Source ofYOU
Build your record

Source of You · The Hiring Report · September 2026

What 941 companies were hiring for at the end of September.

A September snapshot of open roles across 941 companies' own hiring systems: the skills, AI tools, pay and remote work in the job posts they published.

Scope. We read companies' own public hiring systems through APIs that permit it: 11 hiring systems, mostly Greenhouse (452 companies), Ashby (320) and Lever (127). Companies are added through discovery sweeps with an identity check, failures and removals are logged, and a source is removed when its terms or robots rules disallow us, as SmartRecruiters and Dayforce were this month. Of the 941 companies, 698 had an open software engineering role; we did not classify companies by industry or sort locations by country. Greenhouse, Ashby and Lever are 899 of the 941 companies (96%). We did not measure the discovery start population or its success rate this month. Removing SmartRecruiters and Dayforce removed 51% of the role corpus, so role totals are not comparable to earlier figures. About 1% of open roles hit the ambiguous-title rule; another 29% matched no keyword. Both are left out of the field counts. This covers these companies only, and it measures posts, not hires.

Published October 14, 2026 · Skills counted September 30, 2026, 07:07 UTC · Open roles, pay and remote rebuilt as of October 1, 2026, 00:00 UTC on October 11, 2026

Five things in employers’ open job posts, September 2026

  1. Among the 53 skills we track, Python was named most. 4,579 job posts named it in their requirements or preferred sections, and 427 companies used the word there. SQL (2,504 posts) and AWS (2,074) came next. We do not track Java, Go or React, so this is not a language ranking.

  2. Software engineering had the most companies hiring, then sales. 698 of the 941 companies had an open role in software engineering and 602 in sales. Next came finance and legal (489) and data and ML (477).

  3. Some skills are listed as required far more than as preferred. Product management was listed as required in 777 posts and as preferred in 68. That is where posts placed it, not a hiring rule, and we do not know what share of posts have a preferred section at all.

  4. Many companies listed a remote role; few roles listed remote. 439 of 941 companies (47%) had at least one open role whose location field said remote. Across all roles, 5,839 of 55,560 (11%) did. A location that says remote is not a check of who may apply from where.

  5. We captured an annual salary range on 24% of open roles. That is 13,292 of 55,560 roles, at 395 of 941 companies (42%). Only US-dollar annual ranges count; hourly and other pay is not counted. The dollar figures, with levels and countries mixed, are in the pay section.

The PDF edition

What the PDF adds to this page:

  • For each field, every tracked skill named in at least 5 posts, with how often it was listed as required and as preferred (Design withheld this month: its skill sample crossed our editorial line)
  • The 25 companies with the most open roles in each field, with their counts
  • A resume keyword checklist per field, where published (none for Customer Success and Technical Support, Design, People and Ops or Clinical and Medical)
  • Up to eight leading titles, pay coverage and all three remote measures per field
  • The list of all 941 companies
Get the PDF

Free with a Source of You account. Sign in or sign up, and the report opens when you come back.

Who is hiring

Fields by how many companies had an open role

Companies with an open role, by fieldCompanies with at least one open role in the field
  1. Software Engineering698
  2. Sales602
  3. Finance and Legal489
  4. Data and ML477
  5. People and Ops470
  6. Marketing465
  7. Customer Success and Technical Support405
  8. Product399
  9. Security300
  10. Design295
  11. Program and Project Management266
  12. Solutions and Sales Engineering222
  13. Manufacturing and Hardware195
  14. Clinical and Medical56

A company is counted in every field where it has a role. The bars sum to 5,339, not to 941. The skill and AI charts below count job posts, so a company with many posts counts many times there.

Fields come from job titles, by published keyword rules tried in a fixed order. About 1% of open roles hit the ambiguous-title rule and another 29% matched no keyword; both are left out of the field counts.

Skills

The tracked skills named in the most job posts

Job posts naming each skillJob posts naming it in a requirements or preferred section
  1. Python427 companies4,579
  2. SQL345 companies2,504
  3. AWS355 companies2,074
  4. Large language models (LLMs)1,710
  5. Project management (incl. the phrase project manager)1,681
  6. Kubernetes272 companies1,609
  7. CI/CD1,411
  8. Salesforce257 companies1,372
  9. Google Cloud / GCP (ambiguous uses included)incl. 13 clinical posts where GCP can mean Good Clinical Practice1,258
  10. AI agents1,188
  11. Azure207 companies1,119
  12. Data analysis1,082
  13. Machine learning213 companies932
  14. Product management217 companies836
  15. Agile, Scrum or Kanban830

Dictionary matches: we count a fixed list of 53 skills, tools and credentials by their listed wordings (every wording is in the dictionary below). A post that says it differently is missed, and a wording that means something else can be counted. The company count is shown where the exact word was counted separately. Posts read were not saved for skill counts, so these are counts, not shares, and they come from a different snapshot than the 941 companies above. The list does not include, for example, Java, Go, React, Excel or Figma.

