Weekly hiring report · Sep 21 to Sep 27, 2026
Who startups are hiring: week of Sep 21, 2026
By the JustBacked team · Published Oct 23, 2026
This week in one line
1,520 new roles at 378 venture-backed startups this week, up 12% on the week before.
- Gaining share: people (62 roles, +51%), sales & bd (203 roles, +19%) and marketing (93 roles, +27%).
- Losing share: engineering (467, +5%) and design (26, -26%).
- The most-posted kinds of role were hardware / robotics (97), software engineer (67) and account executive (65).
- Fastest-rising role: hardware / robotics, 97 new roles against 65 the week before.
- Astranis posted the most, 71 roles after its Series E, followed by Anthropic (46) and Hightouch (43).
- Best-paid listed role type: software engineer, with a median top-of-range of $285K.
- SF Bay Area led all cities with 380 roles (25% of the total); 21% were remote.
- 45% of roles were senior, staff or management; only 9% were entry level or internships.
- Series D+ companies posted the most roles (531).
New roles
1,520
+12% vs prior week
Startups hiring
378
+7% vs prior week
Median top of pay range
$200K
47% of roles list pay
Remote
21%
of new roles
What startups are hiring for
New roles by function, ranked by volume. People took the biggest step up in share.
| Roles | Share | vs prior week | Median pay* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Engineering | 467 | 30.7% | +5% | $225K |
| Sales & BD | 203 | 13.4% | +19% | $200K |
| Operations | 134 | 8.8% | +17% | $190K |
| Marketing | 93 | 6.1% | +27% | $175K |
| Hardware | 76 | 5.0% | +31% | $71K |
| People | 62 | 4.1% | +51% | $166K |
| Customer | 55 | 3.6% | +17% | $170K |
| Finance | 45 | 3.0% | +15% | $195K |
| Product | 39 | 2.6% | +15% | $226K |
| Data & ML | 37 | 2.4% | +12% | $172K |
| Legal | 35 | 2.3% | +17% | $225K |
| Design | 26 | 1.7% | -26% | $205K |
| Clinical | 24 | 1.6% | +9% | $90K |
| Science | 19 | 1.3% | -21% | - |
*Median of the top of each listed pay range, USD roles only, shown when at least 8 roles list pay.
The roles behind the numbers
Grouped from job titles, so you can see past the broad functions: account executives versus SDRs, AI engineers versus backend engineers.
| Roles | Share | vs prior week | Median pay* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hardware / robotics | 97 | 6.4% | +49% | $182K |
| Software engineer | 67 | 4.4% | +20% | $285K |
| Account executive | 65 | 4.3% | +16% | $240K |
| Marketing / growth | 65 | 4.3% | +2% | $187K |
| Other sales | 59 | 3.9% | +26% | $180K |
| Backend / infrastructure engineer | 51 | 3.4% | +50% | $265K |
| Customer success / account manager | 49 | 3.2% | +88% | $205K |
| AI/ML engineer or researcher | 40 | 2.6% | -9% | $260K |
| Product manager | 33 | 2.2% | +38% | $225K |
| Recruiter / talent | 31 | 2.0% | +35% | $190K |
| Solutions / sales engineer | 28 | 1.8% | +22% | $182K |
| Legal | 27 | 1.8% | +13% | $230K |
| Finance | 26 | 1.7% | +53% | $226K |
| Data | 24 | 1.6% | -11% | $194K |
| SDR / BDR | 21 | 1.4% | +24% | - |
| Designer | 18 | 1.2% | -22% | $195K |
| Forward deployed engineer | 18 | 1.2% | +50% | $225K |
| Security | 11 | 0.7% | -45% | - |
| Frontend / mobile engineer | 10 | 0.7% | +100% | - |
| Full-stack engineer | 9 | 0.6% | +29% | - |
*Median of the top of each listed pay range, USD roles only, shown when at least 8 roles list pay.
Who is hiring the most
The startups that opened the most new roles this week.
