Which professions are in demand for IT specialists in 2026?

Job opportunities in the technology sector vary depending on the specialization. By the end of 2026, vacancies for product managers have increased, while growth in the engineering sector has slowed down. In the field of design, the number of open positions has reached a record low. Artificial intelligence skills have become one of the primary requirements for many professions. These data points are cited in an analysis published by Lenny's Newsletter on November 10.

The analysis is based on data from TrueUp, which covers vacancies from over 9,000 employers in technology companies. It also examines data from Live Data Technologies, which tracks career changes for 124 million professionals. The recruitment figures reflect the situation in the USA.

Opportunities for product managers have increased

Since March 2023, open vacancies for product managers have increased by 75 percent. Calculated from the beginning of 2023, the growth is 56 percent. In the engineering field, vacancies have increased by 43 percent.

Recruitment statistics in the USA also show a relatively favorable situation for product managers. In 2021, product managers accounted for 16 percent of all hired professionals. Now, this figure has reached 21 percent.

However, an increase in vacancies does not mean that hiring has grown at the same rate. The analysis notes that the hiring rate for product managers has remained stable in recent years.

Growth in engineering has almost stopped

Growth in vacancies for engineers was 29 percent in 2024 and 15 percent in 2025. In the last year, this figure has dropped to 2.5 percent. Currently, the number of open engineering positions at technology companies is lower than it was in March.

In the USA, about 113,000 software engineers were hired between May 2025 and April 2026. In 2022, 239,000 people were employed. Thus, the current figure is less than half of the result from that period.

Nevertheless, demand remains high in certain areas of engineering. Vacancies for recruiters have nearly tripled since mid-2023. Forward deployed engineer positions have grown 4.6 times in a year, reaching approximately 1,500. Cybersecurity engineering is also a field with growing demand.

Demand for mobile and frontend engineers has decreased by almost 50 percent over the last year.

Decline in design and user research

Worldwide, there are only 1,900 open vacancies for product designers at technology companies. This is 28 percent less than a year ago. Companies in the USA hired 12,600 product designers in the last 12 months. In 2022, this number had reached 27,600.

Demand for user experience (UX) researchers has fallen even further. About 1,800 specialists were hired in the USA in the last year, while in 2022, their number was 5,300. The one-year decline is 66 percent. Worldwide, the number of open vacancies in this field stands at 108.

Employers are asking for artificial intelligence skills

The composition of skills required in technology company vacancies has also changed. LLM has become the most mentioned skill for product managers. Claude is in third place, and Cursor, OpenAI, and MCP are among the most frequent requirements.

For engineers, Python has maintained its leading position. At the same time, LLM has begun to be mentioned more often than Java in vacancies. Among designers, Figma is still a high-demand tool. However, artificial intelligence programs like Claude and Cursor are also being mentioned increasingly often.

Vacancies are mainly concentrated in the San Francisco Bay Area

Currently, 15 percent of open positions at technology companies are located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Vacancies here have increased by 43 percent within a year. One in every four open jobs for product managers and designers, and one in every five engineering vacancies, are located in this region.

Remote work opportunities have also decreased. Only 14 percent of vacancies in the technology sector offer remote work. At the end of 2022, this figure was 21 percent.

The share of remote vacancies for designers has dropped from 34 percent to 19 percent, and for engineers from 25 percent to 14 percent. For product managers, this figure has remained around 21 percent over the last two years.

The analysis states that the technology job market is growing overall, but the majority of new jobs are emerging in areas not directly related to software development. The final analysis of the article on this topic is available via paid subscription.