Machine Learning for Software Engineers

Machine Learning for Software Engineers

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The Top 10 AI Skills Software Engineers Should Focus On (In Order)

A straightforward list from my market research

Logan Thorneloe's avatar
Logan Thorneloe
Oct 03, 2025
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This is the last article where I’ll be sharing my recent job market research. In case you missed it, I’ve also written about the five AI-related jobs every software engineer should know about and the strange reality of the current job market (why it isn’t just a bad market, but also a weird one).

You can find both of these below:

The 5 AI-Related Jobs Every Software Engineer Should Know About

The 5 AI-Related Jobs Every Software Engineer Should Know About

Logan Thorneloe
·
Sep 12
Read full story
The Strange Reality of AI and SWE Hiring in 2025

The Strange Reality of AI and SWE Hiring in 2025

Logan Thorneloe
·
Aug 22
Read full story

This list contains the top 10 skills every software engineering working in (or wanting to work in) AI should be focusing on in order of how frequently they occurred on AI-related engineering job descriptions.

My methodology for gathering my data points isn’t 100% foolproof, but I’ve been tracking job listings for close to 6 months now while focusing on companies with the following 3 qualities:

  1. A high hiring bar. I know these companies put time and effort into their hiring process to get the best engineers. They’re more likely to provide more accurate and higher quality job listings.

  2. Are doing interesting work in AI and ML. Most were companies at the forefront of AI including startups and large tech companies. These are companies that are innovating in the space and likely to use the most up-to-date technologies.

  3. Companies that pay well. A huge reason this is interesting is so you can learn the skills that will let you increase your compensation.

Let’s jump right in!

The most-mentioned skills in job descriptions

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