It’s a tough time for the tech sector job market. More than 120,000 people have been laid off in 2026 alone, and, for better or worse, employers are looking at ways to offload routine work to AI.
In the Salesforce ecosystem specifically, supply for roles like admin is radically outpacing demand, and as for developers, it seems that demand has actually shrunk. People are nervous about their own positions, but there are steps you can take to minimize your risk of being affected in the next company “restructuring”. Let’s take a look at some of them.
1. Tackle Technical Debt
Technical debt is the headline problem for Salesforce orgs. SF Ben’s 2026 Admin Survey found that 56.3% of admins named technical debt as their biggest challenge, while almost one third described it as a severe enough problem to slow down day-to-day work.
Even though tech debt is a considerable pain point, admins told us that executive support is somewhat scant. Only 19.5% said they consistently get strong executive support for tackling technical debt, with the remaining 80.5% saying support was either inconsistent, unclear, limited, or totally absent.
Deloitte analysis from March 2026 found that technical debt accounts for 21% to 40% of an organization’s IT spending.
There’s a distinct gap between everyone knowing it’s a problem, and nobody having the resources to solve it. Admins and developers who can articulate the cost of not fixing the biggest pain points get executive buy-in, and then audit an org, will stand out.
It’s also an opportunity to position yourself as an AI-forward member of the Salesforce team. Agentforce and Data 360 can’t function maximally atop broken automations and inconsistent data. Stress that cleaning up debt now is a precondition for AI adoption. Even in the unlikely scenario that your employer has not mentioned automating some processes, bringing the problem up will show willingness.
2. Go Multi-Cloud (And Multi-Cert)
Knowing a single cloud used to be enough. These days, that’s less the case.
Across our wider Salary Survey data, there is a clear correlation between certifications and earnings. Moving up certification tiers is, on average, tied to a 6% to 18% increase in salary across Salesforce professionals.
And according to our Admin Survey, 65% of respondents think certifications enhance their salary potential, while just 35% do not believe they have a significant impact.
In our Salesforce Developer Salary Guide 2026, we found that moving between certification bands can significantly boost your salary and make you much more employable. All those with more than four Salesforce certificates reported finding their most recent job in less than two months, and a quarter of those with fewer than three Salesforce certifications said it took them more than three months to find a role.
For those in the United States, the sweet spot appears to be 7-10 certifications, with our figures actually showing a decrease in the median salary for those with more than 10 certifications.
According to our Salary Survey data, respondents holding non-Salesforce certifications – including AI-related and cloud qualifications – were associated with some of the highest reported salary brackets.
If you’re an admin who does not know Flow-to-Apex handoffs, or a developer who doesn’t understand Data 360 well enough, those might be the gaps to close first.
3. Be an AI Champion, Not Just Another User
If your employer wants you to be using AI tools – which is probably the case – then simply toeing the company line here won’t be enough to layoff-proof your career.
Demonstrating that you’re on board with this mission, and becoming an AI power-user who upskills other employees by sharing tips and tricks in the company Slack channel, and evangelizing for the use of these tools could go some way towards securing your role. That sounds simple enough, but there are two important follow-up points here.
Firstly, notice the word demonstrating in the above paragraph. Perhaps you can file this under ‘tedious office politics’, and you might be right. But it’s not enough to simply improve others’ productivity – you need to show that you’re the one doing that if you want to take credit for it, and therefore secure your position. Being a force multiplier is a very valuable thing, and employers know that, so do demonstrate that that’s what you are.
Second, beware the pitfall of “workslop” – low-effort, AI-generated content which lacks substance. People can recognize AI slop when they see it, for the most part. If you’re the one championing people turning to quick fixes which lower the quality of their overall work, that might backfire.
4. Think Like an Architect
Whether you are or are not a Salesforce Architect, it could benefit you to think like one.
While Salesforce Developers have seen demand fall by 12% in 2025, according to the 10K Salesforce Talent Ecosystem Report, demand for Technical Architects (TAs) grew by 27%, and 21% for Solution Architects (SAs).
One explanation for this might be that developers are very much on the frontline for having large swathes of their workload – namely writing code – completely or largely automated.
Architects, on the other hand, certainly make use of AI tools, but their core skills of big-picture thinking and bridging the gaps between business requirements and technical reality remain very much human skills – at least for now.
Seniority alone is not driving this demand. As Sarah Kelleher, CEO of Nebula Consulting, told SF Ben earlier this year, a gap exists in bigger-picture thinking, particularly in data, and anyone looking to advance their career might consider learning how to take requirements and understand how the pieces of the puzzle fit together across multiple technologies. Doing so will make you stand out, even if your role isn’t that of a Salesforce Architect (yet!).
5. Specialize in an In-Demand Niche
There is still a place for generalists, but specializing in particular clouds or industry verticals like CPQ, Field Service, and Financial Services Cloud can bring about decent salary bumps. Companies pay premiums for these skills precisely because fewer people have them.