Required or preferred

Where posts placed each skill

A skill named in a post's requirements section is counted as listed as required; in its preferred section, as listed as preferred. We do not know what share of posts have a preferred section, so a lean toward required can partly be how posts are laid out. Product management was listed as required in 777 posts and as preferred in 68; Docker as required in 372 and as preferred in 416. These are where posts placed a skill, not hiring rules.

SkillListed as requiredListed as preferredRequired share
  • Product management7776893%
  • TypeScript63421477%
  • Project management (incl. the phrase project manager)1,22152673%
  • Python3,1851,51870%
  • Claude43021068%
  • Agile, Scrum or Kanban56329268%
  • Salesforce92748968%
  • JavaScript49328764%
  • Machine learning59439964%
  • Google Cloud / GCP (ambiguous uses included)80148964%
  • SQL1,59197664%
  • AWS1,26389361%
  • Data analysis65446060%
  • AI agents68754558%
  • Large language models (LLMs)98683958%
  • Azure64351557%
  • CI/CD80363457%
  • Kubernetes89580356%
  • Terraform41436655%
  • Docker37241647%

The 20 most-named skills, sorted by the share of their posts that listed them as required. Counts of job posts. A post that names a skill in both sections counts in both columns, so the two do not add up to the total.

AI at work

The AI models and tools employers named

Disclosure

Source of You is built with Anthropic's Claude models, and Anthropic is one of the companies in our feed, with 646 open roles. Claude was named in 632 posts, and 223 companies used the word. We cannot measure Anthropic's own share from the saved counts. Claude is also matched without a nearby-word check. For these reasons Claude is left out of every field highlight (the named-most lines and the listed-as-required and listed-as-preferred lists) and of the keyword checklists. It remains in the edition-wide skill charts, this AI section and each field's full skill table in the PDF.

AI models named in job postsPosts that named it; companies where the exact word was counted
  1. Claude223 companies632
  2. GPT (incl. ChatGPT)132
  3. Gemini70
  4. Llama10
AI tools and libraries named in job postsPosts that named it; companies where the exact word was counted
  1. PyTorch99 companies362
  2. Cursor254
  3. Copilot84 companies195
  4. TensorFlow67 companies183
  5. LangChain51 companies171
  6. LlamaIndex21 companies71
  7. Hugging Face43

Every model and tool on our list above the floor, ranked by posts that named it. These are dictionary tallies with different matching rules (some need nearby AI or coding words, Claude does not), so the order is not a like-for-like ranking. Where a company count is missing, the exact word was not counted separately; GPT also matches ChatGPT. Mistral appeared in fewer than 5 job posts, under the line we print.

AI practices named in job postsPosts that named it; every practice above the floor
  1. Large language models (LLMs)1,710
  2. AI agents1,188
  3. Machine learning932
  4. Generative AI459
  5. Prompt engineering351
  6. RAG (retrieval-augmented generation)284
  7. Fine-tuning209
  8. Deep learning197
  9. MLOps175
  10. Vector databases153
  11. Computer vision145
  12. Model evaluation102
  13. NLP84

Pay and remote

What we captured, with the counts behind it

Pay

We captured a US-dollar annual salary range on 13,292 of 55,560 open roles (24%), at 395 of 941 companies (42%). Hourly pay, other currencies and pay we could not read are not counted, so a company outside the count may still publish pay.

For each company we take its typical posted salary: the median of the midpoints of its ranges. The middle half of companies ran $128K to $204K (median $170K). Counted post by post instead, the middle half runs $148K to $243K. Levels and countries are mixed. Not an expected offer.

Remote, three separate measures

  • Roles whose location field says remote11%

    5,839 of 55,560. The location field contains the word remote. Not a check of who may apply from where.

  • Companies with at least one remote-location role47%

    439 of 941. Any one remote role counts the company, however few of its roles list remote.

  • Readable descriptions that mention remote work14%

    7,430 of 54,795. Phrases such as work from home or fully remote, minus phrases such as no remote. A mention, not a guarantee the role is remote. We could read a description for 99% of open roles.

Field by field

What each field asked for

Titles count companies; skill and employer lists count posts; remote figures use the denominators shown.

