Q3 2026 Hiring Report
Open jobs each week of the quarter, pulled directly from company career pages. Pick a company or a function to see its own numbers.
AI companies
The leading AI companies, from the labs that build AI models, such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, and xAI, to the companies that build products on them, such as Databricks, Harvey, ElevenLabs, and Cursor. The group is drawn from the Forbes AI 50, the CB Insights AI 100, and Andreessen Horowitz's AI portfolio, plus McCoy's list of AI research labs.
Key findings
- Open roles at the 97 AI companies we tracked all quarter rose 29%, from 6.7K on Jul 1 to 8.6K on Sep 30. The count went up every week of the quarter.
- Anthropic (up 58%, 412 to 649) and OpenAI (up 41%, 544 to 769) added the most open roles. Together they account for 24% of the net growth.
- Without OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI, open roles at the other AI companies still rose 25%.
- Sales openings rose 34%, from 1.2K to 1.5K. Cyera added 100 of those 389 roles.
- Staff and lead openings (6 to 10 years of experience) rose 57%, from 860 to 1.3K. Principal-level openings (10+ years) fell 8%, from 366 to 336.
- Open roles in the US rose 33% (4.6K to 6.1K). Outside the US they rose 20% (1.9K to 2.3K).
Open jobs
Across companies: 59 of 97 grew, 33 shrank, 5 held steady. The median company changed +23%. The 5 biggest gainers account for 42% of the growth.
Open jobs, top 6 functions
Top hirers by jobs added
By function
| Function | Trend | Added | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engineering | 2,312 | +29% | |
| Operations | 1,568 | +17% | |
| Sales | 1,482 | +34% | |
| Marketing | 577 | +34% | |
| Customer Success | 417 | +84% | |
| Finance | 366 | +38% | |
| Research | 263 | +7% | |
| Legal | 259 | +12% | |
| Product Management | 226 | +19% | |
| Project Management | 166 | – | |
| Business Development | 147 | – | |
| Design | 131 | +40% | |
| Trades | 124 | +25% | |
| Data | 122 | +20% | |
| Policy | 73 | – | |
| Executive | 18 | – | |
| People | 16 | – | |
| Consulting | 10 | – | |
| Security | 9 | – | |
| Infrastructure | 8 | – | |
| Safety | 2 | – | |
| Other | 48 | −33% |
By seniority
Jul 1
Sep 30
- Intern & entry6% → 6%
- Early career (1-3 yrs)13% → 14%
- Senior (3-6 yrs)37% → 36%
- Staff / Lead (6-10 yrs)13% → 16%
- Principal+ (10+ yrs)5% → 4%
- Manager18% → 18%
- Director & above4% → 4%
- Not specified3% → 2%
| Level | Trend | Open | Share | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intern | 61 → 100 | 1% | +64% | |
| Entry (new grad) | 310 → 406 | 5% | +31% | |
| Early career (1-3 yrs) | 896 → 1,215 | 14% | +36% | |
| Senior (3-6 yrs) | 2,492 → 3,093 | 36% | +24% | |
| Staff / Lead (6-10 yrs) | 860 → 1,347 | 16% | +57% | |
| Principal+ (10+ yrs) | 366 → 336 | 4% | −8% | |
| Manager | 1,233 → 1,574 | 18% | +28% | |
| Director | 202 → 312 | 4% | +54% | |
| VP | 40 → 46 | 1% | – | |
| C-Suite | 5 → 5 | 0% | – | |
| Counsel | 4 → 0 | 0% | – | |
| Not specified | 210 → 168 | 2% | −20% |
By location
In the US: 4,609 → 6,125 (+33%). Outside the US: 1,891 → 2,277 (+20%).
| Metro area | Trend | Open | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco Bay Area | 2,468 → 3,379 | +37% | |
| New York City | 638 → 868 | +36% | |
| London | 395 → 514 | +30% | |
| Austin | 266 → 221 | −17% | |
| Paris | 150 → 177 | +18% | |
| Tokyo | 131 → 165 | +26% | |
| Stockholm | 99 → 122 | +23% | |
| Seattle | 60 → 112 | +87% | |
| Denver | 86 → 110 | +28% | |
| Bengaluru | 84 → 99 | +18% | |
| Washington DC | 68 → 96 | +41% | |
| Dallas-Fort Worth | 66 → 78 | +18% | |
| Other or not specified | 1,404 → 1,734 | +24% |
About the data
- These are open job postings on company career pages, not hires. An open role can stay up for weeks before someone is hired.
- Every number covers the 97 companies we tracked for all of Q3 2026, so each week compares the same companies. 147 more were added during the quarter and are left out, since we don't have their count from the start of the quarter.
- Some companies list the same role in several cities, and each listing counts. For location, a job listed in several places counts once, under the first location the company lists.
- 23% of open jobs at the end of the quarter are outside the metro areas we map, or don't list a location we can read. They show as Other or not specified.
- 200 open jobs at the end of the quarter don't list a country we can read, so they are in neither the US nor the outside-the-US count.
- Jobs are grouped by function using each posting's title and description.
- Q3 2026 is our first full quarter of tracking, so there is no earlier quarter to compare with yet.
- We pull open roles directly from company career pages, refreshed daily, using only public sources and honoring each site's crawler preferences. More in our methodology.