Based on: Network Analysis Report (February 2026)
Audience: Lead Talent Sourcing & Recruiting Leadership
Purpose: Deep-dive analysis with prioritized actions
| Priority | Segment | Current Supply | Gap Severity | Target Hires |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | IC6 Engineers (any role) | 133 total | 1.2 candidates/job | +50-75 |
| 2 | Lead-level Engineers | 8 total | 0.1 candidates/job | +30-50 |
| 3 | GenAI/LLM Specialists | 23-111 | 2-5 candidates/job | +50-100 |
| 4 | Engineering Managers | 82 total | 2.5 candidates/job | +25-40 |
| Priority | Segment | Current Supply | Gap Severity | Target Hires |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | ML/AI Engineers (IC5+) | 43 | 1.4 candidates/job | +30-50 |
| 6 | Mobile IC5 Engineers | 121 | 35% priced out | +40-60 |
| 7 | Product Designers | 106 | 48% affordable | +30-50 |
| 8 | QA Engineers (IC5+) | 83 | 6.5 candidates/job | +20-30 |
| Seniority | Count | % Supply | 2025 Job Demand % | Mismatch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IC4 | 3,217 | 56.5% | 34.4% | +22% oversupply |
| IC5 | 1,590 | 27.9% | 40.2% | -12% undersupply |
| IC6 | 133 | 2.3% | 15.8% | -13% critical gap |
| Lead | 8 | 0.1% | 9.5% | -9% crisis |
| Manager | 82 | 1.4% | 4.9% | -3.5% undersupply |
| IC3 | 481 | 8.4% | 6.8% | +1.6% balanced |
| IC2 | 45 | 0.8% | 1.5% | -0.7% slight gap |
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IC4 Surplus Problem: Over half your network is IC4 (Senior), but only 34% of jobs target this level. You're sitting on underutilized inventory.
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IC5 Demand Crunch: 40% of jobs want IC5 (Staff), but only 28% of your network is at this level. Every IC5 candidate is being stretched across multiple opportunities.
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IC6/Lead Crisis: Combined, you have 141 candidates for 171 jobs (0.8 candidates/job). This is mathematically unfillable without net-new sourcing.
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Leadership Vacuum: Only 8 Lead-level candidates exist. This means you cannot staff technical leadership roles at scale.
| Action | Owner | Timeline | Success Metric |
|---|---|---|---|
| Launch IC6 sourcing campaign targeting 10+ year engineers with architecture experience | Senior Sourcer | Immediate | +25 IC6 candidates/month |
| Create Lead-level referral bonus (2x standard) to incentivize network referrals | Recruiting Ops | Week 1 | 5+ Lead referrals/month |
| Partner with tech leadership communities (Staff+ Engineering groups, CTO networks) | Partnerships | Month 1 | 3 new sourcing channels |
| IC4→IC5 internal assessment: Identify IC4s who can be promoted after placement | TS Team | Ongoing | 50 IC4s flagged as "IC5-ready" |
| Reduce IC4 sourcing spend by 30% and reallocate to IC5+ | Recruiting Ops | Immediate | Budget reallocation complete |
| Channel | Best For | Expected Yield |
|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn Recruiter (filtered 10+ years) | IC5/IC6 | Medium volume, high quality |
| Blind / Levels.fyi communities | IC6/Staff+ | Low volume, very high quality |
| Conference speaker lists (QCon, StrangeLoop) | IC6/Architects | Targeted, slow |
| GitHub contributors to major OSS projects | IC5/IC6 | Technical credibility |
| Ex-FAANG alumni networks | IC5/IC6 | Higher salary expectations |
| LatAm tech leadership Slack groups | Regional leads | Community trust |
| Role | Supply | 2025 Demand | Candidates/Job | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Backend Engineer | 2,215 | 186 jobs | 11.9 | ✅ Healthy |
| Fullstack Engineer | 2,016 | 208 jobs | 9.7 | |
| Frontend Engineer | 930 | 113 jobs | 8.2 | |
| Mobile Engineer | 446 | 38 jobs | 11.7 | ✅ Healthy |
| QA Engineer | 297 | 46 jobs | 6.5 | |
| DevOps Engineer | 280 | 37 jobs | 7.6 | |
| Data Engineer | 295 | 28 jobs | 10.5 | ✅ Healthy |
| Machine Learning | 136 | 17 jobs | 8.0 | |
| Engineering Manager | 197 | 8 jobs | 24.6 | ✅ Surplus |
| UX/UI Designer | 166 | 12 jobs | 13.8 | ✅ Healthy |
| Product Designer | 106 | 9 jobs | 11.8 | ✅ Healthy* |
*Product Designer has healthy ratio but 48% affordability issue (see Salary section)
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Fullstack Demand Outpaces Supply: Despite 2,016 candidates, the 9.7 ratio is borderline. Fullstack is your #1 requested role by volume.
