Purpose
Produce a decision-ready market intelligence brief for a specific technical role or emerging domain — combining talent availability, compensation benchmarks, competitor hiring behavior, and skill demand signals into one document a sourcer or comp analyst can use to calibrate an offer, brief a hiring manager, or set sourcing strategy. Replaces the scramble of stitching together scattered salary surveys, job board scans, and gut feel.
When to Use
Invoke this skill when the user asks to:
- Scope a new technical role and understand how hard it will be to fill
- Calibrate or defend a compensation band for an engineering or ML function
- Assess the talent landscape for an emerging domain (AI/ML, agentic AI, applied research, MLOps, etc.)
- Brief a hiring manager or leadership on competitive hiring dynamics for a role
- Benchmark how the company's offer stacks up against named competitors
- Decide which sourcing channels and messaging will actually move a scarce candidate pool
Inputs Required
Before starting, collect:
- Target role: Exact title and function (e.g., "Senior Applied ML Engineer," "Agentic AI Research Engineer")
- Seniority level(s): IC level or years of experience being targeted (e.g., L4/L5, 6–9 years)
- Location tier: Geographic market and remote policy (e.g., SF Bay Area, NYC, US-remote, EU-remote)
- Domain/specialty: The specific technical area or emerging domain the role sits in
- Company stage & size: Funding stage, headcount, and cash-vs-equity posture
- Named competitors: Companies competing for the same talent, if known
- Current or proposed comp band: Base, equity, and total comp being considered, if available
If competitors or the comp band are missing, infer likely competitors from the domain and stage, and produce benchmark ranges the user can compare against — flagging both as estimates.
Instructions
Step 1: Talent Supply & Scarcity Assessment
Establish how deep and contested the candidate pool is.
- Pool size signal: Estimate relative supply — Abundant / Moderate / Scarce / Very Scarce — based on how specialized the domain and level are
- Scarcity drivers: Name the specific factors constraining supply (narrow skill overlap, recency of the domain, credential concentration in a few labs or companies, geographic clustering)
- Time-to-fill implication: Translate scarcity into a realistic fill-time band (e.g., 30–45 days vs. 90+ days) and note what a scarce pool does to funnel math (lower response rates, more passive sourcing required)
- Adjacent pools: Identify one or two adjacent talent pools worth cross-recruiting from when the primary pool is thin (e.g., strong software engineers with side ML projects for early-stage agentic AI roles)
Step 2: Compensation Benchmarks
Deliver a structured comp picture, not a single number.
- Present a benchmark table with columns: Level | Base range | Equity/bonus norm | Total comp range | Confidence
- Break out by the seniority level(s) provided; if a range spans multiple levels, show a row per level
- Adjust for location tier — state the geographic assumption explicitly and note remote-comp implications (national band vs. metro-anchored)
- Distinguish cash-heavy (big tech, later-stage) vs. equity-heavy (early-stage startup) compensation structures, since the same total comp is not equally attractive to every candidate
- For emerging domains where survey data is thin, mark benchmarks as directional and explain the basis for the estimate
Step 3: Competitor Hiring Activity
Map who else is fishing in the same pond.
- List 3–6 named competitors (from input or inferred) actively hiring for comparable roles
- For each: their likely comp posture (premium / market / below-market), what they lead with in recruiting (mission, comp, technical prestige, work-life), and their apparent hiring velocity if inferable
- Identify the dominant offer in the market — the profile candidates most often compare against — and what makes it hard to beat
- Flag any recent market events that shift dynamics (layoffs freeing up talent, a competitor's funding round intensifying poaching, a domain hype cycle inflating comp)
Step 4: In-Demand Skill & Signal Analysis
Define what a strong candidate actually looks like right now.
- Must-have signals: The 3–5 skills, tools, or experiences that are genuinely load-bearing for this role today
- Premium signals: The rarer credentials or experiences that command a comp premium (specific frameworks, publications, shipped production systems in the domain)
- Overrated signals: Requirements teams over-index on that needlessly shrink the pool — call these out to widen sourcing
- Emerging shifts: Note where skill demand is moving so the role stays relevant 6–12 months out
Step 5: Sourcing Channel & Positioning Strategy
Turn intelligence into an outreach plan.
- Recommend the top 3 sourcing channels ranked by expected yield for this specific pool (e.g., GitHub/paper-trail sourcing, targeted communities, referral-of-referral, competitor alumni)
- Provide a positioning angle — the single strongest message this company can lead with given its stage and the competitive comp reality (mission, ownership scope, early technical influence, learning velocity)
- Name the top 1–2 objections candidates in this pool will raise (comp gap, stage risk, domain uncertainty) and a credible counter for each
- If the proposed comp band sits below market, state it plainly and recommend the non-cash levers that can close the gap
Step 6: Bottom-Line Recommendation
Deliver a 3–5 sentence verdict: how competitive this hire is, whether the current/proposed comp is viable, the single biggest risk to filling it, and the one move that most improves odds of closing. Be direct — this is the section a hiring manager reads first.
Output Format
- Structure: Six labeled sections in order, with the compensation benchmark presented as a table
- Length: 900–1,300 words
- Format: Structured brief — scannable headers, bulleted findings, one benchmark table, a short prose recommendation at the end
- Sections: Talent Supply & Scarcity → Compensation Benchmarks → Competitor Hiring Activity → In-Demand Skills & Signals → Sourcing Channel & Positioning Strategy → Bottom-Line Recommendation
- Tone: Talent intelligence analyst — evidence-anchored, numerically specific where possible, honest about confidence levels; no hype about "war for talent" clichés
Quality Checklist
Before delivering output, verify:
- [ ] The compensation section is a table broken out by level, with an explicit stated location assumption
- [ ] Every benchmark carries a confidence marker (or is flagged directional when data is thin)
- [ ] At least 3 named competitors are listed with an individual comp-posture and recruiting-lead assessment
- [ ] The scarcity assessment translates into a concrete time-to-fill band, not just an adjective
- [ ] Sourcing strategy names 3 ranked channels and a specific positioning angle — not generic advice
- [ ] The bottom-line recommendation states whether the proposed comp is viable and names the single biggest fill risk
Notes
- For emerging domains like agentic AI, survey data lags reality by 6–12 months — always mark those benchmarks directional and lean on competitor postings and inferred posture over stale salary tables
- The most useful move for scarce pools is usually widening the "must-have" bar by removing an overrated signal — call this out explicitly when the requirements are self-inflicting scarcity
- When the company's comp band is below market, the honest play is to name the gap and shift the pitch to non-cash levers rather than pretend the offer competes on total comp
How to use this skill
This file is a Claude Code skill in Anthropic's standard format — markdown with YAML frontmatter at the top.
Installing in Claude Code:
~/.claude/skills/<folder-name>/SKILL.md— auto-loads in every session anywhere on your machine (recommended for skills you'll use across multiple projects)<your-project>/.claude/skills/<folder-name>/SKILL.md— auto-loads only when working in that project (recommended for project-specific skills)
Restart Claude Code or open a new session to register.
Using in Claude.ai, ChatGPT, Gemini, or other AI tools:
- Drag this file into a new chat, or copy and paste its contents
- Send your task or request as your next message — the AI will apply the skill where it fits
For Claude Code skill details: https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/skills