Weekly hiring report · Oct 19 to Oct 25, 2026
Who startups are hiring: week of Oct 19, 2026
By the JustBacked team · Published Oct 26, 2026
This week in one line
1,701 new roles at 374 venture-backed startups this week, up 16% on the week before.
- Gaining share: science (39 roles, +225%), engineering (527 roles, +20%) and sales & bd (286 roles, +21%).
- Losing share: marketing (90, -10%) and operations (134, +2%).
- The most-posted kinds of role were other sales (88), hardware / robotics (87) and ai/ml engineer or researcher (67).
- Fastest-rising role: other sales, 88 new roles against 55 the week before.
- Anthropic posted the most, 58 roles after its Series H, followed by Pogo (53) and Cyera (48).
- Best-paid listed role type: account executive, with a median top-of-range of $300K.
- SF Bay Area led all cities with 309 roles (18% of the total); 25% were remote.
- 45% of roles were senior, staff or management; only 5% were entry level or internships.
- Series D+ companies posted the most roles (527).
New roles
1,701
+16% vs prior week
Startups hiring
374
+3% vs prior week
Median top of pay range
$200K
45% of roles list pay
Remote
25%
of new roles
What startups are hiring for
New roles by function, ranked by volume. Science took the biggest step up in share.
| Roles | Share | vs prior week | Median pay* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Engineering | 527 | 31.0% | +20% | $235K |
| Sales & BD | 286 | 16.8% | +21% | $235K |
| Operations | 134 | 7.9% | +2% | $153K |
| Marketing | 90 | 5.3% | -10% | $200K |
| People | 70 | 4.1% | -7% | $150K |
| Hardware | 64 | 3.8% | +33% | $114K |
| Customer | 49 | 2.9% | +2% | $180K |
| Legal | 48 | 2.8% | +30% | $250K |
| Finance | 44 | 2.6% | -2% | $179K |
| Design | 43 | 2.5% | 0% | $175K |
| Data & ML | 41 | 2.4% | +46% | $160K |
| Product | 41 | 2.4% | +14% | $252K |
| Science | 39 | 2.3% | +225% | $300K |
| Clinical | 15 | 0.9% | -6% | - |
*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* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Other sales | 88 | 5.2% | +60% | $213K |
| Hardware / robotics | 87 | 5.1% | +9% | $190K |
| AI/ML engineer or researcher | 67 | 3.9% | +40% | $283K |
| Marketing / growth | 66 | 3.9% | -8% | $200K |
| Account executive | 65 | 3.8% | +5% | $300K |
| Backend / infrastructure engineer | 64 | 3.8% | +31% | $285K |
| Software engineer | 57 | 3.4% | +39% | $256K |
| Solutions / sales engineer | 54 | 3.2% | +54% | $240K |
| Recruiter / talent | 43 | 2.5% | -7% | $173K |
| Product manager | 40 | 2.4% | +33% | $256K |
| Customer success / account manager | 39 | 2.3% | +15% | $185K |
| Security | 37 | 2.2% | +23% | $250K |
| Legal | 32 | 1.9% | +19% | $250K |
| Designer | 29 | 1.7% | 0% | $175K |
| Finance | 20 | 1.2% | -13% | $300K |
| SDR / BDR | 20 | 1.2% | -20% | - |
| Forward deployed engineer | 20 | 1.2% | +100% | $275K |
| Data | 19 | 1.1% | -10% | $221K |
| Full-stack engineer | 18 | 1.1% | +38% | - |
| Frontend / mobile engineer | 8 | 0.5% | +167% | - |
*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.
- 1Anthropic58 roles
Series H · mostly engineering
- 2Pogo53 roles
Venture round
- 3Cyera48 roles
Series G $400M · mostly engineering
- 4Sierra41 roles
Series E $950M · mostly sales & bd
- 5Harvey38 roles
Series H $550M · mostly customer
- 6Horizon3.ai36 roles
Series E $250M · mostly engineering
- 7Covenant35 roles
Series A $250M · mostly engineering
- 8Blank Street34 roles
Series C $75M
- 9Crusoe32 roles
Series F $3.9B · mostly engineering
- 10Savvy Wealth31 roles
Series C $100M · mostly marketing
Where the jobs are
| Roles | Share | vs prior week | |
|---|---|---|---|
| SF Bay Area | 309 | 18.2% | +19% |
| New York | 212 | 12.5% | +48% |
| London | 90 | 5.3% | -3% |
| Los Angeles | 68 | 4.0% | +51% |
| Paris | 53 | 3.1% | +20% |
| Tel Aviv | 41 | 2.4% | +128% |
| Seattle | 35 | 2.1% | +84% |
| Boston | 30 | 1.8% | -29% |
| Toronto | 28 | 1.6% | 0% |
| Munich | 23 | 1.4% | -26% |
| Washington DC | 21 | 1.2% | +62% |
| Austin | 18 | 1.1% | +6% |
Seniority
- Intern3%
- Entry2%
- Mid50%
- Senior13%
- Staff/Lead13%
- Manager11%
- Director5%
- VP/C-level3%
By funding stage
| Roles | Share | vs prior week | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Series D+ | 527 | 31.0% | +29% |
| Series C | 334 | 19.6% | +22% |
| Series A | 289 | 17.0% | +24% |
| Venture (series unknown) | 259 | 15.2% | +13% |
| Series B | 203 | 11.9% | -14% |
| Seed | 78 | 4.6% | +4% |
| Pre-seed | 11 | 0.6% | -21% |
The last eight weeks
All new roles per week
Engineering
527+9% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Sales & BD
286+51% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Operations
134+14% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Marketing
90+39% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
People
70+31% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Hardware
64+11% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Customer
49+15% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Finance
44+19% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Product
41+43% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Legal
48+36% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Data & ML
41-3% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Design
43+52% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Clinical
15-5% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Science
39+29% (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 19, 2026, the most new roles were in engineering, sales & bd, operations. Gaining share: science (39 roles, +225%), engineering (527 roles, +20%) and sales & bd (286 roles, +21%).
- Which startups hired the most this week?
- Anthropic (58 roles), Pogo (53 roles), Cyera (48 roles), Sierra (41 roles), Harvey (38 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.