Prompt engineer is a junior title
If your title is prompt engineer, you are an intern with a thesaurus. The senior version is just called shipping
2023 invented the prompt engineer. 2024 paid them $300K. 2026 fired them. Because once every senior developer figured out how to prompt, the role evaporated into thin air
Prompting is not engineering
Engineering is what happens after the prompt. The prompt gives you a design. Engineering decides whether to compile the design, scale it, ship it and stay up at 3 a.m. That's what happens. A prompt engineer gives you the draft and walks away. A real engineer owns the output until he dies of old age
The actual senior skill
Knowing when to type instead of asking. Knowing when the model is wrong before it is done. Reading a 400-line diff and picking up that one line that breaks invariants. None of that is in prompt engineering certification
Why the title persists
Recruiters love it because it sounds new. Bootcamps love it because it sells courses. LinkedIn loves it because it generates engagement. The actual people who ship production code call themselves developers and laugh
The replacement
The senior who can prompt, type, read and ship. One person. One title. Developer. Always was