Career moves · 231,145 postings · 163 markets · 2026-07-16
Where can your career go next?
Search the role you're in. We count what employers ask for across 231,145 active postings, then show you the markets one step away: how big each one is, and exactly which skills you'd need to add.
What this is and isn't
Markets sit close together when employers on both sides ask for the same skills, measured across 350 normalized skills. This is not a record of people moving between them. That would need career histories we don't have. A close market also isn't automatically a good move. Skills counted are the ones postings list explicitly, so every figure is a floor.
You are here
AI Engineer
462 open jobs·311 employers
10 markets are one step away
These are the 10 careers with the highest skill overlap with AI Engineer. Bigger circles mean more openings; careers closer to the center require fewer new skills.
Among nearby careers, Software Engineer has the most openings (7,054), while Forward Deployed Engineer requires the fewest new skills.
Skill transition
How much each market's required skills differ from your
current role.
- Very close4
- Close6
Larger circles = more open jobs, from 114 to 7,054 here.
TapSelect a market to put it at the center.
Forward Deployed Engineer
from AI Engineer
Excellent match
Very close
Among the 4 closest moves from AI Engineer.
308
openings in Forward Deployed Engineer
6
skills you already have
6
skills to learn
1
skills to strengthen
You already have
AI EngineerForward Deployed Engineershare of postingsllm
71%48%
model deployment
18%30%
rag
47%28%
observability
29%26%
openai
24%9%
prompt engineering
31%8%
You'll need to learn
- roadmapasked for in 40% of Forward Deployed Engineer postings
- goasked for in 43% of Forward Deployed Engineer postings
- customer successasked for in 28% of Forward Deployed Engineer postings
- go-to-marketasked for in 29% of Forward Deployed Engineer postings
- engineering managementasked for in 38% of Forward Deployed Engineer postings
- javascriptasked for in 26% of Forward Deployed Engineer postings
Strengthen what you have
- model deployment18% → 30%
How much work is out there
AI Engineer462Forward Deployed Engineer308This market has 1.5x fewer postings than yours.
Smaller than the market you're in, but 6 of the skills it asks for are ones you already have.
What to do next
1 · Learn
roadmap
Asked for in 40% of Forward Deployed Engineer postings, and 5 other new skills.
2 · Strengthen
model deployment
18% of AI Engineer postings ask for it, against 30% of Forward Deployed Engineer.
3 · Look at the work
308 Forward Deployed Engineer postings
Observed active in this snapshot.
462 AI Engineer postings · 308 Forward Deployed Engineer postings · 350 normalized skills · snapshot 2026-07-16
Methodology
What is this based on?
231,145 live job postings from 28,870 employers across 163 markets, captured 2026-07-16. Skills come from each posting's stated requirements.
How is distance calculated?
Each market becomes a profile of the skills its postings request, and markets are compared by how much those profiles overlap (an IDF-weighted cosine similarity, so skills that appear in almost every role count for less). The closest markets sit nearest the center, grouped into five bands from Very close to Different field.
What do the skill lists mean?
Shared skills are the ones both roles commonly ask for. Skills to learn are the ones the target market asks for that your current role doesn't, ranked by how much more often they come up.
What isn't included?
Years of experience, seniority, salary, portfolio or certification requirements, or how competitive a role is to land. Skill overlap is one axis of a move, not the whole picture.
Read how graphic and product design split into two markets →