After a multi-year contraction in tech management hiring, recruiters and career coaches are seeing a notable uptick in demand, especially for leaders who excel at developing people, leading change and deriving value from the application of nascent technologies.
For instance, Josh Bob, head career coach for mid-career tech professionals, has placed seven clients in the last three weeks, including three at a managerial level.
While the overall market remains highly competitive, it paradoxically creates opportunities for both experienced “unicorn” managers and up-and-coming individual contributors (ICs) who possess deep technical expertise and superior soft skills, Bob says.
To his point, a LinkedIn study confirms that employers are prioritizing internal promotions, with nearly 50 percent actively planning to fill roles from within in 2026.
The catch is that many positions are being created on the fly, making proactive preparation and positioning paramount. Here’s a look at the roles gaining prominence for tech leaders and managers—and the skills, experience and strategies you’ll need to land one.
The Player-Coach Manager
There is a significant increase in demand for "player-coach" managers as organizations strive to stay flatter and faster, explained Eric Bloom, executive director of ITML Institute.
Rather than being delegators, player-coaches leverage their deep technical proficiency in areas like generative AI, prompt engineering or AI governance to execute tasks while simultaneously managing and mentoring their teams.
“AI has actually shed light on the importance of people management skills,” said Larry Bonfante, founder and CEO of CIO Bench Coach.
So, in addition to being a recognized subject matter expert, successful "move-up" ICs need in-office experience to build communication skills, political awareness and visibility with executive leadership.
The AI Software Development Manager
There’s a tremendous appetite for strong technical leaders who can integrate AI tools into the development practice, according to Kevin Reetz, director of Riviera Partners.
Specifically, AI software development managers are needed to restructure software teams, make architectural decisions and drive efficiencies by implementing AI-driven tools such as Claude Code to build features, fix bugs and automate tasks.
Specializing in areas such as agentic AI, business process automation, product lifecycle management or ethical compliance can give you an edge in the marketplace, particularly as roles shift from task management to value creation.
The Specialized Engineering Leader
The AI revolution is creating specialized leadership roles for engineers as well.
For instance, there’s a growing demand for forward deployed engineers (FDEs) who embed directly with customers to close gaps, solve challenges and accelerate outcomes. Positions with direct reports are also emerging to lead complex, large-scale client deployments.
Another role seeing rising demand, especially in early-stage startups, is staff engineer (with direct reports). These pros spend half their time on high-impact coding and architecture and the other half on hiring, mentoring and setting priorities for a team of three to four direct reports.
The AI Manager
A range of managerial positions are emerging to govern, optimize and integrate AI agents and systems into business operations and workflows. These leaders align technical AI capabilities with business strategy, operational needs and knowledge of cyber risks, ensuring efficiency gains, ethical compliance and security while managing direct reports.
Examples include:
- AI Ops Manager
- AI Governance & Compliance Manager
- AI Product Manager
- AI Workflow Automation Manager
However, the roles with the biggest immediate need are AI strategy managers, directors and executives, as companies look to move from fragmented experiments to enterprise-wide adoption of AI. In fact, highest-paying AI roles currently involve moving AI from experimentation into production.
Note that you do not necessarily need a traditional management background to become an AI strategy manager. Reetz is working with several companies at Series D or late-stage growth that are actively hiring data science and machine learning professionals to head up their AI strategy.
The Technical Team Leader
The widespread reduction in middle management is increasing the demand for technical team leaders, along with their number of direct reports, with many now managing 10 to 20 people.
These leaders often direct AI initiatives by blending technical expertise with knowledge of specific departmental goals, processes and tools—such as supply chain, customer service, marketing, HR or operations.
Tips for Landing an Emerging Management Role
Whether you have management experience or not, landing an emerging role requires putting yourself out there before the need arises and developing these critical must-have competencies.
AI Fluency
AI fluency has officially become table stakes to even be considered for a managerial position.
“You don’t need to know all of the technical aspects of AI,” noted Bonfante. “You just need to know how to leverage it to drive impact and possess a basic understanding of
human-AI interaction (HAI or HAX).”
Results Driven
External candidates should position themselves as unicorns, technical subject matter experts and capable change agents who know how to work within a system to resolve conflicts and drive results.
Conversely, internal move-up candidates should use their knowledge of the organizational culture and systems to paint a picture of the future state and the changes they want to make.
Management Curiosity
Showing interest in managerial tasks signals readiness for higher-level responsibility.
Bloom suggests that you ask to attend meetings or interviews to gain a better understanding of how the budgeting or hiring process works, or taking on volunteer work, such as running fundraisers, to acquire management experience.
People Development
With AI transforming businesses at unprecedented speed, staff development and upskilling have become must-have competencies for experienced and aspiring leaders.
To land an emerging management role, you must prove you can achieve results through others while fostering their growth.
