A quick note on vantage point. We’re in Hainan this week, attending the CICPE (China International Consumer Products Expo), the only national-level exhibition in China dedicated to premium consumer goods.

Think of it as China’s official "Welcome Mat" for global luxury and high-end retail.

While we are here with operators building for a very different global consumer reality: more optimism, less distractions and a gradual move away from pricing and distribution to brand, loyalty and performance.

Across the pieces you’re about to read: Anthropic, Rocket Companies, Peet’s Coffee, Din Tai Fung, the British Embassy Tokyo, Richemont, and Sony Music ANZ…you’ll see the same tension: every role is now a hybrid. For Richemont it's merchandising & performance. For the British Embassy it's diplomatic & commercial. These are different tensions requiring different skills.

Back in the US, hiring for marketing roles is still ticking along nicely. There are currently 39,044 open positions, marking a 6.8% increase year over year. At the more senior end, 5,127 of those roles sit at director level and above - a healthy 14.3% rise compared to last year.  

Anthropic is scaling its commercial engine while rivals maintain a significant lead in the organizational mass of their dedicated integrated marketing teams. This $570,000 mandate seeks a strategic conductor to lead a multi-disciplinary group spanning brand, growth, and organic channels. While OpenAI has already professionalized this function with a mature team of five dedicated integrated marketing leads, including a VP of Integrated Marketing & Ops, Anthropic is looking for an architect to unify its narrative across technical and non-technical prosumer segments.

On paper, the goal is awareness and preference. In practice, this is a hunt for a leader who can win the second tab. Breaking the habit where users treat ChatGPT as a default home base (roughly 82% user loyalty) and only switch to Claude for high-level reasoning and refinement.

The real job here is moving from ‘secondary tool’ to ‘primary thinking partner’. While OpenAI and Google rely on scale and inherent embedding into search and workspaces, Anthropic’s strategy hinges on becoming the intentional choice for users who prioritize clarity, ethics and nuanced reasoning. You, doing this job, must prove that Claude’s ad-free, space-to-think positioning is a productivity gain that makes or saves money, rather than just a privacy policy.

This also requires navigating a geopolitical theater where rivals are leaning into military contracts, while Anthropic reframes its recent supply chain risk labels from the government as a potential badge of Independence. You might be marketing conscience as a competitive advantage whilst already labeled a public menace.

If Taligence were given this assignment, we’d hunt for a taste-maker with the editorial authority to say no. We want a story-killer who prioritizes specificity over reach and resonance over scale - someone who understands that the risk for Anthropic is saying too many things rather than saying the wrong thing.

This means poaching from the experience vanguards at Figma (an easy target if you’ve been watching the stock price) or perhaps Notion. Operators who have already solved how to make users feel sharper and more effective without dumbing down the interface. Our actual bet, however, lands on Apple and Adobe. From Apple, we’d hunt for a leader inside their broader marketing machine who understands how to build a high-margin ecosystem that users inhabit. For Adobe, the target is a veteran of their prosumer magic era who has spent years making complex creative tools feel intuitive and indispensable. We would even look at prosumer-native operators, creator-operators from Substack or W+K who have built cult followings around thinking and productivity, solving for an identity where using Claude makes you a certain type of thinker.

To win any role at Anthropic, you have to pass Anthropic’s Culture-Fit Assessment…their litmus test for talent who know when to use AI for insight, but not for voice. Since the role appears to rely on expert influence rather than direct headcount, you must prove you are an elite cat-herder capable of driving a unified vision across a fragmented, high-IQ team of operators (who all have big ideas).

Arrive with a 90-day plan focused on Origination (net-new connected campaign frameworks) and a ruthless list of narratives you’d like to kill to find focus. Show how you will use Claude’s edge in vibe coding [natural language driven development] as a wedge to ensure prosumers start their work in Claude rather than finishing it there.

This hire signals Anthropic’s intent to finally force a collision between pure reasoning, product utility, and brand storytelling to challenge the established market defaults.

Paid CMO Ladder members already saw this chart 14 days ago. It's a visual representation of the "mass" of the marketing function at the frontier US AI models.

Don't sleep on the rest of the Frontier AI Talent Report. Sign up for paid membership today to see the forensic breakdown of where these teams sit, what they do, and where they are growing, plus early bird access to future company and industry-specific talent reports. Join the club, don't just read the group chat.

