You are considering a career change
Build on one skill from your current field. Pick a related role profile and use a small work sample to identify a learning gap.
Compare the profilesGerman job market
AI roles and jobs in Germany
Are you exploring a career change, building on experience in another field, or defining a role for your team? Start with the profiles. The salary and labour-market data below mainly describe Germany and state their scope.
Start with the role, then check the numbers
Compare responsibilities and useful foundations first. Then find official career pages and, if useful, the supporting statistics.
Which route fits you?
These are editorial starting points. They are not a substitute for a specific job description or personal career advice.
You already work in a specialist field
Map your day-to-day work to a focus such as software, data, product, research, or safety. You do not need to cover every AI topic at once.
See tasks and foundationsYou are hiring or building a team
Start with the task and expected outcome. Use the profiles to frame a discussion and separate necessary skills from those you can teach.
Hiring guidanceCompare AI roles
15 editorial role profiles with typical tasks, useful foundations, possible entry routes, and a work-sample idea. Salary figures appear only where a source provides a value.
These titles are editorial role clusters. Tasks, foundations, entry routes, and work samples are examples, not formal entry requirements or a promise of a specific job.
How to assess a job ad
These are editorial tips for job searches in Germany, not claims about the number or availability of open roles.
- Search with both German and English role titles. Add task terms such as data pipelines, language models, evaluation, or computer vision.
- Check the work location, remote-work rules, language, and seniority in the individual listing. Company-wide statements do not replace those details.
- Separate must-haves from preferred skills. Compare responsibilities with your experience before matching keywords.
- Use a work sample to demonstrate relevant skills. Use public or synthetic data and state your assumptions and limitations.
- Compare pay only across similar roles, experience, hours, and pay definitions. Base salary, bonus, and total compensation are different measures.
Official career pages for selected employers and research institutions
Career pages change over time. Checked on October 9, 2026. These links go to the employers or their official application portals. They do not confirm a particular AI vacancy. Check each listing and location directly with the employer.
- SAP
Enterprise software and AI
- Siemens
Industry, software, and automation
- DeepL
Language technology
- DFKI
Applied AI research
- NVIDIA
AI and accelerated computing
Official German occupation profiles for related fields
If you are hiring for an AI role
A clear description helps applicants understand the role. This editorial checklist is a starting point, not a hiring standard.
- Describe the problem and expected outcome instead of listing only model or tool names.
- Name who is responsible for the data, which outputs need review, and who approves them.
- Separate foundations needed on day one from skills the team can teach.
- Explain what good work looks like day to day and what a work sample might involve.
Optional contextLabour-market statistics and further contextThe charts below retain their sources and populations. Some describe IT jobs, enterprises, or global expectations. They are not a count of open AI jobs in Germany.
Salaries by role
Robert Half projects annual base salaries in euros for new hires in 2027, excluding bonus. These are national salary ranges by profile, not observed 2027 earnings. P25 is entry level, P50 reflects established experience, and P75 rare skills or extensive experience. Bars show P50.
AI agent engineering manager
AI developer
AI/ML system performance specialist
Senior AI full-stack developer
MLOps engineer
AI product manager
Machine learning engineer
AI engineer
AI product owner
AI data architect
Automation specialist RPA
AI/ML engineering assistant
Working from home in IT as a proxy
The data are not AI-specific. The IT figure describes IT services and must not be read as a remote-work rate for AI jobs.
All employees
IT services
Destatis 2025 for context. All employees 25%, IT services about 74%.
Working from home in job ads
All job ads
ICT job ads
Signals from hiring and the skills shortage
Bitkom estimates unfilled IT positions in a company survey. Bertelsmann counts ads through 2024, while Indeed counts AI-related occupation-title categories in Q1 2026 ads. These measures are not directly comparable.
