Sydney, Australia – 10th February 2026 – Aquent, a global workforce solutions company, has released its 2026 Australian Salary Guide focused on marketing, design, and technology professionals, offering a data-driven view of remuneration trends from the past year, as well as insights into the current labour market.
As Artificial Intelligence augments 90% of the Australian workforce, hiring managers in marketing, design, and technology are being advised to abandon traditional job titles in favour of “skill stacks”, according to the newly released Aquent 2026 Australian Salary Guide.
The guide analyses 5,404 real-time salaries, revealing a labour market defined by “contradictory forces”, with 67% of businesses reporting workforce shortages despite stagnant wage growth in many sectors. The data signals a decisive shift toward “AI Orchestration”, a model where humans steer strategy while AI handles execution, fundamentally changing how teams are structured and compensated.
Monique Richards, Managing Director of Aquent in Australia, adds, “The true competitive advantage now lies in ‘AI orchestration’ — finding the hybrid talent capable of steering strategy while technology handles the execution”.
Key Findings for Hiring Leaders:
- The Rise of “Skill Stacks”: Employers are moving away from paying for static job titles. Instead, compensation is increasingly anchored to “skill stacks” — practical combinations of technical, digital, and human capabilities (e.g., combining Product Management with AI Governance) that deliver immediate business value.
- The “Human” Premium: While automation handles routine tasks, the value of human-centric skills has risen. Salaries in Account Management and Strategy grew by 4.7%, outpacing the industry average of 3.1%. This underscores the market's reliance on senior leaders who can manage complex client relationships and shape long-term strategy.
- The Executive Experience Gap: C-Suite salaries are growing at 5.3%, significantly higher than the 3.1% average for directors and individual contributors. This premium reflects the critical need for leaders capable of navigating digital transformation and regulatory shifts, but it is creating a widening “experience gap” between entry-level staff and executive leadership.
- Gender Pay Gap Narrows: The industry is seeing positive momentum, with the gender pay gap in marketing, design, and technology narrowing to 3.56%, a significant improvement from 5.33% the previous year.
Emerging Roles and Hybrid Talent
The guide highlights that the most consequential decisions companies make in 2026 will hinge on how they adopt AI. This has sparked demand for emerging “hybrid” roles that blend traditional expertise with new technical literacies.
High-value emerging roles identified in the guide include:
- AI Product Manager: Median salary of $160,000.
- AI Automation Engineer: Median salary of $140,000.
- AI Conversation Designer: Median salary of $130,000
Recommendations for Hiring Managers
To navigate this transition, Aquent advises organisations to:
- Audit Job Descriptions: Anchor compensation to skill depth rather than generic titles. Define the specific high-value skills required, such as AI literacy and data engineering.
- Invest in Internal Mobility: With executive premiums rising, companies must mitigate the “experience gap” by investing in mentoring and upskilling existing employees rather than relying solely on external recruitment.
- Implement Competency-Based Pay: Moving to transparent, competency-linked pay frameworks can improve retention and incentivise continuous learning, which is essential as roles evolve.
About the Data The Aquent 2026 Australian Salary Guide analysed 5,404 salaries on 17th December 2025, using real-time data from Aquent’s ‘Compare My Salary’ tool and the Economic Research Institute.
Aquent's comprehensive Salary Guide is a resource for job seekers and employers alike. Further explore the data by downloading Aquent's 2026 Australian Salary Guide here.
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About the Aquent 2026 Australian Salary Guide:
The Aquent 2026 Australian Salary Guide is a comprehensive resource for hiring leaders in the marketing, design, and technology sectors, analysing 5,404 real-time salaries to provide statistical data on remuneration trends. Beyond listing base salaries for over 100 roles, the guide examines the “contradictory forces” of the current labour market, where workforce shortages persist despite stagnant wage growth. The guide explores the impact of AI augmentation, the narrowing gender pay gap, and the rise of hybrid “skill stacks” over traditional job titles. It combines quantitative data from Aquent’s real-time “Compare My Salary” tool and the Economic Research Institute with strategic recommendations to help organisations balance technology investments with employee development.
About Aquent:
Aquent is the leading global work solutions company specialising in marketing, design and technology. We partner with businesses to deliver the talent, technology, and resources they need to excel. From bespoke recruitment solutions and building scalable, on-demand teams, to creative strategy and project management, we’re making the future of work better for everyone.
Learn more at aquent.com.au