A Director of Product from Pinterest who we’re working with said to me, ”I want to have a job that lets me do the most important work in the company,” and it got me thinking.
Who creates the most leverage inside a company?
A self-centered answer would be the executive leadership. Companies are large, direction is important, and someone has to coordinate work across various arms of the organization. The people who can align everyone become force multipliers. But that equation is changing.
As AI takes over repetitive work and even parts of cross-functional communication, companies won't need as many people whose primary job is making PowerPoint Presentations and delivering keynotes. They'll keep investing in people who can solve difficult technical problems while understanding why the business needs those problems solved in the first place.
So who wins?
As much as I hate JavaScript, I have to admit this: the answer is hands-on engineering leaders who can coach others, think in systems, speak the language of the business, and have deep expertise in one domain.
And depth matters a lot. An engineer who has spent years building large-scale distributed systems will be more valuable than someone who has touched a little bit of everything. The same goes for people who've built their careers around ecommerce, ad-tech, fintech, AI infrastructure, or another niche. Those are the people who will increasingly end up in high-impact roles because they combine technical depth with business judgment.
One of the best examples is Workday's CTO stepping away from an executive position to become an individual contributor at Anthropic. Most people saw it as an unusual career move. I think it's an early signal of where the market is heading.
We already see it in our own business. Every month we work with senior leaders who are actively exploring hands-on roles because the compensation is exceptional, the technical impact is enormous, and they can spend more time building than sitting in meetings.
If I had to make my first prediction for the next few years, it would be this:
The biggest winners won't necessarily be the people managing the largest teams.
They'll be the people who understand their business deeply, know exactly how to apply technology to it, and have the technical credibility to execute.
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