This week’s jobs are all asking marketing to do something slightly unreasonable.

Sundance wants to move an institution without disturbing its mythology. Dyson wants growth without surrendering the premium. Joby wants public trust in a flying taxi most people have never seen. Port Corpus Christi wants one person to master 67 bullets, several ladders and the geopolitics of American energy. Atmosphere TV wants advertisers to value an audience that never chose to watch.

These are the roles we enjoy most.

The title may say marketing, communications or commercial strategy. The actual job is usually harder: protect belief while the business changes underneath it.

As ever, we are not the employer, nor agents of the employer. We simply read the job description, look behind the curtain and occasionally wonder who approved bullet #67.

Before we get into the jobs, here's a quick snapshot of the U.S. marketing job market. And… before we do that, a quick reminder that our Q2 report on the in-house market for marketing talent is out next week. If you see it, share it.

Today, there are currently 36,857 live marketing vacancies across the United States, up 10.7% compared with this time last year. Senior roles (Director level and above) account for 5,137 of those openings, representing an even stronger 19.8% year-over-year increase.

The median salary for senior marketing positions now sits at $155,002, while the median across all marketing roles is $92,498.

Median salary by seniority

Median salary in the top hiring cities

I first went to Sundance around 1989, during a brief and improbable spell living in American Fork, Utah. I should add: not as a Mormon. There cannot have been many British kids in town at the time. Strictly speaking, it was still the U.S. Film Festival. The Sundance Film Festival name did not arrive until 1991.

It was a very different creature then. Smaller, stranger and years away from becoming the global cultural machine it later became. The institution behind that machine has now posted two consecutive annual deficits.

Looking back, I sometimes wonder whether part of the reason I later returned to America was that I still had unfinished business. That first chapter ended abruptly after a family feud between my father and grandfather, and I went back to the UK.

So, what unfinished business does Sundance have that requires it to hire a CMO?

Sundance needs to change almost everything people associate with Sundance while convincing them that Sundance itself has not changed.

New CEO David Linde arrived in February. Now Sundance is putting marketing, brand, communications, PR, digital, creative and audience development under one executive. This is partly a new leadership team build and partly an admission that the institution needs one person directing the story.

For more than 40 years, Utah has been part of the product. Now the Festival is moving to Boulder, Colorado. In this role, you have to manage the practical move while protecting the symbolic links between Utah, Robert Redford and independent film. The Festival can change ZIP code. The mythology is harder to pack.

More than that, who is actually directing the thing?

The Labs, Festival, fundraising operation and public programs all seem to believe they represent the “real” Sundance. This person has to build one institution without flattening its internal tribes.

And then there is the money.

The language in the job description makes clear that this role is about revenue as much as reputation. It must strengthen philanthropic participation, earned revenue, sponsorships and audience growth, alongside the usual brand and communications responsibilities.

The Sundance Institute is hardly broke. It ended FY2024 with $66.7 million in net assets. Yet expenses of $47.2 million exceeded revenue by $5.2 million, its second consecutive annual deficit. Contributions accounted for 62% of revenue.

Its previously published donor mix also reveals the political complexity of the assignment. Corporations were the largest group at 38%, followed by individuals at 24%, government entities at 16% and foundations at 11%. Every source of money arrives with a slightly different view of what Sundance should protect, promote or become.

They want 15+ years of experience, with roots in film, media or nonprofit arts. They also want fluency across filmmakers, distributors, talent, press and grassroots cultural ecosystems. That may be too restrictive.

If Taligence had this assignment, we would look beyond the obvious film-festival circuit. A museum, cultural institution, prestige media company or mission-led entertainment platform may provide the stronger hunting ground. We would want someone who has managed donors, members, artists, commercial partners and cultural criticism at the same time.

If the job is still live when you read this, move quickly. Sundance only promises to accept applications for at least one week after opening them on July 17 (although the role made it to Linkedin 4 days back).

Do not pitch yourself as the guardian of Sundance’s soul. Everyone will say that. Show how you would unify the tribes, build a new local audience in Boulder and close the gap between mission and money without turning Sundance into a corporate content factory.

The family feud I mentioned earlier ended with my father and grandfather never speaking again before my grandfather died. Sundance cannot afford that kind of break with its own history.

It is hiring someone to move the institution into its next era without severing the emotional connection to its first one.

Dyson is hiring a VP of Marketing with a job description that reads like a cry for help.

Revenue has fallen two years running… down more than £500 million, then another £440 million to £6.13 billion. The company calls US tariffs "particularly damaging" and admits weak consumer confidence in the US, Germany and China is dragging performance. Meanwhile SharkNinja's global sales rose 15.6% in Q1 2026, its beauty and home-environment business jumped 40.8%, and its cleaning appliances grew 17%. The cheaper brand is no longer sitting beside Dyson on the shelf. It is eating the shelf.

