Top Types of Cannabis Careers
The marijuana industry is booming! Despite marijuana remaining illegal in the vast majority of the world and much of the U.S., the legal marijuana industry is rapidly growing due to states and countries quickly liberalizing their marijuana laws (including Canada and Uruguay which have legalized the plant nationwide).
Because of this, there is a large list of new career options for those wanting to have a marijuana-related job in the marijuana industry. These range from low-level, moderately-paid jobs like budtender, to high-skill, high-paying jobs like marijuana attorney or business administrator.
With that in mind, here’s a look at some of the more popular career options in the marijuana field.
Website Designed/Manager
With the massive rise in marijuana-related businesses, there has also been a rise in marijuana-related websites associated with these businesses. However, just because someone has the know-how and finances to fund a marijuana business, it doesn’t mean they know how to build a website (or maybe they know how, but simply don’t have the time). With this in mind, learning to design and upkeep websites is a career option that isn’t going away anytime soon.
Tasks of this job include:
- Creating a marijuana-related website made to the specifications of the business owner
- Upkeeping the website including handling technical issues
- If a “Website Manager”, you will typically be responsible for the daily upkeep of the site including posting articles
Experience Required:
Typically marijuana businesses, when hiring a website designer and/or manager, will be looking for either 1). a degree that’s at least roughly related to website design, or 2). past experience (with proof) of websites that you’ve designed. These can be websites you’ve designed for yourself or as example sites, or, preferably, they can be sites you’ve created for other companies.
Average Salary:
$40,000 – $65,000 a year. This depends on experience, quality of work from previous sites created and the types of customers your seek. For example, if you have your own website development firm focused on large scale cannabis businesses you can make significantly more than an entry level website developer.
Marketing Director
All of these new marijuana businesses have to market themselves somehow, and many do it through a designated, full-time marketing director. Today, competition is fierce. There are a number hundreds of CBD businesses trying to make their brand known. A talented Marketing Director can make a huge difference for these businesses
Tasks of this job include:
- Increasing customer base through marketing
- Handling various types of marketing strategies including in-print, in-person, and online (social media, website, advertising)
Experience Required
Although having a marketing degree will certainly give you a leg-up when seeking a marketing director position, it’s not necessarily required, especially if you have past experience marketing a business or brand, or if you have a solid strategy for how to market the business. Having cannabis experience in sales or marketing will be a huge advantage in this space
Average Salary:
$55,000 – $75,000
Dispensary Manager
This is an obvious one: Every dispensary and marijuana retail outlet needs someone to run it – their “manager”.
Tasks of this job include:
- Operating a business that has sales potentially in the hundreds of thousands each month
- Overseeing a staff of at least several but potentially dozens of people
- Handling the various regulations and local, state and federal laws that effect the business
Experience Required:
It varies greatly what dispensary owners are looking for in their dispensary managers, but often a background or degree in running a business (even if it’s not marijuana related) makes a big difference.
Average Salary:
$70,000 to $100,000 a year
Cannabis Extraction Technician
As noted by Investopedia.com, a cannabis extraction technician can earn somewhere between $75,000 to $125,000 annually for doing skilled laboratory work, extracting THC, CBD, and other cannabinoids that provide the therapeutic qualities consumers seek from cannabis plants. These techs use solvents such as CO2 and butane to consistently create high-quality, high potency concentrates.
This job’s scientific knowledge base—many workers have Ph.D.s—and risk of injury due to the chemicals involved (a risk that’s higher among people attempting to do extractions themselves in home labs than among trained scientists in a professional setting), contribute to its high pay.
Tasks of this job include:
Experience Required:
Average Salary: $75,000 to $125,000 a year
These are just a few positions that have become increasingly in demand over the past year. But in the field of Cannabis there are hundreds of positions. It just takes a quick google search to find opportunities that exist.
Other Positions
Recruitment Consultant
Part of the HR team focused on finding talented individuals to help large cannabis businesses grow. They are accountable for recruiting, interviewing and sometimes even hiring top industry talent.
Quality Assurance Technician
Oversee the quality of cannabis related products such as CBD, Marijuana-based products, smoking products, packaging, etc. and track the improvement or degradation of quality over time. The goal of the QA technician is to drive improvements of consistency of the final product to clients.
Patient Care Associate
Working in a clinic helping patients with disorders (PTSD, anxiety, depression, chronic pain, etc) that can be alleviated through Cannabis related products. The Patient Care associate helps with scheduling, follow-ups, providing education and support of patients in any way that can assist them with their medical challenges.
Copywriter
A creative person with strong communication and writing skills that focused on the written words for websites, marketing material, email campaigns, packaging and much more. They come up with creative ways to message the value of the products to a wide audience
Facilities Manager
A facility manager is responsible for the development, planning and implementation of strategic initiatives and projects for physical operations like a growing facility or an extraction plant,
Buyer
Buyer will be responsible for in-season management of inventory & purchase orders to ensure the constant supply of raw material and product to support the company’s financial goals. They deal with wholesalers and manufacturers and ensure timely delivery of materials so the business can function efficiently and meet demand.
Chef
With the growth of CBD and Cannabis based edibles, marijuana has now made itself into the culinary world. Chefs around the world are starting to learn how to cook with this ingredient to infuse many of it’s medicinal and health benefits. Chefs are becoming more and more in demand with specific expertise in cooking with Cannabis.
Conclusion
If you are looking to get into the field of cannabis, then it’s important to be prepared for what’s coming. Look into the positions available in Canada to understand what positions will existing in the US and around the world as countries begin to legalize marijuana.
As positions will become more available so will the expectations of degrees, expertise and understanding of the field. Competition to get the highest paying positions will also naturally occur so now if the right time start getting certifications and degrees to be prepared to take advantage of this growth space.
Many universities and colleges are already creating programs to help you maximize on the future opportunities.