2026 Hiring Trend: Employers lean towards skills and demonstrated experience in hiring

One of the most notable trends that emerged in Taiwan’s Tech & Digital Transformation labour market was the influx of younger workers in 2025.

“Gen Z employees are entering the workforce in bigger numbers than before,” remarks Yuan Hsiao, Manager at Robert Walters Taiwan.

Cultural norms in the workplace are shifting to match, with companies becoming more mindful of expectations around work-life balance, remote work and flexibility.

Little has changed in the type of organisations that professionals seek out. According to Amy Lin, Manager at Robert Walters Taiwan, candidates continue to prefer larger firms as they are seen to be more stable than startups. “However, we’ve observed a marked preference for companies that are actively engaged in innovation, tech transformation and AI implementations,” she says.

Read on to find out more about the labour market and hiring trends for Taiwan’s Tech & Digital Transformation professionals in 2026.
 

Skill demands vary across domains

Skills will take precedence within software hiring in 2026. Instead of judging candidates solely from past titles or seniority levels, employers will seek out developers who can showcase specific skills, project impact and adaptability. Developers who can work across frontend, backend, data or AI stacks will enjoy stronger career mobility. However, expectations are rising for those covering AI job scopes. AI engineers and product managers will be expected to move past experimentation to actual implementation, integrating the technology in business workflows and systems.

More companies have introduced return-to-office mandates. Nevertheless, Yuan warns that hybrid models remain critical for top tech talent, and AI-driven startups and multinational corporations will likely need to provide such arrangements.

The hardware industry is struggling with an aging engineering workforce and limited supply of senior talent. Succession will be a key priority for these companies, who will focus more on retention programs and internal upskilling to groom the next generation of leaders. This is especially vital as demand for local technical leaders is expected to spike with global manufacturers diversifying production bases in other markets like Vietnam and Mexico.

On top of managing quality and engineering across borders, employers will also seek out talent who can collaborate well with teams in multiple domains. This stems from the AI server and electric vehicle boom, which has created a need for engineers who understand system integration across electrical, firmware and mechanical domains.

Meanwhile, in IT and digital transformation, businesses remain preoccupied with ongoing digital transformation and growing cybersecurity needs. As such, Amy believes that hiring demand will be high for professionals skilled in data, hybrid cloud and automation, as well as cybersecurity and compliance talent. Experienced cybersecurity engineers, in particular, will enjoy competitive compensation packages in the year ahead.
 

Most in-demand positions and skills

Within software, the roles seeing the strongest demand are driven by increased AI implementation. Employers are looking for AI/ML engineers, who are tasked with designing and deploying AI models. DevOps and MLOps engineers also play a critical role, supporting scalability, deployment efficiency and continuous integration through their knowledge of containerisation and CI/CD pipelines. Backend engineers remain the backbone of the domain’s job market, as they support new product development and system optimisation.

The most sought after skills and experience within this domain are backend engineering, machine learning and LLM experience, and AI-driven product development.

In hardware manufacturing, sustained deployment of AI servers, networking and automotive applications have kept demand high for hardware design and electrical engineers. Technical program managers are also greatly sought after as Taiwan’s manufacturers move towards design-led and co-development models. There will also be tremendous demand for firmware or embedded software engineers, particularly in companies building AI servers or vehicle electric control units.

Some of the top skills and domain expertise in the job market for these talents include high-speed circuit and power design, embedded systems and firmware development, and design for manufacturability and new product introduction (DFM/NPI).

For IT and digital transformation, businesses are keeping an eye out for professionals experienced in IT applications to support adoption of AI and automation tools. Security engineers are also in high demand as cyber threats become more sophisticated. Hybrid cloud solution architects are particularly sought after by large enterprises, who prefer using a blend of on-premise and cloud services.

The top skills in this domain are around AI and automation tools, DevSecOps and hybrid cloud.
 

Advice for talent attraction and retention

Many professionals are no longer swayed by titles or slight pay increases, they are strategic and cautious in today’s AI-driven era, prioritising long-term company vision, market positioning and product relevance.

These factors help candidates approximate whether a prospective company offers them job and career stability. Thus, companies should streamline messaging across recruitment and internal communications, highlighting purpose, learning and development and leadership accessibility. This projects a more progressive and steady image, which assures professionals of long-term career viability with a given firm.

Employees also value different opportunities when it comes to career growth. According to Yuan, clear skill development frameworks and internal mobility are especially important for engineers, so companies should look to provide this. To fill managerial positions, organisations could also consider grooming mid-level engineers and specialists who demonstrate strong cross-functional influence and competencies.

Lastly, hybrid work models remain highly appealing for industry professionals, and businesses who can offer this fare a better chance at attracting and retaining their talent.
 

The salary increments for job movers

Job movers in software engineering can expect salary increments to fall between 5 – 15%. Candidates with hands-on experience in AI-related projects may receive stronger offers.

Meanwhile, salaries are likely to go up by 10 – 20% for candidates moving into new roles in hardware manufacturing. Higher salary adjustments are expected in sectors like servers, enterprise hardware and data centers, with critical engineering positions or leadership positions possibly garnering raises of 20 – 30%.

Wage growth will likely be more muted for IT and digital transformation talent as businesses undergo restructuring and reduce headcounts. However, they will make targeted increments between 5 – 15% to fill select positions.
 

Find out more

Request access to our 2026 Salary Survey to benchmark salaries and to find out more about key hiring trends in Taiwan.