New hiring data highlights a shift toward coordination and end-to-end ownership as organizations redesign how work gets done
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 07, 2026the recruiting AI company and an SAP company, today announced "The Orchestrator" as its Job Title of the Year, following analysis of hiring data from thousands of companies worldwide using the SmartRecruiters platform.
SmartRecruiters' analysis shows employers are increasingly defining roles around coordination, orchestration, and end-to-end accountability as AI, automation, and more complex technology ecosystems reshape how work is delivered across teams.
"Organizations are no longer struggling because people are not working hard enough," said Chris Rice Webber, VP of Business Intelligence at SmartRecruiters. "They are struggling because work has become fragmented. Systems do not talk to each other, decisions stall between teams, and ownership is often unclear. Our data shows companies are responding by hiring for roles focused less on execution and more on coordination, design, and outcomes. That is the Orchestrator."
Why the Orchestrator is emerging
SmartRecruiters' platform data shows businesses are responding to fragmentation, complexity, and AI-driven change by emphasizing coordination over pure execution:
- Roles referencing orchestration, coordination, or cross-system ownership have increased by more than 25% year over year
- Job descriptions are 40% more likely to reference end-to-end responsibility than they were two years ago
- AI-related language now appears in over one-third of new roles, most often paired with workflow design, governance, or experience ownership, rather than model development
Together, these signals suggest organizations are no longer hiring solely for task execution, but for roles that design how work flows across people, systems, and AI.
Job titles as indicators of change
Job titles provide insight into how organizations define priorities and accountability. The emergence of the Orchestrator reflects growing recognition that many operational challenges stem from poor coordination rather than a lack of effort or talent.
"The industrial-era idea of the job was a convenient accounting unit for stable work. That world is gone," said Rebecca Carr, CEO of SmartRecruiters. "When work becomes fluid, the systems that activate work must become fluid too. Hiring is no longer a back-office process. It is how the modern enterprise dynamically mobilizes talent against real business conditions."
About SmartRecruiters
SmartRecruiters, an SAP company, is the Recruiting AI Company that transforms hiring for the world's leading enterprises. Built for global scale, SmartRecruiters delivers an AI-powered hiring platform that automates and optimizes the entire talent acquisition process, ensuring faster and smarter hiring decisions. More than 140 million candidates, and 4,000 organizations, including Amazon, Visa, and McDonald's, rely on SmartRecruiters to build winning teams.
For more information, visit https://www.smartrecruiters.com/news/sap-completes-acquisition-of-smartrecruiters/
Contact Details
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