AI Cloud CTO: Which Engineering Skills Are Most In-Demand Right Now

Danila Shtan runs engineering at Nebius, one of the biggest AI clouds in the world, and he told me exactly which engineers he hires on the spot. There are only hundreds of people on the planet with the skill he wants most, and it is not the one you are grinding on. We get into which engineering skills are actually scarce and well paid today, and which ones are quietly on the way out.In this episode we cover:The engineering skills in highest demand right now and which ones are on the way outWhy an AI cloud CTO restricts Claude Code inside his own companyDan's rule for merging any AI-written code into productionWhy working with an agent is like managing a junior engineerThe interview question that surfaces top tier engineer qualitiesWhy he still runs algorithm interviews todayIf you are an engineer trying to work out where the value sits now that agents write the easy code, this is a straight answer from the person building the infrastructure underneath all of it.Timestamps:00:00:00 - AI Agents doing everything is a lie00:00:44 - What Nebius Actually Does00:04:31 - The Engineers In Highest Demand Right Now00:06:58 - Inside the Hiring Process00:08:12 - The Bootcamp: You Join the Company, Not a Team00:10:51 - Why You Can't Use AI in Their Interviews00:16:31 - Why He Banned the Word "Headcount"00:22:25 - Why a CTO Is Not a Technical Role00:24:49 - The One Skill Every Manager Needs00:25:48 - Why Smart People Fail at This00:28:17 - "The Promise of Agents Is Bullshit"00:31:39 - How AI Multiplies Your Baseline Skill00:35:32 - Why an AI Agent Is Just a Junior Engineer00:36:57 - Why He Won't Let His Team Use Claude Code00:37:46 - His Rule for Merging AI-Written Code00:40:28 - The Interview That Predicts Great Engineers00:42:32 - From T-Shaped to Round-Shaped Engineers00:44:30 - Is There Still a Path for Juniors?00:45:28 - Why Hard Skills No Longer Matter00:47:11 - The Engineers Who Will Become Obsolete00:50:04 - The Real Reason People Stay at Banks00:52:26 - Where AI Agents Actually Help00:54:40 - Why He Still Uses Algorithm Interviews00:56:05 - Tech Enthusiasts vs. Real Engineers#AIEngineering #TechCareers #SoftwareEngineering