If you’ve been following the news lately, the vibes in Silicon Valley are… confusing.
Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, recently suggested that AI might be able to do most software engineering tasks within the next 6 to 12 months. It sounds like a death knell for the profession. But if you head over to their careers page, they aren’t firing people. In fact, they are offering salaries as high as $500,000 to $670,000 for—you guessed it—Software Engineers.
Why pay someone a doctor’s salary for a job you think is going away?
To understand this, we have to stop confusing “Coding” with “Engineering.” They aren’t the same thing, and that distinction is exactly why the human engineer isn’t dead yet.
Coding is just the “Bricks”
Think back to your first computer science class. Most people think it’s all about learning syntax—Python, Java, C++. That’s coding. It’s the act of translating a human thought into a language a machine understands.
Today, AI is a master translator. Tools like Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, or even Gemini can spit out a functional script in seconds. If your entire job is just “writing code” based on a ticket someone gave you, then yes, your role is in trouble. Coding has become a commodity. It’s like laying bricks; we now have a machine that can lay 10,000 bricks a minute.
Engineering is the “Blueprint”
But here’s what they don’t tell you in the headlines: Building a software product isn’t just about code. When you study Software Engineering properly, you realize that the most important work happens before you ever touch a keyboard. It’s about:
System Architecture: How do these ten different databases talk to each other without crashing?
Methodology: Using frameworks like Agile or Scrum to ensure the team doesn’t build the wrong thing.
Modeling: Creating UML diagrams and data flows to map out the “logic” of a solution.
Human Needs: Translating a messy, vague human desire (“I want an app that feels like Instagram but for dogs”) into a technical reality.
AI can write the code, but it still struggles to design the system. It can lay the bricks, but it isn’t the architect. It doesn’t know why the building needs to be 50 stories high or how to make sure the plumbing works with the electrical grid.
Why Anthropic is Still Hiring
The reason Anthropic is paying $500k is that they aren’t looking for “coders.” They are looking for Systems Architects. They need people who can oversee the AI, check its work for “hallucinations” (logic errors), and design the massive, complex infrastructure that allows AI to exist in the first place. Ironically, to build a world where AI writes code, you need the world’s smartest human engineers to build the “factory” that makes the AI.
How to Stay “Un-Replaceable”
If you’re a developer or a student, don’t panic, but do pivot. If you want to be the one getting those $500k offers instead of being replaced, you have to move up the food chain.
Stop obsessing over syntax. Don’t spend all day memorizing every library in JavaScript. The AI knows them better than you.
Master the Process. Focus on the “boring” stuff—system design, security protocols, and scalability. Learn how to draw the “blueprint.”
Become a “Product” Person. The most valuable engineer is the one who understands the business. AI doesn’t have “intuition” about what users love; humans do.
Learn to Prompt like a Boss. Use AI as your intern. If it can write 90% of your code, use that extra time to think about the 10% that actually matters: the logic and the safety.
Is software engineering dying? No. It’s just graduating.
We are moving away from the era of “Typing” and into the era of “Thinking.” Anthropic is hiring because they know that while the machine is powerful, it still needs a human pilot who knows where the plane is supposed to land.