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QA is Underinvested: Only 6.5 candidates/job for QA Engineers. This is a gap that will hurt as companies increase quality standards.
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DevOps Bottleneck: 7.6 candidates/job seems okay, but DevOps IC6 has only 11 candidates for 9 jobs (1.2/job).
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Design is Deceptively Healthy: Raw numbers look okay, but Product Designers have salary misalignment (see Section 10).
-
Engineering Manager Surplus: 24.6 candidates/job suggests over-sourcing or that candidates prefer IC track.
| Action | Owner | Timeline | Success Metric |
|---|---|---|---|
| Increase QA sourcing by 50% with focus on automation (Cypress, Playwright, Selenium) | Sourcing Team | Immediate | +15 QA candidates/month |
| DevOps IC6 targeted campaign: Infrastructure architects with 10+ years | Senior Sourcer | Month 1 | +10 DevOps IC6 candidates |
| Fullstack pipeline monitoring: Set alert if ratio drops below 8.0 | Recruiting Ops | Week 1 | Dashboard live |
| Pause Engineering Manager sourcing until ratio drops below 15 | Sourcing Lead | Immediate | Budget saved |
| ML/AI dedicated sourcer: Assign one sourcer exclusively to ML roles | Sourcing Lead | Month 1 | +20 ML candidates/month |
| Role | Where to Find Them | Key Qualifiers |
|---|---|---|
| QA Engineer | Ministry of Testing community, Test automation blogs, Selenium/Cypress GitHub contributors | ISTQB certification, automation framework experience |
| DevOps/SRE | DevOps Days conferences, Kubernetes/CNCF Slack, HashiCorp community | Terraform/K8s certifications, on-call experience |
| ML Engineer | Kaggle competitions, Papers With Code contributors, AI research labs alumni | Published papers, production ML systems |
| Fullstack | Indie hackers, Product Hunt makers, full-stack bootcamp alumni | End-to-end project ownership |
| Combination | Supply | 2025 Jobs | Action Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| Backend Lead | 1 | 23 | 🚨 Emergency sourcing |
| Fullstack Lead | 0 | 22 | 🚨 Emergency sourcing |
| Frontend Lead | 0 | 8 | 🚨 Emergency sourcing |
| QA Lead | 0 | 10 | 🚨 Emergency sourcing |
| ML Lead | 0 | 7 | 🚨 Emergency sourcing |
| Frontend IC6 | 8 | 17 | 🔴 High priority |
| Fullstack IC6 | 33 | 48 | 🔴 High priority |
| Backend IC6 | 57 | 41 | |
| ML IC5 | 33 | 17 | |
| ML IC6 | 10 | 13 | 🔴 High priority |
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Lead Level is Empty: Across all engineering roles, you have only 8 Lead-level candidates total. This is a critical failure point.
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IC6 Frontend/Fullstack Gap: The most in-demand roles at the highest IC level are severely undersupplied.
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ML Leadership Void: Zero ML Leads, only 10 ML IC6. You cannot staff AI team leadership.
