Lenny's 2026 Tech Jobs Report: PMs Rise, Engineering Stalls, FDEs Surge
Lenny Rachitsky has released his fifth semi-annual tech job market report (end of 2026), which he himself calls "the most surprising one yet." The report draws on two proprietary datasets: TrueUp's tracking of open roles at 9,000+ tech companies worldwide, and Live Data Technologies' US hiring data covering job changes among 124 million professionals.
Confirmed
- PM is the only one of the five core product roles (PM, engineering, design, data science, user research) whose share of hiring has risen consistently over the past five years, growing from 16% in 2021 to roughly 21%.
- Open PM roles have reached 7,303, a four-year high and a sharp rebound from the March 2023 low of 4,171 — a gain of about 56%, per the report.
- Demand for engineering roles grew only about 2.5%, essentially flat; design hiring hit a record low; and the share of remote roles also hit a new low.
- The report's core takeaway: PM roles are actually benefiting in the age of AI.
Why it matters
- Built on two large proprietary datasets, the report serves as a semi-annual bellwether for structural shifts in the tech job market.
- The contrast between strengthening PM hiring and stagnant engineering runs counter to the common intuition that AI threatens product roles, offering quantitative reference for recruiters, job seekers, and team planning. Several people sharing the report (e.g., @SumitGup, @annetgriffin) and recruiting practitioners have cited the data alongside their own frontline observations.
2026-11-11 ~ 2026-11-12 · 16 related posts
Primary sources
- Tech jobs report: PM openings up 56% since 2023 while engineering demand stalls at +2.5% — lennysan · 2026-11-11
- [source] Lenny's 2026 tech job report: PMs win, engineering demand stalls, remote roles at record low — lennysan · 2026-11-11
- [source] PMs are the only core product role gaining hiring share, up from 16% to 21% in five years — lennysan · 2026-11-11
- Tech job data: PM openings up 56% since 2023 while engineer demand plateaus at +2.5% — annetgriffin · 2026-11-11
- AI job titles boom: forward deployed engineers up 155% in 2026 while generalist roles flatline — lennysan · 2026-11-11
- [source] Forward deployed engineer jobs up 361%, front-end down 51% in one year — lennysan · 2026-11-11
- Design Openings Hit Record Low, Yet This Startup Is Hiring 2 Designers for 3 Engineers — sidahuj · 2026-11-11
- Lenny's 2026 tech jobs report: AI engineering roles top out near $500K — damnGruz · 2026-11-12
- FDE tops fastest-growing engineering roles; builder bets on AI FDE over AI SWE — ivory_tang · 2026-11-12
- Tech job openings up 17% but hardware roles double while design falls 28% — chrisalbon · 2026-11-12
6 near-duplicate retellings: SumitGup · sujingshen · lennysan · clairevo · FinanceYF5 · FinanceYF5