Unfilled IT positions
2023
2025
2026
Representative company surveys in 2026, covering employers with 3+ employees. The unfilled IT positions estimate uses n=853 companies. Questions about employers with IT roles use n=319, including employers without open vacancies. Other questions and subsamples differ. No comparable estimate of unfilled IT positions was published for 2024. Bitkom, Der Arbeitsmarkt für IT-Fachkräfte 2026
- 78%
- report a current IT skills shortage, n=602
- 49%
- expect demand for AI skills in IT roles to rise, n=319
- 42%
- of firms with IT roles use AI in IT work, n=319
- 76%
- expect the shortage to worsen (n=602)
AI-related job postings in Germany
2019 1.1%
2022 share n/a
2024 1.5%
- 288
- categories with at least 5 ads whose original titles mention AI
- 4.2%
- share of these categories among all observed titles, not an ad share
- 59%
- German AI title categories outside technical occupations
Q1 2026: a normalized occupation-title category counts as AI-touched when at least 5 ads in it have an AI term in the original title. The share divides these categories by all normalized title categories with at least 5 ads. It is not a share of all job ads. Indeed Hiring Lab, AI is no longer just a tech occupation story
AI use in enterprises
Destatis and Eurostat measure enterprise use among employers with 10+ employees. Stanford summarises a global organization survey. These figures describe adoption, not employment or vacancies.
2025
Enterprises with 10+ employees in the economic sectors covered by the ICT survey, AI use in 2025. The time series has a methodological break, so older years are not joined here.
- 23%
- Enterprises with 10-49 employees
- 36%
- Enterprises with 50-249 employees
- 57%
- Enterprises with 250+ employees
Analyse written language
Generate images, video, or audio
Generate written or spoken language
Convert spoken language to machine-readable data
EU enterprises with 10+ employees or self-employed persons in NACE C-J, L-N and 95.1. Percentages refer to all in-scope enterprises, not only AI users.
AI use in EU enterprises
2024
2025
EU average for in-scope enterprises with 10+ employees, isoc_eb_ai. Not a German job-market share.
AI use in organizations worldwide
Organizations using AI
Generative AI in at least one function
Global organization survey for 2025. Not directly comparable with official German or EU enterprise statistics. Fewer than 10% of surveyed organisations deploy agents in almost all functions covered. Stanford HAI, AI Index 2026, Economy chapter
ICT specialists in employment
Eurostat shows ICT specialists as a share of total employment. This is a labour-market structure indicator, not a share of open AI positions.
Germany (%)
EU average (%)
ICT specialists as a share of total employment, Eurostat isoc_sks_itspt 2025. The occupational group is broader than AI roles. Women among ICT specialists in Germany in 2025: 20%. Eurostat, ICT specialists by sex
Training, career changers, and the IT pipeline
Bitkom asks companies employing IT professionals about upskilling, career-changer, and youth programmes. These are company responses, not participant or graduation counts.
IT upskilling programmes
Career-changer programmes
IT youth development
Bitkom 2026 survey: companies with IT-specialist positions (n=319). Multiple selections were possible for measures. These are company programmes, not participant or graduation counts.
Upskilling, career-changer, and youth programmes are separate survey responses. The figures count employers offering measures, not people taking part.
Wage premium for AI skills
PwC's 2026 edition compares global job ads with and without required AI skills. The reported wage premium is neither a German base salary nor evidence of a causal pay effect.
PwC 2026 report
The 2026 edition analyses about one billion job ads across 27 geographies. PwC compares ads with and without required AI skills. The reported wage premium is an association in job ads, not a causal effect or a German base salary. The year identifies the report edition, not the measurement year.
AI occupation-title categories in ads, Q1 2026
Germany 288 categories
France 138 categories
United Kingdom 160 categories
Spain 81 categories
Netherlands 84 categories
Q1 2026: a normalized occupation-title category counts as AI-touched when at least 5 ads in it have an AI term in the original title. The share divides these categories by all normalized title categories with at least 5 ads. It is not a share of all job ads.
