New AI jobs in 2026, by field

New title · Engineering & infrastructure

Builds production software on top of foundation models: retrieval (RAG), agents, fine-tuning and evaluation.

Also called: Machine Learning Engineer, GenAI Engineer, LLM Engineer, Applied AI Engineer

Existing job, reshaped by AI · Engineering & infrastructure · Data & research

Trains, deploys and runs machine-learning models in production. Increasingly merged into the AI Engineer title.

Also called: MLE, MLOps Engineer, LLMOps Engineer

New title · Strategy, transformation & C-suite

Advises organizations on AI strategy, choosing use cases, implementation and the change that follows.

Also called: GenAI Consultant, AI Transformation Consultant, AI Strategy Consultant

Established job, rising with AI · Engineering & infrastructure · Operations & supply chain

Installs and maintains the compute and network hardware inside data centres, where AI demand is driving build-out.

Also called: Data Center Technician, Critical Facilities Technician

An established occupation. Its link to AI is an inference from the data-centre boom; LinkedIn does not label it an AI job.

Established job, rising with AI · Engineering & infrastructure · Operations & supply chain

Brings new facilities and power systems online for the energy and data-centre build-out.

Also called: Commissioning Engineer, Power Systems Engineer

Established roles. The AI connection is inferred from the infrastructure boom, not stated by LinkedIn.

New title · Government & public sector

The senior official accountable for an agency's AI use, governance and risk.

Also called: Agency CAIO

Mostly an extra title for an existing executive, not a new opening.

New title · Engineering & infrastructure · Sales & go-to-market

An engineer embedded with customers to build and deploy AI systems inside their environment. Started at Palantir; now hired by most AI labs.

Also called: FDE, Deployment Engineer, AI Deployment Strategist

A meaningful share of postings are rebranded sales or solutions-engineer jobs. Read the duties, not the title.

Established job, rising with AI · Data & research

Develops new models and methods in areas like deep learning and computer vision.

Also called: Research Scientist, Applied Scientist, AI Research Engineer

Existing job, reshaped by AI · Data & research · AI training (human in the loop) · Creative & content

Labels, rates and writes the data used to train and evaluate AI models. Today it is mostly writing and judgement work, not image tagging.

Also called: Content Analyst, Data Labeler, AI Tutor, Annotation QA Reviewer

The generalist tier is shrinking and pay is falling. Specialist and credentialed work is where demand is moving.

New title · Product management · Data & research

Shapes how a frontier AI model behaves: its character, tone and the signals it is trained on.

Also called: Model Personality PM, Model Behavior Product Manager

A handful of seats at three to five labs. Real, but not a mass-market destination.

New title · Sales & go-to-market · Marketing · Operations & supply chain

Builds AI- and data-driven prospecting and pipeline automation with tools like Clay, HubSpot and Salesforce.

Also called: Go-to-Market Engineer, Growth Engineer, RevOps Engineer, GTM Automation Engineer

The title was coined by a tool vendor (Clay), and much of the coverage comes from GTM vendors.

New title · Strategy, transformation & C-suite

Owns enterprise AI strategy, governance and value delivery, often reporting to the CEO or board.

Also called: CAIO, VP of AI, Chief AI & Data Officer, Director of AI

An executive seat, usually filled by an existing data or technology leader. Not a realistic first move into AI.

Existing job, reshaped by AI · Governance, legal & risk

Runs the AI inventory, risk classification, impact assessments and policy against frameworks like the EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF and ISO 42001.

Also called: AI Governance Manager, AI Governance Officer, Head of AI Governance

New title · Governance, legal & risk · Financial services

Puts fairness, transparency and accountability into practice, working close to product and data science teams.

Also called: Head of Responsible AI, Responsible AI Program Manager

Real but small headcount, converging with AI governance.

Existing job, reshaped by AI · Governance, legal & risk

Leads selection, rollout, governance and adoption of AI tools in law firms and legal departments.

Also called: Legal AI Specialist, Legal Engineer, Director of Applied AI, Legal Technologist

Existing job, reshaped by AI · Healthcare · Strategy, transformation & C-suite

Owns AI strategy, governance and clinical validation across a hospital system.

Also called: Chief Medical AI Officer, VP Clinical AI

Concentrated in large academic and integrated systems.

