Weekly hiring report · Oct 26 to Nov 1, 2026
Who startups are hiring: week of Oct 26, 2026
By the JustBacked team · Published Nov 2, 2026
This week in one line
1,536 new roles at 346 venture-backed startups this week, down 1% on the week before.
- Gaining share: engineering (506 roles, +4%), people (82 roles, +21%) and marketing (94 roles, +16%).
- Losing share: sales & bd (223, -8%) and science (20, -46%).
- The most-posted kinds of role were account executive (92), hardware / robotics (82) and marketing / growth (80).
- Fastest-rising role: account executive, 92 new roles against 59 the week before.
- Harvey posted the most, 59 roles after its Series H $550M, followed by Horizon3.ai (51) and Cyera (46).
- Best-paid listed role type: security, with a median top-of-range of $300K.
- SF Bay Area led all cities with 256 roles (17% of the total); 24% were remote.
- 46% of roles were senior, staff or management; only 6% were entry level or internships.
- Series D+ companies posted the most roles (497).
New roles
1,536
-1% vs prior week
Startups hiring
346
-6% vs prior week
Median top of pay range
$200K
48% of roles list pay
Remote
24%
of new roles
What startups are hiring for
New roles by function, ranked by volume. Engineering took the biggest step up in share.
| Roles | Share | vs prior week | Median pay* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Engineering | 506 | 32.9% | +4% | $220K |
| Sales & BD | 223 | 14.5% | -8% | $200K |
| Operations | 112 | 7.3% | -1% | $160K |
| Marketing | 94 | 6.1% | +16% | $205K |
| People | 82 | 5.3% | +21% | $185K |
| Hardware | 64 | 4.2% | +10% | $104K |
| Customer | 50 | 3.3% | +14% | $160K |
| Finance | 46 | 3.0% | +7% | $173K |
| Data & ML | 45 | 2.9% | +10% | $195K |
| Legal | 40 | 2.6% | -11% | $250K |
| Design | 36 | 2.3% | -10% | $196K |
| Product | 34 | 2.2% | -8% | $251K |
| Science | 20 | 1.3% | -46% | - |
| Clinical | 16 | 1.0% | +78% | $186K |
*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* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Account executive | 92 | 6.0% | +56% | $250K |
| Hardware / robotics | 82 | 5.3% | 0% | $180K |
| Marketing / growth | 80 | 5.2% | +31% | $200K |
| Backend / infrastructure engineer | 64 | 4.2% | +7% | $250K |
| Other sales | 57 | 3.7% | -30% | $220K |
| AI/ML engineer or researcher | 56 | 3.6% | -10% | $285K |
| Recruiter / talent | 56 | 3.6% | +37% | $183K |
| Software engineer | 36 | 2.3% | -20% | $250K |
| Customer success / account manager | 35 | 2.3% | -3% | $170K |
| Product manager | 33 | 2.1% | -8% | $251K |
| Legal | 31 | 2.0% | +11% | $250K |
| Designer | 29 | 1.9% | +12% | $160K |
| Security | 29 | 1.9% | -6% | $300K |
| Solutions / sales engineer | 26 | 1.7% | +8% | $235K |
| Data | 24 | 1.6% | +14% | $200K |
| Finance | 20 | 1.3% | +5% | $220K |
| SDR / BDR | 16 | 1.0% | -16% | $100K |
| Forward deployed engineer | 15 | 1.0% | -25% | - |
| Full-stack engineer | 12 | 0.8% | -29% | - |
| Frontend / mobile engineer | 7 | 0.5% | 0% | - |
*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.
- 1Harvey59 roles
Series H $550M · mostly engineering
- 2Horizon3.ai51 roles
Series E $250M · mostly engineering
- 3Cyera46 roles
Series G $400M · mostly engineering
- 4Alan41 roles
Series G $545M · mostly sales & bd
- 5Blank Street36 roles
Series C $75M
- 6Anthropic35 roles
Series H · mostly engineering
- 7Crusoe32 roles
Series F $3.9B · mostly engineering
- 8Savvy Wealth28 roles
Series C $100M · mostly marketing
- 9Zenity26 roles
Series C $115M · mostly sales & bd
- 10Commonwealth Fusion Systems26 roles
Venture round $1.0B · mostly engineering
Where the jobs are
| Roles | Share | vs prior week | |
|---|---|---|---|
| SF Bay Area | 256 | 16.7% | -10% |
| New York | 194 | 12.6% | +9% |
| London | 93 | 6.1% | +13% |
| Los Angeles | 74 | 4.8% | +21% |
| Munich | 52 | 3.4% | +49% |
| Boston | 51 | 3.3% | +82% |
| Paris | 50 | 3.3% | -6% |
| Tel Aviv | 34 | 2.2% | +10% |
| Toronto | 26 | 1.7% | +63% |
| Seattle | 24 | 1.6% | -31% |
| Austin | 24 | 1.6% | +33% |
| Denver / Boulder | 19 | 1.2% | +27% |
Seniority
- Intern3%
- Entry3%
- Mid48%
- Senior16%
- Staff/Lead13%
- Manager10%
- Director3%
- VP/C-level4%
By funding stage
| Roles | Share | vs prior week | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Series D+ | 497 | 32.4% | +8% |
| Series C | 300 | 19.5% | +11% |
| Venture (series unknown) | 221 | 14.4% | -11% |
| Series B | 208 | 13.5% | +6% |
| Series A | 202 | 13.2% | -30% |
| Seed | 88 | 5.7% | +17% |
| Pre-seed | 20 | 1.3% | +67% |
The last eight weeks
All new roles per week
Engineering
506+20% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Sales & BD
223+31% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Operations
112-4% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Marketing
94+35% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
People
82+51% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Hardware
64+4% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Customer
50+11% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Finance
46+7% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Legal
40+37% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Product
34+50% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Data & ML
45+19% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Design
36+51% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Science
20+39% (last 4 wks vs first 4)
Clinical
16-39% (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 26, 2026, the most new roles were in engineering, sales & bd, operations. Gaining share: engineering (506 roles, +4%), people (82 roles, +21%) and marketing (94 roles, +16%).
- Which startups hired the most this week?
- Harvey (59 roles), Horizon3.ai (51 roles), Cyera (46 roles), Alan (41 roles), Blank Street (36 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.