Salesforce is becoming more complex, and this has implications for career development. Working in tech means keeping up with rapid technological change.
Those who are earlier in their careers are more likely to feel the pressure of adapting to new tools and trends (like AI), but more experienced Salesforce professionals are not immune to this either.
As Salesforce Business Architect Caitlin Graaf told us for the 2025 SF Ben Architect Survey: “The Salesforce landscape is changing rapidly, with a proliferation of new products, tools, platforms, and the increased adoption of AI.
“As Salesforce becomes increasingly complex, professionals will need to ensure that they can balance core skills with product-specific skills to meet the demands of their roles.”
6. Align With Business Objectives
Boosting revenue for your company is obviously essential for securing your place within it, but it’s worth also considering aligning with the business objectives. To cut the LinkedIn-speak, what that actually means is understanding what a business is trying to achieve beyond metrics, and building solutions that serve that goal.
Being “solutions-focused” means taking responsibility for problems which affect your role, and instead of simply presenting the problem to others, coming up with suggestions for how it should be tackled.
Businesses can also spend a lot of time on projects which, all things considered, don’t align very well with what the company is actually trying to achieve that quarter or year.
If something is being done just because “that’s the way we’ve always done it”, you might want to demonstrate that you’re thinking about the bigger picture. And you can also save yourself some valuable time for important projects if you can make your case about this to line managers and leadership.
7. Communication and Stakeholder Skills
If your job is making widgets, then you want to spend your day making widgets. That’s fair enough. But the simple reality we have to contend with is this: you may be the best widget maker in the world, but if you don’t have human-centric skills, your career will suffer.
This has always been so, but it’s only going to ramp up as AI takes away a significant amount of those daily widget-making duties. To step away from the abstract world of widgets for one moment, the way to stand out as an admin is to operate upstream – questioning requirements, shaping solutions, and translating business needs into platform decisions.
Hands-on admin work is changing. AI-assisted setup and automation tools are getting better, so some tasks that once needed more focused configuration are now faster and more abstracted. Knowing how to configure something matters less than knowing what should exist at all – and being able to communicate this to stakeholders.
AI tools are accelerating work, but they don’t replace the ability to gather user requirements and intelligently interpret feedback.
Admins who can translate between business and platform are valuable. Instead of simply implementing, take the time to challenge assumptions, clarify intent, and shape decisions before anything is built. Your job isn’t simply building widgets – there’s always going to be a human element to it.
8. Make Yourself Visible for Internal Mobility
In our article, Is Salesforce Layoff-Proofing Its Employees?, we outlined how Salesforce was working to reshape its workforce with a “redeploy, not reduce” mentality.
Marc Benioff had claimed amid 2025’s layoffs that he needed “less heads”, but Salesforce since said that the CEO did not explicitly mean that the company had cut 4,000 people from its customer support arm – but that some were redeployed to growth areas of the business.
In any case, if your head is one of those being considered for a layoff, it might be a point in your favour if you have proactively raised your hand for redeployment conversations. Build relationships outside your immediate team, and ensure the skills you have been building are legible to people outside your line manager’s direct view.
When restructuring takes place, the difference between being let go and being redeployed might come down to an internal discussion about which other team you could be useful to. It would be to your benefit to provide an answer to that before people have to go looking for one.
9. Build a Professional Network
The Salesforce community has a terrific community – and that’s to your benefit.
I have been to community group meetups where, at the start of the event, the organizers will ask the room, “who is looking for work?”, followed by “who is hiring?”, and people almost always raise their hands to both questions. It’s worth going to these events, just for that moment.
A considerable amount of hiring is done through internal networks, and these kinds of events. You don’t have to be famous on LinkedIn to benefit from knowing people in your industry. When employers are looking to fill positions, they’ll often rely on people they know before resorting to job market websites.
10. Document Your Wins as They Happen
Memory has a recency bias. That goes for both you and your managers. Documenting your wins in real time helps prevent this from working against you. Bringing specific, data-driven evidence into performance reviews will likely mean more meaningful recognition.
Maybe your manager is fantastic and sings your praises all the time – but even so, a five-minute weekly habit of logging your wins with some data attached is a low-cost way to make sure the case for your continued employment exists, when it’s needed.
Final Thoughts
Nobody is irreplaceable. No matter what you do, sometimes circumstances are simply outside of your control. That being said, there are certainly ways to make yourself the kind of hire that’s expensive and risky to lose – and that’s certainly to your benefit in this employer’s job market.
And the common thread here is that, even if you take every step outlined above, and still face the scythe of “company restructuring”, then you’ve not wasted your time. Building skills, relationships, and visible wins all go towards creating an even better resumé, and making you all the more employable for the next place. Do everything outlined above, and they’ll be lucky to have you.
