GitHub CEO: Why AI Won't Replace Junior Engineers Anytime Soon
Not according to GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke.
In a candid conversation with The Pragmatic Engineer, Dohmke dismissed the idea that AI could fully replace junior developers. Instead, he emphasized that early-career engineers are not only still relevant—they're crucial in the AI era.
Dohmke described the notion of AI replacing junior engineers as 'backwards,' arguing that these newcomers offer exactly what the tech world needs: openness, adaptability, and a different perspective. 'Often the folks that are younger in career bring a new perspective to the team and say, 'Hey, why don't we try this?' or 'I want to incubate this idea,'' he said.
He pointed out that GitHub has recently renewed its investment in its internship program, highlighting the value of fresh energy and diverse backgrounds within the organization. 'It's just a really positive thing to hear those folks bring fresh ideas, a great amount of energy and often, you know, a different, diverse background into the company,' he noted.
According to Dohmke, today's younger engineers have grown up with AI, smartphones, and cloud computing as part of their daily lives. This, he believes, gives them a distinct edge when using tools like GitHub Copilot. 'They get to use AI much faster—they get it because they are taking this with an open mind,' he said. 'They haven't been in an experience where some change has led to a big outage. So they're more open-minded.'
He further explained that the expectations for modern developers are shifting. 'The goal of the future engineer is no longer to write it all from scratch,' Dohmke said. 'The goal is to combine their prompting skills and agent open source libraries into getting that problem solved much faster than they could have done two, three years ago.'
The GitHub CEO stressed that both junior and senior engineers are vital to building effective teams. He advocates for hiring based on hands-on contribution, not just tenure. 'You hire people because they have a green contribution graph on their GitHub profile. That matters more to us than whether you have five years at one company and five at another.'
In short, as AI reshapes how code gets written, it's the next generation of engineers—armed with creativity, curiosity, and Copilot—that might just lead the charge.
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