Fastest-Growing Tech Careers: What the Hiring Data Shows

The fastest-growing tech careers in the BLS's 2025 to 2035 projections are data scientists (+34.6 percent), computer and information research scientists (+21.8 percent) and information security analysts (+21 percent), well ahead of software developers (+10 percent). Computer and mathematical jobs as a group are projected to grow 7.3 percent, about twice the 3.5 percent for all jobs.

Definition: A fast-growing tech career is a technology occupation whose employment or hiring demand is rising faster than the economy overall. Growth can be measured three ways: long-run government projections, current job postings, and what fast-moving employers such as startups are adding.

Those three lenses don't always agree. That's the useful part.

Fastest-growing tech careers: the BLS projections

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes ten-year employment projections for every US occupation. Its latest set, released in August 2026, covers 2025 to 2035. The BLS ties the strength of computer and mathematical occupations to "the continued proliferation of digital tools and AI solutions across the economy."

Here is how the main tech occupations compare, using the BLS's projected growth and May 2025 median pay:

Occupation	Projected growth, 2025 to 2035	Median pay (May 2025)
Data scientists	+34.6%	$120,230
Computer and information research scientists	+21.8%	$140,300
Information security analysts	+21%	$129,180
Software developers	+10%	$135,980
Database architects	+9%	$139,500
Database administrators	0%	$104,620
Computer support specialists	-3%	$62,890
Computer programmers	-7%	$100,390

Data scientists and research scientists both rank in the BLS's top ten fastest-growing occupations of any kind, alongside nurse practitioners and solar installers.

The bottom of the table is just as telling. The BLS says computer programming work "continues to be automated," with AI handling more repetitive coding and complex work shifting to software developers. Database administrators are projected flat as more companies run in the cloud, while database architects grow because AI projects need well-designed data systems.

Our read: the projected growth sits where work is hard to automate and closely tied to data, security and AI. The decline sits where work is routine.

Growth rate is not the same as job openings

A high percentage on a small base can mean fewer jobs than a modest percentage on a big one. This is the most common misreading of these tables.

Research scientists are projected to grow 21.8 percent, but it is a small occupation with a high bar: the BLS lists a master's degree as the typical entry point.
Software developers grow a slower 10 percent, yet the BLS projects about 106,100 openings a year for developers, QA analysts and testers combined, from growth plus people leaving.
Computer support specialists are projected to shrink 3 percent, and the BLS still expects about 48,700 openings a year, all from replacement.

So a "declining" job can still be a good entry point, and a "fast-growing" one can be hard to get into. If you are choosing a first job, openings often matter more than the growth rate.

What job postings add to the picture

Projections describe a decade. Postings describe this quarter. They can point in different directions for a while.

Software postings are recovering from a low base. Indeed's index of US software development postings stood at 77.3 on September 18, 2026, where February 2020 equals 100. That was about 19 percent higher than a year earlier, but still about 23 percent below the pre-pandemic baseline.

Tech demand is broad. CompTIA's Tech Jobs Report for September 2026 counted 625,633 active tech job postings, with software developers and engineers leading new openings, followed by systems engineers, tech support specialists, data analysts and DevOps engineers. Tech unemployment was 3.3 percent, against 4.2 percent nationally.

AI skills are spreading across those postings. CompTIA found active postings asking for AI-related skills up about 282 percent since May 2024. Our sibling guide on the fastest-growing AI jobs breaks down which AI roles are behind that.

Notice that support specialists show up near the top of current postings even though the BLS projects the occupation to shrink. Both can be true: plenty of turnover today, slower growth over ten years.

The fastest-growing startup roles

Startups are often where new job titles appear first. Government data can take years to give a new role its own category, so private payroll data fills the gap.

Pave, a compensation data platform, tracked the share of companies in its database (more than 8,700) employing at least one person in emerging roles, from January 2023 to January 2026:

AI engineer: from 2.7 percent of companies to 8.4 percent, roughly three times the share.
AI transformation lead: from 0.2 percent to 2.0 percent, about ten times. This person finds where AI adds value inside a company and leads the change.
Forward-deployed engineer: from 0.3 percent to 1.6 percent. An engineer who works inside customer accounts to get a product deployed.
Go-to-market engineer: from under 0.1 percent to 1.3 percent. A builder who sits between sales, marketing and software, running the automated systems behind revenue.
AEO/GEO specialist: barely present before 2025, then starting to appear late that year, though still at under 0.2 percent of companies by January 2026. Someone who helps a company show up in AI-generated answers.

Why would a startup pay engineers to sit inside customer accounts? Joe Schmidt at a16z made the case in 2025: enterprises buying AI need heavy setup and integration, so early AI companies accept thinner margins from that hands-on work in exchange for becoming hard to rip out. In our view, that logic explains why several of these titles sit so close to the customer.

Two caveats. These are shares of companies, not headcounts, and every one of these roles still exists at a small minority of employers. The titles are also young, so expect them to be renamed or merged.

If these titles are new to you, our guide to startup job titles explained decodes them. To see what startups are posting now, the 1752vc careers board's startup track lets you sort by newest and filter by level, so you can search these titles and see how often they appear.

Best tech jobs for the future: what holds up across all three lenses

Put the lenses side by side and a few career areas look strong on all of them, in our view.

Data and AI. Data science leads the BLS projections, AI engineer leads the startup data, and AI skills are spreading fastest in postings.
Security. Information security analysts are projected at 21 percent, and the work grows as more systems, including AI systems, need protecting.
Software engineering, with AI in the toolkit. Slower percentage growth, but the most openings, and the base for AI engineering, forward-deployed work and go-to-market engineering.
Data infrastructure. Database architects are projected to grow while administrators stay flat, a sign that design work holds up better than maintenance.

