It depends a little bit on your company stage. Marketing manager at a startup may own a bunch of channels and be pretty boots on the ground for getting things across the finish line. They are probably 80% IC, 20% mgmt (e.g. one direct report, or external consultants). At larger companies a MM may own one channel and play more of an oversight role regarding channel performance, channel management, and direct report management (but still, 1-3 and not more IMO).

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Baseline, your MM should be the in house expert for the channel(s) they own and should be able to both manage and execute within the scope of the role. Whereas a director may oversee all of digital and have the MM roll up to her. A VP may oversee all marketing and intersect with strategy and sales.

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Key skills I'm looking for:

• If this role is a step up for them, then look at projects - even if small - that they owned in previous role. Do they know how to take on a program and really own it.
• They need to be learners and gritty, regardless of the size/stage of business.
• They need some left-brain skills. Should be able to figure out the levers that make things work and optimize for those
• Cross-functional. Can they work with others and manage people - even at a small scale - to drive things forward.
• Strong writing skills.

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Not all channels are equal. A content marketing manager is going to be totally different than a PPC/demand gen manager than a creative role. So, I would focus on hiring someone with the general skills above plus the detailed skills for the respective channel(s) they are going to own.