According to rankings and assessments by leading recruitment agencies, professions related to artificial intelligence (AI), engineering, and logistics will be the most in-demand in Spain in 2026.
The most in-demand professions in Spain in 2026
The TOP 20 most in-demand professions in Spain in 2026 looks as follows:
- Artificial Intelligence Engineer (AI Engineer).
- Data Analyst.
- Information Security Specialist.
- IT Systems Architect — Systems Architect.
- Director of Product Management.
- Renewable Energy Engineer.
- Machine Learning Researcher — ML Researcher.
- Logistics Analyst.
- Head of IT Sales — IT Solutions Sales Manager.
- Business Process Consultant.
- Civil Engineering Project Manager.
- Biomedical Engineer.
- Head of Procurement.
- Head of Organizational Development — HR Business Partner.
- Simulation Engineer — Computer Modeling Engineer.
- In-house Counsel — Legal Consultant.
- Chief AI Officer — Head of AI.
- Cost Control Specialist.
- Head of Government Relations (GR Manager).
- Medical Assistant.
The highest-paid professions in 2026
If we talk about the highest-paid professions in Spain, the situation today is as follows (gross salaries):
Healthcare
- Surgeons — from €60,000 to €150,000 per year.
Top management and business
- CEO (Chief Executive Officer) — around €189,000 per year.
- CFO (Chief Financial Officer) — around €140,000 per year.
- Commercial Director — approximately €140,000 per year.
- Procurement Director — around €120,000 per year.
IT and technology
- CTO / DevOps Engineer (Chief Technology Officer) — from €110,000 to €130,000 per year.
- Data Analyst — around €80,000 per year.
- Software developers, cybersecurity specialists, cloud data and Big Data professionals — on average from €40,000 to €80,000 per year, depending on experience and the sector the company operates in.
Trends in Spain’s labor market
Undoubtedly, the emergence of new technologies has had a major impact on Spain’s labor market (as well as the global labor market overall). On the one hand, a range of new professions has appeared, linked to artificial intelligence. On the other hand, with the advent of AI, many employers have automated internal processes and become less dependent on hired labor. Routine administrative roles are seeing declining demand. By contrast, data and AI specialists (Data Analysts, ML researchers, AI engineers) remain among the most sought-after. In the coming years, IT architects and software engineers who build systems that integrate AI into processes are also unlikely to be left behind.
Recent surveys show that 58% of specialists believe it has become harder to find a job in Spain. The labor market is going through a period of accelerated transformation, adapting to new realities. This is confirmed by the overall trend toward increasing digitalization across key areas of life, public administration, and business in Spain, as well as the rapid growth of investment in the tech sector — +18% according to 2025 data. At the same time, many professionals planning to change their field do not always clearly understand which direction to take. Nevertheless, today the list of the most in-demand skills and learning paths includes:
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning:
- Courses on neural networks, NLP, Computer Vision, TensorFlow/PyTorch.
- Data Science programs.
- Data analytics and Big Data:
- SQL, Python, R.
- BI tools (Power BI, Tableau).
- DevOps / MLOps:
- CI/CD, containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), automation of model deployment.
- Information security:
- Data protection in AI-enabled systems.
Working in Spain in 2026: how to search and what to expect
LinkedIn, a professional social network and recruiting platform, announced the launch in Spain of two new AI-based tools designed to simplify and optimize the job search process: AI-powered job search and Job Match. The first tool will allow users to describe in plain language the type of job they are looking for and receive job recommendations that match that request. The second will clearly show how well a candidate’s skills match the requirements of each vacancy, helping focus applications on positions where the chances of success are higher.
It’s no secret that Spain’s labor market is not uniform. Salaries vary significantly by region: in Madrid and Barcelona they are often higher than in other regions, even for the same roles.
And of course, we should not forget about outsourcing, which in recent years has become not just a cost-optimization tool, but one of the key factors transforming the modern labor market, including in Spain. In the context of digitalization, widespread adoption of cloud technologies, and artificial intelligence, more and more companies are rethinking the very concept of a “workplace.”
In recent years, in many industries, a specialist’s geographic location has stopped being mandatory. Employers increasingly value speed of execution, flexibility, and cost. As a result, business owners actively attract contractors and individual specialists from other regions and countries, building distributed work relationships and teams—or fully outsourcing certain functions. As a consequence, local specialists in Spain’s labor market face global competition from professionals and agencies on the other side of the world, often with different pay expectations.
But it’s not all negative: even among the most in-demand professions, there is a sizable group of specialties where a specialist’s physical presence remains fundamentally important. When speaking about highly qualified professionals, it is worth mentioning engineers for industrial and energy facilities, renewable energy specialists, biomedical engineers, technical experts responsible for maintaining complex equipment, as well as project managers overseeing on-site infrastructure and construction implementation. That is why, even in the era of AI and global competition, such professions maintain strong and stable demand in Spain’s labor market.
