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.
Defense Tech companies
The leading defense and national security companies, such as Anduril Industries, SpaceX, Shield AI, Booz Allen Hamilton, and CACI. The group is drawn from Silicon Valley Defense Group's NatSec 100 and Andreessen Horowitz's American Dynamism portfolio, plus McCoy's list of other defense companies.
Open jobs
Across companies: 30 of 41 grew, 10 shrank, 1 held steady. The median company changed +21%. The 5 biggest gainers account for 73% of the growth.
Open jobs, top 6 functions
Top hirers by jobs added
By function
| Function | Trend | Added | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engineering | 7,878 | +34% | |
| Operations | 3,352 | +29% | |
| Trades | 929 | +48% | |
| Sales | 863 | +23% | |
| Project Management | 778 | +88% | |
| Data | 658 | +67% | |
| Research | 608 | +58% | |
| Finance | 413 | +27% | |
| Legal | 295 | +18% | |
| Marketing | 294 | +35% | |
| Consulting | 198 | +48% | |
| Product Management | 192 | +35% | |
| Policy | 149 | +19% | |
| Design | 148 | −6% | |
| Customer Success | 139 | +21% | |
| Business Development | 138 | +47% | |
| Infrastructure | 36 | – | |
| Security | 33 | −92% | |
| People | 10 | – | |
| Executive | 9 | – | |
| Safety | 1 | – | |
| Other | 318 | −77% |
By seniority
Jul 1
Sep 30
- Intern & entry7% → 10%
- Early career (1-3 yrs)21% → 23%
- Senior (3-6 yrs)25% → 27%
- Staff / Lead (6-10 yrs)17% → 22%
- Principal+ (10+ yrs)3% → 3%
- Manager12% → 13%
- Director & above2% → 2%
- Not specified13% → 1%
| Level | Trend | Open | Share | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intern | 86 → 340 | 2% | +295% | |
| Entry (new grad) | 766 → 1,149 | 8% | +50% | |
| Early career (1-3 yrs) | 2,471 → 3,465 | 23% | +40% | |
| Senior (3-6 yrs) | 3,054 → 4,174 | 27% | +37% | |
| Staff / Lead (6-10 yrs) | 2,026 → 3,396 | 22% | +68% | |
| Principal+ (10+ yrs) | 397 → 417 | 3% | +5% | |
| Manager | 1,403 → 1,932 | 13% | +38% | |
| Director | 220 → 295 | 2% | +34% | |
| VP | 30 → 32 | 0% | – | |
| C-Suite | 5 → 5 | 0% | – | |
| Counsel | 2 → 0 | 0% | – | |
| Not specified | 1,565 → 103 | 1% | −93% |
By location
In the US: 10.7k → 13.6k (+28%). Outside the US: 1,262 → 1,523 (+21%).
| Metro area | Trend | Open | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orange County | 1,209 → 1,440 | +19% | |
| San Francisco Bay Area | 973 → 1,423 | +46% | |
| Los Angeles | 1,061 → 1,263 | +19% | |
| Washington DC | 1,238 → 739 | −40% | |
| Austin | 581 → 714 | +23% | |
| Seattle | 437 → 522 | +19% | |
| Denver | 257 → 248 | −4% | |
| London | 111 → 152 | +37% | |
| Boston | 82 → 132 | +61% | |
| New York City | 132 → 126 | −5% | |
| Munich | 111 → 108 | −3% | |
| Atlanta | 93 → 100 | +8% | |
| Other or not specified | 4,849 → 7,490 | +54% |
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 41 companies we tracked for all of Q3 2026, so each week compares the same companies. 164 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.
- 52% 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.
- 139 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.