Tech job openings up 17% but hardware roles double while design falls 28%
chrisalbon · x · 2026-11-12
Lenny Rachitsky's late-2026 tech job market report (based on TrueUp data covering 9,000+ companies and Live Data Technologies' 124M professional records) finds 281,000+ open tech roles, up 17% YoY and 73% from the March 2023 low — but nearly none of the growth is in software.
- PM, eng, and design openings grew just 2%; design shrank 28% and UX research fell 45%.
- Growth is concentrated in physical roles: hardware engineering openings doubled, business ops added 4,200 roles, supply chain is up 63%, with data center technicians, installers, and field service engineers among the fastest-growing jobs. The AI boom is creating jobs in building and running physical infrastructure, not writing code.
- Chris Albon's interpretation: pure SWEs stay in software while hybrid SWE-PMs and SWE-hardware people migrate to PM or hardware roles — not a wipeout, just talent moving where opportunities are. Other takeaways: PMs are winning in the AI era, engineering demand has stalled, design is at a record low, everyone needs AI skills, jobs are concentrating in the Bay Area, and remote work is at a record low.
Related event: Lenny's 2026 Tech Jobs Report: PMs Rise, Engineering Stalls, FDEs Surge(16 posts)→
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