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Denver Product Management Market

Beta

January 2026

This report analyzes 298 Product Management job postings from 178+ companies tracked via direct employer career pages and job board aggregators. Our coverage skews toward tech-forward and scaling companies; large enterprises using enterprise hiring platforms may be underrepresented. Coverage varies by section and is noted throughout.


Market Context

1.January 2026 layoffs highest since 2009 US employers announced 108,435 layoffs in January, up 118% year-over-year, with technology among the hardest-hit sectors (Challenger, Gray & Christmas, February 2026).
2.Hiring announcements at 17-year low Companies announced just 5,306 new hires in January, the lowest for any January since 2009 when tracking began (Challenger, Gray & Christmas, February 2026).
3.Colorado pay transparency law Colorado's Equal Pay for Equal Work Act requires salary disclosure in job postings. After removing predicted salaries from aggregator sources, 24% of tracked roles include employer-disclosed salary ranges.
4.Remote-first market positioning Denver's 62% remote availability likely reflects employers competing for talent against higher-cost coastal markets by offering location flexibility.
5.Tech hiring may stabilize Q1 2026 Toptal marketplace data suggests US tech hiring may strengthen in Q1 2026, pointing to stabilization rather than a return to 2021-level hiring (InterviewQuery, January 2026).

Key Takeaways: Job Seekers

1.0Leverage remote flexibility With 62% remote availability, Denver-based roles offer access to talent nationwide. Position yourself for remote-first companies if location flexibility matters.
1.1Build AI fluency AI skills appear in 23% of job postings. Demonstrating familiarity with AI tools and workflows may differentiate your application.
1.2Target enterprise employers Enterprise companies offer 68% of tracked roles. Oracle, Stripe, and Caterpillar are among the active hirers with multiple openings.
1.3Research salary benchmarks Among tracked roles with disclosed salary data, Senior PM roles median at $183K while Staff/Principal reaches $223K.
1.4Emphasize stakeholder skills Stakeholder management appears in 26% of postings, the top skill. Highlight cross-functional collaboration and communication experience.

Key Takeaways: Hiring Managers

2.0Remote is table stakes With 62% of tracked roles offering remote work, in-office requirements may meaningfully limit your candidate pool.
2.1AI/ML PM talent competition AI/ML PM roles gained 6pp share in a single month. Expect competition for candidates with AI product experience.
2.2Pay transparency compliance Colorado law requires salary disclosure. Among tracked roles with disclosed ranges, the median sits at $200K -- ensure competitive positioning to attract qualified candidates.
2.3Consider mid-level pipelines With 19:1 senior-to-junior ratio, developing internal talent pipelines may address senior PM scarcity.

Industry Distribution

65% of roles with industry data

Low
High
vs December 2025

Biggest Gainer

Other

+3pp

Biggest Decline

Professional Services

-5pp

Among tracked employers with industry data (65% coverage), Fintech leads at 16%, followed by Data Infrastructure (10%) and Healthcare (9%). The diverse top 10 includes Crypto, Cybersecurity, and Marketing Technology, each at 5-6%. Based on a single month's movement, Productivity Software declined 4pp while the 'Other' category gained 3pp.


Company Maturity

65% of roles with company age data

51%Growth Stage
Growth (6-15 yrs)52%
Mature (>15 yrs)41%
Young (<=5 yrs)7%

Among tracked employers with company age data (64% coverage), Growth-stage companies (6-15 years) lead at 52%, followed by Mature companies (45%) and Young startups (7%). This distribution likely reflects Denver's mix of established enterprises and scale-ups expanding their product functions.


Ownership Type

65% of roles with ownership data

51%Private
Private51%
Public44%
Subsidiary4%
Acquired1%

Among tracked employers with ownership data (64% coverage), Private companies lead at 52%, with Public companies close behind at 43%. The relatively balanced split suggests opportunities across both venture-backed scale-ups and established public enterprises.


Employer Size Distribution

56% of roles with company size data

68%Enterprise
Enterprise (1,000+)68%
Scale-up (50-1,000)22%
Startup (<50)10%

Among tracked employers with size data (56% coverage), Enterprise companies (1,000+ employees) lead at 68% of roles, followed by Scale-ups (22%) and Startups (11%). This enterprise concentration may reflect larger companies establishing Denver offices to access talent at lower costs than coastal markets.


Employers Hiring for Product Management Roles

Low
High
vs December 2025

Biggest Gainer

Stripe

+1pp

New This Month

Airwallex, EchoStar, Socure

Biggest Decline

Coinbase

-1pp

Market interpretation: Among tracked employers, Oracle leads with 4 open PM roles, followed by Airwallex and Stripe with 3 each. New entrants this month include Airwallex, Echostar, and Innovaccer. The top 15 employers account for 29% of tracked postings, with hiring broadly distributed across the employer base.


