Seed
3% of jobs
- Hiring rate
- 65%
- Median roles
- 6
- Tracked
- 191 companies
- Hiring
- 124 companies
Open roles
43,526
Current openings
Hiring companies
677
Of 824 tracked
Salary coverage
47%
20,485 posted ranges
Top-five concentration
24%
Share of all live roles
01
Role mix
Role distribution
Physical build, test, production, and supply-chain roles account for 28% of openings, or 0.7× the share of software and AI roles.
Physical build, test, production, & supply chain
28%
Software, data, AI, & autonomy
37%
0.7×
ratio of physical-build roles to software and AI roles
“Physical build” combines electrical and firmware, mechanical systems, manufacturing and production, test and reliability, and supply chain. Product and program roles are excluded from both sides.
02
Funding stage
Hiring by funding stage
Series C+ companies account for 22× as many openings as seed companies. The median hiring Series C+ company lists 38 roles, compared with 6 at seed.
Series A
6% of jobs
- Hiring rate
- 84%
- Median roles
- 14
- Tracked
- 142 companies
- Hiring
- 119 companies
Series B
7% of jobs
- Hiring rate
- 91%
- Median roles
- 21.5
- Tracked
- 130 companies
- Hiring
- 118 companies
Series C+
61% of jobs
- Hiring rate
- 94%
- Median roles
- 38
- Tracked
- 304 companies
- Hiring
- 285 companies
Public
23% of jobs
- Hiring rate
- 92%
- Median roles
- 159
- Tracked
- 25 companies
- Hiring
- 23 companies
| Stage | Raw job share | Tracked | Hiring | Hiring rate | Median live roles |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | 3% | 191 | 124 | 65% | 6 |
| Series A | 6% | 142 | 119 | 84% | 14 |
| Series B | 7% | 130 | 118 | 91% | 21.5 |
| Series C+ | 61% | 304 | 285 | 94% | 38 |
| Public | 23% | 25 | 23 | 92% | 159 |
Hiring rate
Share of tracked active companies with at least one current opening.
Median openings
Median number of current roles among companies that are hiring.
03
Location
Location specialization
Each card shows the sector most concentrated in that market. A 2.0× reading means the local share is twice the overall BuildList share.
SF Bay Area
12,124 roles
AI Research
20% of local roles2.1×
Across 34 employers in this slice
Los Angeles
6,760 roles
Manufacturing
8% of local roles2.5×
Across 18 employers in this slice
NYC
4,308 roles
Fintech
15% of local roles3.1×
Across 15 employers in this slice
Seattle
3,634 roles
Aerospace
46% of local roles2.0×
Across 12 employers in this slice
Austin
2,359 roles
Energy & Climate
12% of local roles1.8×
Across 9 employers in this slice
United Kingdom
1,992 roles
Fintech
12% of local roles2.5×
Across 9 employers in this slice
Washington, D.C.
1,849 roles
Defense
38% of local roles2.7×
Across 38 employers in this slice
Denver
1,710 roles
Aerospace
67% of local roles3.0×
Across 26 employers in this slice
Remote availability by role
12%
of openings include a remote location. Availability varies by role.
Highest remote share
Business Dev & Customer Ops27%
Marketing & Design19%
Finance, Legal, & Compliance17%
Lowest remote share
Manufacturing & Production2%
Mechanical & Physical Systems3%
Electrical & Firmware3%
04
Salaries
Role-adjusted salary index
The raw median is $180k. The index compares each role family with its market-wide median and weights each represented role family equally.
Major location index
100 = role baselineSF Bay Area
11 roles · n=7,839
NYC
7 roles · n=2,529
Seattle
7 roles · n=1,214
Washington, D.C.
6 roles · n=877
Remote
5 roles · n=1,869
Sector index
100 = role baselineAI Research
8 roles · n=1,609
Compute & Semiconductors
11 roles · n=2,549
AI App
7 roles · n=2,825
Fintech
4 roles · n=485
Transportation
5 roles · n=666
Defense
5 roles · n=1,563
100 is the median for the same roles across the full sample. Published cross-cuts require at least 30 salary-bearing openings; this report then requires at least four role families and 250 observations. The adjustment does not control for seniority, company, equity, or cost of living.
Explore salary ranges →05
Founder networks
Hiring across founder networks
Networks are ranked by the number of alumni-founded companies with current openings. Total job count breaks ties.
01132 alumni founders
84
companies hiring
6,713
roles across them
Largest current destinations
SpaceX
02106 alumni founders
71
companies hiring
2,823
roles across them
Largest current destinations
Meta
0356 alumni founders
38
companies hiring
5,652
roles across them
Largest current destinations
Apple
0432 alumni founders
26
companies hiring
652
roles across them
Largest current destinations
Palantir
0538 alumni founders
25
companies hiring
3,290
roles across them
Largest current destinations
Tesla
0638 alumni founders
25
companies hiring
936
roles across them
Largest current destinations
Destinations can appear under more than one alumni network, so job totals are not additive. The network dataset currently has qualifying prior-employment history for 904 of 1,958 founders.
Explore the founder graph →Browse current openings or download the report data.
Methodology
Definitions
Hiring inventory
Active openings come directly from company applicant-tracking systems. Generic talent-pipeline posts are removed. Counts are not deduplicated across companies because each row is a distinct employer opening.
Company universe
BuildList tracks a curated set of technology companies. Inactive companies stay in the historical directory but are excluded from the company-weighted stage denominator.
Places
A multi-location job contributes to each listed metro. Location specialization compares shares within one place, where the numerator and denominator use the same multi-location treatment.
Pay
Salary figures use the midpoint of disclosed base-pay ranges normalized to annual pay. Equity and bonus are excluded, and disclosure is shaped by pay-transparency laws.
Stages
Funding stage is the company’s latest canonical stage. Hiring rate is the share of tracked active companies at that stage with at least one current opening.
Networks
Founder links use structured prior-employment histories and durable founder identities. Network results represent the founders with available work-history data.
Scope and caveats
BuildList tracks a curated set of technology companies. The index covers current openings, not hires or headcount growth. The five largest employers account for 24% of all openings.
Coverage
The index does not represent the full technology job market.
Openings
Counts exclude applications, filled roles, layoffs, and net headcount changes.
Analysis
Opening-weighted, company-weighted, and role-adjusted measures are identified where used.