Executive
CTO
Chief Technology Officer for companies building with AI
34
2-4 weeks
$2.4k-3.6k / day
Sets model and build-vs-buy strategy | Leads ML platform and engineering teams | Owns AI reliability, cost and evaluation
Shipped LLM products in production | Scaled ML teams past 30 engineers | Experience at labs, infra or AI-first startups
Executive
COO
Chief Operating Officer for companies building with AI
18
2-3 weeks
$1.9k-2.8k / day
Redesigns workflows around AI agents | Owns automation roadmap and change management | Tracks productivity gains against cost
Led AI-driven ops transformations | Background in consulting or scale-ups | Comfortable with vendor and model contracts
Executive
CFO
Chief Financial Officer for companies building with AI
15
2-4 weeks
$1.8k-2.7k / day
Models compute spend and AI unit economics | Brings AI into forecasting and FP&A | Guides AI investment and M&A decisions
Finance leadership at AI or infra companies | Experience pricing usage-based products | Fluent in GPU and cloud cost structures
Executive
CMO
Chief Marketing Officer for companies building with AI
27
1-3 weeks
$1.8k-2.9k / day
Builds AI-native content and growth engines | Positions AI products in crowded markets | Sets brand rules for generative content
Launched AI products to market | Ran growth teams using generative tooling | Developer or B2B SaaS marketing depth
Executive
CIO
Chief Information Officer for companies building with AI
12
2-4 weeks
$2.0k-3.0k / day
Rolls out AI tools across the company | Owns data governance and access | Chooses enterprise AI vendors
Enterprise AI adoption programs | Regulated industry experience | Strong security and procurement partnerships
Executive
CISO
Chief Information Security Officer for companies building with AI
11
3-5 weeks
$2.3k-3.4k / day
Secures models, prompts and AI supply chain | Sets policy for employee AI use | Leads red-teaming and incident response
AI security or adversarial ML background | Compliance with the EU AI Act and SOC 2 | Experience securing LLM applications
Executive
CRO
Chief Revenue Officer for companies building with AI
21
2-3 weeks
$1.9k-3.1k / day
Sells AI products with usage-based pricing | Builds AI-assisted sales teams | Owns forecasting across new revenue models
Grew AI or infra revenue from early stage | Enterprise sales into technical buyers | Designed consumption pricing
Executive
CHRO
Chief Human Resources Officer for companies building with AI
14
2-4 weeks
$1.7k-2.5k / day
Reskills teams for AI-augmented work | Designs AI talent strategy and pay bands | Sets fair-use policy for AI in hiring
Led workforce change during AI adoption | Built technical talent brands | Understands algorithmic hiring regulation
Other
Engineering
ML engineers, AI architects, research engineers
code
Other
Marketing
AI growth leads, content engineers, product marketers
mega
Other
Sales
AI account executives, solutions engineers
chart
Other
Product
AI product managers, heads of product, strategists
layers
Other
Operations
AI operations leads, automation managers
gear
Other
Finance
AI FP&A leads, compute cost analysts
dollar
Other
People
AI talent partners, heads of people
users
Other
Design
AI UX designers, conversation designers
pen
Other
Data
Chief data officers, data scientists, ML ops
db

The 2026 AI hiring report for recruiters

Open AI leadership roles rose 38% this year. We break down which titles grew, where they sit, and what they pay.

Leadership demand has overtaken engineering demand

For most of the last three years, AI hiring meant engineers. This year the fastest-growing requests we tracked were for leaders: heads of AI, AI CTOs and AI-focused operators who can turn pilots into budgets.

The title is moving into the requirement

Many roles no longer carry "AI" in the title. Instead, a CMO or COO brief lists AI fluency as a must-have. Recruiters who can test for that fluency are winning searches that generalists lose.

What this means for your desk

Build a bench of AI-fluent operators, not only AI specialists. Keep pay data fresh, since ranges moved twice this year. And qualify clients early: companies with a named AI budget close three times faster.

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The AI hiring brief, written for recruiters.

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