, white papers, case studies, presentations, battlecards, web content, FAQs, sales tools, and executive materials.
• Work with Communications and subject matter experts to develop thought leadership that establishes Merlin's credibility in priority technology and mission areas.
• Develop customer-centric stories that connect Merlin's capabilities to measurable mission and business outcomes.
• Collaborate with Digital Marketing to translate product messaging into campaigns, demand-generation programs, webinars, events, and other customer engagement activities.

Sales & Business Development Enablement

• Develop sales enablement materials that clearly articulate solution value, differentiators, use cases, competitive advantages, and customer outcomes.
• Partner closely with Sales and Business Development teams (including Technical Practice Areas and territories) to understand pipeline priorities, customer objections, capture opportunities, and field requirements.
• Participate in sales meetings, customer engagements, industry events, and other activities to gather market feedback and strengthen solution positioning.
• Equip customer-facing teams with timely, actionable messaging and content for priority accounts and opportunities.
• Support proposal and capture teams with product and solution messaging when appropriate.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Serve as a key marketing partner to Technology Partners, Sales, Marketing, Labs, and Executive Leadership.
• Establish strong working relationships with technical subject matter experts and translate their expertise into customer-ready messaging.
• Collaborate with the Director of Product & Solutions Marketing to prioritize the product marketing roadmap and ensure alignment with Merlin's broader marketing strategy.
• Work effectively in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment where priorities may evolve rapidly.

Measurement & Optimization

• Establish and monitor product marketing KPIs tied to awareness, engagement, pipeline contribution, sales enablement adoption, and business outcomes.
• Analyze campaign, content, market, and customer data to identify improvement opportunities.
• Use performance insights and stakeholder feedback to continuously refine positioning, messaging, content, and go-to-market programs.
• Communicate product marketing progress, insights, and recommendations to marketing and business leadership.

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Business, Communications, or a related field.
• 7+ years of B2B product marketing, product management, solutions marketing, or closely related experience.
• Demonstrated experience developing product positioning, messaging, go-to-market strategies, and sales enablement programs.
• Experience marketing enterprise technology, cybersecurity, cloud, AI, SaaS, or federal technology solutions.
• Ability to understand complex technical concepts and translate them into compelling, customer-oriented value propositions.
• Strong writing, storytelling, presentation, and communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively across Product, Sales, Business Development, Marketing, Communications, and technical teams.
• Experience conducting market research, competitive analysis, and customer/industry analysis.
• Strong project management skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities and deliverables simultaneously.
• Highly analytical and able to use data, customer insights, and market intelligence to inform marketing decisions.
• Ability to operate strategically while being comfortable developing content and executing programs directly.

Preferred

• MBA or advanced degree
• Experience supporting U.S. Federal Government, Defense, Intelligence Community, or regulated commercial markets.
• Experience with Salesforce, HubSpot, Google Analytics 4, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, and other modern marketing technology platforms
• Familiarity with federal procurement cycles and GovCon marketing.
• Experience managing marketing agencies and vendor relationships.
• Knowledge of AI-powered marketing technologies and automation tools.
• Active U.S. security clearance or ability to obtain one.

Key Success Metrics (First 12-18 Months)

• Establish clear, differentiated positioning and messaging for assigned Merlin products and solutions.
• Develop