Nuts how in-demand I observe people (devs + eng leaders) who are hands-on with AI, and have public proof to show this off. For the handful of people I know: demand is off the chart if and when they start looking for gigs (fulltime or contract).

When I sat nuts: this includes how large tech companies with strict hiring or contracting setup willing to break these long-held rules to onboard some of these folks who seem like they are free agents. The very top of the market I don’t remember being this hot in… forever?

None of these are jobs listed or gigs advertised: they are being created on-demand for these individuals. One person I know had their potential future manager ask them to write the job description they would join for. This level of opportunistic hiring I’ve not seen before

Also fwiw M&A hunger for small teams that are truly “AI-native” at well-funded startups I talk with seems to be very very high as well. The other side of the same coin. The more efficient way to hire this kind of talent in bulk

A weird outcome I’m seeing: IC hires with this kind of background are breaking the compensation framework of even modern tech companies so bad that HE needs to be put aside or and more of these hires are done at the C-level (even if they would not report to the C-level.) “Traditional” companies with rigid levels and comp structure have 0 chance to get these folks right now IME