Germany: expectations and reported job changes
Bitkom separates responses about reported and expected AI-related changes. The survey does not independently establish causality. Exposure estimates are not job-loss forecasts.
AI skills expected across IT roles
AI-related upskilling pressure
Routine tasks expected to decline
Entry-level tasks expected to decline
AI productivity gain expected
- 10%
- report some AI-related IT job cuts among AI users, n=134
- 85%
- report no AI-related IT job cuts, n=134
- 32%
- expect some AI-related IT job cuts, n=319
- 65%
- expect no AI-related IT job cuts, n=319
Survey fieldwork: 2026, calendar weeks 18-25. The five expectation bars come from the employer survey (n=602). Reported cuts are self-reports from IT AI users (n=134); expected cuts come from employers with IT roles (n=319). The report does not independently establish AI causality. Bitkom, Der Arbeitsmarkt für IT-Fachkräfte 2026
Regions and IT medians
The 2026 StepStone report gives Germany, Munich, and industry medians. It analyses salary data collected from January 2022 through November 2025. Its gross annual medians cover full-time roles and include bonuses, commissions, and incentives. They are not specific to AI roles.
Germany and Munich, all full-time employees
Germany Gross annual median for full-time roles including bonuses, 2026 report
Munich City gross annual median for full-time roles including bonuses, 2026 report
National gross annual medians for full-time roles including bonuses. All employees €53,900 and IT occupational group €66,750.
Industry medians
Banks Gross annual median, 2026 report
Insurance Gross annual median, 2026 report
Pharma Gross annual median, 2026 report
AI job posting share by city in 2024
Munich
Karlsruhe
Böblingen
Berlin
Stuttgart
Frankfurt am Main
Düsseldorf
Cologne
AI job posting share of all job ads per city, Bertelsmann 2024
Skills and occupations in transition
The WEF aggregates employer expectations across several macrotrends through 2030. ILO research stresses that skills and local conditions shape how technology changes tasks and employment.
WEF forecast to 2030
- 170 million
- new jobs by 2030, worldwide
- 92 million
- displaced jobs by 2030, worldwide
- 78 million
- net gain by 2030, worldwide
Global employer expectations through 2030 across several macrotrends. The projected change is not attributed to AI alone. World Economic Forum, Future of Jobs Report 2025
ILO: exposure is not a job-loss forecast
- 25%
- of global employment in occupations exposed to GenAI
- 3.3%
- of global employment in the highest exposure category
ILO estimate for the global workforce. Exposure indicates possible task change, not jobs actually lost. ILO, Generative AI and Jobs: A 2025 update
ILO: complementary skills as work changes
Sophisticated cognitive skillsFinancial skillsBasic computer skillsWriting skillsProject and process managementPeople management
ILO analysis of 40 digital technologies across more than 1,000 subnational areas in 69 countries. These skill associations are not AI-specific and do not guarantee individual job outcomes. ILO, Exposure and opportunity: why skills shape employment effects
StepStone: developer skills in 2023
Business intelligenceData scienceMachine learningData analyticsBig data
StepStone’s five most sought-after developer skills in 2023. The analysis covers job ads from 2019 through October 2023; this is not a ranking limited to AI roles. StepStone KI-Analyse, Februar 2024
WEF: growing occupations
Big data specialists
over +100% expected growth by 2030
FinTech engineers
strong growth per WEF
AI and ML specialists
strong growth per WEF
Software and applications developers
strong growth per WEF
Security management specialists
strong growth per WEF
WEF: declining occupations
Postal service clerksBank tellersData entry clerksCashiersAdministrative assistantsGraphic designers
Companies and research ecosystem
The selection includes companies, research institutions, and networks. Networks and platforms are not automatically employers. It establishes neither current vacancies nor an employer ranking.
Industry and large enterprises
Curated context for AI roles in products, manufacturing, software, and corporate functions.
SAPSiemensBoschBMWMercedes-BenzDeutsche TelekomAllianzInfineonVolkswagenBASFContinentalSAP Signavio
AI-native companies
Companies whose core product or core research is directly built on AI.