Gergely Orosz's Pragmatic Engineer newsletter, which tracks engineering hiring closely, landed in a similar place in its May 2026 review of the job market: AI engineering was the clear standout in demand, and the fastest-growing employers it found were fintech, observability and security companies.

Where we'd be more careful: roles whose core tasks are routine and easily automated, such as basic programming and database administration. They aren't dead ends, but we'd treat them as rungs to climb from rather than places to settle.

Best tech careers to start in 2027: how to choose now

Here is one simple way to use all this data if you are picking a direction in the next year. Score each option you're considering on four questions:

Growth: is the occupation projected to grow faster than average?
Openings: are there enough postings at your level, near you or remote, to give you real odds?
AI complement: does AI make this job more valuable (security, data architecture, AI engineering) or replace its core tasks?
Fit: can you show proof for it within six months, given what you already know?

An illustrative example. A 2027 graduate with an IT certificate is torn between security analyst and help desk. Security scores high on growth and AI complement, but entry-level security postings often ask for prior IT experience. Help desk scores lower on growth (the BLS projects -3 percent) but high on openings (about 48,700 a year) and fit. A reasonable plan: take the help desk job, add a security certification, and aim to move into security within two years. The declining job becomes the on-ramp to the growing one.

Before you commit, read 30 recent postings for your target role. On the 1752vc careers board, filtering by level and Past 30 days is a quick way to see what employers ask for right now. Our list of the best entry-level tech jobs covers first-rung options in more detail, and our guide to the highest-paying tech jobs covers where the pay sits.

"Job forecasts are mostly guesswork"

There's truth in it. Ten-year projections can miss big shifts. We doubt many forecasts made in 2015 anticipated how quickly generative AI would change software work, and the BLS publishes a new set of projections every year.

But.

The point of a projection isn't to predict the exact number. It's to show the direction and the reasons. The BLS's reasons here (more digital tools, more AI, more security risk, more automation of routine work) are visible in today's postings and in startup hiring too. When three different kinds of data point the same way, we'd take the direction seriously, even if the percentages move.

Common mistakes when choosing a tech career by growth

Choosing by percentage alone. A small occupation growing fast may have fewer openings than a large one growing slowly.
Ignoring the entry gate. Some fast-growing roles typically require a master's degree or years of related experience.
Treating a declining job as off-limits. Replacement openings can make it a solid first rung.
Chasing a brand-new title too early. Young titles can disappear. The underlying skills usually last longer.
Reading one source. Projections, postings and startup data each miss something.

Where we land

If you want the short version: data, AI, security and software engineering look like the strongest tech careers to bet on over the next decade, with data infrastructure close behind.

But the better question is usually which first job gets you there. Pick a growing destination, take a rung with plenty of openings, and keep checking the postings as you go. It's our reading of the data, not a promise. Forecasts change, and your own fit counts for more than any table.

The bottom line

Growth rates tell you where the field is going. Openings tell you where you can get in.

Pick the destination by growth.

Pick the door by openings.

Key takeaways

The BLS projects data scientists (+34.6 percent), research scientists (+21.8 percent) and information security analysts (+21 percent) as the fastest-growing tech occupations from 2025 to 2035.
Computer and mathematical occupations are projected to grow 7.3 percent, about twice the 3.5 percent rate for all jobs, while computer programmers (-7 percent) and support specialists (-3 percent) are projected to shrink.
Openings often matter more than growth rates: software developers grow more slowly but have far more openings than research scientists.
Startup data from Pave shows AI engineers, AI transformation leads, forward-deployed engineers and go-to-market engineers spreading fastest from 2023 to 2026.
A practical approach is to choose a growing destination and enter through a role with plenty of openings.

Frequently asked questions

What is the fastest-growing tech career according to the BLS?

Data scientist. The BLS projects employment of data scientists to grow 34.6 percent from 2025 to 2035, the third-fastest of any US occupation. Computer and information research scientists (+21.8 percent) and information security analysts (+21 percent) follow among tech roles. All three grow much faster than the 3.5 percent projected for all jobs.

Which tech jobs are projected to decline over the next decade?

In the BLS's 2025 to 2035 projections, computer programmers are projected to decline 7 percent as routine coding is automated, and computer support specialists 3 percent. Database administrators are projected flat. These jobs still have openings each year, about 48,700 a year for support specialists, because people leave and need replacing.

What are the fastest-growing roles at startups?

Pave's data from January 2023 to January 2026 shows the share of companies employing AI engineers rising from 2.7 to 8.4 percent, with AI transformation leads, forward-deployed engineers and go-to-market engineers also spreading quickly. AEO/GEO specialists, who help companies appear in AI answers, began to appear in late 2025. All remain small shares of employers.

Is cybersecurity a good tech career to start in 2027?

The data is encouraging. The BLS projects information security analysts to grow 21 percent from 2025 to 2035, with a median wage of $129,180 in May 2025. The catch is the entry gate: the BLS notes the role typically needs a bachelor's degree plus related experience, so many people start in IT support or networking first.

How reliable are BLS job growth projections?

They are useful for direction, less so for exact numbers. The BLS publishes a new set of projections each year, and new technology such as generative AI can shift demand faster than a ten-year model expects. We'd read them alongside current postings and hiring data, and give the most weight to trends that all three sources agree on.

Sources

Disclaimer: This guide is for general education only and is not legal, tax or investment advice. Laws, market data and program terms change, so it may not reflect the latest developments or fit your situation. Treat it as a starting point, not a source of truth, and talk to a qualified lawyer, accountant or financial adviser before you make decisions.