Marketing Jobs Over $200K

Agency/Holdco Adland is going through a storm - but you already knew that.

We won’t dwell on the doom and gloom. Instead, we want to focus on what we can do: offer a bit of insight, a few breadcrumbs, and hopefully, a path forward.

So this edition is our small way of supporting those hit by agency layoffs. If someone in your network could benefit from it, we’d really appreciate you passing it along. A simple share could make all the difference.

To understand where the real opportunities lie for our agency comrades, we tracked 370+ recent moves from WPP, Publicis, Omnicom, and Interpublic into brand-side or platform roles. We looked at who's hiring, what skills they're snapping up, and at what seniority, hoping to spot the patterns that can help ex-agency talent find their next big thing.

We also spoke to a friend who’s made the leap herself - an agency alum now thriving, working on her 2nd FAANG appointment. She shared what worked, what didn’t, and why making the jump is hard - but far from impossible.

Let’s not sugar-coat it: escaping the agency orbit is hard. Recruiters love a tidy narrative, and ex-agency folk are too often boxed in as “doers,” not “deciders.” But certain in-house roles, particularly those that require speed, strategic hustle, and the sort of operational discipline that only comes from years of managing five clients and two existential crises at once… do value that experience.

To prove it, we’ve picked four top-shelf roles this week: from A+E, Gilead, EY, and LinkedIn that are tailor-made for someone who knows how to move fast, stay sharp, and keep the trains running.

If you have spent the last decade at a HoldCo trading desk like WPP Media, Publicis, or IPG, squeezing publishers for better rates, A+E wants to pay you half a million dollars to switch teams. This role is the ultimate "buy-side to supply-side" power move, requiring a programmatic heavyweight to manage the types of partnerships you currently navigate. The core requirement here is "negotiating HoldCo agency terms," meaning you are engineering the deal structure using your insider knowledge of agency margin pressures and hidden fees.

While agency VP/SVP salaries often cap out in the $250k–$300k range, this role offers a commission target of roughly $180k on top of a healthy base, blowing traditional agency comp out of the water. We have tracked SVPs from shops like Starcom, Mindshare and Initiative crossing the street to A+E for similar roles in Strategy and Advanced Advertising.

If you are coming from an agency, you are competing against two distinct archetypes: the Ad Tech Native (who speaks fluent API and bid-stream) and the Legacy Publisher Rep (who has a 20-year relationship with the CMO and a killer golf handicap).

To beat them, we reckon you’ll have to pivot your positioning from "Service Provider" to "Market Insider." You are the person who understands why it gets bought. You possess the blueprint of the buyer's mind because you were the buyer. Use it.

This is your chance to stop selling someone else’s strategy and start owning the deal itself.

If you have spent the last decade at a strategic research consultancy like IQVIA, ZS Associates, or Kantar churning out slide decks that clients may or may not read, Gilead is offering a ticket to the other side of the table. This role is the classic "Agency to Client" pivot, explicitly calling for "strategic consulting" experience to lead intelligence for their high-stakes HIV portfolio. Our read here is they want a doer who brings the speed and advanced tools experience of the agency world to the steady beat of the client side. Our infographic shows that agency talent has been hired at Pfizer this year - why not at Gilead? Gilead has tempted talent away from WPP Media’s CMI and other large agencies so they are already in the habit.

While agency research directors often hit a compensation ceiling around the $180-200k mark, this role offers a base up to $292k with a bonus and stock package (LTI) that likely pushes the total comp well over the $350k threshold. The trade-off is a strict onsite requirement in Foster City, but for a research veteran tired of billing hours, the equity upside in a top-tier biotech makes this a serious wealth-building move compared to the service sector grind.

To win this seat, you will be competing against the "Pharma Lifer" (who knows the internal politics but moves slowly) and the "Academic Researcher" (who has the PhD but may lack commercial sharpness). Your winning angle is to position yourself not as a researcher, but as a "Strategic Partner" who knows exactly how to extract value from external vendors because you used to be one. You know the margins, the timelines, and where the bodies are buried in the data.

This is your chance to stop pitching the insight and start owning the outcome. Instead of hoping the client listens to your recommendation, you become the one making the call.

If you are currently a VP or Group Director at a marketing agency, tired of fighting for scraps of budget, EY is offering a massive pay bump to switch from "doing" the marketing to "enhancing" the marketing organization. This role is a strategic leap into the Big 4, explicitly calling for 8-10 years of experience with a preference for candidates coming from a "marketing agency in a client-facing role". This confirms that EY needs battle-hardened operators who understand the chaos of actual execution to help their clients - Fortune 500 firms - redesign their operating models and cut costs.

The compensation ceiling here is remarkably high for a Senior Manager title, topping out at $390,500 in Tier 1 markets like New York and California, not including the standard Big 4 performance bonuses. However, the "catch" is substantial: the JD explicitly demands a willingness to travel "50-80% both domestically and internationally". You will not be sitting in a home office; you will be living in Marriott hotels and client conference rooms.

To win this seat, you must position yourself as a B2B GTM Architect rather than a Campaign Manager. You are competing against traditional management consultants who have the MBA but lack the on-the-ground MarTech reality. Your advantage is your specific knowledge of marketing ROI calculation and marketing technology ecosystems like Salesforce and Google Ads. You know where the money is wasted in an agency scope because you used to manage those scopes. Use that insider knowledge to position yourself as the efficiency expert they crave.

This is a mandate to define the voice of the world’s largest professional network as it navigates a massive identity shift.

LinkedIn is hunting for a "Visionary Leader" with 12+ years of experience to bridge the gap between B2B utility and B2C emotion. If you are an ECD at a creative agency like Droga5 or R/GA, this is your exit ramp to a role where you own the brand rather than renting it.

The listing explicitly flags "engaging with new AI technologies" and "modern marketing measurement systems" as key qualifications. That’s the kind of talent that comes from places they’ve already tapped talent for marketing roles from shops like Monks, Ampush and DEPT.

As we see it, they want a modern operator who can scale creative output using Generative AI while ensuring every campaign moves the needle on performance metrics. You are competing for this job against Big Tech incumbents who know the product, but you can beat them by positioning yourself as the "Brand Storyteller" who brings agency-level craft. While the base salary tops out at $335k, the real wealth here lies in the stock package (RSUs), which at a company of LinkedIn’s maturity, transforms this from a job into a financial portfolio builder. This is a rare opportunity to lead a global creative team that sits at the intersection of culture, career, and content.

For our client-side readers, we’ve hand-picked a selection of the freshest and highest-paying in-house roles from a pool of 400+ new postings in the last 30 days. (Access to the full list is available exclusively to our premium subscribers.)

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