Role Specialization

Low
High
vs December 2025

Biggest Gainer

ai_ml_pm

+6pp

Biggest Decline

technical_pm

-5pp

Core PM roles account for 54% of tracked positions, with Technical PM (15%), AI/ML PM (13%), and Platform PM (13%) forming a balanced specialized tier. Based on a single month's movement, AI/ML PM gained 6pp while Technical PM declined 5pp, which may indicate AI capabilities being absorbed into dedicated AI product roles rather than general technical PM positions.


Seniority Distribution

Junior: 0-2 years | Mid-Level: 3-5 years | Senior: 6-10 years | Staff/Principal: 11+ years (IC track) | Director+: Management track

Low
High
vs December 2025

Biggest Gainer

Staff/Principal

+5pp

Biggest Decline

Senior

-5pp

Senior-to-Junior Ratio

18:1

Senior+ roles per Junior role

Entry Accessibility Rate

15%

Junior + Mid-Level roles combined

Senior roles lead at 49%, with Staff/Principal (20%) and Director+ (19%) positions forming a substantial leadership tier. The 19:1 senior-to-junior ratio indicates a competitive entry market, with only 12% of roles accessible to candidates with under 3 years experience. Based on a single month's movement, Staff/Principal gained 5pp while Senior declined 6pp.


IC vs Management Track

85%IC
Individual Contributor85%
Management15%

Individual contributor roles account for 80% of tracked positions, with management track roles at 20%. This balance suggests opportunities for both hands-on product work and people leadership paths within Denver's PM market.


Working Arrangement

Onsite: office full-time | Hybrid: mix of office and remote | Remote: work from anywhere | Flexible: employee chooses arrangement

100% of roles with known working arrangement

62%Remote
Remote63%
Flexible24%
Onsite7%
Hybrid6%

Among direct employer postings, Remote leads at 62%, the highest rate among tracked US cities. Flexible arrangements account for 25%, with Hybrid (6%) and Onsite (7%) representing a small minority. The 93% flexibility rate suggests remote-first policies are standard among Denver PM employers.


Compensation

24% of roles with disclosed salary ranges

Overall Distribution

25th Percentile

$179K

Median

$200K

75th Percentile

$224K

IQR (Spread)

$45K

Advertised Salary by Seniority

Advertised Salary by Role


Skills Demand

45% of roles with skills data

Low
High

Skills insight: Stakeholder management leads at 26%, followed by AI (23%), Roadmapping (21%), and SQL (21%). The high AI skill demand aligns with the AI/ML PM role growth. Common skill pairs include Data analysis + Stakeholder management and Product strategy + Roadmapping, indicating employers seek both analytical depth and strategic planning capabilities.


Market Metrics

Market Structure

1.67

Jobs per employer

Average open roles per hiring company

Among tracked employers

14%

Top 5 concentration

Combined share of tracked postings by top 5 employers

Among tracked employers

30%

Top 15 concentration

Combined share of tracked postings by top 15 employers

Among tracked employers

Accessibility

18:1

Senior-to-Junior ratio

Senior+ roles for every junior role

Extremely competitive entry

15%

Entry accessibility

Roles open to candidates with <3 years experience

Competitive entry market

15%

Management opportunity

Roles on the people management track

Balanced tracks

Flexibility

62%

Remote availability

Roles offering fully remote work

Very high flexibility


Methodology

This report analyzes direct employer job postings for Product Management roles in Denver during January 2026.

Data collection:

  • 1.Over 300 roles from 185+ employers aggregated from multiple sources
  • 2.Recruitment agency postings identified and excluded (3% of raw data)
  • 3.Jobs deduplicated across sources to avoid double-counting

Classification:

  • 1.Roles classified using an LLM-powered taxonomy
  • 2.Subfamily, seniority, skills, and working arrangement extracted
  • 3.Employer metadata enriched from company databases where available

Limitations:

  • 1.Not a complete census of the market - some roles may not be captured
  • 2.Skills analysis based on 135 roles with skill data (45% coverage)
  • 3.Salary data available due to pay transparency law
  • 4.Working arrangement based on 112 ATS-sourced roles (Adzuna excluded due to truncated descriptions)

Data coverage:

79%

Seniority coverage

Roles with seniority level classified

100%

Arrangement coverage

Roles with working arrangement known

45%

Skills coverage

Roles with skills extracted from description

72%

Employer metadata

Roles with enriched company data

About

This report was created by Rich Jacobs, Data product manager focused on hiring market intelligence. Want the data? rich@richjacobs.me