- 1Astranis71 roles
Series E
- 2Anthropic46 roles
Series H · mostly engineering
- 3Hightouch43 roles
Series D $10M · mostly engineering
- 4DayOne36 roles
Series C $2.5B · mostly hardware
- 5Alan35 roles
Series G $545M · mostly sales & bd
- 6Crusoe35 roles
Series F $3.9B · mostly engineering
- 7Blank Street31 roles
Series C $75M
- 8Harvey29 roles
Series H $550M · mostly customer
- 9Cyera25 roles
Series G $400M · mostly sales & bd
- 10Sierra19 roles
Series E $950M · mostly engineering
Freshly funded and already hiring
Raised in the last two weeks and posted roles this week, largest round first.
- 1Cyera25 roles
Series G $400M
- 2EliseAI2 roles
Series F $350M
- 3Snorkel AI3 roles
Series E $350M
- 4Enveda1 role
Series E $311M
- 5Exein1 role
Venture round $270M
- 6Ridgeline3 roles
Series E $250M
- 7General Intuition2 roles
Venture round $220M
- 8Cornelis Networks4 roles
Series C $205M
- 9Factory3 roles
Venture round $200M
- 10Hubble Network4 roles
Series C $200M
Where the jobs are
| Roles | Share | vs prior week | |
|---|---|---|---|
| SF Bay Area | 380 | 25.0% | +19% |
| New York | 178 | 11.7% | +10% |
| London | 52 | 3.4% | -13% |
| Denver / Boulder | 47 | 3.1% | +27% |
| Los Angeles | 44 | 2.9% | -27% |
| Paris | 40 | 2.6% | -9% |
| Boston | 30 | 2.0% | +15% |
| Munich | 24 | 1.6% | -4% |
| Austin | 23 | 1.5% | -12% |
| Seattle | 20 | 1.3% | -13% |
| Singapore | 18 | 1.2% | +125% |
| Washington DC | 18 | 1.2% | -14% |
Seniority
- Intern5%
- Entry5%
- Mid45%
- Senior13%
- Staff/Lead14%
- Manager13%
- Director3%
- VP/C-level3%
By funding stage
| Roles | Share | vs prior week | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Series D+ | 531 | 34.9% | +30% |
| Series C | 290 | 19.1% | +7% |
| Venture (series unknown) | 211 | 13.9% | +15% |
| Series A | 207 | 13.6% | +23% |
| Series B | 184 | 12.1% | -14% |
| Seed | 91 | 6.0% | -6% |
| Pre-seed | 6 | 0.4% | -62% |
The last eight weeks
All new roles per week
Engineering
467+40% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Sales & BD
203+15% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Operations
134+73% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Marketing
93+31% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Hardware
76+71% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
People
62+36% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Customer
55+70% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Finance
45+40% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Data & ML
37+58% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Product
39+20% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Design
26-7% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Legal
35+59% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Clinical
24+53% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Science
19+61% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
How we count
Every role comes from the startup's own hiring system (Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby and others), at venture-backed companies that raised in the last six months. A role counts in the week JustBacked first listed it. Changes compare with the period of the same length just before. JustBacked keeps adding newly funded companies, so raw counts drift up over time; shares of all new roles are the cleaner signal of what is gaining or losing ground. Live numbers, updated hourly, are on the startup hiring tracker.
Questions
- What are startups hiring for most right now?
- In the week of Sep 21, 2026, the most new roles were in engineering, sales & bd, operations. Gaining share: people (62 roles, +51%), sales & bd (203 roles, +19%) and marketing (93 roles, +27%).
- Which startups hired the most this week?
- Astranis (71 roles), Anthropic (46 roles), Hightouch (43 roles), DayOne (36 roles), Alan (35 roles).
- Where does this data come from?
- Every role comes from the startup's own hiring system (Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby and others), at venture-backed companies that raised in the last six months. A role counts in the week JustBacked first listed it. Changes compare with the period of the same length just before. JustBacked keeps adding newly funded companies, so raw counts drift up over time; shares of all new roles are the cleaner signal of what is gaining or losing ground.
Get the startups that just raised, and the roles they opened, every week.