Software Engineering

698 companies hiring · 10,697 open roles

We do not track Java, Go or React, so the skills here are not a language ranking.

Title spot-check: 2 of 30 sampled titles misfiled, 3 unclear; skill groups: 0 of 15 misfiled, 1 unclear.

Largest employer
SpaceX, 635 of 10,697 roles (6%)
Named most
Python (2,073), Kubernetes (1,178), AWS (1,059), CI/CD (998), TypeScript (698) job posts. Skill snapshot, September 30, 2026. Not a share of the role count above. Posts read and contributing companies were not saved for skill counts; do not divide by this chapter's role total.
Posted pay
Middle half of companies' typical posted salary: $173K to $230K (median $200K). Not an expected offer. From 3,335 salary listings among 10,697 roles, at 267 companies; levels and countries mixed.
Remote
1,309 of 10,697 roles (12%) list remote as the location; 202 of 698 companies (29%) have at least one such role.
Leading titles
Software Engineer (330 companies), Engineering Manager (135 companies), Forward Deployed Engineer (75 companies)

Customer Success and Technical Support

405 companies hiring · 1,906 open roles

Covers customer success, technical account and technical support roles. It does not serve store, hourly or help desk support roles: hourly pay is not counted, and this dictionary does not measure help desk tools such as Zendesk. No keyword checklist this month.

Title spot-check: 0 of 26 sampled titles misfiled, 0 unclear; skill groups: 0 of 15 misfiled, 0 unclear.

Largest employer
Carvana, 186 of 1,906 roles (10%)
Named most
Project management (incl. the phrase project manager) (113), SQL (88), Python (84), Salesforce (76), AWS (61) job posts. Skill snapshot, September 30, 2026. Not a share of the role count above. Posts read and contributing companies were not saved for skill counts; do not divide by this chapter's role total.
Posted pay
Middle half of companies' typical posted salary: $115K to $178K (median $147K). Not an expected offer. From 321 salary listings among 1,906 roles, at 118 companies; levels and countries mixed.
Remote
274 of 1,906 roles (14%) list remote as the location; 94 of 405 companies (23%) have at least one such role.
Leading titles
Customer Success Manager (88 companies), Technical Account Manager (34 companies), Technical Support Engineer (29 companies)

Sales

602 companies hiring · 6,524 open roles

Pay ranges in sales may include commission or on-target earnings; we cannot separate base from commission. CPA is left out here: in sales posts it can mean cost per acquisition. Solutions and sales engineers have their own chapter.

Title spot-check: 0 of 28 sampled titles misfiled, 0 unclear; skill groups: 0 of 15 misfiled, 1 unclear.

Largest employer
Toast, 202 of 6,524 roles (3%)
Named most
Salesforce (549), SQL (160), Project management (incl. the phrase project manager) (157), Data analysis (98), Large language models (LLMs) (83) job posts. Skill snapshot, September 30, 2026. Not a share of the role count above. Posts read and contributing companies were not saved for skill counts; do not divide by this chapter's role total.
Posted pay
Middle half of companies' typical posted salary: $129K to $221K (median $165K). Not an expected offer. From 1,504 salary listings among 6,524 roles, at 229 companies; levels and countries mixed.
Remote
898 of 6,524 roles (14%) list remote as the location; 214 of 602 companies (36%) have at least one such role.
Leading titles
Account Executive (227 companies), Account Manager (92 companies), Sales Development Representative (85 companies)

Solutions and Sales Engineering

222 companies hiring · 1,532 open roles

Title spot-check: 0 of 27 sampled titles misfiled, 2 unclear; skill groups: 0 of 15 misfiled, 1 unclear.

Largest employer
Databricks, 203 of 1,532 roles (13%)
Named most
AWS (201), Azure (179), Python (169), Google Cloud / GCP (ambiguous uses included) (135), Large language models (LLMs) (127) job posts. Skill snapshot, September 30, 2026. Not a share of the role count above. Posts read and contributing companies were not saved for skill counts; do not divide by this chapter's role total.
Posted pay
Middle half of companies' typical posted salary: $158K to $223K (median $188K). Not an expected offer. From 373 salary listings among 1,532 roles, at 95 companies; levels and countries mixed.
Remote
313 of 1,532 roles (20%) list remote as the location; 73 of 222 companies (33%) have at least one such role.
Leading titles
Solutions Engineer (58 companies), Solutions Architect (47 companies), Sales Engineer (32 companies)

Data and ML

477 companies hiring · 2,895 open roles

Title spot-check: 0 of 30 sampled titles misfiled, 3 unclear; skill groups: 0 of 15 misfiled, 0 unclear.