This is the most consequential performance marketing leadership listing in the country, and I saw it pop into my Linkedin feed a couple of weeks ago.

The fact it’s not been torn down suggests that the aspirant pool is still not ‘just right’ even with a public share by the CMO on LinkedIn. Fair enough. They want a Unicorn.

In mid-January 2024, we covered Jonathan Mildenhall’s appointment as Rocket's first CMO, noting his mission to turn a transaction-heavy mortgage giant into a fully-integrated cultural icon. Fourteen months later, the brand-half of that mandate is working. Unaided awareness has climbed from 18% to 41%, fueled by a Super Bowl LX play that generated an estimated $195M in media value. Now comes the math bit. This $818,000 EVP search is for the operator who can capture that awareness and convert it into a 1-in-6 share of the US mortgage market. Reporting to Mildenhall on the 20-person Chief Executive Leadership Team, this role oversees a $1B+ budget and a team of 100 responsible for search, social, programmatic, and a massive direct mail operation.

If you win this role, be warned – you are not entering a growth-friendly market. As of April 2026, the housing sector is defined by a protracted stall where mortgage rates have recently spiked back to 6.5% after a brief dip. This effectively freezes sales volume at 30% below peak levels. While national home price growth has slowed to a crawl, inventory is finally rising - up to 4% in some markets - but buyers remain sidelined by payment sensitivity. Lucky Homeowners with pandemic-era 3% rates are holding onto equity, refusing to trade debt service costs for a new 6.5% note.

Rocket needs a brand-savvy Capital Allocator who treats Mildenhall’s 41% awareness jump as high-octane fuel to decarbonize CAC. Professor John Dawes identified that only 5% of a market is actively shopping at any given time. Your job is to capture that sliver with ruthless efficiency while the brand machine predisposes the other 95% to choose Rocket/Redfin before they ever start their search.

With a portfolio touching millions of Americans and Canadians, the highest ROI is the Servicing Flywheel. You must build a performance engine that triggers the moment a current Rocket client even thinks about a refi or a trade-up, while simultaneously managing the transition between Redfin discovery and Rocket Mortgage closing to ensure the world’s first integrated homeownership platform functions as a single customer acquisition funnel.

If Taligence were leading this search, we’d hunt for Finance or Telco operators from GEICO, or AT&T. These operators live and die by incrementality and are comfortable with the unsexy but high-volume worlds of direct mail and affiliate lead-buying. We would also look at high-velocity marketplace leaders from Booking.com, Expedia, or Wayfair who run structured experimentation at insane scale and understand how to manage attribution chaos. Finally, we’d look for the Michigan Anchor alumni from Ally Financial or Quicken who possess cultural fluency with the Detroit OS, talent community, agencies, and the ability to move fast without fighting internal battles.

To win this room, you have to pass the Mildenhall Authenticity Test. Jonathan values the "Solo Builder" spirit and the marketer who rejects the false choice of Brand vs. Performance. You must show how you will use AI-enabled creative to test "Neighborhood" vibes against hard conversion data at a scale of 1 in 6 American mortgages. This hire signals Rocket’s intent to engineer a collision between pure brand desire and decisive performance action.

[Disclosure: As a $RKT shareholder, I have skin in this game]

While reporting from Hainan, replete with soy- and vinegar-soaked baozi and jiaozi, we’re tracking a mandate for a marketing lead at the Din Tai Fung Restaurant Support Center in Arcadia.

The "Asian Brand Translator" archetype is the highest signal here. Din Tai Fung has scaled globally by resisting the urge to behave like a traditional marketing-led company. The core challenge is introducing a professionalized marketing function, specifically CRM and data-led loyalty, without breaking the "earned-first" magic that has defined the brand since 1972.

The founding story is compelling. A cooking oil shop in Taipei lost its edge when packaged brands took over, so the owners started selling dumplings on the side. The dumplings won, not through marketing, but through obsessive consistency that turned process into loyalty. Din Tai Fung scaled globally by treating every location like the original shop, proving you can grow without ever really “doing marketing.”

