Qarera Data Report · 360,000+ postings

The Most In-Demand Skills of 2026

We counted every skill named across 360,336 job postings collected between December 27, 2025 – June 16, 2026. AI came in second, named in close to 1 in 5 postings. Only communication showed up more often. AI is now requested more than Python, SQL, AWS, or Java, and not only in engineering roles.

Key findings

  • AI is the most-requested hard skill. It appeared in 19.8% of the 360,000+ postings, behind only communication (23.1%) and ahead of Python (18.6%), SQL (11.7%), and Java (10.5%).
  • It is not limited to engineering. AI was the top skill in product-manager postings (37.0%), and it turned up in 23.1% of designer roles and 19.1% of business-analyst roles.
  • Senior roles ask for it most. 39.5% of Principal-level postings named AI, about double the overall rate.
  • Remote roles want it more. A remote posting was 3.2 times likelier to ask for LLM experience than an on-site one, and remote roles also over-indexed on cybersecurity and software engineering.
  • Past generic “AI,” the skills named most were LLMs (4.2%), generative AI (3.3%), LangChain/LangGraph (2.2%), prompt engineering (1.6%), and RAG (1.6%).

The 20 most-requested skills

Share of all 360,336 postings that named each skill. Communication and leadership rank high, as they usually do. What changed this year is AI sitting in second place, above every individual programming language and cloud platform.

Communication
23.1%
AI
19.8%
Python
18.6%
SQL
11.7%
AWS
11.3%
Leadership
11.2%
Java
10.5%
Analytical thinking
9.5%
JavaScript
8.7%
Security
8.7%
Git
8.2%
Azure
8.2%
Collaboration
7.7%
Compliance
7.5%
Attention to detail
7.5%
Automation
7.4%
Docker
7%
Kubernetes
6.8%
CI/CD
6.7%
React
6.7%

AI demand by seniority

Share of postings at each level that asked for AI skills. The rate is not flat across seniority. It is highest at Principal level (39.5%) and also runs high for internships (24.5%).

Internship
24.5%
Entry Level
19.8%
Mid–Senior
19.9%
Principal
39.5%
Director
24.6%
VP
27.3%
Executive
20%

The AI skills employers actually name

Most postings just say “AI.” When they name something more specific, these are the skills that come up most.

AI (general)
19.8%
Machine learning
4.2%
LLMs
4.2%
Generative AI
3.3%
LangChain / LangGraph
2.2%
PyTorch
1.8%
TensorFlow
1.6%
Prompt engineering
1.6%
RAG (retrieval-augmented generation)
1.6%
Deep learning
1.1%
Vector databases
1%
Agentic AI
0.9%
OpenAI APIs
0.9%
Computer vision
0.6%

Top skills by role

The six most-requested skills for each of 15 role families, with the posting count for each. Handy as a keyword checklist when you tailor a resume.

Software Engineer

38,747 jobs
Java 31.5%Python 31.2%AI 26.6%AWS 21.4%React 18.0%JavaScript 17.9%

Data Scientist / ML

11,867 jobs
Python 69.8%AI 63.7%Machine learning 48.5%PyTorch 30.3%TensorFlow 27.4%SQL 24.2%

Data Engineer

7,495 jobs
Python 63.2%SQL 62.3%Data engineering 54.1%AWS 32.4%Databricks 26.1%Spark 24.0%

Data Analyst / BI

9,674 jobs
SQL 54.6%Power BI 42.3%Analytics 40.3%Python 37.1%Tableau 29.0%Excel 19.8%

DevOps / Cloud / SRE

10,546 jobs
Terraform 43.7%Kubernetes 43.0%AWS 41.4%Python 38.8%CI/CD 32.4%Azure 30.6%

Backend

10,893 jobs
Python 39.7%Java 37.0%Docker 29.7%AWS 29.5%SQL 25.2%PostgreSQL 24.2%

Frontend

8,704 jobs
JavaScript 60.6%React 47.8%CSS 41.5%TypeScript 37.7%HTML 35.7%Git 30.1%

Full Stack

11,752 jobs
React 43.2%JavaScript 34.7%Angular 31.5%AI 30.7%Java 30.1%TypeScript 28.2%

Security

11,980 jobs
Security 71.9%Cybersecurity 37.9%SIEM 24.3%Incident response 23.3%Compliance 21.2%Cloud security 14.2%

QA / Test

6,759 jobs
Testing 38.7%Automation 29.3%Selenium 26.9%Jira 24.9%Postman 23.2%Playwright 19.8%

Business Analyst

4,740 jobs
Communication 40.0%Analytical 31.6%Business analysis 27.1%SQL 21.2%Excel 19.7%AI 19.1%

Product Manager

3,064 jobs
AI 37.0%Product management 29.5%Communication 28.7%Leadership 20.1%Stakeholder mgmt 12.3%Product strategy 10.3%

Designer (UX/UI)

4,275 jobs
Figma 29.7%Communication 28.7%AI 23.1%Photoshop 16.6%Illustrator 16.0%Design systems 11.5%

Mobile

2,904 jobs
Android 48.4%iOS 40.3%Kotlin 39.8%Git 32.7%React Native 30.7%Swift 28.7%

Project / Program Mgr

3,430 jobs
Communication 40.6%Project management 40.1%Leadership 33.2%Stakeholder mgmt 18.8%AI 16.4%Agile 15.9%

Where the work is, and what remote roles want

Three in four postings were on-site. The remote ones asked for a different mix, weighted toward AI and security.

Workplace split

On-site
75.8%
Remote
12.5%
Hybrid
11.7%

Skills over-indexed in remote roles

How much more likely a remote posting is to ask for it vs. an on-site posting.

LLMs3.2×
Model evaluation3.0×
GitHub2.6×
Pandas2.5×
Cybersecurity2.4×
Software engineering2.4×
SIEM2.2×

Methodology

This report is based on 360,336 job postings collected by Qarera between December 27, 2025 – June 16, 2026. Skills were extracted and standardized from each job description, then counted as a share of all postings.

Because a single posting typically lists many skills, the percentages do not sum to 100%. Each figure represents how often a skill is requested across postings, not the number of open roles or hires. Role families are grouped from job titles by keyword (for example, “Senior Software Engineer” and “Custom Software Engineer” both map to Software Engineer). Closely synonymous skill labels (such as “LLM” and “LLMs,” or “Generative AI” and “GenAI”) are merged.

Data is released under CC BY 4.0. You are free to cite or republish these figures with attribution to Qarera and a link to this page.

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