The U.S. air traffic controller shortage means the FAA is staffed roughly 3,000 controllers below its own targets, with more than a third of its facilities sitting under the 85 percent staffing goal. It is the most expensive live demonstration in the country of a simple hiring truth. You cannot freeze a talent pipeline and … Read more
By Kris Drouet, Engineering Executive, in partnership with KORE1 Before you sign an AI vendor contract, run the pilot through four gates. Proof, integration, exit, and kill. Each one is a go or no-go you clear before the signature, not after. Clear all four and the pilot has a real shot at production. Miss one … Read more
By Tom Kenaley, Senior Partner and President, KORE1 Hiring an accounting manager in 2026 typically costs $75,000 to $160,000 depending on team size and audit exposure, with most searches wrapping in four to eight weeks. The dollar figure is rarely what trips companies up. Deciding whether the seat is genuinely a management job, and not … Read more
By Mike Carter, Director of Partnership Success, KORE1 The product manager career path climbs seven rungs, from associate PM near $95,000 to chief product officer past $350,000, then forks after senior into a hands-on lead track and a management track that ends in the C-suite. Most people only ever study the rung right above their … Read more
By Kris Drouet, Engineering Executive, in partnership with KORE1 A point-to-point integration refactor replaces direct service-to-service calls with decoupled connections, usually async messaging or an event backbone, so one slow or changing system stops breaking every other system wired to it. Sequence it right and you get lower latency and, more to the point, a … Read more
By Kris Drouet, Engineering Executive, in partnership with KORE1 A senior IC has to unlearn three skills to lead: producing the work yourself, being the person with the right answer, and getting your reward from a same-day merge. Every one of them built your reputation as an engineer. Every one of them will quietly cap … Read more
By Robert Ardell, Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor, KORE1 Building a product team from scratch means hiring in sequence, not all at once: one senior generalist product manager first, after product-market fit, then a product designer, then a small trio, long before you hire a VP. Order is the whole game. Get it right and each … Read more
By Tom Kenaley, Senior Partner and President, KORE1 A group product manager runs a small team of PMs while still owning strategy for a product area, and costs $190,000 to $285,000 base in 2026, or $310,000 to $560,000 all in at public tech firms. That double duty is the whole job, and it is also … Read more
By Kris Drouet, Engineering Executive, in partnership with KORE1 New engineering leaders get the same three decisions wrong in their first 90 days: they chase speed before the team agrees what “done” means, they become the human router for every priority, and they make themselves the approval gate for every decision. Each one feels like … Read more
By Gregg Flecke, Senior Talent Acquisition Partner at KORE1 Hiring a controller in 2026 means budgeting roughly $120,000 to $210,000, planning a six-to-ten-week search, and deciding first whether the seat calls for a hands-on close manager or a strategic finance leader. The pay band is not the hard part. Neither is finding résumés. What kills … Read more
