.png)
The 5 Most Requested Roles in AdTech & Performance Media for H2 2026
From AI-fluent performance strategists to offshore team leads here are the five roles ugp is being asked to fill most often across SEA heading into H2 2026, and what makes each one hard to find.
H2 planning is well underway.
Across our conversations with clients in Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia over the past few months, the same roles keep coming up. Not the same job titles those change constantly but the same underlying briefs. The same gaps. The same profiles that everyone needs and nobody can find easily.
Here's what we're seeing.
1. AI-fluent performance marketing strategists
The brief has changed. It used to read "5+ years performance marketing, strong DSP knowledge." Now it reads or should read "someone who can interpret what the AI is doing, make commercial decisions from it, and hold a regional campaign strategy together across multiple markets."
AI is reshaping junior tasks but heightening the premium on human strategy and data literacy (Addison Group Digital Marketing Hiring Trends & Workforce Planning Guide, 2026). That shift is showing up in every search we run. Execution is being automated. The strategic layer the person who can translate platform output into business outcome is in short supply.
What makes this role hard to fill: supply looks high on paper. Every performance marketer has run campaigns. Very few can genuinely operate at the strategic level the brief requires. And every open role has a different platform stack, which makes each search more specific than it looks.
What employers are asking for: Regional campaign ownership, AI tool fluency, commercial accountability, multi-platform experience (DV360, The Trade Desk, Meta and often more).
Salary range (Singapore): S$6,000–S$10,000/month at mid-level. AI fluency and genuine regional scope push the ceiling above that. (Source: marketingagency.sg, 2026)
2. Programmatic yield analysts & publisher-side specialists
This is the role nobody talks about loudly and the one causing the most friction in hiring pipelines right now.
As programmatic becomes more complex and publisher-side revenue optimisation becomes more strategic, the demand for people who understand SSP integrations, ad stack troubleshooting, header bidding and yield management has grown sharply. The talent pool hasn't kept pace.
Most candidates in this space have DSP-side experience. Publisher-side depth the kind that comes from sitting on the supply side, optimising for revenue rather than spend is genuinely rare. And it's growing fastest in Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore, where publishers are scaling fast and building out proper programmatic operations for the first time.
What employers are asking for: SSP experience (Magnite, PubMatic, Index Exchange), ad stack troubleshooting, revenue optimisation, header bidding knowledge.
Salary range (Singapore): Average S$102,482 annually for programmatic media managers, with senior specialists reaching S$127,157. Publisher-side depth commands a premium above these figures. (Source: ERI SalaryExpert, 2026)
3. Regional revenue leads & area sales directors
"Regional" means something different now.
The brief used to mean a Singapore-based role with occasional trips to KL. Now it means genuinely managing Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia building relationships in each market, understanding local buying dynamics, and driving revenue across the whole region from a single base.
Recruiters have noted a big push for talent with full regional Southeast Asia/APAC exposure clients ask for "plug-and-play" leaders who can manage Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia all from one base (ugp, The 3 Roles Reshaping AdTech Hiring in SEA, 2025). The candidates who can do this with real relationships in each market, not just regional seniority on a CV are rare and they know it.
What employers are asking for: Hands-on sales track record, genuine multi-market relationships, the ability to be both strategic and commercially hands-on, experience navigating post-merger client structures.
Salary range (Singapore): S$12,000–S$18,000/month for genuine multi-market regional leads, based on ugp placements. Niche skills in performance and AI command further premiums while generalists see limited growth. (Sources: ugp placement data H1 2026; Morgan McKinley Singapore Salary Guide, 2026)
4. Marketing automation & MarTech managers
Marketing automation manager roles saw 10% year-over-year growth tracking with broader marketing automation trends as more organisations look to scale their MarTech capabilities (Robert Half 2026 Salary Guide).
The driver in SEA specifically: brands and agencies are consolidating their tech stacks. They've bought the tools. Now they need the person who can actually run them connecting CRM, CDP, paid media and analytics into something that works as a system rather than a collection of subscriptions.
This role sits at an awkward intersection that most hiring managers don't know how to brief for. It's not a pure technologist. It's not a pure marketer. It's someone who understands both and can build workflows that actually get used.
What employers are asking for: Hands-on experience with platforms like HubSpot, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Marketo or Adobe; ability to connect tech capability to campaign outcome; project management alongside technical fluency.
Salary range (Singapore): Digital and performance marketing skills add S$1,500–S$2,500/month above peers at Manager level. MarTech-specific automation expertise sits at the top of that premium band. (Source: skillup.sg, 2026)
5. Offshore performance media team leads
This one reflects a structural shift rather than a single role type.
Companies building offshore execution hubs in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia don't just need junior talent they need a team lead who can build the culture, set the operational foundation and attract stronger people to a brand that candidates in that market haven't heard of yet.
We've placed enough of these to know: the team lead hire is the most important hire in an offshore build. Get it right and the rest of the team follows. Get it wrong and you spend 12 months fixing it.
What employers are asking for: Programmatic or performance media background, strong operational instinct, the ability to manage up to HQ expectations and across to local market realities and enough credibility in the local market to attract good people.
Salary range: Varies significantly by market. Philippines and Malaysia hubs run 40–60% below Singapore equivalent roles which is the cost advantage driving offshore hub growth. Team lead salaries are set at a premium above the hub average to attract the right profile. (Source: ugp placement data H1 2026)
Note: All Singapore salary figures reflect base salary. Variable pay and performance bonuses of 10–20% are standard at Manager level and above in tech and financial services.
If you're hiring for any of these rolesNone of them are straightforward to brief for. None of them are well-served by a job board post. And all of them require a recruiter who knows the difference between a candidate who looks right on paper and one who will actually work.
65% of marketing and creative leaders plan to expand permanent headcount in the second half of 2026, while 45% say finding skilled professionals is more challenging than it was a year ago (Robert Half Demand for Skilled Talent Report, June 2026). The demand is real. The pipeline is tight. And the companies moving fastest with the clearest briefs and the most consistent processes are the ones closing the right candidates before anyone else gets to them.
If a role on this list is open on your team right now, the brief is the first thing worth reviewing. Not the pipeline. Not the recruiter. The brief.
If you're one of these candidates, The profiles above are in genuine demand. Not because the market is easy it isn't but because the specific combination of skills each role requires is hard to find, and the companies that need them are actively looking.
If your background sits in one of these five categories, the question isn't whether there are opportunities. It's whether the right people know you exist.
Most of the candidates we place weren't actively looking. They were just visible to the right people at the right time. If you want to make sure you're part of those conversations in H2 send us your CV.
If you're sitting with any of these questions right now:
→ Are we briefing these roles in a way that actually reflects what we need?
→ Do we have the right pipeline to find passive candidates in these categories?
→ Are we moving fast enough to secure this talent before our competitors do?
Talk to us.chat@uncommonlygoodpeople.com
Sources
- Robert Half Demand for Skilled Talent Report, June 2026 — roberthalf.com
- Robert Half 2026 Salary Guide — roberthalf.com
- Addison Group Digital Marketing Hiring Trends & Workforce Planning Guide, 2026 — addisongroup.com