Here is the contradiction Dyson wants this hire to solve: EBITDA rose 18% to £1.11 billion. Operating profit increased 15% to £600 million. Costs came down. The company protected the margin and lost the growth. Now it wants both.

You, as incoming VP will own a three-year US growth strategy, P&L, budgeting, forecasting, ROI, product-range strategy, channel differentiation and retailer go-to-market plans. Brand, media, PR and digital sit inside the mandate, alongside sales and profitability. Dyson even lists top-tier management consulting experience as a preferred qualification.

This is a portfolio capital allocator who happens to be very good at marketing… because Dyson has proven it cannot allocate portfolios without one.

CEO Hanno Kirner wants more products than ever in 2026, across "a range of different price points," with the stated aim of reaching millions of new customers. That phrase is the grenade. Dyson's premium price has always done two jobs: it funds the inventing, and it signals that the inventing is special. Broader price points could recruit customers who currently admire Dyson from the other side of the shop. They could also make people wonder why they should buy the expensive one.

Get this job, and you’ll need to build a price and product ladder where every step makes sense. Entry products recruit new households. Flagships must continue to justify the leap. Promotions cannot train customers to wait. Retailers need enough differentiation to avoid turning every product comparison into a discount war.

The media situation is settled. In March, Omnicom Media won Dyson's global media account (excluding some APAC locations) after a review involving WPP and Publicis, estimated at $502 million in annual spend. IPG Mediabrands had held the account since 2021 and now sits inside Omnicom. The incoming leader will not spend year one choosing a new agency. The machinery has been selected. The assignment is to make it produce measurable US growth.

Three candidate pools make sense here. First, premium hardware marketers from Apple, Samsung, Bose and Sonos who understand how engineering becomes desire. Second, omnichannel beauty leaders from L'Oréal, Estée Lauder, GHD or Shark Beauty who know how to create launch energy across retail, creators and direct channels. Third, portfolio operators from SharkNinja, Breville or YETI who have managed pricing ladders, powerful retail partners and rapid category expansion.

Dyson already has fame, visual distinction and a founder who can make engineering sound heroic. What it does not have is a US growth engine.

A top candidate lining up for this opportunity arrives with a three-year US portfolio plan. Which products recruit new customers? Which create trade-up? Which exist primarily to generate an innovation halo? Where should Dyson accept lower margins to enter a household, and where would lower pricing damage the brand? They should also show how Omnicom's new data and media capabilities will reduce acquisition costs without increasing promotional dependency.

Dyson still knows how to invent products. 13 launches and £400 million of annual R&D are proof. The US challenge is whether it can keep inventing customers willing to pay for them

How do you build public permission for a product people have never used, may not understand, and may not want flying over their homes?

Joby Aviation is a California company building an all-electric flying taxi. So, Uber for the sky, except the vehicle is a sleek six-rotor aircraft carrying a pilot and four passengers at speeds of up to 200 mph. Basically, The Jetsons, if The Jetsons had an FAA certification process and an investor deck.

It is an undeniably compelling vision. But Joby is trying to sell it to passengers, investors, cities, regulators and partners all at once, before most people have seen the product in real life.

Meanwhile, the cash pile is on fire. Joby used $509.9 million in operating cash in 2025 and posted a net loss of $929.8 million, though a lot of that was non-cash valuation and accounting noise. The company raised more than $1 billion during the year and finished December with $1.4 billion in cash and short-term investments. That is real runway. It is also a runway with half a billion dollars a year burning before scaled commercial service has begun. That’s why this Head of Public Relations job is make-or-break.

The role exists to shape Joby’s external story as it moves from prototype to commercial operation. It works closely with the CEO, engineers, product teams and strategic partners to build trust, influence public understanding and support growth.

For all his many, many faults, Elon Musk understands this kind of role instinctively. He turns engineering milestones, delays, explosions and product demos into episodes of an ongoing public drama. The halo does not exist at Joby. And unlike Musk, Joby cannot afford sloppy theater.

Joby has a more restrained founder, a product most people have never experienced, and a category that can sound either like an environmental breakthrough or rich people’s helicopters, depending on who gets there first with the story.

If you get this job, you manage that interpretation.

Investors need to believe the money is funding methodical progress, not a never-ending science project. Regulators need confidence in the process. Cities need to believe the service will improve transportation rather than add noise and anxiety above the neighborhoods. Trump would probably prefer they were powered with crude oil, not batteries. Consumers need to want it. Partners need to stay committed. Employees need to feel they are building something meaningful and safe.

One accident, regulatory failure or damaging exposé would not necessarily destroy Joby. But it could reset years of accumulated trust at exactly the moment the company needs permission to begin operating.

That is the weird truth of the assignment.

Until the aircraft is operating at scale, belief remains one of its most valuable assets.

The Head of PR is the person charged with keeping that belief airborne.