Hiring in Sales and Marketing (Contract): Guide and Trends in 2026

Demand ticks up for contract talent

Singapore’s businesses are set to end the year with smaller Sales & Marketing teams, as US tariffs and AI adoption rattled the hiring market in 2025.

According to Aishah Jamall, Senior Consultant at Robert Walters Singapore, businesses were more cautious when hiring due to economic uncertainty. “Instead of sourcing replacements locally, many open roles were often offshored to Malaysia or Thailand. Contracts were also shorter, going from 12 months down to 6,” she notes.

Replacement hiring was even unnecessary in some cases as more tasks got integrated with AI. As a result, candidates with purely executional backgrounds and skillsets had lesser bargaining power when negotiating compensation.

Read on to find out more about the labour market and hiring trends for Singapore’s Sales & Marketing professionals in 2026, with a focus on contract positions.

Offshoring, AI focus continues

Demand for entry-level executional roles will continue to soften in 2026, while marketers who can use AI tools across workflows will have a stronger footing in the labour market. 

Senior digital specialists have a distinct advantage. In particular, Aishah expects to see increased demand for customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing automation specialists.

Teams will also be staffed with talent from different countries as companies continue to explore regional talent models and hire contract employees across borders.

Top roles and skills in demand

In 2026, there will be strong demand for CRM and marketing automation specialists, AI-powered content strategists and AI-enabled performance and growth marketers.

Soft skills that are most highly sought after are commercial and strategic thinking, agility and adaptability. Employers will also value strong communicators who can define and drive compelling goals. 

Go beyond execution to get ahead of AI

Within contract hiring, junior-level and executional roles – like content executive, social media assistant, performance marketing ops assistants and basic CRM – are most at risk of integration with AI. These positions tend to revolve around repetitive, executional tasks such as scheduling and reporting, which can be easily automated.

Aishah’s advice for professionals looking to safeguard their careers against AI is to take more ownership of outcomes, instead of simply executing tasks only. They will need to demonstrate how they plan to increase conversions and grow sales pipelines, helping the business achieve better return on investment.

Since many workflows now entail the use of AI, candidates should also shore up their skillsets in this area, with the aim of leveraging the technology to improve marketing outcomes fast. Focus areas include prompting and automation, data and analytics fundamentals and martech literacy.

Lastly, Aishah recommends strengthening soft skills and industry relationships, as these are domains that cannot be touched by AI.

A healthy and robust network gives candidates access to more opportunities. In addition, attributes like commercial judgment and culturally-informed creativity also provide a competitive edge.

Advice for talent attraction and retention

Candidates are now more cautious when exploring contract positions, with Aishah noting, “Many professionals are wary about start-ups. There’s a genuine concern about entering sham companies that don’t have a robust business model. In addition, they are also less likely to move if an opportunity offers only a small wage increment.”

Companies thus need to project confidence and clarity to successfully appeal to talent.

In hiring, speed is essential for clinching top talent, and companies can show decisiveness by keeping interview processes to one or two rounds. Aishah also suggests establishing budgets, purpose of the role and key performance indicators first in order to embark on the search more intentionally.

To retain talent, companies can assure employees by engaging them in open conversations around their career outlook and growth pathways. These form larger efforts around succession planning, where key talents are identified for succession and provided with skills training and career mobility opportunities. Companies should also set aside funds for AI and marketing tech training, as these help employees keep up with the latest skills on the market.

Salaries fall

In 2026, Aishah anticipates that wage growth will stagnate, or possibly even fall for some executional roles.

Find out more

Request access to our 2026 Salary Survey to benchmark salaries and to find out more about key hiring trends for Sales & Marketing contract professionals in Singapore.