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Backend is Your Strongest: Backend has the deepest bench at every level, making it your most reliable fulfillment category.
| Action | Owner | Timeline | Success Metric |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Lead Hunt" campaign: Dedicated 4-week sprint targeting Lead-level engineers across all roles | Full Sourcing Team | Immediate | +15 Lead candidates |
| Executive search partnership for IC6+ technical roles | Recruiting Lead | Week 1 | 2 search firms engaged |
| Staff Engineer community building: Host virtual events for Staff+ engineers | Employer Brand | Month 1 | 50 attendees, 10 applications |
| IC6 salary band review: Ensure budgets can compete for Principal-level talent | Comp Team | Month 1 | Updated salary bands |
| ML team acquisition: Consider acqui-hire of small ML consultancy | Leadership | Quarter 2 | 1 team acquired |
Lead-level engineers are the hardest to source because:
- They're typically not actively looking
- They're well-compensated and have equity stakes
- They're often promoted internally
- They value interesting problems over salary
Approach strategies:
| Strategy | Description | Expected Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Technical content engagement | Comment on their blog posts, engage with their talks, build relationship over 6+ months | Trust-based pipeline |
| Advisor/consulting entry | Offer part-time advisory roles that can convert to full-time | Lower commitment entry |
| Project-based attraction | Share interesting technical challenges your clients face | Intellectual appeal |
| Team acquisition | Identify small agencies/consultancies with strong leads and negotiate team deals | Bulk acquisition |
| Skill | Network % | 2025 Job % | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| React | 31.78% | 36% | |
| Python | 26.22% | 31% | |
| TypeScript | 26.27% | 18% | ✅ Surplus |
| Node.js | 22.62% | 19% | ✅ Balanced |
| JavaScript | 34.34% | 14% | ✅ Surplus |
| AWS | 32.09% | 8% | ✅ Surplus |
| Go (Golang) | 4.89% | 6% | |
| Vue.js | 7.24% | 5% | ✅ Balanced |
| LLMs | 1.95% | 4% | 🔴 Critical gap |
| OpenAI | 0.91% | 2% | 🔴 Critical gap |
| LangChain | 0.98% | 2% | 🔴 Critical gap |
| Technology | Current Supply | Trend | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| LLMs/GenAI | 111 (1.95%) | 📈 Explosive growth | Urgent sourcing |
| OpenAI API | 52 (0.91%) | 📈 High demand | Urgent sourcing |
| LangChain | 56 (0.98%) | 📈 Growing fast | Urgent sourcing |
| RAG | 34 (0.6%) | 📈 New category | Start building |
| Go (Golang) | 279 (4.89%) | 📈 Steady growth | Increase sourcing |
| Rust | <50 (<1%) | 📈 Growing | Start building |
| Flutter | 85 (1.5%) | 📈 Mobile trend | Moderate sourcing |
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GenAI is a Crisis: With only 2-5 candidates per job for LLM/OpenAI/LangChain skills, you cannot meet market demand. This is your biggest skills gap.
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Traditional ML ≠ GenAI: You have 93 PyTorch and 109 TensorFlow candidates, but only 23 GenAI candidates. Classical ML skills don't translate to GenAI roles.
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Go is Quietly Undersupplied: Only 4.89% of network knows Go, but 6% of jobs require it. This will worsen as cloud-native adoption grows.
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JavaScript Surplus is Misleading: While 34% know JavaScript, many lack modern frameworks. Filter for TypeScript + React + Next.js for actual demand match.
