Cannabis Executive Jobs: What Are the Best Jobs and Their Salaries
Around 12% of American adults use cannabis. As the cannabis industry grows, cannabis executive jobs are becoming more important and more lucrative than ever.
Marijuana is becoming more popular than ever. This fantastic plant is a hit with people in all age groups for medicinal and recreational reasons alike.
Now that cannabis is legal in several states, you can finally achieve your dream of being a cannabis executive. You deserve to make your dreams come true and fulfill your greatest cannabis career potential. Cannabis can offer many people, a valid career path with a lot of potential for growth into the positions listed below.
Here are cannabis executive positions to aspire to:
Chief Executive Officer
Out of all marijuana industry jobs, the Chief Executive Officer is the highest-ranking position there is. The Chief Executive Officer manages a cannabis company’s resources and operations.
Chief Executive Officers can earn anywhere from $90,000 to $250,000 per year, depending on the size of the company because they obviously have the most responsibility, making corporate decisions. They may also act as a liaison between the board of directors, corporate shareholders all while acting as the “face” of the company.
Filling this position means you must develop/strengthen the company’s business strategy and execution while driving plans for the future of the company. That means creating operations budgets and managing expenses to achieve your financial forecasts. Pristine social skills are also necessary as you will be the boss of all the bosses in the company. The buck stops with the CEO!
To qualify, you will need an expansive resume with years of experience in Executive and managerial roles. Business owners appreciate proven track records in creating and developing visions, culture and strategies with industry startups. The more experience you have with cannabis brands and successfully holding the type of top cannabis careers of 2021, the more you’ll be suited for the chief executive role for a cannabis company in the future.
Director of Sales
This job involves overseeing a cannabis company’s financial wellbeing and making sure the products it has are being sold to their full potential. This includes managing all other sales managers or employees, creating sales reports and ensuring the team is achieving their weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual sales goals.
Yes, this position involves crunching numbers and making budgets. But you must also be a great salesperson because you will be presenting products and services to potential customers and investors. Building and maintaining customer accounts is essential to meeting those goals.
For these reasons, the job requires exceptional social skills, math skills and fluency in technology and CRM applications. It also requires several years of sales experience, including a couple years of cannabis sales experience. Since you’ll be working closely with salespeople, you must also know how to recognize the best cannabis employee qualifications and consumers’ needs.
Cannabis sales executives can earn from $35,000 to over $100,000 per year with a combination of base salary and commission. Do you like to travel? If so, this is a great job for you as salespeople are often on the road visiting customers and attending tradeshows.
Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Have you been in sales your entire career, with several as a Director of Sales? Your next step may be the Vice President of Sales and Marketing.
The best candidates for this position are excellent communicators, coordinators, and thinkers. Not only is the VP of Sales and Marketing responsible for every aspect of the sales team but they will oversee product marketing, packaging and new launches, creating strategies for profitability.
As such, the ideal candidate for this job has a bachelor’s degree in marketing but sales experience is just as important. In fact, the requirement is about a decade or more of sales experience, including sales management experience in cannabis.
Vice presidents need computer skills to create and analyze financial reports. They also need strong communication skills to manage their department.
The VP of Sales and Marketing may earn $90,000 and up depending the size of a company and the candidates past experiences.
Public Relations Account Executive
The PR Account Executive takes care of all public relations for a cannabis brand. They’re in charge of media outreach and writing press materials. That includes press releases, pitches, interviews and other promotional content.
All successful PR executives have excellent communication and social skills. After all, they make contact with everyone from people in cannabis research jobs to individuals in cannabis legal jobs for the press. They also work with clients to create and execute PR goals. PR executives must have excellent writing skills to generate hype through words for our very restrictive marketing regulations to build brand recognition.
PR Account Executives need a bachelor’s degree usually and around 2 to 4 years of media relations experience is also essential. Cannabis PR executives make between $45,000 to $60,000 each year. It’s a higher-paying PR position, so it’s worth the energy to attain!
Director of Extraction
The Director of Extraction oversees the cannabis extraction process in labs. The ideal candidate has a PhD in chemistry, biology, or chemical engineering. A doctorate in a related field will also do.
This type of director manages teams, sometimes of up to 50 people. That involves hiring and training workers to extract compounds properly.
Experience with managing a team of lab workers helps you get this job because being well-versed in lab safety is a must. They must maintain a sanitary, secure lab environment. If anything goes wrong in the lab, it’s their problem.
The Director of Extraction positions earns on average from $80,000 to $150,000. Your income depends on your level of training, education and experience.
Cannabis Executive Jobs Are Worth the Effort
Over 182 million people worldwide use cannabis. As marijuana becomes legal, more cannabis executive jobs will open up. Cannabis executive positions simply pay too well to ignore.
An entry level marijuana grower’s salary starts around $30,000 a year but look what it can grow into. Still, executives aren’t made in a day. In the cannabis world, it’s all about working your way up to the top!
Get informed—learn about the cannabis job salaries out there. It’ll motivate you to start working in the industry.
