IT jobs after the great adjustment: An analysis of the demand for experts and the marginalisation of juniors in 2026

In 2025, the Polish technology market definitively ended its phase of broad expansion in favor of selective recruitment, in which an 18 percent increase in the total number of job offers masks a drastic increase in the entry threshold. While demand for seniors and AI specialists is breaking records, the industry is moving away from investing in novice programmers, focusing instead on immediate business efficiency.

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After a tumultuous period of adjustment, the Polish technology sector is entering a phase of mature growth that is redefining the employment structure. Data from Pracuj.pl for 2025 shows an 18 per cent increase in the number of IT job offers, translating into more than 760,000 advertisements. While the numbers suggest a return to a bull market, deeper analysis reveals a deeply polarised market where experience and AI expertise have become the only hard currency.

Dividend from experience

The most striking indicator is the unprecedented 77 per cent increase in demand for experts and seniors. Technology companies have stopped investing in capability and started buying immediate efficiency. In a world where capital is more expensive than in the previous decade, employers expect specialists capable of generating business value from day one.

This trend comes at the direct expense of the youngest seniority. The number of offers for juniors has dropped by 4%, which, combined with increasing demands, creates a ‘glass ceiling’ for entry into the industry. Rafał Nachyna, COO of Grupa Pracuj, notes that the market is shifting towards roles that are key to software development, marginalising support departments such as helpdesk or agile coaching.

AI as a foundation, not an add-on

Artificial intelligence has ceased to be merely the subject of conference panels, becoming an operational requirement. The AI/ML segment has seen spectacular growth of 122% year-on-year. New positions such as AI Engineer or Manager MS AI Copilot demonstrate that companies are moving from the experimentation phase to the deep integration of language models into business processes.

Importantly, AI is not replacing programmers, but drastically raising the bar for those who stay. Candidates with a combined profile – those who can tie together advanced code with a measurable business objective – are preferred.

Strategic transparency

In the area of pay, a pragmatic approach to openness is observed. Although the overall percentage of offers with a fork has stabilised at 32%, it is distributed unevenly. In senior adverts, salary transparency has increased to 44%, becoming a key tool in the battle for scarce talent. At the same time, the junior segment has seen a decline in this area, suggesting that transparency is now a privilege offered almost exclusively to the most desirable links in the technology chain.

Supported by the unlocking of EU funds and the stabilisation of GDP, 2026 may bring further recovery, but it will be a market tailored to the dictates of high technical competence and strategic AI adoption .

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