Software development market insights

Software development demand is growing and rewarding senior talent

Software development demand continues to grow, but hiring is increasingly focused on experienced engineers who can deliver outcomes with AI-enabled workflows.

• There were 1 billion commits in GitHub during 2025. Now, it's 275 million per week, on pace for 14 billion this year if growth remains linear (spoiler: it won't.)
  ‍
• 78% of technology leaders plan to increase hiring in H2
  ‍
• 65% of technology hiring managers say finding skilled talent is more challenging than it was a year ago
  ‍
• New graduates now account for just 7% of Big Tech hires, down more than 50% from pre-pandemic levels

AI is increasing productivity, but also creating more work in other areas

Developers are shipping more code than ever, but don't always check it, and are accumulating a new, subtler form of technical debt in the process. Here are our findings from SonarSource's 2026 State of Code report:

• 42% of committed code is already AI-generated and projected to hit 65% by 2027, yet only 48% of developers always review it before it ships
  ‍
• 96% of developers don't fully trust that AI-generated code is functionally correct, and 61% say it "looks correct but isn't reliable"
  ‍
• 88% report at least one negative impact on technical debt from AI, with the top culprit being plausible-but-unreliable code that creates a false sense of security
  ‍
• 35% of AI tool usage happens through personal accounts (52% for ChatGPT specifically), meaning sensitive code and data is flowing into public models outside any governance structure
  ‍
• Developer toil hasn't decreased: heavy AI users still spend ~24% of their week on toil, they've just traded debugging legacy code for correcting AI-generated code

What elite engineering teams look like in 2026

The LinearB Software Engineering Benchmarks Report analyzed over 8.1 million pull requests from 4,800 development teams across 42 countries. Below is a summary of the key benchmarks that distinguish elite teams from underperforming teams. How does your team stack up?

Highlights from the past quarter

Ranked #1 in the Czech Republic for custom software development

OAK'S LAB was organically ranked #1 on Clutch's list of the top custom software development companies in the Czech Republic.

The Czech Republic consistently ranks among Europe's strongest engineering ecosystems, with more than 130,000 software engineers, world-class technical education, and major R&D centers operated by companies including Apple, Microsoft, and Pure Storage.

Given the caliber of the local market, this recognition is particularly meaningful to our team.

See on Clutch

Continued growth in H1

We have continued building on our record performance from 2025. In the first half of 2026, our team grew by approximately 10% to more than 90 people. 

Our philosophy remains unchanged: quality over quantity. We maintain a highly selective hiring process, accepting approximately 0.4% of applicants, and continue to limit ourselves to roughly 10 active client engagements at any given time.

Today, approximately 80–85% of our team supports venture-backed growth-stage companies from Series A through Series D, while 15–20% focuses on early-stage startups.

Welcoming Matej, our new Head of Product Management

In April, we welcomed Matej Novák as Head of Product Management. Matej brings more than 15 years of experience leading product organizations across venture-backed Silicon Valley startups and major European financial institutions.

He will lead our product management practice, oversee quality standards across product engagements, and further strengthen our position as a strategic business partner to our clients.

Follow Matej on LinkedIn

Portfolio clients in the news

Capital Markets Gateway

Partnered with BNP Paribas to advance innovation in equity capital markets and support its European expansion - Yahoo Finance (May)

Blackpoint Cyber

Released its 2026 Annual Threat Report, revealing a surge in credential-based attacks and trusted-tool abuse - Blackpoint Cyber (April)

OpenLoop Health

Acquired nutrition startup Season Health, adding dietitian-led care to its telehealth platform - Endpoints News (April)
‍

Next available team opening

Our next available team is a fully autonomous product development squad capable of owning both product discovery and delivery for an entire product or business unit. Most recently, the team successfully delivered a product pivot for a venture-backed cybersecurity startup based in New York.

Team Composition

• Product Manager
• UI/UX Design Lead
• Tech Lead
• 3 Full-Stack Engineers
• QA Engineer

Core Technologies

• React
• Next.js
• Node.js
• JavaScript
• TypeScript

Last quarter through snapshots