Non-Technical Executives Try To Replace Software Engineers

The flawed assumption

Software professionals often assume every company wants more technical leadership. Reality is murkier. Executives double down on roles they know, finance hires more analysts, sales chiefs expand head count, while engineering feels foreign, making it a cost center ripe for “optimization.” Executives hire what they know. Hiring mirrors comfort zones. A CFO can gauge an analyst’s spreadsheet, a CRO can shadow a sales call, but reviewing a pull request or tuning microservice latency is outside many leaders’ skill sets. When they can’t directly assess value, they either delegate blindly, or minimize the unknown by cutting it altogether. Discomfort breeds replacement, not investment. Engineers command high salaries, question assumptions, and surface tech risk that can derail timelines. For decision makers who built careers outside R&D, that feels threatening. Replacing engineers with cheaper offshore labor or, increasingly, with AI assistants, promises fewer objections and cleaner spreadsheets.

Leaders build what they understand and replace what they don’t.

AI as a seductive shortcut, LLM copilots appear to write code faster than juniors, cost a fixed subscription, and never renegotiate salaries. For non-technical execs, that checks every box: lower payroll, fewer head count approvals, and the comforting illusion that complexity is handled by a vendor. The narrative shifts from “engineering is expensive” to “engineering is automated.” The data point that breaks the narrative, AI first firms like GitHub and OpenAI grow their engineering teams because they understand software creation. Tools augment, not replace, expertise. They hire more builders because pairing talent with automation multiplies output.

Lessons for technical leaders

1. Expose executives to the build process. Short demos of pipelines or incident drills demystify engineering.
2. Use AI to elevate, not eliminate, talent. Show how copilots remove boilerplate so seniors solve higher order problems.
3. Advocate balanced hiring. Grow engineering alongside roles leaders know, finance, product, marketing, to show symmetry, not competition.

Takeaways for developers

• Upskill continuously; the easiest roles to automate are the least specialized.
• Help non-technical peers grasp why small technical choices create large financial impacts. Code is still written by humans; the best tools merely push the mundane aside. Companies that grasp this invest in more, not fewer, engineers. Those that don’t will chase shortcuts and stall innovation. Developers who translate craft into business impact will thrive, no matter the trend.