Existing job, reshaped by AI · Financial services · Governance, legal & risk

Extends bank model-risk management (US SR 11-7, Canada OSFI E-23) to machine-learning and generative AI systems.

Also called: GenAI Model Validator, AI Risk & Controls Lead

Existing job, reshaped by AI · Creative & content · Marketing

Generates footage with tools like Runway, Sora and Kling and edits it into marketing or social content.

Also called: AI Video Creator, AI Video Editor, Generative AI Artist

Demand is mostly freelance.

New title · AI training (human in the loop) · Healthcare · Governance, legal & risk · Education & training

Credentialed professionals write expert answers and grade model reasoning so AI labs can train and evaluate their models.

Also called: AI Tutor, Expert Evaluator, RLHF Specialist, [Domain] Expert – AI Training

Best treated as bridge income, not a destination. Demand comes from about a dozen AI labs, and one client leaving has triggered sudden mass cuts.

New title · Engineering & infrastructure

Designs and orchestrates AI agents that plan and carry out multi-step tasks.

Also called: AI Agent Developer, Agent Engineer

Strong as a skill, weak as a title: most agent work is hired under AI Engineer.

New title · Engineering & infrastructure

Attacks and hardens AI systems against jailbreaks, prompt injection and model abuse.

Also called: AI Red Teamer, ML Security Engineer

New title · Data & research · Engineering & infrastructure

Builds the test suites and regression pipelines that measure whether an AI system is good enough to ship.

Also called: Evals Engineer, Model Evaluation Engineer

Likely to be absorbed into AI Engineer, the way Prompt Engineer was.

Existing job, reshaped by AI · Product management

Owns AI-powered products, including trade-offs between model choice, evaluation, data and safety.

Also called: GenAI Product Manager, Product Manager, AI Platform

Very likely real, but no hiring dataset counts it separately yet. A strong candidate for promotion.

Existing job, reshaped by AI · Design & UX · Customer support & success

Designs the dialogue and interaction patterns of chatbots, voice assistants and AI agents.

Also called: Conversational AI Designer, AI UX Designer, AI Interaction Designer

Predates 2023 and may be merging into AI product design.

Existing job, reshaped by AI · Marketing

Makes a brand visible inside AI answer engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews.

Also called: Generative Engine Optimization Manager, Answer Engine Optimization Specialist, AI Search Optimization Manager

Job-board snapshots, not a time series. The likeliest marketing title to be confirmed next.

New title · Customer support & success · Operations & supply chain · Financial services

Supervises fleets of AI agents: quality, escalation to humans and performance.

Also called: AI Agent Supervisor, Agent QA Lead, AI Ops Manager, AI Agent Specialist

The title has not settled. Supervising AI agents is a skill worth having in your current role before it is a job.

Existing job, reshaped by AI · HR & people · Strategy, transformation & C-suite · Education & training

Drives organization-wide AI adoption: training, change management and use-case rollout.

Also called: AI Adoption Lead, AI Transformation Lead, AI Change Manager, AI Champion

Indeed names the cluster but publishes no separate count for this title.

Existing job, reshaped by AI · Governance, legal & risk

Turns AI regulation into controls and evidence. Usually folded into the AI Governance Lead role.

Also called: AI Regulatory Compliance Manager

Domestic demand is weaker than expected: Canada's AIDA died in January 2025 and Colorado's AI Act was delayed and narrowed. Stronger in EU-exposed firms.

Existing job, reshaped by AI · Healthcare

Runs rollouts of AI documentation tools: pilots, clinician onboarding and outcome measurement.

Also called: Ambient Scribe Program Manager, Clinical AI Lead

Real work, weak title: no posting data counts it yet.

Existing job, reshaped by AI · Education & training · HR & people

Designs and delivers AI-skills training, and builds AI-assisted learning.

Also called: AI Learning Designer, Instructional AI Designer, AI Skills Trainer

Mostly added to existing L&D and teaching jobs rather than hired as a new role.

Existing job, reshaped by AI · Creative & content · Marketing

Edits AI-drafted content for accuracy, voice and natural tone.

Also called: AI Content Reviewer, AI-assisted Copywriter, AI Humanizer

Real gigs, but a lower-value successor to writing work rather than a premium new career.