Weekly hiring report · Oct 12 to Oct 18, 2026
Who startups are hiring: week of Oct 12, 2026
By the JustBacked team · Published Oct 23, 2026
This week in one line
1,506 new roles at 377 venture-backed startups this week, down 10% on the week before.
- Gaining share: operations (141 roles, +27%), sales & bd (238 roles, -2%) and design (42 roles, +45%).
- Losing share: engineering (453, -16%) and product (36, -46%).
- The most-posted kinds of role were hardware / robotics (82), marketing / growth (72) and account executive (63).
- Fastest-rising role: designer, 30 new roles against 17 the week before.
- Cyera posted the most, 50 roles after its Series G $400M, followed by Anthropic (44) and Blank Street (40).
- Best-paid listed role type: account executive, with a median top-of-range of $325K.
- SF Bay Area led all cities with 267 roles (18% of the total); 21% were remote.
- 48% of roles were senior, staff or management; only 6% were entry level or internships.
- Series D+ companies posted the most roles (420).
New roles
1,506
-10% vs prior week
Startups hiring
377
+1% vs prior week
Median top of pay range
$200K
43% of roles list pay
Remote
21%
of new roles
What startups are hiring for
New roles by function, ranked by volume. Operations took the biggest step up in share.
| Roles | Share | vs prior week | Median pay* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Engineering | 453 | 30.1% | -16% | $210K |
| Sales & BD | 238 | 15.8% | -2% | $220K |
| Operations | 141 | 9.4% | +27% | $170K |
| Marketing | 102 | 6.8% | -7% | $200K |
| People | 77 | 5.1% | -5% | $180K |
| Customer | 51 | 3.4% | -7% | $150K |
| Hardware | 48 | 3.2% | -30% | $90K |
| Finance | 46 | 3.1% | +10% | $200K |
| Design | 42 | 2.8% | +45% | $246K |
| Legal | 37 | 2.5% | -26% | $299K |
| Product | 36 | 2.4% | -46% | $263K |
| Data & ML | 29 | 1.9% | -19% | $160K |
| Clinical | 16 | 1.1% | 0% | - |
| Science | 12 | 0.8% | -37% | $193K |
*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 | 82 | 5.4% | -25% | $180K |
| Marketing / growth | 72 | 4.8% | -8% | $202K |
| Account executive | 63 | 4.2% | +7% | $325K |
| Other sales | 55 | 3.7% | -15% | $200K |
| AI/ML engineer or researcher | 50 | 3.3% | +4% | $320K |
| Backend / infrastructure engineer | 49 | 3.3% | -23% | $288K |
| Recruiter / talent | 46 | 3.1% | +10% | $180K |
| Software engineer | 42 | 2.8% | -30% | $220K |
| Customer success / account manager | 36 | 2.4% | -3% | $156K |
| Solutions / sales engineer | 35 | 2.3% | 0% | - |
| Security | 32 | 2.1% | -30% | $225K |
| Designer | 30 | 2.0% | +76% | $254K |
| Product manager | 30 | 2.0% | -42% | $263K |
| Legal | 27 | 1.8% | -23% | $299K |
| SDR / BDR | 25 | 1.7% | -26% | - |
| Finance | 23 | 1.5% | -4% | $200K |
| Data | 22 | 1.5% | -12% | $200K |
| Full-stack engineer | 13 | 0.9% | -19% | - |
| Forward deployed engineer | 12 | 0.8% | -40% | - |
| Frontend / mobile engineer | 3 | 0.2% | -40% | - |
*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.
- 1Cyera50 roles
Series G $400M · mostly sales & bd
- 2Anthropic44 roles
Series H · mostly engineering
- 3Blank Street40 roles
Series C $75M
- 4Alan36 roles
Series G $545M · mostly sales & bd
- 5Harvey32 roles
Series H $550M · mostly sales & bd
- 6Crusoe30 roles
Series F $3.9B · mostly engineering
- 7Searchable23 roles
Venture round $14M · mostly sales & bd
- 8Axiom Space21 roles
Series D $175M · mostly engineering
- 9Kraken20 roles
Venture round $100M · mostly engineering
- 10Humanoid20 roles
Series A $152M · mostly engineering
Where the jobs are
| Roles | Share | vs prior week | |
|---|---|---|---|
| SF Bay Area | 267 | 17.7% | -7% |
| New York | 145 | 9.6% | -22% |
| London | 95 | 6.3% | +30% |
| Los Angeles | 53 | 3.5% | -42% |
| Paris | 44 | 2.9% | +16% |
| Boston | 41 | 2.7% | +24% |
| Denver / Boulder | 35 | 2.3% | -24% |
| Munich | 31 | 2.1% | +55% |
| Toronto | 28 | 1.9% | -7% |
| Bengaluru | 26 | 1.7% | +136% |
| Berlin | 23 | 1.5% | +28% |
| Seattle | 19 | 1.3% | -51% |
Seniority
- Intern3%
- Entry3%
- Mid46%
- Senior13%
- Staff/Lead13%
- Manager13%
- Director4%
- VP/C-level5%
By funding stage
| Roles | Share | vs prior week | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Series D+ | 420 | 27.9% | -21% |
| Series C | 276 | 18.3% | -6% |
| Series A | 242 | 16.1% | +3% |
| Series B | 239 | 15.9% | -12% |
| Venture (series unknown) | 233 | 15.5% | -6% |
| Seed | 80 | 5.3% | -5% |
| Pre-seed | 16 | 1.1% | +60% |
The last eight weeks
All new roles per week
Engineering
453+10% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Sales & BD
238+42% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Operations
141+31% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Marketing
102+69% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
People
77+40% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Hardware
48+33% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Customer
51+35% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Finance
46+26% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Product
36+51% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Data & ML
29-5% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Legal
37+38% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Design
42+17% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Clinical
16+32% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Science
12+23% (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 Oct 12, 2026, the most new roles were in engineering, sales & bd, operations. Gaining share: operations (141 roles, +27%), sales & bd (238 roles, -2%) and design (42 roles, +45%).
- Which startups hired the most this week?
- Cyera (50 roles), Anthropic (44 roles), Blank Street (40 roles), Alan (36 roles), Harvey (32 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.