ingrid.fyi
Menu
Where do you fit?
RadarRoadmaps

Skills deep-dive

AI & LLM Applications

Section 1 / The Floor

The minimum skill expectations for the role

The most common fresher-accessible role in this profile, reduced to its essential skills. Target this stack to get hired quickest.

7MUST-HAVE SKILLS
Skills · ranked by prevalence
01Python75.1%the base language for every AI role
02Prompt Engineering34.3%shaping reliable model output
03LangChain29.7%the standard orchestration toolkit
04RAG25.2%grounding answers in company data
05OpenAI API22.7%calling the foundation models
06LangGraph15.2%stateful agent workflows
07Embeddings13.6%how meaning becomes searchable
Floor skills derived from validated fresher-accessible postings across Indian job boards for the ai & llm applications profile.
Section 2 / Pick Your Track

Where to specialize once you're in

Sub-tracks within this profile. Picking one is not optional.

01

AI / LLM APP BUILDER

← THE DEFAULT
FA share64%of fresher postings
Entry pay₹4to ₹11LPA · min to typical
On top of the floor
AWSJavaLLM APIsAzureGCP

Skews to MNCs and global capability centres, with a startup and services-firm tail.

02

AI IN PRODUCT CODE

← FOR PRODUCT ENGINEERS
FA share28.6%of fresher postings
Entry pay₹4to ₹14LPA · min to typical
On top of the floor
Java

Leans more to MAANG and elite global tech than the app-builder track, over the usual MNC base.

03

ML / DL ENGINEERING

← THE MODEL-CENTRIC TRACK
FA share5.4%of fresher postings
Entry pay₹4to ₹12LPA · min to typical · profile-wide
On top of the floor
PyTorchTensorFlowJavaDistributed SystemsAWS

Led by MNCs and GCCs with a strong elite-tech share and a services tail.

Small sample, so the model-centric track's figures are directional only.
Track shares and entry-level salary ranges (minimum to mean) derived from validated fresher-accessible postings across Indian job boards for the ai & llm applications profile.
Section 3 / The Skill Arc

The skills that grow with your seniority

Two things. Which skills grow more important with seniority, and which carry over when switching profiles.

A

Senior skew - what skills grow more important with seniority.

Rising · FA → SR
01Spring Boot
FA3.8%
SR22.6%
+18.9 pp
02Cloud-Native Design
FA3.0%
SR20.2%
+17.2 pp
03Angular
FA6.3%
SR22.8%
+16.6 pp
04Vue.js
FA1.4%
SR15.7%
+14.3 pp
05TypeScript
FA18.6%
SR30.4%
+11.8 pp
06SDLC
FA3.3%
SR14.2%
+10.9 pp
07GraphQL
FA3.6%
SR14.2%
+10.6 pp
08SQL
FA20.7%
SR30.9%
+10.2 pp
09React
FA21.6%
SR30.8%
+9.2 pp
Fading · FA → SR
01Git Flow
FA18.9%
SR8.6%
-10.3 pp
02OpenAI API
FA22.7%
SR12.6%
-10.1 pp
03Prompt Engineering
FA34.3%
SR25.0%
-9.2 pp
04LLM APIs
FA25.8%
SR17.8%
-8.0 pp
05GitHub Actions
FA16.1%
SR8.6%
-7.6 pp
B

Portability - what skills remain valued in other profiles.

Portable · cross-profile spread (out of 15)
01Java
12/15
Backend Development59%QA & Testing42%Fullstack Development39%
02SQL
12/15
Data Analytics & BI64%Data Engineering58%Fullstack Development42%
03Python
11/15
Data Science & ML78%Data Engineering73%DevOps & Platform Engineering54%
04AWS
10/15
DevOps & Platform Engineering44%Data Engineering44%Fullstack Development41%
05Docker
8/15
Backend Development28%DevOps & Platform Engineering25%Fullstack Development21%
06Kubernetes
8/15
DevOps & Platform Engineering35%Security Engineering27%Backend Development22%
07Azure
7/15
Data Engineering30%DevOps & Platform Engineering28%Security Engineering26%
08GCP
7/15
Security Engineering25%DevOps & Platform Engineering22%Data Engineering21%
09Microservices
6/15
Backend Development34%Fullstack Development29%Security Engineering19%
Locked · stays inside the profile
01Prompt Engineering1/15
02LangChain1/15
03OpenAI API1/15
04RAG1/15
05Agentic AI1/15
06LangGraph1/15
07Embeddings1/15
08LLM APIs2/15
Skill arc derived from validated postings across Indian job boards for the ai & llm applications profile, comparing fresher-accessible and senior prevalence. Cross-profile spread computed at a one-in-ten prevalence threshold across all 15 profiles.
Section 4 / Targeting your Company Pool

Which skills each employer tier wants

Two distinct company pools with different skill profiles.

MAANG and Tier-1 Global Tech

n = 562usable
CompaniesGoogleAnthropicMetaMicrosoft AIOpenAICohereStripe
Skill skew · MAANG and Tier-1 Global Tech vs IT Services & BPO
% in MAANGSkill% in IT ServicesSkew
52.1%
Distributed Systems
10.6%
+41.6 pp
50.9%
Code Reviews
13.3%
+37.6 pp
34.9%
Scalability
3.3%
+31.5 pp
39.7%
SDLC
8.9%
+30.8 pp
39.3%
Design Patterns
9.4%
+29.9 pp
35.2%
Java
15.0%
+20.2 pp
21.0%
Algorithms
1.7%
+19.3 pp
19.8%
Data Structures
1.1%
+18.6 pp
15.1%
JavaScript
5.6%
+9.6 pp

IT Services & BPO

n = 180usable
CompaniesTCSInfosysWiproLTIMindtreeCognizant
Skill skew · MAANG and Tier-1 Global Tech vs IT Services & BPO
% in MAANGSkill% in IT ServicesSkew
34.2%
Python
68.9%
-34.7 pp
2.0%
LangChain
28.3%
-26.4 pp
6.0%
Prompt Engineering
31.7%
-25.6 pp
11.0%
Azure
34.4%
-23.4 pp
6.2%
RAG
24.4%
-18.2 pp
0.5%
LangGraph
16.1%
-15.6 pp
4.4%
Kubernetes
20.0%
-15.6 pp
5.0%
MLOps
18.9%
-13.9 pp
7.3%
GCP
20.6%
-13.3 pp
Company-pool skills derived from validated postings across Indian job boards for the ai & llm applications profile, scoped to two company classes: MAANG and Tier-1 Global Tech, and IT Services & BPO.