Hey friends

We're posting October's edition in September as a nod to the glory days of 90s computer magazines. Also because next week is going to be busy - you can catch us at not one, but two events!

Tuesday 29th Sep - Fiona and Debbie will be speaking at The F Factor meetup, talking through what they're seeing on with AI in engineering teams. How hiring conversations have changed, and what this means if you're thinking about your next career move.

Wednesday 30th Sep we're getting the community together at Hotel CBD (Sydney) to say thanks for contributing to our research. It's a mostly social meetup with one talk - Steve interviewing Oz Nova. Oz recently returned to Sydney from SF, where he co-founded a few venture-backed startups, founded CSPrimer, and recently joined Amp Labs. He has an interesting perspective on all the changes and was a big help with our research. You'll enjoy this.

These nights are off the back of our white paper, The State of AI & Engineering in 2026. Find the full report or download the TL;DR PDF version here. 

Keep scrolling for the usual roundup of meetups, open roles, and good reads.

Stay curious, keep building 🛠️
Lookahead crew 🐥

Feature Jobs

Staff Software Engineer, Validate — Buildkite 
Backend Staff Engineer at Buildkite, building real-time test analytics at massive scale. Remote AU/NZ.

Head of Information Security
Build a security function from the ground up at a fast-growing investing platform, with real budget, real authority and a CTOO who backs you.

Senior Product Designer
Senior Product Designer for a growing, well-funded tech company reinventing workflows for a traditional industry.

Principal Front End Engineer
Take frontend architecture off the CTO and own it, on a product where real time collaboration meets very large datasets.

Product Manager (AI & Automation)
Own AI & automation product outcomes at a profitable, growing SaaS business in the accounting/professional services space.

For more opportunities head to our website.

Worth Sharing

Would I still go the engineering manager route in 2026?
Gregor Ojstersek asks whether the management path is still worth it in 2026 given AI-assisted engineering and leaner teams — a good outside read to pair with our own whitepaper, where 51% of engineering leaders told us they're now more hands-on than they were a year ago.

Andrew Huberman on the simple habits that transform your health
Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman breaks down what's happening in your body through the day, and small daily tweaks to boost your focus, sleep and energy.

OpenAI's Head of Design: This is the best time in history to be a designer
OpenAI's head of product design on why designers have never had it better — what OpenAI screens for when hiring, and where human taste and judgement still beat AI.

We are Lookahead, a technical recruiting company based in the Eora Nation / Sydney.

The Lookahead office is located on the traditional lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded and pay our respects to elders past, present, and future.

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