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Inside H1 2025: Salaries, Contract Rates & Hiring Trends

Author

Nali Sutipayakul
July 30, 2025

The market’s changed. So have the roles and the rules.

Creative Strategists. Growth PMs. ROI-driven creators. Freelance pipelines. We break down what’s shifting.

💡 Inside the Market: What We’re Seeing

  • Creator & Community Roles: Influencer and community marketing jobs are picking up, with companies focusing more on ROI (CAC & ROAS) over vanity metrics.

  • B2B Demand Gen Isn’t A Catch-All: The best teams don’t try to do everything at once. They move prospects through the entire funnel, but focus on what the business needs right now.


  • Product Hiring Flip: Layoffs flooded the market with senior PMs, making it an employer’s market. Growth PMs are leading the charge - 50% of our PM placements in H1 were growth-focused.

  • B2B Product Design Is a Tight Market: Strong demand for B2B product designers, but fewer candidates are actively looking. 


  • Creative Strategists Surge: Placements for Growth/Performance Creative Strategists are up 75% from last year. It’s a niche, emerging title which can hard to source without deep network access.

  • Freelancing & Contract Work Are Booming: More companies are hiring senior talent on a project basis, leveraging contract roles for flexibility and speed. For candidates, these roles are increasingly a fast track to full-time. In H1 2025, 18% of contractors we placed converted to full-time, a signal that companies want to “try before they buy.”

Growing your team? 👇

⭐️ Contractor Spotlight

Below is a curated list of freelance and contract talent available for short-term or project-based work. If you’d like an intro, just hit reply to this email.

📣 Product & Content Design

Justin Marine | Sr. Product Designer | Portfolio

  • Previously at Adobe, Evernote, Upwork, and Glassdoor

  • Based in SF, with experience designing 0-1 products across web & mobile

  • All-inclusive rate depends on project scope & duration, available in 1 week

Brian Marder | Staff Content Designer | Portfolio

  • Previously at Netflix, Apple, and Spotify

  • Based in NYC, with experience leading copy, UX, content strategy, and AI integration

  • At Netflix, he focused on monetization through retention, acquisition, and partnerships

  • All-inclusive rate $180-$225/hr, available immediately

 💡 Creative

Hannah VanderPoel | Sr. Copywriter/ACD | Portfolio

  • Previously at Dentsu, Adobe, and Spotify

  • Based in Chicago, specializing in social-first content and brand campaigns across tech

  • All-inclusive rate $150-$200/hr, available immediately

Hansen Hossain | Creative Producer | Portfolio

  • Previously at Airbnb, Reddit, and Funko

  • Based in LA, with experience leading global video shoots and reducing campaign production timelines

  • Recently, led end-to-end production for Airbnb’s Summer 2025 revamp

  • All-inclusive rate $115-$140/hr, available immediately

⚡️ Marketing

Ashley Johnson | Social Media Manager | Portfolio

  • Previously at Beats by Dre (Apple), JustFab, and Function of Beauty

  • Based in LA, with experience leading content strategy, narrative development, and community growth across platforms

  • At Beats, she brought content in-house and scaled their TikTok to ~600k followers

  • All-inclusive rate $120-150/hr, available immediately

Evelyn Garcia | Creative & Marketing Ops

  • Previously at Netflix, Amazon Studios, Riot Games, and Sony

  • Based in LA, with 10+ years of experience leading 360 campaigns across AV, digital, social, experiential, and OOH for major film, TV, and gaming releases including Squid Game, Ozark, and Black Mirror.

  • All-inclusive rate $110/hr, available immediately

If any of these stand out, just reply! We’re happy to set up an intro or send over more info. 😊

✨ Behind the Scenes at Creative People

We’ve been busy building community, both online and off:

If you’re looking to hire for your team or have any feedback, reach out to us at [email protected].