How much has the product management job market changed this year? Have there been any key changes in pay, benefits, and job opportunities? We partnered with Intelligent People, 3Search, and Levels.fyi to find out what's been happening.
Key findings include:
- Salaries have remained stable year-over-year, with minimal inflation at entry and mid-levels.
- Senior IC roles (Senior PM, Group PM, Principal PM) have seen increases as companies prioritise execution.
- The US market shows more optimism, with median new-offer compensation rising 25.6% at Group PM level and 13.3% at Senior PM level
- Application volumes remain extremely high, with some roles receiving 400+ applications within days
- Remote work trends vary significantly by region and company size, with notable differences between startup, mid-size, and enterprise adoption
The State of the Market in 2025
Francesca Jackson-Burnham of 3Search observes, we're seeing changes across three different areas:
The Junior PM
Entry-level positions have seen minimal salary movement, but more concerning is the decline in the number of available roles. Companies are hiring fewer trainee PMs, product analysts, and product owners. Those positions that do exist face significant competition from candidates at all experience levels willing to step back to get hired.
The Mid-Senior Market
This segment showed the most positive movement in 2025. After a difficult 2024, Senior PM and Group PM roles have seen compensation rises. Companies seek highly competent ICs who can deliver without extensive management overhead. Doug Bates of Intelligent People notes that companies are "hiring builders" - very senior ICs who can run sprints and essentially do the work of two people.
The Leadership Market
This tier of product professionals are facing the greatest challenges. There's significant saturation at the Head of Product, VP, and CPO levels, with many candidates having to readjust expectations downward. Those previously earning £180k-£220k are now accepting roles at £130k-£140k to secure opportunities.
United Kingdom Salary Bands (3Search)
Based on recruitment data from 3Search, 2025 UK salary ranges show minor growth at senior levels:
| Role | 2025 Salary Range | Key Changes |
|---|---|---|
| Associate PM / Product Manager | £50,000 - £80,000 | Largely stable from 2024, modest growth in new offers |
| Senior Product Manager | £70,000 - £110,000 | Up from 2024, driven by demand for experienced ICs |
| Head of Product | £90,000 - £125,000 | Down from 2024 due to oversupplied market |
| Director of Product | £95,000 - £195,000 | Significant decrease; candidates accepting lower offers |
Salary breakdown per company size
- Largely stable from 2024's £65,000 average
- Up from 2024's £95,000 average
- Positive movement driven by demand for experienced ICs
- Premium salary package for those with strong commercial acumen
- Down from 2024's reported average of £150,000
- An oversupplied market with candidates accepting lower offers
- Strong sector variation
- Market saturation
- Candidates previously earning £180,000-£220,000 now accepting £130,000-£140,000
- Reduced number of roles to stay leaner
United States
US total compensation data from Levels.fyi reveals more significant growth in the US market. The 2025 data (based on new offer submissions) shows:
For these figures presented by Levels.fyi, these represent total compensation, including base salary, bonus, and equity. Additionally, these averages also skew toward larger tech employers and major tech hubs, with San Francisco alone accounting for a large chunk of job submissions and existing product roles.
The 2024 data show similar patterns with slightly lower medians across most levels, confirming that while the 2024-2025 annual step was modest, the two-year trajectory from 2023-2025 demonstrates meaningful growth, especially at senior IC levels.
Commenting on this data set, Hakeem Shibly says: At the high end of tech, I'm cautiously optimistic for PM pay in 2026, especially at Senior PM and Group PM. In our submissions, median new-offer comp from 2023 to 2025 rose by +25% at Group PM and +13% at Senior PM.
PM data comparison (Levels.fyi): US, UK, Germany, and India
TC = Total Compensation (including base salary, bonus, and equity). YoE = Years of Experience. Data sourced from Levels.fyi 2024-2025 submissions.
Sector spotlight
What sectors are paying the most in product management?
FinTech continues to lead
Financial technology remains the highest-paying sector for product managers in the UK. The combination of technical complexity, regulatory requirements, and strong revenue models means FinTech companies can and do pay premium salaries.
Health tech rising
Health tech is showing the strongest growth trajectory with "huge investment from venture capitals and private equities." Historically paid below market rates, but now starting to align with normal rates. Highly regulated environment creates barriers to entry.
SaaS and B2B Solid
The B2B SaaS market remains relatively strong, though not at the premium levels of FinTech. Companies in this space are still hiring, particularly for senior IC roles, and compensation remains competitive.
Retail, Travel, and EdTech Trail
E-commerce, retail, and travel consistently pay below average. EdTech and social impact organizations continue to face challenges matching market-rate compensation despite mission-driven appeal.