Aleph Alpha, HeidelbergDeepL, KölnHelsing, MünchenBlack Forest Labsn8n, BerlinCelonis, MünchenQuantPi, SaarbrückenMerantixLangdock, BerlinParloa, Berlin
Big Tech in Germany
Global platforms with teams, research, cloud, or commercial operations in Germany.
GoogleAmazonMicrosoftAppleMetaNvidiaIBMIntelOracle
Consulting and systems integrators
Implementation, strategy, and enterprise rollouts for AI projects in large organisations.
AccentureDeloitteMcKinseyBCGCapgeminiRoland BergerPwCEY
Research
Networks and institutes for foundational work, transfer, and applied research.
Cyber ValleyDFKIMax PlanckTU Munich AIFraunhofer IAISHelmholtz AI
Public sector
Agencies, research funding, and infrastructure with growing AI relevance, not a vacancy list.
Bundesagentur für ArbeitKI-ServicezentrumGAIA-XPlattform Lernende Systeme
Frequently asked questions about the AI job market
How the sources fit together, what remote-work proxies say, and where salary comparisons stop.
The evidence does not establish a career that AI can never replace. The ILO examines how tasks may change through generative AI. Exposure does not establish job loss. Look at the actual tasks within a role and possible training rather than treating an entire profession as permanently safe.
Robert Half projects annual base salaries in euros for new hires in Germany in 2027, excluding bonuses. Its percentiles describe different profiles, not observed 2027 earnings. P25 represents entry level. P50 represents established experience; P75 represents rare skills or extensive experience. The 2026 StepStone report gives median salaries for full-time roles, including bonuses. Its Salary Planner analysis covers more than 1.3 million records. Those records run from January 2022 through November 2025. The sources use different populations and measures.
They are industry proxies, not AI-specific rates. In February 2026, ifo reported working from home for 24.3% of all employees and 76.4% in IT services. Job ads from the first half of 2025 are a separate measure. None of these figures describes AI jobs alone.
No single figure settles that question. Bitkom estimates 79,000 unfilled IT positions for 2026. It estimated 109,000 for 2025. The estimate for 2023 was 149,000. The series has no comparable estimate for 2024. Bertelsmann counted 152,000 AI-related ads in 2024. It counted 181,000 in 2022. Indeed counts normalized occupation-title categories by quarter. In Germany, it counted 288 AI-related categories in Q1 2026. Each category had at least five ads whose original titles mentioned AI. The populations and measures differ.
No. Among employers using AI in IT work, 10% reported some cuts and 85% reported none. Bitkom's 2026 survey included 134 employers in this group. Among employers with IT roles, 32% expect some AI-related cuts and 65% expect none. This separate group included 319 employers. These are self-reports and expectations. They do not prove that AI caused the reported cuts or that expected future layoffs will happen.
Destatis reports that 26% of German enterprises used AI in 2025. The measure covers enterprises with at least 10 employees. The rate was 23% for firms with 10 to 49 employees. It was 36% for firms with 50 to 249 employees. Among firms with 250 or more employees, it was 57%. The Destatis time series has a methodological break. Eurostat reports AI use at 20% of EU enterprises in 2025. These figures measure enterprise use, not AI vacancies or employment effects.
Bitkom reports that 34% of companies with IT-specialist positions offer upskilling programs. 17% offer career-changer programs; 28% have youth-development programs. The 2026 survey covered 319 companies, and multiple selections were possible. These figures describe company programs, not participant or graduation counts. The ILO estimates some exposure to generative AI for 25% of global employment. It places 3.3% in the highest exposure category. Exposure describes possible task changes, not job loss. In a broader analysis of digital technologies, the ILO identifies sophisticated cognitive skills, basic computer skills, financial skills, writing, and project, process, and people management as complementary capabilities.
