The Short Version of November
Sydney marketing leaders are hiring fewer people, and they are asking much harder questions of the ones they do hire. Demand for digital marketing talent has not collapsed. It has been narrowed, and the narrowing follows one test: can you show me the revenue line this role touches?
That is what I saw across briefs, shortlists and offer conversations this month. Performance, SEO and growth roles tied to measurable outcomes held up. Generalist, coordinator and brand-support roles got pushed back, trimmed or merged into something bigger.
Some of the figures below need checking against live sources before this goes out. I have marked them [VERIFY] so nothing unconfirmed slips through as fact.
The Rate Squeeze
The macro backdrop explains most of the mood. With the RBA leaning hawkish again, the conversation has shifted from when relief arrives to how long households and businesses can absorb the pressure. [VERIFY: current cash rate, date and size of the latest RBA move, and the exact wording in the most recent Statement on Monetary Policy.]
ABC News Australia ran a piece this month on the “brutal redistribution” at the heart of the RBA’s rate policy. Mortgage holders carry the pain while savers and some asset owners benefit. A related story pointed to banks sitting on billions in savers’ money as rates rise. Both describe the same split, and it matters for marketers because it shapes who is spending and who is not.
When the customer base is stretched, marketing budgets get examined line by line. CFOs are not asking whether marketing matters. They are asking which dollars can be traced to a sale, a lead or a retained customer. Roles that cannot answer that get harder to defend in a budget review.
The ABS household spending and wage price data backs up the caution. Real household budgets are tight, and discretionary categories feel it first. [VERIFY: latest ABS Monthly Household Spending Indicator and Wage Price Index figures, and the CPI print the RBA is reacting to.]
I would not overstate it. This is not a 2020-style freeze. Nobody is cancelling hiring plans wholesale. They are slowing approvals, shrinking headcount asks and adding a second sign-off. The mood is closer to “prove it” than “stop”.
Where Hiring Held Up
The pattern is consistent. Where a role connects directly to revenue, the brief survives the budget meeting.
Performance marketing. Paid search, paid social and marketplace specialists are still being hired, especially in ecommerce, fintech, health and subscription businesses. The emphasis has moved from channel management to margin. Employers want people who talk about contribution margin, payback periods and incrementality, not just ROAS. Lean teams cannot carry anyone who optimises for a vanity metric.
SEO. This one has quietly strengthened. Paid costs are climbing and leaders are looking for compounding returns. Technical SEO and SEO leads who can handle AI search changes, content quality and site performance are in short supply. The brief usually includes a line like “must tie organic to pipeline”, which tells you where the pressure comes from.
Growth and lifecycle. CRM, retention and lifecycle roles are getting more attention because keeping a customer is cheaper than winning one. When acquisition gets expensive, retention becomes the safer bet.
Where it is softer. Social coordinator roles, brand support, generalist marketing executive positions and some content production roles are facing more scrutiny. Many are being absorbed into broader roles, or the work is going to freelancers and AI-assisted workflows. I do not think content as a discipline is shrinking. Content without a commercial brief is.
On the volume data, SEEK’s marketing and communications category is the cleanest public read. [VERIFY: SEEK Employment Report or SEEK job ad volumes for Marketing and Communications, NSW and national, year on year and month on month, for October or November 2026.] My expectation is that volumes sit below the post-pandemic peak, with the sharpest declines in junior and generalist ads and steadier demand in specialist performance and SEO roles. Check that against the actual numbers before relying on it.
LinkedIn Talent Insights offers a second angle. [VERIFY: LinkedIn Talent Insights data for Sydney on hiring rate, job posting growth and talent supply for digital marketing, SEO and performance marketing titles, plus any skills-demand shifts toward analytics and commercial skills.] If the pattern holds, the supply of experienced performance and SEO candidates relative to open roles will look tighter than the supply of generalists. That mismatch is the story.
Senior Titles, Smaller Teams
The senior end of the market is consolidating. One example from overseas: Marketing Week reported that B&M has created a new role of customer and marketing director. Another headline had a former Kimberly-Clark marketing director moving to competitor Essity. Neither is a Sydney story, but they point the same way as the briefs I am seeing locally.
Combining customer and marketing under one accountable leader is a structural decision. It says the business no longer wants brand, acquisition, CX and retention managed as separate fiefdoms with separate budgets and separate excuses. One person owns the customer outcome, and that person is expected to understand the P&L.
Locally, this shows up in a few ways:
Head of Marketing and Head of Growth titles are merging, with a mandate that covers acquisition through to retention. CX and marketing are being pulled under one leader in retail, financial services and subscription businesses. Layers of middle management are being thinned, with fewer managers and more senior individual contributors.
The consequence for hiring is a higher bar on commercial skills. A candidate who can run campaigns beautifully but cannot explain unit economics will struggle at director level now. The reverse is also true: a commercially sharp lead who can read a funnel, challenge an agency and speak to a CFO is being fought over.
I think this is a sensible shift in principle. It also means a lot of capable marketers in the middle of their careers need to broaden their commercial experience, or they will get squeezed out between a smaller team below and a more demanding leader above.
What to Do Before December
The market is not dead. It is disciplined. Those are different problems and they call for different responses.
If you are hiring: lock in your December briefs and budgets now. Approved headcount is easier to defend before the new year reshuffle, and January shortlists will be competitive. Strong candidates tend to sit tight through December, then move quickly once bonuses land and budgets reset. If your brief is not signed off by mid-December, you will be starting from behind.
Write briefs that name the commercial outcome the role owns. Be honest about the salary range, because a vague band costs you the best people early. Decide in advance what a combined or senior role really covers, so you are not asking one person to do three jobs and calling it strategic.
If you are looking: lead with commercial outcomes, not tool lists. A CV that says “Google Ads, Meta, GA4, HubSpot” tells me nothing that a hundred others do not. A CV that says “cut cost per acquisition by 22 percent while holding revenue flat” gets a call. Put numbers first, then the tools you used to get them.
If you are mid-level, build visible commercial range. Ask to sit in on budget conversations, learn how your channel connects to margin, and be able to explain what you would cut if your budget fell by 15 percent. That question is being asked in interviews right now.
If you are senior, expect broader scope and tougher questions about accountability. Employers want one person who owns the result, and they will test whether you actually have.
If you want to talk through your hiring plans for Q1 2027, whether that is a single role, a restructure or just a sense check on salary and availability, I am happy to have that conversation. No pitch, just an honest read of the market.
Figures to Verify Before Publishing
Please confirm the following against primary sources: the current RBA cash rate and latest decision wording, ABS household spending, wage price and CPI data, SEEK marketing and communications ad volumes for NSW and national, and LinkedIn Talent Insights for Sydney digital marketing titles. Confirm also that the B&M and Essity stories are described accurately against the original Marketing Week articles.
The future is bright, let’s go there together!
Thanks for reading,
Cheers Keiran
Big Wave Digital.
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Keiran Hathorn is the CEO & Founder of Big Wave Digital. A Sydney based niche Digital, Blockchain & Technology recruitment company. Keiran leads a high performance, experienced recruitment team, assisting companies of all sizes secure the best talent.
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