If you stop hiring juniors, your senior engineers own you

eval ( code )/Posts/If You Stop Hiring Juniors, Your Senior Engineers Own You/If You Stop Hiring Juniors, Your Senior Engineers Own You26 April 2026·7 minsAi Career LeadershipAuthorJustin Smestad Table of ContentsJunior employees are salary insuranceThe pipeline problem is already hereYour senior engineers might not need the jobAI will keep getting better. So what?What this actually looks like in practiceTable of ContentsJunior employees are salary insuranceThe pipeline problem is already hereYour senior engineers might not need the jobAI will keep getting better. So what?What this actually looks like in practice(function(){"use strict";const s=.33,o="#TableOfContents",i=".anchor",a='a[href^="#"]',r="li ul",c="active";let t=!1;function l(e,n){const o=window.scrollY+window.innerHeight*n,i=[...document.querySelectorAll('#TableOfContents a[href^="#"]')],s=new Set(i.map(e=>e.getAttribute("href").substring(1)));if(t)for(let t=0;t<e.length;t++){const n=e[t];if(!s.has(n.id))continue;const o=n.getBoundingClientRect().top+window.scrollY;if(Math.abs(window.scrollY-o)<100)return n.id}for(let t=e.length-1;t>=0;t--){const n=e[t].getBoundingClientRect().top+window.scrollY;if(n<=o&&s.has(e[t].id))return e[t].id}return e.find(e=>s.has(e.id))?.id||""}function e({toc:e,anchors:t,links:n,scrollOffset:s,collapseInactive:o}){const i=l(t,s);if(!i)return;if(n.forEach(e=>{const t=e.getAttribute("href")===`#${i}`;if(e.classList.toggle(c,t),o){const n=e.closest("li")?.querySelector("ul");n&&(n.style.display=t?"":"none")}}),o){const n=e.querySelector(`a[href="#${CSS.escape(i)}"]`);let t=n;for(;t&&t!==e;)t.tagName==="UL"&&(t.style.display=""),t.tagName==="LI"&&t.querySelector("ul")?.style.setProperty("display",""),t=t.parentElement}}function n(){const n=document.querySelector(o);if(!n)return;const l=!1,u=[...document.querySelectorAll(i)],d=[...n.querySelectorAll(a)];l&&n.querySelectorAll(r).forEach(e=>e.style.display="none"),d.forEach(e=>{e.addEventListener("click",()=>{t=!0})});const c={toc:n,anchors:u,links:d,scrollOffset:s,collapseInactive:l};window.addEventListener("scroll",()=>e(c),{passive:!0}),window.addEventListener("hashchange",()=>e(c),{passive:!0}),e(c)}document.readyState==="loading"?document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",n):n()})()There’s a popular take right now that AI eliminates the need for junior engineers. The argument goes: if an AI agent can do the work of a junior developer, why would you hire one? Just give your senior engineers better tools and let them do the work of three people.I get why that looks good on a spreadsheet. I also think it’s dangerously short-sighted.And no, I’m not going to make the mentorship argument. I’m not going to make the “moral obligation to train the next generation” argument. Those things matter, but they’re not what keeps a CFO up at night.Leverage is what keeps a CFO up at night. And if you stop hiring junior engineers, you just handed all of it to your senior workforce.Junior employees are salary insurance#Senior engineers know things. They have context, relationships, institutional knowledge. That makes them valuable. It also makes them expensive, and it gives them leverage.Eventually this turns into a comp conversation. A senior engineer says “I want a 40% raise or I’m leaving,” and the company’s ability to respond depends entirely on what their alternatives look like. If there’s a bench of mid-level engineers who’ve been growing into that space for the past two years, the company has options. They…

This excerpt is published under fair use for community discussion. Read the full article at eval ( code ).