Roles we recruit
Seven practices, 27 functions. Start at the practice when you cannot yet name the title; go straight to the function when you can.
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A community manager runs the places where your customers talk to each other and to you: a forum, a Slack or Discord group, user events and the feedback loop back to product. Member counts are easy to show, so we screen for conversations that happen without staff, advocates they grew, and product changes that came out of the community.
A community is judged on whether members help each other and the company learns from them. Each stage below has a signal that predicts it, and we test for that signal before you meet anyone.
The ramp, and the test behind each milestone
Weeks 1 and 2
Reads the threads, the questions that go unanswered and the members who help most. Talks to support, product and customer success about what customers ask, and to ten members directly.
On track looks like a short note on who the members are, what they want and where the space is failing them.
How we test for it before you meet them
A scoping exercise in our screen: a described community with falling activity. We score what they would look at first and what they would not change yet.
Weeks 3 to 6
Clear guidelines, a welcome that gives new members a first reason to post, and a rhythm for answering questions fast, with staff routed in only when needed.
On track looks like questions answered within a day, new members greeted and moderation handled calmly.
How we test for it before you meet them
We ask how they set up moderation at their last community and what they did with a member who broke the rules. A former colleague confirms it.
Weeks 7 to 10
The members who answer others and bring new people in, recognized, given access to staff and early features, and asked what they need.
On track looks like a small group of advocates answering questions without being asked.
How we test for it before you meet them
We ask for a member they grew into an advocate, what changed for them and what it did for the company.
Weeks 11 to 13
A monthly summary of what members ask, struggle with and want, shared with product and support, with at least one change traced back to the community.
On track looks like a product or documentation change that came from the community and was told to the members.
How we test for it before you meet them
A reference call with a product or support lead about how this manager handled bad news from members and what they changed as a result.
After day 90
Strong community managers start planning events, office hours and member-led sessions, and measure what the community returns in retention, support savings and referrals.
On track looks like a quarterly plan with measures finance and the head of marketing accept.
How we test for it before you meet them
We ask what they would measure first and why. A specific answer tied to retention or support load predicts a manager who justifies the budget.
Five responsibilities. If the seat is mainly publishing on company channels, it is a social media manager; if it is mainly customer onboarding, it is customer success.
A forum, Slack or Discord group or similar, set up, run and kept useful.
Clear rules applied fairly, and calm handling of conflict and bad behavior.
Finding the members who help others, and giving them reasons and access to keep going.
User meetups, office hours and sessions run by members as well as staff.
What members ask and want, passed to product and support, and the answer passed back.
Three neighboring seats absorb work people assume belongs here. Drawing the line wrong is how a community hire ends up posting on company accounts or answering every support ticket.
That seat ownsThe company’s own social program: the calendar, channels, publishing and reporting.
Hire it instead whenthe aim is reach and pipeline from company channels, not a space where customers talk.
That seat ownsA book of accounts after the sale: adoption, health, renewals and expansion.
Hire it instead whenthe need is account by account, with a named person for each customer.
That seat ownsPartnerships with creators, hosts and practitioners your buyers follow.
Hire it instead whenthe audience you want is reached through other people’s channels.
The title stays the same; the members do not. Pick the one that matches who your community is for.
Runs a space for customers to help each other and give feedback, tied to success and product.
Builds a community of developers or practitioners around a product or a craft, with events and content.
Builds a space around an audience rather than a product: a peer group, newsletter community or event series.
The questions we ask in our own screen. Use them in yours; the warning signs are as useful as the answers.
Every candidate we put forward is scored on these five, and the scores travel with the shortlist, gaps included. Four out of five with a named weakness beats a clean sweep you cannot verify.
| What we score | Weak evidence | Strong evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Conversations without staff | Counts members and posts. | Describes members helping members, and what they set up to cause it. |
| Handling conflict | Deletes criticism or argues. | Responds honestly and fast, with an example, confirmed by a former colleague. |
| Advocates | Badges and gifts, with no view of what members want. | Members they grew into advocates, with what changed for them and the company. |
| The loop to product | Passes on complaints with no follow-up. | A product or support change traced to the community and told to members. |
| Measuring value | Engagement rate alone. | Retention, support load and referrals, with how each was estimated. |
Public US benchmarks, read October 2026. Self-reported pay runs far below Salary.com’s employer-reported band: Built In’s median base for community managers is $60,000. Price on scope: a manager who owns programs, events and a measurement plan sits near the Salary.com band, one who mainly moderates nearer the self-reported figure.
Each bar runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile, the middle half of reported pay.
Base salaryMedian base salaryAverage total pay, base plus variable
Community Manager
Salary.com base benchmark
$99,155 to $118,929 base
Community Manager, self-reported
Built In, self-reported
$60,000 median base$76,117 average total
Social Media Manager
Salary.com base benchmark, neighboring seat
$100,500 to $124,350 base
Customer Success Manager
Salary.com base benchmark, neighboring seat
$100,017 to $130,053 base
Community Manager, Social Media Manager and Customer Success Manager: Salary.com base salary, 25th to 75th percentile, United States, as of October 1, 2026. Community Manager dot and ring: Built In median base salary and average total compensation (base plus additional cash, self-reported), reviewed October 14, 2026. Public aggregates, not ZaphyrRecruit placement data.
A community manager runs the spaces where customers or practitioners talk to each other and to the company: a forum, a Slack or Discord group, events and member programs. They moderate, grow advocates, answer questions and pass what members say to product and support. The measure is whether members help each other and stay.
Salary.com puts a community manager at $99,155 to $118,929 base, with a median of $107,476 (October 2026). Built In’s self-reported figures are much lower: a $60,000 median base and $76,117 average total pay. Scope explains the gap, so price the seat on whether it owns programs, events and measurement or mainly moderation.
A social media manager publishes on the company’s own channels and reports reach and pipeline. A community manager builds a space where members talk to each other, and reports retention, support savings and advocacy. The channels can overlap, but the skills differ: broadcasting versus hosting and moderating. Many teams eventually need both.
Often before. A community manager can start small, a Slack group or forum for ten engaged customers, and grow it with intent, which is easier than reviving a space nobody runs. If you already have a quiet forum, hire someone who has revived one, and ask for the numbers. Ask for numbers either way.
Agree the measures before they start: questions answered by members rather than staff, customer retention among active members, referrals and product changes that came from member feedback. Member counts and posts are useful early signals, but the case for budget rests on retention and support savings. Agree each target in writing first.
Clear writing, calm under conflict, the patience to host rather than broadcast, and enough product knowledge to answer or route questions. For developer or practitioner communities, credibility in the field matters more than any tool. Ask for a conversation that happened without staff and how they set it up. Tools are secondary.
Ten working days from a signed brief to a shortlist of three to five calibrated candidates, each with our scoping exercise scored and their communities checked with a former colleague. Interview speed decides the rest: good community managers rarely run one process at a time, so a decision within a week of the first interview keeps them.
Tell us who the community is for, where it lives today and what it should deliver. We come back within one business day with how we would run the search and what the seat pays.
We build shortlists from people doing this work now, often before a seat is advertised. Set up a job alert for social roles, or send your CV and we will come to you when a seat opens.
The community manager is one of six seats in this function. If the gap sits elsewhere, start there.