| Action | Owner | Timeline | Success Metric |
|---|---|---|---|
| GenAI sourcing blitz: Dedicate 2 sourcers exclusively to AI/ML for 90 days | Sourcing Lead | Immediate | +50 GenAI candidates |
| AI community partnerships: Sponsor Hugging Face, LangChain, OpenAI dev communities | Partnerships | Month 1 | 3 community partnerships |
| Upskilling program for existing network: Offer LLM/GenAI training to current candidates | Candidate Experience | Month 2 | 100 candidates enrolled |
| Go sourcing increase: Add Go to all backend searches | Sourcing Team | Immediate | +30 Go candidates/month |
| Rust pipeline building: Start long-term Rust community engagement | Senior Sourcer | Month 1 | 20 Rust candidates by Q3 |
| Source | Quality | Volume | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hugging Face contributors | Very high | Low | Open source AI builders |
| LangChain Discord/GitHub | High | Medium | Framework-specific expertise |
| OpenAI developer forums | High | Low | API expertise |
| AI Twitter/X community | Medium-high | Medium | Thought leaders |
| Kaggle LLM competitions | High | Low | Competition winners |
| Ex-OpenAI/Anthropic/Cohere | Very high | Very low | Premium talent |
| ML bootcamp graduates | Medium | High | Need screening |
| Academic labs (NLP/LLM focus) | High | Low | PhD candidates |
Based on 677 jobs that were open during 2025:
| Quarter Trend | Observation |
|---|---|
| Role concentration | 75% of jobs are Backend, Fullstack, or Frontend |
| Seniority shift | 56% of jobs target IC5 or higher (vs 30% of supply) |
| AI acceleration | GenAI jobs grew from 2% to 4% of all openings |
| Design stability | Design roles remain steady at ~3% of jobs |
| Segment | Supply Position | Demand Position | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Backend IC4 | 1,267 (39% of Backends) | 34% of Backend jobs | Balanced |
| Backend IC5 | 707 (32% of Backends) | 42% of Backend jobs | -10% gap |
| Backend IC6 | 57 (2.6% of Backends) | 22% of Backend jobs | -19% gap |
| Fullstack IC4 | 1,189 (59% of Fullstacks) | 28% of FS jobs | +31% surplus |
| Fullstack IC5 | 591 (29% of Fullstacks) | 45% of FS jobs | -16% gap |
| Fullstack IC6 | 33 (1.6% of Fullstacks) | 23% of FS jobs | -21% gap |
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Seniority is the Primary Mismatch: Across all roles, the gap is at IC5+ levels, not the role itself.
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Fullstack IC4 Oversupply: You have 1,189 Fullstack IC4s but only need ~580 based on demand. This is dead inventory.
-
Every Role Needs IC6: Even "healthy" roles like Backend have IC6 gaps (57 supply vs ~45 jobs = 1.3/job).
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GenAI Demand Will Accelerate: If GenAI jobs doubled from 2% to 4% in 2025, expect 6-8% by end of 2026.
| Action | Owner | Timeline | Success Metric |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rebalance sourcing mix: 60% of effort on IC5+, 30% on IC4, 10% on IC3 | Sourcing Lead | Immediate | Mix shift verified |
| IC4 nurture program: Keep IC4s engaged while they gain experience for IC5 | Candidate Experience | Month 1 | 90% IC4 engagement rate |
| Demand forecasting model: Build predictive model for role/seniority demand | Analytics | Quarter 2 | Model deployed |
| GenAI demand alert: Trigger sourcing surge if GenAI jobs exceed 5% of pipeline | Recruiting Ops | Month 1 | Alert system live |
| Quarterly gap review: Institutionalize this analysis every quarter | Analytics | Ongoing | Quarterly report delivered |
| Seniority | Candidate Median | Job Budget Median | Gap | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IC2 | $30,000 | $32,500 | -$2,500 | ✅ Affordable |
| IC3 | $48,000 | $57,000 | -$9,000 | ✅ Affordable |
| IC4 | $72,000 | $80,000 | -$8,000 | ✅ Affordable |
| IC5 | $84,000 | $89,200 | -$5,200 | ✅ Affordable |
| IC6 | $100,000 | $100,000 | $0 | |
| Manager | $96,000 | $100,000 | -$4,000 | ✅ Affordable |
| Director | $180,000 | $117,500 | +$62,500 | 🔴 Priced out |
| Segment | Raw Supply | Affordable | % Lost | New Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fullstack IC4 | 1,187 | 936 | 21% | Still surplus |
| Fullstack IC5 | 589 | 444 | 25% | 4.0/job |
| Fullstack IC6 | 33 | 22 | 33% | 0.5/job 🔴 |
| Backend IC5 | 704 | 577 | 18% | 6.6/job |
| Backend IC6 | 57 | 46 | 19% | 1.1/job 🔴 |
| Frontend IC5 | 228 | 165 | 28% | 3.8/job |
| Mobile IC5 | 121 | 78 | 35% | 2.1/job 🔴 |
| Product Designer | 106 | 51 | 52% | 5.7/job |
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IC6 is at Ceiling: Candidate expectations exactly match budgets. Any budget cut loses candidates; any expectation increase prices them out.
-
Directors are Unbookable: With a $62k gap between expectations and budgets, you cannot place Director-level candidates without budget negotiation.
