Stop Hiring for Today’s Roles. Start Hiring for 18 Months from Now.

There’s a quiet pattern that plays out in tech orgs every day:

A product launches, growth accelerates, and suddenly there’s a “gap.” A new role is scoped in a hurry. The team hires fast because they need someone yesterday.

But 9 months later? That role doesn’t fit anymore. The hire is under-leveled. Or stuck doing work that no longer aligns with the company’s direction. The team re-scopes. Maybe backfills. And the cycle continues.

Most tech hiring is built for the short term.
And that short-term thinking is expensive.

If you’re serious about scaling a resilient, adaptable org, it’s time to challenge the “hire for today” mindset and start building roles that anticipate where your org is headed in 12 to 18 months.

Let’s talk about what that actually looks like.

The Cost of Hiring for the Present Only

It’s easy to default to immediate needs, especially when teams are stretched thin or under pressure to deliver. But hiring reactively creates a few common forms of org debt:

🔄 Backfills and Redundancy

That mid-level platform engineer hired today may need to be replaced with a more senior architecture lead in under a year. Or they might stick around, but without the runway to grow into what’s next.

⚖️ Role Misalignment

You hire a product manager to “unblock” delivery, but within six months, they’re not equipped to steer a more strategic roadmap. The mismatch slows velocity and frustrates teams.

💸 Costly Corrections

Redefining roles after the fact, whether by rehiring, leveling up, or shifting scopes, burns time, money, and momentum.

The problem isn’t the people. It’s the time horizon.

How to Think 12–18 Months Ahead When Scoping Roles

Thinking long-term doesn’t mean predicting the future; it means planning for evolution. Here’s how high-functioning teams do it.

1. Start With the Trajectory, Not the Title

Before you name the role or write the JD, ask:

• What isn’t working in our current structure?
  
  
• Where do we expect the product, team, or customer needs to be in 12–18 months?
  
  
• What kind of decisions will this hire need to make a year from now?
  
  

A role scoped for today’s bottlenecks will be outdated by the time your new hire hits their stride. A role scoped for where you’re going creates room for growth and strategic impact.

2. Design for Expansion, Not Containment

If the scope feels safe and well-defined, you might be under-scoping. Future-ready roles often carry a degree of stretch, clear responsibilities today, plus adjacent areas the person could grow into.

This doesn’t mean inflating requirements. It means hiring with a built-in runway, and signaling that clearly to candidates.

Example: A data lead who owns analytics today, with a path to formalize data infrastructure and governance as the team scales.

3. Focus on Durable Skills

Tech stacks and job titles change. What remains consistent?

• Strategic thinking
  
  
• Systems design
  
  
• Stakeholder communication
  
  
• Cross-functional leadership
  
  
• Operational discipline
  
  

These are the skills that scale, and the ones you should prioritize when designing future-facing roles.

Signs You’re Hiring for the Wrong Time Horizon

How can you tell if your team is stuck in short-term mode? Watch for these patterns:

• Job descriptions full of "now" pain points (e.g., “Help us unblock X,” “Fix our pipeline”)
  
  
• Low headcount ceilings ("We just need someone mid-level for now...")
  
  
• No growth narrative for the role ("We’ll figure out where this goes later")
  
  
• Hiring driven by urgency, not trajectory ("We just need someone who can start ASAP")
  
  

If the role you’re scoping won’t be useful 18 months from now, it might not be worth hiring for today.

What Future-Ready Hiring Looks Like in Practice

Here’s how forward-thinking orgs are shifting their hiring strategy:

✅ They Use Hiring to Test Future Structure

Instead of hiring into yesterday’s org chart, they treat new roles as prototypes for where the team is headed.

“This hire will pilot how we approach technical program management across squads. If it works, we’ll build out a TPM function.”

✅ They Balance Near-Term Value With Long-Term Fit

Future-ready orgs look for candidates who can solve today’s problems and evolve into tomorrow’s challenges.

“We need someone who can stabilize infra now, but also help us rethink our DevOps model in a multi-region environment.”

✅ They Prioritize Strategic Clarity Over Speed

Speed is essential, but hiring someone who won’t grow with the company ultimately costs more. These teams take the time to get the scope right, even if it delays the hire slightly.

Final Thought: Want to Build Roles That Evolve With Your Org? Let’s Talk.

Your org isn’t static, your roles shouldn’t be either.

Hiring for today’s needs might solve a short-term problem. But hiring for where you’re going builds resilience, reduces churn, and creates strategic capacity across the org.

Whether you’re designing your next 10 hires or rethinking team structure, we help teams scope roles with the future in mind.

Want to build roles that evolve with your org? Let’s talk.