AI Shows Up in 49% of U.S. Engineering Job Posts, Hire With Near Finds

Thirty-five percent want engineers who build AI into the product, and 20% want engineers who use AI tools to work faster.

SAN ANTONIO, TX, UNITED STATES, October 23, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Hire With Near, a staffing and recruiting agency that helps U.S. companies hire remote talent in Latin America, has released data showing that 49% of the engineering job descriptions U.S. companies sent it mention AI, against 23% across other job categories. The engineering job descriptions cover September 2025 to September 2026. A second set of findings, from hiring managers who described their interview process to Hire With Near, shows how they interview developers for AI skills.

Most of those AI mentions ask for one of two things. In 35% of the engineering job descriptions, the company wants to hire an engineer in Latin America to build AI into its product. In 20%, the company wants an engineer who uses AI tools to work faster. Some ask for both.

“Almost every client now asks about AI tools on candidates’ profiles,” said Julieta Gorodetzky, a tech recruiter at Hire With Near. “But we also get requests for ‘an AI engineer’ when what they want is an engineer who uses AI. Those are different hires, so it’s a distinction we always have to make.”

Of the hiring managers who described their interview process to Hire With Near, most test for judgment: whether the engineer catches where the AI is wrong. About four in 10 deliberately plant a problem the AI is likely to miss, such as a bug, a security flaw, a conflicting requirement or an edge case, and watch whether the candidate finds it.

Of the 41 hiring managers who described their process, 76% want engineers to use AI coding tools but wouldn’t reject a strong candidate who doesn’t, and 12% make AI use mandatory. Only one of the 41 bans AI from a core interview round.

Each hiring manager was counted once, under the main test method they described:

– 46% run a live session in which the candidate works on real code with AI tools open
– 27% hand the candidate AI-written code with planted flaws to review
– 15% ask the candidate to walk through work they have already built
– 10% set a take-home exercise with AI allowed, followed by a debrief

Methodology: Hire With Near analyzed the engineering job descriptions U.S. companies sent it between September 2025 and September 2026, and in October 2026 asked hiring managers how they test developers for AI skills; 41 who hire engineers directly and described their own interview process were counted. These figures describe one agency’s clients and a self-selected group of respondents, not the whole U.S. market. The job-description figures come from the analysis behind the Hire With Near report “Why US Companies Are Switching Engineering Models to Hire in Latin America,” available at https://www.hirewithnear.com/insights/why-us-companies-hiring-engineering-roles-in-latin-america.

The full findings, including a five-line interview script for testing AI-assisted development, are in Hire With Near’s article “1 in 5 Engineering Job Posts Now Asks Candidates to Code With AI. Here’s How 41 Hiring Managers Test for It,” available at https://www.hirewithnear.com/insights/how-to-interview-developers-for-ai-skills. U.S. companies looking to hire software engineers in Latin America can find more at https://www.hirewithnear.com/hire/software-engineering.

About Hire With Near

Hire With Near is a staffing and recruiting agency that helps U.S. companies hire remote talent in Latin America across all industries and departments. More than 950 companies, including Jersey Mike’s, Expensify and Deel, work with Hire With Near to build their teams. The firm fills 97% of the roles it takes on, and holds a 4.8 rating on G2 across 160-plus reviews. Most clients hire in under three weeks. Hire With Near ranked No. 118 on the 2026 Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in America. For more information, visit https://www.hirewithnear.com

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