CTOs want engineers who 'think'

Consumer companies are rewriting engineering job descriptions as artificial intelligence tools automate more coding work and raise the value of judgment, ownership, and systems thinking. (retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com) The shift showed up in an April 13, 2026 report from The Economic Times, which cited hiring changes at Meesho, Noise, Ixigo, Lenskart, Atlys, and Razorpay. Staffing firm CIEL HR told the paper engineering hiring at such companies rose 210% between 2024 and 2025. (retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com) The same report said data, analytics, and operations roles now make up more than half of hiring demand, alongside software developers, DevOps engineers, solution architects, and artificial intelligence and machine learning specialists. Executives said they now screen for creativity, curiosity, experimentation, and willingness to take ownership. (retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com) In plain terms, companies are asking engineers to define the problem, not just implement a ticket. At Meesho, engineers work in cross-functional pods with product and business teams and are evaluated on shared outcomes, not only code output. (retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com) That lines up with a broader playbook for consumer technology leaders. McKinsey wrote on February 26, 2025 that consumer chief technology officers are under pressure to use artificial intelligence, modernize legacy systems, meet higher customer expectations, and move tech teams from support roles into core business functions. (mckinsey.com) McKinsey said the companies getting more from technology are embedding software, artificial intelligence, and data teams into joint business-tech groups and tying them to business metrics such as sales volume. That helps explain why firms now want engineers who can work across product, operations, and revenue questions. (mckinsey.com) The hiring language is also changing because artificial intelligence can now generate boilerplate code, making syntax fluency less scarce than it was a few years ago. Ixigo cofounder and group chief executive officer Rajnish Kumar told The Economic Times that belief in artificial intelligence is now a first filter and that candidates are judged on how deeply they use and customize those tools. (retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com) India’s labor market adds another layer to the story. The World Economic Forum said on April 17, 2025 that 67% of companies operating in India expect to tap more diverse talent pools for emerging roles, while about 30% plan to move toward skills-based hiring rather than relying as heavily on degrees. (weforum.org) The result is a narrower definition of “engineer” and a broader definition of “engineering.” The candidates moving up are the ones who can use artificial intelligence, work across teams, and own a business problem all the way to an outcome. (retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com)