The role of “Senior Software Engineer” is right now in the process of evolving from “Tradie” to “Builder”. The tech is now here, but the adoption is uneven.
This is a call to action. As of January 2026, every company with software engineers can no longer afford to ignore the sea-change that has arrived in software product engineering: Loop-based Orchestration.
For software folks who have already used Model-native CLI Agents (Claude Code, OpenAI Codex), we’ve all realised we can get multiples more done, safely, reliably, within some constraints. Then after we’ve tried out the Loop-based Orchestrators (Aider, Loom, Swarm-CLI etc), the realisation sets in that everything is about to change, and 2026 is the year, and this month is the time.
Things that used to take weeks or months now start taking days, sometimes even hours.
This will probably sound like hyperbole, but I promise you it’s not.
The scale of competitive advantage that will accrue to the software companies that successfully reimagine their organisation around this new capability in early 2026 will outpace all of their competition, as features that used to take weeks will ship in days.
In 2026 there is a train leaving the station. Some organisations (and engineers) are going to be left standing on the platform.
Here’s a metaphor for what’s changing: You’re building a house, and you hire a Builder. The builder doesn’t lay bricks or install taps and toilets, they plan and coordinate a small army of specialised tradespeople, at the right place, with the right instructions, at the right time.
Instead of having a UX&D, a Backend dev, a Frontend dev, a DevOps engineer, and a SecOps engineer, your senior software engineer’s role should rapidly evolve to manage a “team” of Agents. Planning. Communicating. Watching. Reviewing. Rejecting. Clarifying. Guiding.
Last year, the tech wasn’t ready. Now it is.
This is not plug-and-play, it’s no silver bullet for velocity. We have a huge number of unanswered questions:
• How do engineers maintain an understanding of the code going into production? How much do they need to?
• How do we manage the known risks of Indirect Prompt Injection?
• How do we manage Code Quality? Security? Testing? Observability?
• What changes in technology stack selection to optimise for agentic dev?
• How do we bring these tools into existing/complex/old codebases?
…then the broader business questions: • How do we embed Legal and Compliance obligations?
• How do responsibilities change for Software Engineers? Engineering Managers? Product Managers? UX&Ds?
• How does our Workforce Strategy and Team Design change?
• How do we attract the talent that are already using these tools?
• How do our job interviews have to change to hire for these skills?
We’re all going to be answering these questions without established playbooks, guidelines, patterns, or best practice.
I’m loving being in the thick of it. More to come on this shortly.