From Prompt Engineer to Harness Engineer: Three Evolutions in AI Collaboration

The article traces three roles in AI collaboration: Prompt Engineer, Context Engineer, and Harness Engineer.

Prompt Engineering focused on phrasing queries to LLMs and rose after ChatGPT in 2022–2023.

Context Engineering emerged as context windows grew, emphasizing what information is given to models.

Harness Engineer surfaced at GDPS 2026 as a role centered on the environment AI runs in, completing the evolution.