State of Tech Hiring — Q2 2026
Comprehensive hiring analysis for Q2 2026: 15,291 listings, 145 companies, salary data and skill movements.
Quick Answer
Q2 2026 tech hiring report: 15,291 job listings analysed across 145 companies. Skill demand rankings, salary data and quarter-over-quarter trends.
Search Snapshot
- Format
- Quarterly Report
- Reading time
- 5 min
- Last updated
- May 17, 2026
- Primary topic
- quarterly-report
15,291 listings analysed · 145 companies · April 01 – June 30, 2026
Executive Summary
Q2 2026 tech hiring spans 15,291 active listings across 145 companies, with demand concentrated in AI, cloud infrastructure and data engineering roles. Stakeholder Management surged +44.8 percentage points in Product & Design, Machine Learning climbed +43.7 percentage points in AI & Machine Learning and AWS rose +25.3 percentage points in DevOps & Infrastructure — the three sharpest quarter-over-quarter increases in the dataset. Emerging skills to watch include Data Modeling, Data Pipeline, Databricks, dbt and ETL, signalling that companies are building out foundational data infrastructure alongside their AI investments.
Key movements this quarter:
- Excel surged +12.8 percentage points in Data & Analytics
- AWS surged +20.4 percentage points in Software Engineering
- Stakeholder Mgmt surged +44.8 percentage points in Product & Design
- AWS surged +25.3 percentage points in DevOps & Infrastructure
- Stakeholder Mgmt surged +16.1 percentage points in Security
By Category
Demand is spread across 6 categories, with 5,996 listings in the largest segment. Here is how each category breaks down.
Data & Analytics
3,638 active listings
| Rank | Skill | Demand | QoQ Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Excel | 12.8% | +12.8 percentage points |
| 2 | Data Pipeline | 9.1% | +9.1 percentage points |
| 3 | Machine Learning | 9.0% | +9.0 percentage points |
| 4 | Data Modeling | 7.6% | +7.6 percentage points |
| 5 | Power BI | 6.8% | +6.8 percentage points |
Software Engineering
5,996 active listings
| Rank | Skill | Demand | QoQ Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AWS | 20.4% | +20.4 percentage points |
| 2 | Excel | 14.4% | +14.4 percentage points |
| 3 | Java | 13.1% | +13.1 percentage points |
| 4 | Go | 9.2% | +9.2 percentage points |
| 5 | CI/CD | 8.2% | +8.2 percentage points |
Product & Design
1,102 active listings
| Rank | Skill | Demand | QoQ Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stakeholder Mgmt | 44.8% | +44.8 percentage points |
| 2 | AWS | 24.0% | +24.0 percentage points |
| 3 | Node.js | 15.3% | +15.3 percentage points |
| 4 | Scala | 15.0% | +15.0 percentage points |
| 5 | A/b Testing | 11.5% | +11.5 percentage points |
DevOps & Infrastructure
1,969 active listings
| Rank | Skill | Demand | QoQ Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AWS | 25.3% | +25.3 percentage points |
| 2 | Terraform | 17.8% | +17.8 percentage points |
| 3 | CI/CD | 17.6% | +17.6 percentage points |
| 4 | Azure | 16.5% | +16.5 percentage points |
| 5 | Scala | 15.2% | +15.2 percentage points |
Security
912 active listings
| Rank | Skill | Demand | QoQ Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stakeholder Mgmt | 16.1% | +16.1 percentage points |
| 2 | Siem | 14.3% | +14.3 percentage points |
| 3 | Python | 12.6% | +12.6 percentage points |
| 4 | Excel | 11.2% | +11.2 percentage points |
| 5 | Incident Response | 9.8% | +9.8 percentage points |
AI & Machine Learning
1,674 active listings
| Rank | Skill | Demand | QoQ Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Machine Learning | 43.7% | +43.7 percentage points |
| 2 | Llms / Genai | 27.6% | +27.6 percentage points |
| 3 | Python | 17.5% | +17.5 percentage points |
| 4 | Scala | 15.4% | +15.4 percentage points |
| 5 | Stakeholder Mgmt | 10.9% | +10.9 percentage points |
Skill Movements
Quarter-over-quarter skill demand shifts highlight where the market is heading. The tables below rank skills by the size of their movement.
Biggest Risers (Quarter-over-Quarter)
| Rank | Skill | Change | Current Demand | Category |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stakeholder Mgmt | +44.8 percentage points | 44.8% | Product & Design |
| 2 | Machine Learning | +43.7 percentage points | 43.7% | AI & Machine Learning |
| 3 | Llms / Genai | +27.6 percentage points | 27.6% | AI & Machine Learning |
| 4 | AWS | +25.3 percentage points | 25.3% | DevOps & Infrastructure |
| 5 | AWS | +24.0 percentage points | 24.0% | Product & Design |
| 6 | AWS | +20.4 percentage points | 20.4% | Software Engineering |
| 7 | Terraform | +17.8 percentage points | 17.8% | DevOps & Infrastructure |
| 8 | CI/CD | +17.6 percentage points | 17.6% | DevOps & Infrastructure |
| 9 | Python | +17.5 percentage points | 17.5% | AI & Machine Learning |
| 10 | Azure | +16.5 percentage points | 16.5% | DevOps & Infrastructure |
Emerging Skills
| Skill | Demand | QoQ Change | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data Modeling | 7.6% | +7.6 percentage points | Data & Analytics |
| Data Pipeline | 9.1% | +9.1 percentage points | Data & Analytics |
| Databricks | 4.3% | +4.3 percentage points | Data & Analytics |
| DBT | 4.4% | +4.4 percentage points | Data & Analytics |
| ETL | 4.0% | +4.0 percentage points | Data & Analytics |
Salary Snapshot
Compensation data drawn from listings with published salary bands. Figures show the interquartile range and median for each category.
| Category | IQR Range | Median | Sample Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data & Analytics | $104,652 – $170,000 | $138,000 | 200 listings |
| Software Engineering | $159,619 – $216,000 | $196,792 | 200 listings |
| Product & Design | $90,000 – $208,016 | $166,500 | 200 listings |
| DevOps & Infrastructure | $104,783 – $169,551 | $133,425 | 200 listings |
| Security | $64,337 – $150,975 | $91,564 | 200 listings |
| AI & Machine Learning | $117,470 – $175,500 | $139,143 | 200 listings |
Methodology
This report aggregates daily snapshots from Greenhouse, Lever and Ashby postings. We classify roles by category, extract skills from listing text and compute demand as percentage share of active listings.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the most in-demand tech skills in Q2 2026?
The top skills this quarter include Stakeholder Mgmt, Machine Learning, Llms / Genai based on demand share across 15,291 active listings.
How have tech salaries changed in Q2 2026?
Salary medians range across categories, with published compensation data drawn from listings across 145 companies in Q2 2026.
Which tech categories are hiring the most right now?
Across 6 tracked categories, the highest volume comes from Software Engineering roles.
Published May 17, 2026. Data refreshed daily.
Related Posts
Continue with adjacent guides and tactical breakdowns.
Get new playbooks weekly
Actionable guides, market updates and shipping notes — once a week.