Marketing job trends and $200K openings at OpenAI, Taco Bell, Duolingo

Ad Age partners with executive search firm Taligence for a regular look at marketing employment and salary trends available to Ad Age All Access subscribers. In this report, we provide an update on the overall marketing job market and take a deeper look at notable open positions that pay more than $200,000. The findings are based on publicly available data sourced by Aspen Technology Labs, which monitors more than 160,000 career sites in real time. To get a closer view of the chief marketing officer job market, view our recent CMO Moves report. Fears about a slowing economy and uncertainty over tariffs could be starting to affect marketing hiring. As of April 24, there were 35,399 open client-side marketing positions in the U.S., marking a 1.5% drop compared with the same day in 2024, according to Taligence. While it is a small drop, it marks a reversal of growth trends Taligence had been observing. “After months of growth, the marketing job machine is, dare we say, easing off the gas,” the firm stated, adding that time will tell if it is “a temporary blip or the start of something more ominous.” The slowdown, for now, appears to only be affecting lower-level jobs. Senior marketing roles (director level and above) “are still hot,” showing 7.9% growth year-on-year, with 4,334 openings, according to Tailigence. However, corporate leaders continue to express nervousness about President Donald Trump’s trade war, which has complicated forecasting. For instance, Skechers U.S.A. last week withdrew the 2025 financial guidance it had issued in early February, citing “macroeconomic uncertainty stemming from global trade policies.” Procter & Gamble cut its annual sales and profit outlook, citing tariffs and volatile consumer demand. Agency holding company giant WPP maintained its guidance last week while reporting first-quarter revenue that fell short of expectations. “Uncertainty is not great for business confidence, and that’s what we were talking about when we gave our guidance for the year,” CEO Mark Read told Bloomberg, referring to its forecast for sales to remain flat or decline as much as 2% this year. Below, a closer look at employment trends and some key marketing job openings that pay more than $200,000. Marketing job salaries Taligence, which calculates salary trends by using existing job openings that list pay ranges, found that senior marketing jobs have a median pay of $151,247, while the median pay for all marketing jobs is $82,503. Marketing job key openings OpenAI, customer marketing lead Five months after hiring Kate Rouch as its first chief marketing officer, the ChatGPT maker is now looking to beef up its business-to-business marketing capabilities. It seeks a seasoned B2B marketer to “develop customer success stories into compelling case studies we can feature on the OpenAI website and in other [go-to-market] collateral,” according to this San Francisco-based opening, which pays $295,000. Here is Taligence’s take on the job: “Most customer marketing is boring. Not this. OpenAI wants someone who can capture the electricity of a founder, the elegance of an enterprise app rebuilt with Codex, and the raw power of trust-cementing innovation stories.” Paxos, head of marketing Paxos, which makes blockchain infrastructure, is looking for a head of marketing to “lead our global product marketing and design team,” with a “focus on driving product growth and adoption across enterprise financial and technology institutions worldwide,” according to this listing, which offers a salary range of $253,000 to $298,000. “Think of Paxos as the plumbing behind modern finance, helping big companies like PayPal, Interactive Brokers, and even Mastercard offer crypto, tokenized assets, or faster payments without building their own pipes,” according to Taligence, which notes that the firm is “not trying to be flashy, they’re trying to be trusted.” Taco Bell, senior director of digital marketing and AI The use of the phrase “AI” in this posting is a sign of the times. In this case, Taco Bell does not go into too much detail on how AI will be part of the job other than to state that it is looking for someone to “utilize AI technologies to enhance marketing strategies, improve customer engagement, and drive growth.” The salary range is $226,000 to $300,000. More on AI: Behind the rise of agency chief AI officers Duolingo, VP growth and product marketing The high-flying language education platform is seeking an executive to drive growth marketing efforts who will report directly to the CMO. While Duolingo is known for its attention-grabbing creative marketing stunts—including killing off its owl mascot—this job seems more focused on data, analytics and performance marketing. According to the job listing, this executive will “own a multi-million-dollar budget to drive user growth.” The pay range is $276,000 to $414,000. Crunchyroll, VP regional marketing The anime streaming platform is seeking a New York-based executive to lead its marketing teams across Europe, Latin America, North America, India and Southeast Asia. The aim is to ensure the brand is consistent across regions and channels, according to the job listing, which notes that candidates must be “fluent in English and one additional language (French, German, Spanish, Hindi, etc.), both spoken and written.” The pay range is $231,000 to $289,000. Hoka, senior director, global sports marketing The running shoe brand looks to be trying to up its sports marketing game with this position, which calls for someone to “shape our brand’s presence in the running and wider sports industry, drive meaningful partnerships, and lead impactful marketing initiatives globally,” according to the job listing. Hoka is already a winner with Hollywood celebs. The Deckers Brands-owned brand lists the position as remote, but with a West Coast locale preferred. The pay range is $230,000 to $250,000. Data-driven Marketing Playbook: Join industry leaders on May 22 to explore how data can drive marketing strategies, optimize media buying and improve customer engagement. Learn more here.

Marketing hiring shows signs of slowing—plus, a look at key openings paying more than $200,000

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