Lenny's tech jobs report: PM demand hits 4-year high, engineering stalls, FDE roles up 361%
sujingshen · x · 2026-11-11
Lenny Rachitsky's fifth semi-annual tech job market report (late 2026), combining TrueUp openings data and Live Data Technologies hiring data:
- PMs winning: 7,303 open PM roles, a 4-year high, up 75% from the March 2023 low; PM share of hiring rose from 16% (2021) to 21%, the only role gaining share — though absolute hiring is still 35% below 2022.
- Engineering stalled: openings grew just 2.5% in the past year, the first plateau across five reports; US hiring down 17% YoY and 45% vs 2022. Huge structural shift: FDE (forward-deployed engineer) openings up 361%, security +34%, platform +30%, embedded +25%, while frontend -51%, Android -47%, iOS -46%. Palantir leads FDE hiring with 151, but 2,400+ FDEs were hired elsewhere.
- Design at record low: design openings at an all-time low, hiring -26% YoY (-49% vs 2022); user research -36% YoY.
- Other trends: every role now requires AI skills, jobs concentrating in the Bay Area, remote roles at record lows, and overall tech job growth happening mostly outside software.
Related event: Lenny's 2026 Tech Jobs Report: PM Roles Surge While Engineering Stalls(6 posts)→
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