State of Tech Hiring — Q1 2026
Comprehensive hiring analysis for Q1 2026: 3,147 listings, 105 companies, salary data and skill movements.
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Datamata Studios
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Comprehensive hiring analysis for Q1 2026: 3,147 listings, 105 companies, salary data and skill movements.
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Q1 2026 tech hiring report: 3,147 job listings analysed across 105 companies. Skill demand rankings, salary data and quarter-over-quarter trends.
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3,147 listings analysed · 105 companies · January 01 – March 31, 2026
Q1 2026 tech hiring activity spans 3,147 active listings across 105 companies, with no major skill declines recorded — demand is broadly expanding. The steepest quarter-over-quarter rises are in Product & Design and DevOps & Infrastructure, led by Stakeholder Management (+75.2 percentage points), AWS (+53.0 percentage points) and Terraform (+49.2 percentage points). SQL jumped +42.9 percentage points in Data & Analytics, AWS climbed +32.6 percentage points in Software Engineering and emerging skills including Node.js, Power BI, React and Kafka are entering job listings at scale for the first time this quarter.
Key movements this quarter:
Demand is spread across 6 categories, with 1,681 listings in the largest segment. Here is how each category breaks down.
366 active listings
| Rank | Skill | Demand | QoQ Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SQL | 42.9% | +42.9 percentage points |
| 2 | Stakeholder Mgmt | 39.1% | +39.1 percentage points |
| 3 | Python | 36.9% | +36.9 percentage points |
| 4 | Excel | 28.1% | +28.1 percentage points |
| 5 | AWS | 28.1% | +28.1 percentage points |
1,681 active listings
| Rank | Skill | Demand | QoQ Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AWS | 32.6% | +32.6 percentage points |
| 2 | Machine Learning | 11.2% | +11.2 percentage points |
| 3 | Spark | 9.8% | +9.8 percentage points |
| 4 | Llms / Genai | 8.2% | +8.2 percentage points |
| 5 | Rust | 7.9% | +7.9 percentage points |
545 active listings
| Rank | Skill | Demand | QoQ Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stakeholder Mgmt | 75.2% | +75.2 percentage points |
| 2 | Excel | 50.8% | +50.8 percentage points |
| 3 | Scala | 30.1% | +30.1 percentage points |
| 4 | A/b Testing | 20.4% | +20.4 percentage points |
| 5 | Prototyping | 14.3% | +14.3 percentage points |
132 active listings
| Rank | Skill | Demand | QoQ Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AWS | 53.0% | +53.0 percentage points |
| 2 | Terraform | 49.2% | +49.2 percentage points |
| 3 | Kubernetes | 49.2% | +49.2 percentage points |
| 4 | Scala | 37.9% | +37.9 percentage points |
| 5 | CI/CD | 35.6% | +35.6 percentage points |
151 active listings
| Rank | Skill | Demand | QoQ Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Excel | 37.7% | +37.7 percentage points |
| 2 | Node.js | 31.1% | +31.1 percentage points |
| 3 | Go | 30.5% | +30.5 percentage points |
| 4 | GCP | 25.8% | +25.8 percentage points |
| 5 | Scala | 24.5% | +24.5 percentage points |
272 active listings
| Rank | Skill | Demand | QoQ Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Llms / Genai | 47.8% | +47.8 percentage points |
| 2 | Machine Learning | 40.4% | +40.4 percentage points |
| 3 | AWS | 39.3% | +39.3 percentage points |
| 4 | Stakeholder Mgmt | 35.7% | +35.7 percentage points |
| 5 | Python | 34.6% | +34.6 percentage points |
Quarter-over-quarter skill demand shifts highlight where the market is heading. The tables below rank skills by the size of their movement.
| Rank | Skill | Change | Current Demand | Category |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stakeholder Mgmt | +75.2 percentage points | 75.2% | Product & Design |
| 2 | AWS | +53.0 percentage points | 53.0% | DevOps & Infrastructure |
| 3 | Excel | +50.8 percentage points | 50.8% | Product & Design |
| 4 | Terraform | +49.2 percentage points | 49.2% | DevOps & Infrastructure |
| 5 | Kubernetes | +49.2 percentage points | 49.2% | DevOps & Infrastructure |
| 6 | Llms / Genai | +47.8 percentage points | 47.8% | AI & Machine Learning |
| 7 | SQL | +42.9 percentage points | 42.9% | Data & Analytics |
| 8 | Machine Learning | +40.4 percentage points | 40.4% | AI & Machine Learning |
| 9 | AWS | +39.3 percentage points | 39.3% | AI & Machine Learning |
| 10 | Stakeholder Mgmt | +39.1 percentage points | 39.1% | Data & Analytics |
| Skill | Demand | QoQ Change | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| Node.js | 18.3% | +18.3 percentage points | Data & Analytics |
| Power BI | 3.8% | +3.8 percentage points | Data & Analytics |
| Excel | 28.1% | +28.1 percentage points | Data & Analytics |
| React | 3.3% | +3.3 percentage points | Data & Analytics |
| Kafka | 7.7% | +7.7 percentage points | Data & Analytics |
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 | $144,000 – $201,650 | $166,500 | 61 listings |
| Software Engineering | $175,000 – $233,750 | $208,250 | 200 listings |
| Product & Design | $167,500 – $245,000 | $202,000 | 86 listings |
| DevOps & Infrastructure | $185,132 – $208,708 | $208,708 | 11 listings |
| Security | $183,150 – $237,262 | $216,000 | 24 listings |
| AI & Machine Learning | $158,400 – $231,000 | $208,708 | 12 listings |
All figures come from continuously refreshed ATS job feeds (Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby). Skill demand is calculated as category-level mention rate across active listings, with salary metrics derived from postings that include compensation bands.
The top skills this quarter include Stakeholder Mgmt, AWS, Excel based on demand share across 3,147 active listings.
Salary medians range across categories, with published compensation data drawn from listings across 105 companies in Q1 2026.
Across 6 tracked categories, the highest volume comes from Software Engineering roles.
Published March 29, 2026. Data refreshed daily.
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