At $269,400, this search focuses on a Michelin-recognized brand that has achieved global cult status through a limited-media strategy. The primary responsibility involves managing the yield of a business where demand consistently outstrips capacity and 90-minute wait times serve as the baseline guest experience. The role requires translating enterprise priorities into initiatives that increase same-store sales and lifetime value without compromising the brand's quality standards. A central requirement is experience in capital-efficient environments, as the brand avoids traditional coupons or aggressive advertising in favor of earned-first growth.

The focus is the professionalization of the guest relationship…specifically building a CRM and loyalty infrastructure that identifies the customer while maintaining premium hospitality standards.

If Taligence landed this search, we would prioritize the Asian-Origin Translators from brands like 85°C Bakery Cafe, Haidilao, or Tim Ho Wan. These operators have already navigated the complexities of cultural translation, ensuring that a brand’s East-to-West expansion doesn't dilute the underlying DNA or menu integrity. We would also target High-Growth Scale Operators from Sweetgreen, Cava, or early-expansion Shake Shack. These talents understand the tension between high throughput and brand integrity, specifically how to scale digital ordering and loyalty programs at the store level without over-cooking the guest experience. A contrarian candidate might be an Experience Purist from Apple Retail or Soho House, as these are experience-first brands where marketing is a byproduct of curation and physical experience. They are philosophically aligned with Din Tai Fung's reliance on physical space a key media channel.

Success in this position depends on the ability to introduce marketing discipline without "adding marketing" in a way that feels foreign to the brand (or the family). Candidates must demonstrate expertise in earned-first strategies and provide a plan for owning the pre-dining experience, ensuring the queue functions as a productive brand touchpoint. This hire marks Din Tai Fung's intent to scale its North American footprint while ensuring the operational hospitality remains as precise and authentic as the product itself.

Peet’s Coffee is navigating a defining pivot. While the brand is a 1966 heritage icon, the business was recently part of JDE Peet’s, which was fully acquired by Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) on April 1, 2026, in a deal valued at $18.4 billion. Following a brief integration period, KDP intends to spin off its global coffee assets…including Peet’s…into an independent, publicly traded Global Coffee Co. by the end of 2026. This $375,000 SVP mandate, reporting directly to the President of Peet's, is a search for an operator who can protect brand equity while the company prepares for its debut as a standalone global coffee powerhouse.

The real job here is dictated by portfolio logic and supply chain volatility rather than pure brand storytelling. While analysts have previously been neutral on the stock, the merger creates a global champion that must now manage significant margin pressure. Coffee input costs surged by over €1.6B last year, and although current market forecasts suggest a record 2026/27 crop in Brazil could expand the global surplus to 10 million bags, the present reality is defined by high-frequency volatility and shipping disruptions. The incoming SVP must prove that Peet’s can remain the premium authority in a massive portfolio, utilizing pricing discipline and distribution efficiency to navigate the convenience gap without alienating its loyal enthusiast base.

If Taligence were leading this search, we would prioritize the Portfolio Pragmatists from companies such as Kraft Heinz, General Mills, or Mondelez. These operators understand how to protect a heritage brand’s soul, operating inside a massive, efficiency-obsessed corporate machine. We would also target leaders from Williams-Sonoma or YETI who have used pricing power to protect margins during inflationary cycles, alongside ‘Scale-to-Sale’ veterans who have managed major spin-offs at companies like Haleon or Kenvue. These candidates possess the tenacity to keep a marketing team focused on the consumer while the C-suite focuses on the balance sheet of a newly public entity.

Success in this position depends on the ability to pass the One-Team Litmus Test. Peet's is a true war-room environment requiring a leader on the ground in Emeryville 4 days a week to foster a cohesive culture across retail, grocery, and digital channels. If you’re in an interview loop, you must demonstrate a deep understanding of the digital consumer journey, specifically online-to-retail conversion strategies, and have the analytical rigor to defend a high-stakes marketing budget to a board currently obsessed with cost synergies and deleveraging. This hire signals whether Peet’s will remain a legacy steward or attempt to reclaim its status as the category's original cultural authority under its new global coffee banner.

A few of you mentioned enjoying last week’s handpicked APAC marketing roles over $200K, so we’ve taken the hint. Consider it a fledgling tradition, back again, and still reserved exclusively for our paid subscribers 👇