Sector mobility challenges: Moving between sectors has become more difficult as companies seek candidates with direct experience in their domain. This is particularly true for specialised areas like biotech, where the technical and regulatory knowledge requirements create high barriers to entry for product managers from consumer or general SaaS backgrounds.
What's impacting the market
Business uncertainty
The biggest driver behind current market dynamics is business uncertainty. Companies are no longer planning six to twelve months ahead but making tactical decisions based on immediate needs. As Doug explains: "Founders are thinking, I don't know how big my product team will be in the next 12 months because I don't know what the economy is doing, I don't know what investment is doing, and I don't even know if we're going to get our next round of funding."
Doug explains that this uncertainty unfolds in three key ways:
Lean teams: Rather than building teams with junior members and managers, companies are hiring one or two highly skilled senior ICs who report directly to founders or the CEO. Doug explains: "It's a bit like having a lean sales team where you have a sales director who still closes deals. They don't want any junior salespeople. They just want super billers that they pay a lot for."
Delayed hiring decisions: With no urgency to hire and the power dynamic favouring employers, companies are taking their time, often conducting five to six interview rounds for roles that previously required three or four.
Risk aversion: The lack of confidence means employers want perfect matches - someone who has solved their exact problem before. This drives the demand for specialised experience over generalist product skills.
Remote work reality
The narrative around remote work is more complex than simple decline or growth — it varies significantly by region, company size, and data source. While some recruiters report seeing fewer fully remote positions in their portfolios, job posting data tells a different story.
Remote PM job postings increased 31% YoY in 2025. Source: James Gunaca, 2025 PM Job Market Analysis
According to James Gunaca's 2025 PM Job Market Analysis, which tracks product manager role postings, remote opportunities increased 31% year-over-year in 2025. This data directly contradicts anecdotal reports of remote work "disappearing" and highlights an important nuance: different segments of the market are moving in different directions. So is remote work on the way out? In quintessential product fashion, it depends...
A change in work patterns, has several effects beyond the obvious commute. It narrows the talent pool to those within a reasonable distance of offices, potentially affecting compensation in less desirable locations. Doug Bates notes that some companies are implementing strict office policies as a way to manage team dynamics and company culture.
The trajectory of remote work remains uncertain and likely to continue varying by market segment. As the data from Gunaca's analysis shows, the trend lines remain positive for remote opportunities overall, even as some market segments pull back.
Budget constraints
The era of large venture capital and easy growth funding has come to an end. Many companies that raised money in 2021-2022 at high valuations are facing "down rounds" or struggling to secure follow-on funding. This creates a paralysis in the market - venture capitalists have money locked in companies they can't exit, preventing them from making new investments.
The interview process evolution
Take-home case studies falling out of favour
Francesca Jackson-Burnham explains: "If hiring managers give candidates a case study to take home, this creates an obstacle for candidates. It's a lot of time out of people's day. Additionally, we are seeing a lot of people use ChatGPT. This therefore means that take-home tasks are losing value. Employers want to see how a candidate's brain works, and my suggestion would be an in-person live case study or workshop."
What hiring managers really want to see
Beyond the specific problem-solving approach, Doug explains that hiring managers are looking for several key attributes:
Quantifiable impact: Candidates must demonstrate concrete commercial and customer impact with statistics. How much revenue did you drive? By what percentage did you reduce churn? How many new users did the feature acquire?
End-to-end capability: Companies want to see that you can take a problem from initial research through to a validated solution. This includes identifying opportunities through quantitative and qualitative data, building and launching MVPs quickly, and running experiments to iterate.
Clear communication: With CVs now heavily influenced by AI, hiring managers are sceptical. By the screening call stage, many candidates struggle to explain achievements on their own CVs. The ability to articulate your process and impact in your own words is crucial.
Emerging trends
AI's impact
AI dominates conversation in product circles, but currently, its impact on product management careers is more subtle than discourse suggests. Doug predicts it will follow the pattern of previous technology waves.
While Francesca believes AI won't create a completely separate job category, knowledge of AI, ML, and automation is increasingly expected, particularly for senior roles. Senior candidates are proactively upskilling through programs like "100 Days of AI" and similar resources. Junior PMs tend to be naturally more current with AI tools, though Francesca cautions: "I don't think enough people understand what value it's bringing to the customer. That should be the focus for product managers looking to upskill with AI."
Both Francesca and Doug emphasise that AI cannot replace the human-centred aspects of product management. Understanding customer needs, navigating organisational dynamics, and making strategic tradeoffs remain human skills.
