I’ve kept these editions a bit too “newsletter-y” so here’s a proper personal update.
I’ve now placed 6 engineers in 2026 and I’m already 78% of my full-year target. I’d love to smash the yearly target by the end of May, so if you’ve got any referrals (candidates or hiring teams), I’d massively appreciate it. My typical clients are pre-seed to Series D, but I’ve also placed engineers at TikTok in London and we do work with larger organisations too.
If a referral results in someone getting hired anywhere, we’ll donate £250 to a charity of your choice. If you’re a hiring manager and want a chat about client intros and how we can help, I’m very open to that too.
What industries are hot right now (and why)
The UK labour market is still cautious overall, but the “hot” areas are extremely clear: compute, security, and applied AI in real workflows.
1) AI infrastructure and data centres
This is the biggest gravity well right now.
Reuters reporting points to cloud giants driving an AI capex cycle, with projections of over $600B of data centre spend in 2026.
That spend is pushing demand across power, cooling, networking, distributed systems, platform engineering, and the “unsexy” work that keeps AI products live.
If you want the simplest mental model: when data centre investment goes up, hiring follows in everything adjacent to throughput, reliability and cost.
2) Chips and hardware enablement
Not Python-first on the surface, but it shows up in Python roles through tooling, automation, data pipelines, and ML infrastructure.
Reuters says strong forecasts from ASML and TSMC are signalling the AI chip spending boom is still intact.
In practice, this translates into more hiring in companies building “picks and shovels” and the software layers that sit around them.
3) Cybersecurity and operational resilience
Security is a spend category that rarely gets cut when boards get nervous, and AI is adding new attack surfaces.
UK-focused hiring commentary is pointing to increased demand in cyber auditing, securing AI systems, identity and cloud security, and operational resilience.
This is one of the best “career stability” wedges for Python developers because it’s durable across cycles.
4) Applied AI is expanding even as overall postings cool
Even where overall hiring slows, AI requirements are creeping into ordinary roles.
Indeed Hiring Lab (UK) highlighted that AI mentions are rising while overall postings cool, and that data and analytics has the highest share of AI-related postings at 47%, followed by software development at 41%.
LinkedIn’s Jobs on the Rise UK list has AI engineer as the top fastest-growing role in the UK for 2026.
So yes, some teams are cautious, but the teams with conviction are hiring with a very specific bar.
What this means for Python developers
If you’re struggling to land something right now, it’s usually not “Python isn’t hiring.” It’s “Python is hiring with a higher filter.”
Three practical ways to align with where demand is concentrated:
Pick a wedge that matches the hot pockets
Python + systems (async, event-driven, queues, backpressure)
Python + infra (CI/CD, observability, cost, reliability)
Python + applied AI (integration, evals, guardrails, monitoring)
Prove reliability and throughput
Most teams don’t just want code. They want production judgement: timeouts, retries, idempotency, structured logs, metrics, and sane defaults.Turn your experience into measurable outcomes
In your CV and interviews: what shipped, what broke, what you measured, what you changed, and what improved (latency, cost, error rate, throughput, revenue).
What this means for hiring managers
If you’re hiring in these “hot” categories, you’re competing with the highest-paying budgets in the market.
If your budget is lower, you can still win by out-executing:
Speed: book quickly, decide quickly, offer quickly
Clarity: role scorecard, real scope, clear expectations
Upside: learning curve, ownership, equity transparency, progression
Quick Python watch (last 7 days)
Only things that can actually affect teams:
FastAPI 0.136.0 released Apr 16, 2026.
Ruff 0.15.11 released Apr 16, 2026.
uv 0.11.7 released Apr 15, 2026.
Pydantic 2.13.3 released Apr 20, 2026.
Job of the week
Software Engineer | Seed-stage | London | Visa sponsorship + global relocation | £80k to £200k + 0.1% to 0.5% equity
Seed-stage startup that’s about to raise a $30m Series A. They will sponsor visas and relocate great engineers from anywhere in the world.
What’s interesting here
They’re language agnostic and genuinely open on background
Core stack today is mainly TypeScript and Rust
You’re joining at the point where the company is scaling hard post-raise
Setup
5 days per week onsite in London
£80k to £200k base plus 0.1% to 0.5% equity (level dependent)
If you want the full brief and a proper intro, message me directly.
If your company is hiring (pre-seed to Series D, and also larger orgs), I’d love to help. And if you know a great engineer or a hiring team that needs support, send them my way. If it turns into a hire, we’ll donate £250 to a charity you choose.
Open question to spark debate: Which industry do you think is the safest place to build a career in 2026: AI infrastructure, security, applied AI, or something else?
Hiring? Contact
Josh Smith
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 01727 225 552