Network engineering and architecture

ISCO-08 2153, 2523

Network architect, IP/MPLS network engineer, Core network engineer, Transmission engineer, Network design engineer, Network automation engineer

AI exposure50%

Headcount need, in FTE

Exposure range

Your current headcount

FTE

Need in 203091 FTE-9 FTE (-9%)

Need in 203583 FTE-17 FTE (-17%)

How AI is used on these tasks today

Automation 52%Augmentation 48%

In AI conversations about this job's tasks: the AI does the task itself (automation) or helps the person do it (augmentation).Anthropic Economic Index, April and May 2026. Occupations: Computer Network Architects. AEI

1. Exposure 50%Average automation potential of the job's tasks. Range for this family: 36 to 60%.ILO occupations used: Telecommunications Engineers (48%), Computer Network Professionals (52%). ILO data

2. Strategic ceiling 100%Your call: how much of this potential do you want to capture? Nobody can set it for you.

3. Adoption speed midpoint 2030

Inherits your company stance, adjustable for this family.

4. Conversion to headcount sensitive 35%Default 35%: Network evolutions (5G core, virtualisation, automation) create more engineering work than AI removes, so most of the gain is reinvested in projects.

Target AI skills

level 1 to 4

Foundation

Use AI assistants every day

Frame and phrase a request

Check and challenge AI outputs

Protect data and respect the rules

Applied

Rethink one's process with AI

Analyse data with AI

Produce content with AI

Delegate to and supervise AI agents

Expert

Build and integrate AI solutions

Evaluate and make AI solutions reliable

AI governance and risk management

Job skills

Growing in value

Network automation and infrastructure as code
Reviewing AI-generated configurations before deployment
End-to-end architecture across cloud and network
Security by design of network functions

Losing value

Writing device configurations by hand
Low-level design documents from templates
Manual capacity planning spreadsheets
Searching vendor documentation

How the job will change

Network engineers spend a large share of their time producing configurations, low-level design documents, test plans and migration scripts. Code generation tools and assistants trained on vendor documentation now produce first drafts of these in minutes. Capacity planning and traffic analysis also move to models that read network telemetry directly, rather than spreadsheets updated by hand.

The job moves toward design choices and control. Someone still has to decide the architecture, check that a generated configuration does not open a security gap or break routing at scale, and own the change on the live network. Tomorrow's good engineer writes less configuration and more automation, and knows exactly when not to trust the tool.

2026-2027: Assistants draft configurations, scripts and design documents, reviewed line by line.
2028-2030: Intent-based automation spreads; agents prepare and test changes in digital twins.
2031+: Smaller teams of architects and automation engineers steer a largely self-configuring network.

Watch out

Engineers who mastered the command-line era but not automation risk being sidelined, while automation profiles are scarce and courted by cloud providers. Reskilling the existing population is usually cheaper than recruiting. See the seniority outlook below.

What if you hired fewer juniors?

Your 2036 seniors are the juniors you hire today.

Seniors available in 2036-5%2 FTE short

Gap above 5% from2036

Your seniority mix today

Juniors (0 to 3 yrs in the profession)25%Seniors (10+ yrs)30%

Mid-level (3 to 10 yrs in the profession, the remainder)45%

Cut in junior hiring -40%

For

Advanced settings

Juniors promoted each year25%Juniors leaving each year12%Senior gap filled by external hiring0%If every company makes the same bet, senior profiles will be scarce and expensive.

Seniority mix, % of today's headcount

Juniors25%Mid-level42%Seniors28%

2026 2036

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Run these scenarios on your actual workforce

AI Impact Diagnostic: 6 to 8 weeks, your data in albert, three costed scenarios and the projected seniority mix for each job family.

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How the numbers are built

Every headcount figure combines four assumptions. Three come pre-filled from public research and job family defaults. The strategic ceiling is yours to set.

Public researchExposureAverage automation potential of the job's tasks, from the ILO's 2025 task-level scores.

Your decisionStrategic ceilingHow much of that potential you choose to capture. Your decision, not ours.

Your companyAdoption speedHow fast your company moves, set once for the whole company.

Job family defaultConversion to headcountHow much of the productivity gain becomes fewer people rather than more output.

Headcount effect

Seniority outlook

A flow model with three levels of experience in the profession. Promotion and exit rates are set so that today's mix stays stable when hiring does not change: any gap you see comes from the junior hiring cut alone.