Last week, we published our Q3 U.S. Marketing Jobs Report, and the good news is that the marketing job market is holding up rather well.

After a wobble in June and July, hiring picked up again through Q3. We ended September with 9% more marketing vacancies than a year ago and 3.9% more than at the end of Q2. Across the quarter, we tracked 83,916 active marketing job listings, just 1.9% fewer than in Q2. Not exactly a hiring boom, but given the context, we’ll take it.

The more interesting story is what's happening at the senior end of the market. Demand for Director-level roles and above grew 15.5% year-on-year, almost twice the rate of more junior positions. The strongest growth came from Group Director, Senior Director, VP and Head of roles, while hiring at the very top, C-suite and EVP/SVP, actually declined. Meanwhile, entry-level hiring showed some signs of life, with vacancies up 10.2% from Q2, although still below last year's levels.

Salaries are looking healthier too. The median advertised salary reached $97,500, up 14% from a year ago, and 57.3% of job postings now include salary information. Growth Marketing and Product Marketing were among the disciplines seeing the strongest increases in demand.

Geographically, New York remains the biggest city market, with 3,546 live marketing vacancies at the end of September, up 22% year-on-year. San Francisco grew even faster, at 24.7%, while Florida was the only state among the top 10 to see vacancies decline both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter.

So, plenty of encouraging signs for marketing professionals, particularly those looking for their next senior leadership role. You can dig into the full report here (and please share it)

And speaking of senior marketing jobs, we've got quite a collection for you this week.

Putting this edition together was something of an emotional rollercoaster. I went from wondering whether I could stomach a Polymarket search fee to feeling quite hopeful about washing America's arse. Then SharkNinja put a billion-dollar sales ambition in the brief and I needed a lie-down.

Behind the paywall: a Jazz at Lincoln Center CMO job worth cheering for, and a Veeam media role with advertised compensation reaching $712K. If you run a large software account at an agency, that second one deserves a look.

I don’t object to gambling. I’ve enjoyed Vegas. I’ve played online poker and lost. My Schwab portfolio feels like a casino, especially these days. But there’s something dark about the marketing funnel for businesses like this. I keep thinking about the person putting money in, what persuaded them to start and what keeps them coming back after they’ve lost.

I’ve never agreed to take a retained VP Marketing or CMO search for a business like Polymarket. I honestly don’t know if I would. Taking the fee would mean helping them find someone better at persuading people to gamble.

So I read this advert with clenched buttocks.

For readers unfamiliar with it, Polymarket lets people put money on the outcomes of elections, sporting events and other things that haven’t happened yet. Participants trade with one another, with prices indicating how likely the market thinks an outcome is. The company describes its ambition as becoming a “ubiquitous beacon of truth in global media.”

In October, the New York Post reported that Polymarket had fired CMO Matthew Modabber following an internal investigation. Among the incidents examined were allegations that his team had created a fake webpage and staged videos showing people profiting from trades that never happened. Read that twice. The Wall Street Journal had exposed the alleged practice in June. A CFTC investigation remained ongoing, with no wrongdoing established.

People were being persuaded they could make money by watching someone pretend to make money. That’s pretty fucking grim.

Modabber and founder Shayne Coplan have been friends since high school. According to the reporting, Coplan initially threatened to fire members of the legal team pressing for Modabber’s removal, before accepting his departure. The board reportedly considered Modabber an obstacle to presenting a more mature business ahead of a possible IPO.

What do you do in this role when the founder likes an idea? Answer carefully.

There is also a familiar family connection. Donald Trump Jr. joined the advisory board in August 2025, alongside an investment from 1789 Capital, where he is a partner. The company wants us to trust it as a source of truth and has voluntarily brought a meme-coin-wielding Trump into the business. That rather fucks the credibility pitch for me.

Reuters reports that Polymarket and Coplan have together directed roughly $1.3 million to Republican committees and candidates this election cycle. The company also sent $1 million to House Majority Forward, which works to elect Democrats. This is a company buying goodwill with whichever party regulates its ability to operate.

And now, Head of Stunt Marketing.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen STUNT in a senior marketing title before, but it’s finally something to put on a business card that might prompt a quality conversation.

