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    Da LiNov 2, 20266 min read

    What's next for sales people in tech, 2027–2029

    US sales hiring is flat, Europe's is still falling, and the SDR layer is thinning. Where the openings will be, which skills employers now ask for, and a 90-day plan.

    US tech companies are still hiring salespeople at roughly the 2020 rate. Indeed's US sales postings index stood at 93 in September 2026 (February 2020 = 100), against 91 in Germany and 53 in the UK [Indeed Hiring Lab via FRED, 2026]. In the US, sales managers grew 19% between 2022 and 2025 while technical sales representatives fell 2% [BLS OEWS, 2025]. And sales development is the layer being thinned: SDR and BDR job posts at US digital natives fell 21% in a year [Growth Unhinged with Sumble data, 2026]. This post takes the forecasts from my synthesis report and turns them into a plan for anyone selling technology.

    Where tech sales stands in 2026

    Sales held up better than marketing in all four markets Indeed covers for both. Marketing postings sit at 63 in Germany and 48 in the UK [Indeed Hiring Lab via FRED, 2026]. In my report's scorecard, sales scores 3 out of 5 on demand, the same as security and consulting, but only 2 on entry level, because the junior outbound seat is the one being cut [ai-era-it-jobs report, 2026].

    The job itself changed. Comparing 2,028 sales job ads from late 2022 with 5,743 from 2026, ownership language rose from 30% to 51% of ads and pipeline from 35% to 50% [company job pages, ai-era-it-jobs study, 2026]. AI appears in the requirements section of 33% of 2026 sales ads, up from 6% [ai-era-it-jobs report, Table 6.1].

    The trend lines, carried forward

    These are the sales forecasts from my report, with their confidence and the indicator that will test them first [ai-era-it-jobs report, Section 13].

    • US sales postings index between 85 and 100 at the end of 2027. High confidence: the index has stayed at 89 to 94 since October 2024. Indicator: June 2027 inside the range.
    • German sales postings below 85 and UK below 52 at the end of 2027. Medium confidence: both fell 13% in the last twelve months. Indicator: Germany below 88 in June 2027.
    • SDR posts at US digital natives fall again in Q1 2027 while AI-native firms keep adding SDRs. Medium-low confidence, because it rests on one data source.
    • US technical sales representatives between 270,000 and 290,000 in May 2029, from 284,800 in 2025. Medium confidence.
    • Account executive and sales engineer postings in 2029 at or above 2025. Medium confidence.
    • "GTM engineer" becomes an established title in both the US and Europe. Medium-low confidence: a tool vendor promotes the title.
    Sales postings by country and US technical sales reps, with forecasts and mechanical extensions
    Solid lines are measured; dashed lines carry the last twelve months' change forward and are not forecasts. Sources: Indeed Hiring Lab via FRED; BLS OEWS and Employment Projections; ai-era-it-jobs report, Section 13.

    If the last twelve months simply repeat, the US index would sit at 96 in December 2029, Germany at 57 and the UK at 33. That is arithmetic, not a forecast. Postings indexes tend to bounce after long falls, so I would treat the German and UK lines as the floor of what could happen.

    Five opportunities for the next three years

    1. Account executive and solution engineer. Three in five open GTM roles at US digital natives were AE or SE roles in early 2026 [Growth Unhinged with Sumble data, 2026]. In the year to April 2025, AE headcount grew at 28% of venture-backed software companies and fell at 25%; for sales engineers the split was 17% and 14%. SDR headcount fell at 36% [SaaStr, 2025].
    2. GTM engineer. The title went from under ten US posts a month in 2024 to 45 a month by September 2025, and to more than 400 people at US digital natives by 2026 [Growth Unhinged, 2025 and 2026]. A European sample of postings I reviewed this autumn had 76 such titles, 22 of them in Germany [ai-era-it-jobs European sample, 2026]. It is still small: one GTM-engineer post for every 92 SDR posts in mid-2025.
    3. Companies that sell AI. AI-native companies more than doubled SDR headcount in a year and raised GTM hiring by nearly 50%, though they are only 5% of digital-native GTM posts [Growth Unhinged with Sumble data, 2026]. My read is that they need people who can explain an AI product to buyers who have seen AI-SDR tools underdeliver.
    4. Sales management and expansion. US sales managers went from 536,390 to 637,080 and gained 3.1% in real median pay [BLS OEWS, 2025]. Professional services grew at 34% of software companies [SaaStr, 2025], and "expansion" and "upsell" appear in 30% of sales ads, up from 18%.
    5. Europe, with languages. European business job ads asking for fluency in a named language rose from 23% to 35%, while the US stayed at 2% [company job pages, ai-era-it-jobs study, 2026]. In 96 Poland-located postings, 69% named English and 39% Polish. A seller with German, French or Polish plus English has a filter working in their favour.
    Opportunity map of IT and go-to-market role families by demand and entry-level score
    Demand and entry-level scores from the report's scorecard; marker size is the outlook to 2029. Source: ai-era-it-jobs report, Section 12.

    I have no measured series for freelance or B2B-contract sales work, so I leave contracting off the list.

    Skills to add in the next 12 months

    Skills sales job ads ask for more and less, 2022-23 vs 2026
    Length-adjusted change in the share of sales job ads naming each term. Source: ai-era-it-jobs skills-shift study.

    The non-AI risers are about owning a number. Stakeholder management rose from 27% to 46% of ads, go-to-market strategy from 10% to 22%, outbound from 14% to 22%, and MEDDIC-type qualification from 2% to 9%. Generic CRM skills went from 19% to 27%, while named tools barely moved: Salesforce sits at about 30% in both periods [company job pages, ai-era-it-jobs study, 2026].

    On AI, employers ask for use more than for product names. Sellers save 4.8 hours a week with AI tools, yet 72% of sales organisations fail to reinvest that time in selling [Gartner, 2026]. Salesforce's 2026 survey has 55% of sales professionals using AI for prospecting [Salesforce, 2026]. Gong's own name in sales ads went from 0.7% to 3.3%. The skill worth showing is what you did with the saved hours.

    What to stop investing in

    Creativity fell from 29% to 20% of sales ads, verbal communication from 35% to 29%, written communication from 24% to 20% and project management from 9% to 5%. Degree mentions dropped from 35% to 30%. These still matter in the job; they no longer win the interview. Fully remote sales roles also shrank, from 43% to 33% of ads. Email volume alone is the riskiest bet. It is the work every AI-SDR product targets, and the SDR seat is the one cut most often, even though 83% of respondents in a 2024 SaaStr poll had got nothing from AI SDRs yet [SaaStr, 2024].

    Three indicators to watch in 2027

    1. Indeed's sales postings index in June 2027: US inside 85 to 100, Germany below 88.
    2. The 2027 Growth Unhinged and Sumble update: SDR posts year on year, and the AE and SE share of GTM openings.
    3. The BLS May 2026 employment count, out in spring 2027, for technical sales representatives and sales managers.

    A 90-day plan

    In the first 30 days, rewrite your CV around pipeline you owned: meetings booked, opportunities created, revenue closed, and pick one track (AE, SE, GTM engineer or manager). In days 31 to 60, build one prospecting workflow yourself in Clay, n8n or Make, measure it against your manual process, and learn a qualification framework such as MEDDIC well enough to use it in an interview. In days 61 to 90, build a list of employers that grew headcount over the past year, starting with companies that sell AI and, in Europe, those that need your languages, and apply through people rather than job boards.

    Sources