Career Advice for MarTech/Marketing Data

Hello and apologies in advance for the long post -

I currently work at AbbVie(Pharma) and was at an ad agency before this. I do data strategy work on MarTech/marketing data / analytics related projects.

I did my undergrad in comp science but left coding 10 years ago. Was in IT for four years and then after grad school, I got a job at a Publicis agency, where i learnt a great deal about media measurement , programmatic/DMP/DSPs, OD Graphs, lift analysis , Multi Touch attribution , marketing mix etc. Essentially marketing analytics and MarTech enablement but not exactly data science. Moved to Abbvie over a year ago and have been doing MarTech/data work for the last 6-7 years. Total YOE -10.

I have been in the nitty gritty of MarTech data with DFA logs, DMP integrations , tag management and ID graph related work. I am used to going into Hadoop data lakes and making sense of oracle Data cloud, comscore , social and programmatic data. I’ve led martech strategy from both an IT and data standpoint on Hadoop and azure ecosystems.

I also like automating / analyzing using Python but my work does not require me to. Rather, my work revolves more around enabling and managing marketing data Marts , MarTech strategy / data Partnership with agencies/3rd party publishers, marketing automation , etc.

I am essentially 30% data science/Marketing analytics , 30% business and 30% data/IT management. I know enough IT to understand how ETL and read code and know enough stats to understand how a model works.

While I enjoy the value I have at my current firm/team , I feel Pharma, as an industry, is behind in terms of marketing technology and analytics. TBH, I learnt more at the agency life than at the client side but In their defense, pharma doesn’t have much reliance on hardcore analytics and data science due to the lack of a more cutting edge marketing ecosystem.

I enjoy the stability, WLB, and most importantly a decent pay including RSUs and nice boss. It’s a great place to retire and many people do so. but for someone like me who’s in early thirties, I do not want to stagnate my learning especially when the martech field is hot . Hence, I’m starting to look for roles which help me build my profile both in terms of Career growth and learning in the MarTech space.

I’m looking at martech firms like trade desk , liveramp as I feel that a martech firm would give the maximum exposure in terms of ID Graphs, new martech , and Data oriented solutions for marketing . If I can learn more about these cool things, I feel I’d be a happier man and grow in this career path.

High level Questions / Seeking advice for -

1. Given my profile and skill set, I am confused about the roles I should be looking for. MarTech Data Strategy , Data Partnerships , Marketing Analytics etc. . What is this role called where I am the bridge between DS, business and IT especially for MarTech implementations ?

2 . More importantly , what hot martech companies are out there , preferably in the startup stage , which you feel are amazing places to learn ?

Open to all advice regardless of the questions above, and would greatly appreciate introductions and mentorship/advice.

YOE - 10 ( MarTech exp. - 6 )
TC - 170k

#MarTech #advertising #marketing #analytics #AdTech #Data