The job pays $240,000 to $260,000 base, plus equity, and is advertised as onsite in New York. You’ll spot something happening in sport or the news and work out how to insert Polymarket into it before everyone moves on. Then you’ll have to organize it, including permits, suppliers and talent. Some opportunities give you 24 to 48 hours.

This could be enormous fun for someone who enjoys making a scene professionally. The brief wants someone who knows American sports, has made campaigns travel and can execute without a large team behind them. You need to have personally made things happen.

I can see the appeal. Plenty of talented marketers spend their working lives trying to get permission to do anything remotely interesting. No issue here. Earn money. Cause a commotion.

I’d still want to meet the lawyers before accepting this job. If I’m expected to get a stunt live in 24 hours, I need to know they can stop a bad idea without the founder threatening their jobs.

The advert asks you to track reach, press coverage, social engagement and earned media. Reasonable measures for this kind of work.

I’d enjoy making people stop and stare. Not sure about how I’d feel if my best work helped someone gamble away money they needed for rent. That possibility would follow me to my pillow, no matter how well the campaign performed.

If Taligence had this brief, I’d start with the people behind Taylor Herring’s Paddy Power stunts. They’ve spent years getting a bookmaker into conversations around sport. I’d tap Ogilvy PR’s Michael CeraVe team and Mischief’s Coors Light work would send me digging through the credits too. I’d want the people who got those ideas made, including whoever dealt with the supplier when something (inevitably) went wrong. The creative director who arrived for the photographs can sit this one out.

Polymarket would have some explaining to do as well. I would want to hear what changed after the internal investigation, from someone who had been there through it. A promise that everyone takes compliance seriously might not be enough.

There is a well-paid, creatively interesting job here. I can think of people who would be very good at it.

I still don’t know whether I’d take the recruiting fee. I would need to be comfortable watching the person I placed succeed.

After the butt-clenching stunts at Polymarket, I’m relieved to find a company whose mission is to wash your arse.

TUSHY sells bidet attachments that fit onto an existing toilet. The marketing challenge is persuading someone that the way they’ve cleaned themselves for forty years could do with a rethink. Delicate conversation.

The origin story involves Miki Agrawal, who also co-founded period-underwear brand Thinx. In a 2021 interview, she described a thyroid condition that had left her visiting the toilet up to eight times a day. Repeated wiping became so painful that she resorted to showering afterward. Her boyfriend bought her a basic bidet attachment, and she said it changed her life.

Profiles describe it as a Valentine’s Day present. A bold purchase at any stage of a relationship.

TUSHY launched in 2015. Its current company history also credits co-founder Justin Allen, who had encountered bidets while living and studying in Japan and Korea. He returned home wondering why Americans weren’t using them and contacted Agrawal about starting a business.

Much of the world had already worked out the joys of warm water. America needed a brand, some packaging and permission to discuss its own ass.

Agrawal had experience making an awkward subject marketable through Thinx. TUSHY went enthusiastically into the jokes, with “Ask me about my butthole” merchandise and an April Fool’s lipstick range called SkidLip, supposedly matching shades of sphincter. This is all real, I swear.

Now TUSHY wants a Head of Marketing. The advert claims roughly three million bidets sold and category penetration below 10% of US households. Those are company figures, but they explain the ambition: get beyond the people already delighted to discuss their purchase.

I can imagine plenty of potential customers laughing at an ad and doing absolutely nothing. They may assume installation requires a plumber. They may have questions about cold water that they would rather Google using an incognito window.

In this job, you need to find out which hesitation is costing sales. Another excellent butt joke won’t necessarily resolve it.

The brief is serious about e-commerce. You’ll own the marketing organization, report to the CEO and co-founder, and be capable of buying media yourself. It also specifies that you’ll partner with a creative team you don’t manage. A classic setup for the marketing lead to be blamed for work they didn't do.

There’s another commercial challenge. Once someone buys a bidet and likes it, how soon do they need another? The advert wants to build repeat purchasing through subscriptions, consumables and a broader bathroom range – which makes sense on a spreadsheet. The customer still has to want those products from TUSHY. Loving the attachment doesn’t automatically mean surrendering the rest of the bathroom to the brand.

