What Is a Content Engineer (A Manifesto Of Sorts)

I’m a content marketer, and AI is already better than me at most of my job.

It writes faster.

It doesn’t get tired.

It doesn’t second-guess semicolons or spiral over headlines.

It just… does the work.

And as a reminder (mostly to myself): today is the worst these tools will ever be.

Which means whatever edge I have — whatever edge you have — can’t come from doing what AI does, just slower and slightly better.

It has to come from innovating on how the work gets done in the first place.

The creators pulling ahead already understand this.

The ones who don’t? They risk fading out of the market — or worse, becoming middleware inside someone else’s system.

What Is a Content Engineer?

A Content Engineer builds the system that creates the content, and hardwires in space for what AI can’t fake: taste, editorial discernment, lived experience.

They architect workflows. Connect tools. Design for scale, with humans in the loop.

They’re not focused on crafting one perfect post.

They’re focused on unbundling the creative process — breaking it into inputs, outputs, and repeatable steps — so good ideas can move faster and scale like never before.

Spiritually (probably an embarrassing word to use here), transitioning from creator to Content Engineer means letting go.

Letting go of the parts of the process that no longer require you (which will be most) so you can focus, obsessively and intentionally, on the parts that still do.

What Do Content Engineers Actually Do?

Practically, a content engineer’s:

1) Obsess over inputs

Content Engineers spend more time upstream deciding what content to produce, then sourcing, structuring, and shaping the right materials for their systems.

This includes:

• Developing and refining ideas before your first prompt fires

• Seeking out (and often automating the collection of) high-value source material – interview, podcast, and webinar transcripts; call recordings; meeting notes; and proprietary data.

• Turning foundational assets, such as strategy docs, messaging frameworks, and positioning decks, into reusable building blocks.

2) Build intelligent, adaptable systems

Content Engineers design systems that reduce friction, scale output, and evolve as the work does.

• They use tools like Make, n8n, Gumloop, and AirOps to create multi-step workflows that reduce friction and reclaim time.

• They create custom micro apps using Lovable, Replit, Bolt, etc.

• They build internal RAG systems so AI can work with their context.

• They embed human checkpoints where judgment matters most.

3) Treat prompting as a core creative skill

Content Engineers see prompting as a creative discipline, not unlike writing itself. Much of their creative energy shifts here: crafting, refining, and layering prompts that drive entire flows.

4) Think distribution-first

Content Engineers create content that can be reused, repurposed, and rediscovered.

• They structure every piece with distribution in mind

• They create workflows where one asset spawns many high-quality derivatives

• They optimize for discoverability by people, platforms, and LLMs

What Skills Do They Need?

Some skills are technical:

• Prompt engineering

• Workflow design

• AI literacy

• Information Architecture

Others are deeply human:

• Editorial judgment

• Systems thinking

• Creative discernment — knowing what’s worth making, and what isn’t

But their real edge is adaptability.

They build systems that can bend, knowing the ground beneath them won’t stay still.

What Do Content Engineers Look Like?

There’s no single template. In the new content economy, the internet is the wild west and content engineers are showing up in every shape.

Some look like solo operators stitching together APIs, duct-taped workflows, and hacked-together Chrome extensions.

Others look like well-resourced B2B teams formalizing content ops, standardizing production systems, and hiring people with titles like Content Automation Lead.

You’ll find Content Engineers on growth teams, leading editorial departments, running one-person businesses, or moving in stealth in enterprise orgs.

You’ll recognize them not by their job titles, but by their output.

By how much they ship, how high the quality is, and how little friction they face doing it.

Why This Role Matters Right Now

From what I can tell, value in the new content economy has already shifted.

It used to be in the asset (what we create).

Now it’s in the process (how we create).

Because when execution is this fast, this cheap, and this good (come on, admit it), the edge belongs to the people who decide what’s worth making — and understand how to make it well, at scale.

This isn’t theory.

Funding is flowing into content ops infrastructure.

Startups are quietly hiring for this role under different names.

Universities are charging to teach you it.

And the pace of work isn’t exactly slowing down.

But What About Creativity?

For many, this whole idea still feels… off.

Like it compromises something deeper — craft, voice, meaning.

And honestly? That’s fair.

I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that this transition hurts.

Especially if you (like me) felt the value of your work lived in the friction it took to produce it.

Typing the sentence. Pacing the apartment. Revising the sentence.

But AI strips that illusion bare, and surfaces a harder truth:

Creativity doesn't live in the hours. It lives in the thinking.

And soon, it won’t matter whether that thinking happens while hammering keyboard or if it’s whispered to an LLM during a long walk without earbuds.

What will matter is whether the ideas are sturdy enough to be shaped into something real.

So no, this shift doesn’t kill creativity.

It only asks more of it.

Working like a Content Engineer means doing creative work that stretches you —

work that lives upstream, where strategy, structure, systems, and deep thinking take shape.

It’s harder.

More abstract.

Less romantic.

But it’s also where the leverage is.

The Choice Ahead

I opened with a reminder, so I’ll end with one too (again, still mostly to myself):

Stop thinking like a creator. Start thinking like an engineer.

Because the question isn’t “Will AI replace us?”

The question is: What do we become when we stop pretending we’re irreplaceable — and start building like we aren’t?

_{Footnotes & References}

_{1. Josh Spiker’s “The Rise of the 10x Content Engineer” (AirOps, 2025)
Shouts out to Josh — this piece was one of the first places I saw content engineering used in an AI-era context.} 

_{2. Earlier usage of the role
Before AI workflows took center stage, content engineer typically referred to people designing modular content systems – building taxonomies, structuring metadata, and prepping assets for multichannel publishing. Less automation, more architecture.}

_{3. GTM Engineer – a parallel role worth watching
In the B2B SaaS world, GTM engineer is starting to pop. Equal parts ops and automation, the role connects data, tooling, and workflows across sales and marketing. A close cousin in terms of mindset and muscle.}