Contract and fractional work
The rise of contract and fractional product roles reflects economic reality more than a fundamental shift in how work is done.
Contract roles rising: Full-time contract positions have increased as they offer companies flexibility to bring in expertise while keeping people off permanent payroll and making it easier to end engagements. However, this isn't necessarily positive for workers, who lose benefits and job security.
Fractional as a temporary fix: Fractional roles (1-2 days per week) have increased, but Doug Bates is sceptical of their longevity: "I think fractional is a short-term fix. Small businesses with a small runway, CEOs are thinking I don't have the money to hire a full-time CPO or VP product. But if given the budget, they would."
How to get hired in 2026 and beyond
For those not employed
Referrals: Many companies incentivise employee referrals, and such applications typically receive priority over cold submissions. Doug Bates emphasises being proactive in networking: "Give yourself a small win every day" by reaching out to connections, attending events, and building relationships.
Optimising your CV for AI: With AI and automated applicant tracking systems doing initial screening, your CV must be optimised for machine reading.
Quality over quantity: Doug Bates advises against spray-and-pray job applications: "There are lots of people spending eight hours a day applying to as many jobs as they can, thinking it's a numbers game, and it's not. You are far better to spend four hours finding a job you absolutely can do and tailoring your resume to it."
Treat it like a job: Have set hours for job hunting, take breaks, and give yourself small wins daily. Avoid spending entire days submitting applications, which leads to burnout and poor-quality applications.
For those employed
Make the change internally: Your current employer already knows you and can evaluate your potential based on demonstrated attributes rather than just your CV. This is the lowest-risk path into product management. If you're in a delivery-focused or adjacent role, seek opportunities to work alongside product managers, attend planning sessions, and understand how product decisions are made.
Act like a product manager: Begin by demonstrating product thinking in your current role. Be curious, ask questions about why certain decisions are made, think about customer impact, and suggest improvements.
Build your knowledge: Attend events, listen to podcasts, read books, and take courses. When asked how you're upskilling, saying "only within my own business" suggests limited interest compared to candidates who are actively engaged with the broader product community.
Additional product management skills to develop
Based on what Doug and Francesca are seeing in the job market, they listed five key in-demand skills for product managers today:
Commercial skills: Understanding P&Ls, unit economics, CAC/LTV ratios, and how product decisions impact revenue
Data fluency: Ability to work with data to identify opportunities and measure impact. While you don't need to be a data scientist, comfort with SQL and analytics tools is increasingly expected.
Experimentation: A/B testing is experiencing a resurgence. Demonstrating systematic experimentation and learning is valuable.
AI literacy: You don't need to be an AI expert, but understanding capabilities, limitations, and use cases is becoming table stakes, particularly for senior roles.
End-to-end product skills: The ability to take something from problem identification through research, design, build, launch, and iteration without extensive support.
Looking ahead to 2026
Cautious optimism for senior roles
Doug Bates believes confidence, or the lack thereof, is the primary issue: "I feel a lack of confidence is arguably the biggest problem. It feels like we're on a bit of a tipping point. If you just got some good economic news, it wouldn't take much to tip it, and we'd get into an upward spiral again."
Positive triggers could include:
- Better-than-expected economic growth numbers
- Increased venture capital activity and successful exits
- Continued AI investment creating genuine new job opportunities
- Greater clarity on interest rates and economic policy
Conversely, continued political and economic uncertainty, further tech layoffs, or a significant startup failure could extend the current challenging conditions.
This year has been challenging. I think 2026 is going to be quite testing. I'm always optimistic, but I also appreciate that we're not going to have the same tech boom that we did." Francesca explains. She sees 2026 as "fairly good, not mind-blowing, but definitely a good year."
Conclusion
The product management job market of 2025 has been one of adjustment and stabilisation. After the chaos of salary inflation followed by mass layoffs, the market is finding a new balance. This could look different depending on where you sit - junior PMs face intense competition for fewer roles, while senior PMs are seeing demand and compensation rise, and leadership roles remain challenging with oversupply, with companies looking for more execution and impact.
The product management career remains fundamentally attractive for both candidates and hiring managers. The path may be more competitive than it was a few years ago, but for those willing to adapt and demonstrate clear value, opportunities remain strong.
This long read synthesises insights from interviews with Doug Bates of Intelligent People Ltd, Francesca Jackson-Burnham of 3Search, Hakeem Shibly of Levels.fyi, and Product Consultant, James Gunaca. Salary figures represent typical ranges and may vary based on company size, location, and individual circumstances.