If Taligence had this brief, I’d look at growth and e-commerce marketers from Squatty Potty, Poo-Pourri and Manscaped. I’d actively target people from Dollar Shave Club and Harry’s who could show how they persuaded customers to change a dull, familiar routine.

I’d ask them to bring an example of advertising that made people laugh but failed to sell. What did they change? Anyone can admire the funny version. This job needs someone willing to kill it.

The salary is $175,000 to $225,000 base, with at least 3 days a week in Brooklyn. Benefits include 5 bidets a year to give to friends and family. Christmas could become quite confrontational.

Before accepting, I’d want to understand the team and how much money is available to grow it. The brief covers a substantial amount of work for someone who may also be adjusting bids on a Tuesday evening.

This is a genuinely good marketing job: a real product, a real habit to change, a category with room to grow and a brand that has earned permission to be silly.

But I would hire the person who can look at a brilliant butt joke and say, “It will not sell bidets.” That is the person I would want on the shortlist.

At around 4pm at our offices in Haikou, China, a strange shift change happens. The accountants organizing giant fish shipments or solopreneurs inking extraordinary deals involving concrete all head to the smoking area and get ready to leave. Young people with wide-leg trousers begin to arrive. They work in what we call cross-border commerce. Mostly in their twenties, mostly fluent in English, they speak at machine-gun velocity about almost any consumer product imaginable under a harsh circular light. They can keep going for hours. They leave a trail of ramen packets and neon colored drink bottles in their wake, usually gone by the next morning.

I think about the stamina involved every time I pass them. I’ve spent a career talking people into things and I’d need a lie-down. So SharkNinja’s search for a VP of Global Affiliate Marketing & Live Commerce caught my eye.

For anyone unfamiliar with the company, SharkNinja makes the Shark and Ninja appliances taking up space in kitchens and cupboards around the world, including vacuum cleaners and air fryers. These products suit live selling. Watching someone use a vacuum or cook dinner is strangely compelling.

SharkNinja wants to grow its existing affiliate and live-commerce business towards $1 billion in attributed demand. The brief also requires live commerce to make a positive contribution margin in every market.

Let’s unpack that a sec.

If someone clicks a creator’s link and buys, the creator may get credit. But the customer could already have decided to buy it. A billion is a big number to be arguing about after you’ve accepted the job.

I’d want this VP to know what to outsource and what needs to stay in-house. An agency can run the broadcast. Someone at SharkNinja still has to agree to the offer, make sure the stock exists and work out whether the sales paid for all the grinding.

There is plenty of unglamorous work behind the ring light. Samples have to arrive and creators need paying. Customer service has to fit in somehow.

Watching the people arrive at our offices, I’m struck by how much of this is a working routine. Someone has organized the shift and chosen the products. I’d like to know who trains them, how they judge a good evening’s work and what happens when a product won’t sell. Those are people I would want in this search.

If Taligence had the brief, I’d look at TikTok Shop leaders who have built home-appliance categories or managed substantial seller and creator operations. I’d also call people from QVC and HSN who know how to make a demo sing.

The advert makes a sensible admission: few candidates will have every part of the background SharkNinja wants. It asks them to explain where they would need to hire help. It also rules out applicants whose experience stops at social reach and engagement.

That should save everyone a few interviews. A person can be very good at getting an appliance talked about and have no idea how to run the business selling it.

The US listing advertises $265,000 to $315,000 base in Needham, Massachusetts. There is also a London listing, whose application asks about attending the office 3 days a week. The US salary shouldn’t be assumed to apply in London.

Before accepting, I’d ask how much of the target the existing operation already delivers and what budget is available to close the gap. I would also want to understand whether the team needs building, improving or rescuing.

I like this assignment. You have products that can be demonstrated, customers who can ask questions and sales to examine afterward. There is room for entertaining work.

Somewhere in Haikou tonight, someone is explaining a household appliance to an English-speaking stranger who hadn’t planned to buy one. I’d be interested in meeting the person who hired and trained them.

Next up for Paid Readers. The most democratic job CMO in America today. And a role paying $712K

We are not the agents, nor the employer, nor agents of the employer. But we have the tea.