-
Mobile IC5 is Severely Impacted: 35% priced out means your already-tight 121 candidates drops to 78 effective.
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Product Designers Have Reversed Economics: They're the only role asking MORE than budgets, with 52% unaffordable.
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Salary Filtering Worsens IC6 Crisis: Your 33 Fullstack IC6 candidates become 22 effective, making the 0.7/job ratio drop to 0.5/job.
| Action | Owner | Timeline | Success Metric |
|---|---|---|---|
| IC6 budget advocacy: Present data to sales showing IC6 budgets must increase to $110-120k | Sales Leadership | Month 1 | 3 customers adjust budgets |
| Director role strategy: Either stop taking Director roles or negotiate $150k+ budgets upfront | Sales Leadership | Immediate | Director role SLA defined |
| Mobile IC5 salary recalibration: Work with candidates to reset expectations to $85-95k range | TS Team | Month 1 | 20% of Mobile IC5 recalibrated |
| Product Designer market research: Validate if LatAm designer rates have increased | Comp Team | Month 1 | Market rate report |
| Salary transparency in sourcing: Set expectations early in candidate conversations | Sourcing Team | Immediate | Rejection rate decreases |
| Segment | Candidate Expectation | Typical Budget | Negotiation Strategy |
|---|---|---|---|
| IC4 | $72k | $80k | Room to close; use benefits as sweetener |
| IC5 | $84k | $89k | Tight; close quickly before counter-offers |
| IC6 | $100k | $100k | No room; need equity or perks to differentiate |
| Mobile IC5 | $76k | $90k | Budget exists; screen for expectations early |
| Product Designer | $65k | $60k | Must reset expectations or walk away |
| Director | $180k | $117k | Don't engage without $150k+ commitment |
| # | Action | Owner | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Launch IC6 + Lead sourcing sprint | Sourcing Lead | Campaign live |
| 2 | Pause Engineering Manager sourcing | Sourcing Lead | Budget freed |
| 3 | Assign 2 sourcers to GenAI exclusively | Sourcing Lead | Focus established |
| 4 | Create Lead-level referral bonus (2x) | Recruiting Ops | Bonus approved |
| 5 | Set up supply/demand dashboard with alerts | Analytics | Dashboard live |
| # | Action | Owner | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | Partner with 2 executive search firms for IC6+ | Recruiting Lead | Contracts signed |
| 7 | Engage 3 AI/ML communities (LangChain, HuggingFace, etc.) | Partnerships | Relationships started |
| 8 | Increase QA sourcing by 50% | Sourcing Team | Pipeline growing |
| 9 | Present IC6 budget data to sales leadership | Analytics | Awareness created |
| 10 | Review and reset Mobile IC5 salary expectations | TS Team | 20 candidates recalibrated |
| # | Action | Owner | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Build Staff+ engineer community (events, content) | Employer Brand | 100 community members |
| 12 | Launch GenAI upskilling program for existing network | Candidate Experience | 100 enrolled |
| 13 | Develop demand forecasting model | Analytics | Predictive capability |
| 14 | Explore ML team acquisition opportunities | Leadership | 1 acquisition identified |
| 15 | Institutionalize quarterly gap analysis | Analytics | Process documented |
| Metric | Current | Target | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| IC6 candidates added | — | 6/week | 🔴 |
| Lead candidates added | — | 3/week | 🔴 |
| GenAI candidates added | — | 10/week | 🔴 |
| QA candidates added | — | 4/week |
| Metric | Current | Target | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| IC6 total supply | 133 | 180 | 🔴 |
| Lead total supply | 8 | 25 | 🔴 |
| GenAI total supply | 111 | 200 | 🔴 |
| Candidates/Job (IC5) | 5.8 | 8.0 | |
| Candidates/Job (IC6) | 1.2 | 3.0 | 🔴 |
| Metric | Current | Target | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fill rate for IC6 roles | — | 70% | 🔴 |
| Fill rate for GenAI roles | — | 60% | 🔴 |
| Time-to-fill IC5+ | — | <30 days | |
| Priced-out rate overall | 20% | <15% |
This playbook should be reviewed and updated monthly as supply/demand dynamics shift. For the underlying data and SQL queries, see network-analysis-report.md.