Sales and marketing are on the same team in 2026 in a way they have not always been. The organisations that are growing revenue most effectively are those where the two functions are genuinely aligned: where marketing is building the pipeline that sales is converting, where the data flows between them, and where the customer experience is consistent from first touch to closed deal. The ones struggling are, more often than not, those still running sales and marketing as separate kingdoms with separate metrics and separate leadership conversations.

Engineering and manufacturing sits at the sharp end of almost every major economic conversation in 2026. Supply chain resilience, net zero commitments, defence spending, the reshoring of production capacity, the automation of the factory floor – these are not abstract policy debates. They are live hiring challenges that our clients are navigating right now, and they shape what is in demand, what is scarce and what we think employers need to understand as they head into the new financial year.

Technology hiring in 2026 looks very different from what it was two years ago. The volume-driven market of 2022 and 2023 has given way to something more selective. Budgets are tighter, requirements are more specific, and the candidates in most demand are those who can do more than write clean code or manage a project plan. They need to understand the business, navigate complexity and increasingly, work alongside AI tools that are reshaping what technology teams actually do.