State of Tech Hiring — Q2 2026
Comprehensive hiring analysis for Q2 2026: 11,595 listings, 160 companies, salary data and skill movements.
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Datamata Studios
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Comprehensive hiring analysis for Q2 2026: 11,595 listings, 160 companies, salary data and skill movements.
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Q2 2026 tech hiring report: 11,595 job listings analysed across 160 companies. Skill demand rankings, salary data and quarter-over-quarter trends.
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11,595 listings analysed · 160 companies · April 01 – June 30, 2026
Q2 2026 tech hiring spans 11,595 active listings across 160 companies, with demand concentrated in AI, data and product roles. The sharpest quarter-over-quarter gains belong to Stakeholder Management (+38.3 percentage points in Product & Design), Machine Learning (+37.1 percentage points in AI & Machine Learning) and LLMs/GenAI (+27.7 percentage points in AI & Machine Learning), signalling that both technical and cross-functional skills are accelerating in tandem. Foundational skills are also tightening: SQL climbed +14.2 percentage points in Data & Analytics, Python rose +15.7 percentage points across AI roles and +13.1 percentage points in Software Engineering, and Terraform jumped +11.8 percentage points in DevOps & Infrastructure — with no major skill categories recording significant declines this quarter.
Key movements this quarter:
Demand is spread across 6 categories, with 4,374 listings in the largest segment. Here is how each category breaks down.
2,930 active listings
| Rank | Skill | Demand | QoQ Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SQL | 14.2% | +14.2 percentage points |
| 2 | Python | 12.3% | +12.3 percentage points |
| 3 | Stakeholder Mgmt | 10.6% | +10.6 percentage points |
| 4 | Machine Learning | 6.8% | +6.8 percentage points |
| 5 | AWS | 5.9% | +5.9 percentage points |
4,374 active listings
| Rank | Skill | Demand | QoQ Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Python | 13.1% | +13.1 percentage points |
| 2 | React | 11.6% | +11.6 percentage points |
| 3 | Stakeholder Mgmt | 11.2% | +11.2 percentage points |
| 4 | Typescript | 10.0% | +10.0 percentage points |
| 5 | SQL | 9.5% | +9.5 percentage points |
872 active listings
| Rank | Skill | Demand | QoQ Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stakeholder Mgmt | 38.3% | +38.3 percentage points |
| 2 | A/b Testing | 12.5% | +12.5 percentage points |
| 3 | Llms / Genai | 11.7% | +11.7 percentage points |
| 4 | Excel | 9.9% | +9.9 percentage points |
| 5 | SQL | 8.5% | +8.5 percentage points |
1,533 active listings
| Rank | Skill | Demand | QoQ Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Terraform | 11.8% | +11.8 percentage points |
| 2 | Kubernetes | 9.8% | +9.8 percentage points |
| 3 | Python | 7.8% | +7.8 percentage points |
| 4 | Linux | 6.5% | +6.5 percentage points |
| 5 | GCP | 5.7% | +5.7 percentage points |
673 active listings
| Rank | Skill | Demand | QoQ Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AWS | 14.7% | +14.7 percentage points |
| 2 | Python | 11.0% | +11.0 percentage points |
| 3 | Incident Response | 10.4% | +10.4 percentage points |
| 4 | Azure | 9.4% | +9.4 percentage points |
| 5 | GCP | 7.4% | +7.4 percentage points |
1,213 active listings
| Rank | Skill | Demand | QoQ Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Machine Learning | 37.1% | +37.1 percentage points |
| 2 | Llms / Genai | 27.7% | +27.7 percentage points |
| 3 | Python | 15.7% | +15.7 percentage points |
| 4 | Stakeholder Mgmt | 8.5% | +8.5 percentage points |
| 5 | Rag | 7.7% | +7.7 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 | +38.3 percentage points | 38.3% | Product & Design |
| 2 | Machine Learning | +37.1 percentage points | 37.1% | AI & Machine Learning |
| 3 | Llms / Genai | +27.7 percentage points | 27.7% | AI & Machine Learning |
| 4 | Python | +15.7 percentage points | 15.7% | AI & Machine Learning |
| 5 | AWS | +14.7 percentage points | 14.7% | Security |
| 6 | SQL | +14.2 percentage points | 14.2% | Data & Analytics |
| 7 | Python | +13.1 percentage points | 13.1% | Software Engineering |
| 8 | A/b Testing | +12.5 percentage points | 12.5% | Product & Design |
| 9 | Python | +12.3 percentage points | 12.3% | Data & Analytics |
| 10 | Terraform | +11.8 percentage points | 11.8% | DevOps & Infrastructure |
| Skill | Demand | QoQ Change | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| Statistical Analysis | 4.2% | +4.2 percentage points | Data & Analytics |
| Stakeholder Mgmt | 10.6% | +10.6 percentage points | Data & Analytics |
| SQL | 14.2% | +14.2 percentage points | Data & Analytics |
| Spark | 5.0% | +5.0 percentage points | Data & Analytics |
| Snowflake | 3.7% | +3.7 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 | $96,550 – $160,282 | $125,000 | 200 listings |
| Software Engineering | $137,024 – $216,000 | $175,000 | 200 listings |
| Product & Design | $80,194 – $203,300 | $150,000 | 200 listings |
| DevOps & Infrastructure | $118,490 – $178,895 | $145,000 | 200 listings |
| Security | $82,500 – $162,500 | $122,851 | 200 listings |
| AI & Machine Learning | $126,800 – $200,428 | $168,546 | 200 listings |
Data is sourced from public job listings on Greenhouse, Lever and Ashby career pages. Listings are ingested daily, normalized into six role categories and analyzed for skill-level demand share and quarter-over-quarter movement.
The top skills this quarter include Stakeholder Mgmt, Machine Learning, Llms / Genai based on demand share across 11,595 active listings.
Salary medians range across categories, with published compensation data drawn from listings across 160 companies in Q2 2026.
Across 6 tracked categories, the highest volume comes from Software Engineering roles.
Published June 07, 2026. Data refreshed daily.
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