Asset management tops salaries in product management, marketing

Professionals in asset and wealth management can command premium salaries in the fields of product management and development, as well as marketing and communications, the latest Parity Consulting Salary Guide and Market Insights reveals.

For the 2026 financial year, employers in the asset and wealth management sector can pay between $10,000 and $20,000 more than those in the banking, technology, insurance and public sectors for skills in product management and development.

Head of product roles in asset and wealth, for example, can command salaries of up to $270,000, which is $20,000 more than the upper end of salaries in banking and insurance.

Product marketing, governance and designer roles in asset and wealth management can also command a higher salary premium.

For digital, marketing and communications salaries in the same sector, CX managers ($130k-$150k), external communications managers ($130k-$150k) and digital marketing managers ($140k-$160k) sit at the upper end.

Across financial services, tech, professional services and government, the median salary for a data scientist is between $160,000 and $180,000, while a data engineer, data product manager and senior data analyst can each earn between $140,000 and $160,000.

Victoria Butt, the founder and chief executive of Parity Consulting, said findings from the last financial year indicate the "market is open, but people are selective."

Some 79% of respondents are open to new opportunities, yet only 23% are actively searching.

"This points to a workforce that is disillusioned but discerning. Compensation remains the primary driver of movement, followed closely by career progression and burnout," she said.

Furthermore, the top concerns among employees that leadership typically overlooks are burnout, career stagnation and change fatigue.

When asked which problems leaders are ignoring most, Butt said burnout ranked number one across all disciplines, cited by more respondents than change fatigue, career stagnation, and leadership capability combined.

"With teams absorbing the impact of restructures, AI disruption, and cost-cutting simultaneously, this is a risk that cannot be managed by silence," she said.

Only 8.3% of respondents said AI is fully embedded in their organisation with clear governance and consistent workflows.

The majority (37%) described it as "patchy, inconsistent adoption" and a further 16% said guidance exists but is simply not enforced.

"The restructures, redundancies, and role compression of the past 12 to 18 months are leaving a lasting mark on sentiment and mobility. We don't think that pressure is fully resolved yet," Butt said.