Only if the measures stay separate. Levels.fyi reports total compensation, while Robert Half projects annual base salaries for new hires in Germany in 2027, excluding bonus. On October 12, 2026, Levels.fyi listed median total compensation of $280,000 for US machine learning engineers. The German Levels.fyi medians for software engineering and MLOps cover different roles. None is directly equivalent to a German AI-role base salary.
The 2026 edition of PwC's Global AI Jobs Barometer compares global job ads that require AI skills with those that do not. It reports a 62% wage premium. The analysis covers about one billion ads across 27 geographies. The year identifies the report edition, not the measurement year. The observed association does not establish causation. It is not a German gross base salary.
No. The ILO classifies tasks by how much generative AI could change them. It estimates some exposure for 25% of global employment and the highest exposure category for 3.3%. That is not a forecast of actual layoffs. The WEF figures of 170 million jobs created and 92 million displaced by 2030 also reflect employer expectations across several macrotrends, not AI alone.
Indeed counts a normalized occupation-title category as AI-touched when at least five ads in it have an AI term in the original title. Germany has 288 such categories. They represent 4.2% of all normalized title categories with at least five ads, not a share of all job ads. The country figures therefore cannot be read as a ranking by total open AI jobs. In Germany, 59% of AI-related categories are outside technical occupations.
Changelog
The latest updates and improvements to our AI Job Market
October 9, 2026v1.6
Start with role profiles and job search
- Germany is clearly identified as the page's focus in the title, introduction, and guidance
- 15 role profiles add typical tasks, useful foundations, possible entry routes, and work samples
- Editorial guidance is separated from formal entry requirements, with practical job-search steps
- Official careers pages for selected employers and collapsible supporting statistics
October 7, 2026v1.5
New labour-market and salary data
- Bitkom 2026 IT labour report with 79,000 unfilled positions and separate survey bases for reported and expected changes
- Destatis enterprise use in 2025, Eurostat EU enterprise rates in 2025, and ICT employment in 2025
- Indeed AI-related occupation-title signal for Q1 2026 and Stanford results clearly labelled as global organization data
- StepStone industry medians linked to the 2026 report, with data collected through November 2025 made explicit
- Corrected StepStone national median, Munich shown separately; conflicting Data Scientist figure omitted
- Dynamic role count and WEF forecast clearly attributed to multiple macrotrends
August 23, 2026v1.4
Enterprise adoption and agent signals
- Eurostat time series for AI use in EU enterprises in 2024 and 2025
- McKinsey signals on AI use (88%) and agent adoption (62%: experimenting or scaling) with clearly labelled global scope
- Two additional source-linked comparison bars without mixing them with German job-market shares
- Eurostat share of ICT specialists in employment in 2024: Germany 5.1%, EU 4.9%, female share 19.1%
- ifo job-growth signal (5.2%) added as a fourth bar to the labour-market chart
Show older versions (4)
August 23, 2026v1.3
Salary ranges and labour-market signals
- Robert Half salary range for AI developers with P25, P50, and P75
- ifo job-growth signal (5.2%) and Bitkom remote-expectations hiring barrier (43%)
- Bertelsmann shares in yearly bars and minor UI polish
August 23, 2026v1.2
Enterprise AI, cities, education, and industries
- Destatis and Eurostat AI adoption, Bertelsmann city shares, and Bitkom education pipeline
- 8 StepStone medians, industry medians, and expanded city comparisons
- StepStone skill signals from the 2024 AI analysis
August 23, 2026v1.1
More roles, regions, and labour-market signals
- 15 roles, 12 Robert Half bands, and 8 StepStone medians
- PwC wage premium, Germany signals from Bitkom, ifo, and IAB, plus verified regional figures
- WEF outlook, country comparison, and expanded employer clusters
August 22, 2026v1.0
Initial release
- Curated dashboard with Robert Half and StepStone salary figures
- Remote-work proxies for the overall economy, IT services, and job ads
- Role directory, employer clusters, and source notes without a vacancy ranking