Largest employer
Waymo, 108 of 2,895 roles (4%)
Named most
Python (687), SQL (446), Machine learning (368), Large language models (LLMs) (305), PyTorch (174) job posts. Skill snapshot, September 30, 2026. Not a share of the role count above. Posts read and contributing companies were not saved for skill counts; do not divide by this chapter's role total.
Posted pay
Middle half of companies' typical posted salary: $178K to $238K (median $205K). Not an expected offer. From 883 salary listings among 2,895 roles, at 167 companies; levels and countries mixed.
Remote
426 of 2,895 roles (15%) list remote as the location; 116 of 477 companies (24%) have at least one such role.
Leading titles
Data Scientist (106 companies), Data Engineer (105 companies), Machine Learning Engineer (86 companies)

Product

399 companies hiring · 1,569 open roles

Title spot-check: 0 of 29 sampled titles misfiled, 0 unclear; skill groups: 0 of 15 misfiled, 0 unclear.

Largest employer
Veeva, 86 of 1,569 roles (5%)
Named most
Product management (537), Large language models (LLMs) (130), SQL (128), Agile, Scrum or Kanban (87), AI agents (87) job posts. Skill snapshot, September 30, 2026. Not a share of the role count above. Posts read and contributing companies were not saved for skill counts; do not divide by this chapter's role total.
Posted pay
Middle half of companies' typical posted salary: $187K to $242K (median $211K). Not an expected offer. From 550 salary listings among 1,569 roles, at 150 companies; levels and countries mixed.
Remote
276 of 1,569 roles (18%) list remote as the location; 96 of 399 companies (24%) have at least one such role.
Leading titles
Product Manager (278 companies), Technical Product Manager (20 companies), Director of Product (14 companies)

Program and Project Management

266 companies hiring · 1,054 open roles

Title spot-check: 0 of 28 sampled titles misfiled, 1 unclear; skill groups: 0 of 15 misfiled, 0 unclear.

Largest employer
Axon, 43 of 1,054 roles (4%)
Named most
Project management (incl. the phrase project manager) (212), PMP (120), Agile, Scrum or Kanban (94), SQL (28), Azure (25) job posts. Skill snapshot, September 30, 2026. Not a share of the role count above. Posts read and contributing companies were not saved for skill counts; do not divide by this chapter's role total.
Posted pay
Middle half of companies' typical posted salary: $139K to $191K (median $173K). Not an expected offer. From 385 salary listings among 1,054 roles, at 96 companies; levels and countries mixed.
Remote
120 of 1,054 roles (11%) list remote as the location; 56 of 266 companies (21%) have at least one such role.
Leading titles
Technical Program Manager (74 companies), Program Manager (59 companies), Project Manager (51 companies)

Design

295 companies hiring · 862 open roles

No skill panel: in the skill-group spot-check, 3 of 15 sampled groups here were not design roles, above our editorial line of 15%. This dictionary does not measure design tools such as Figma. Titles, pay and remote are still shown; the spot-check covers title sorting only, not pay or remote.

Title spot-check: 0 of 30 sampled titles misfiled, 2 unclear; skill groups: 3 of 15 misfiled, 1 unclear.

Largest employer
Stripe, 20 of 862 roles (2%)
Named most
Not published this month: in the skill-group spot-check, 3 of 15 sampled skill groups were not this field's roles, above our editorial line of 15%.
Posted pay
Middle half of companies' typical posted salary: $155K to $224K (median $189K). Not an expected offer. From 298 salary listings among 862 roles, at 115 companies; levels and countries mixed.
Remote
114 of 862 roles (13%) list remote as the location; 59 of 295 companies (20%) have at least one such role.
Leading titles
Product Designer (137 companies), Brand Designer (28 companies), Designer (19 companies)

Marketing

465 companies hiring · 1,830 open roles

Title spot-check: 2 of 30 sampled titles misfiled, 3 unclear; skill groups: 0 of 15 misfiled, 1 unclear.

Largest employer
Veeva, 87 of 1,830 roles (5%)
Named most
Project management (incl. the phrase project manager) (148), Salesforce (119), SQL (53), AI agents (30), Product management (28) job posts. Claude, left out of field highlights, would also rank here. Skill snapshot, September 30, 2026. Not a share of the role count above. Posts read and contributing companies were not saved for skill counts; do not divide by this chapter's role total.
Posted pay
Middle half of companies' typical posted salary: $139K to $200K (median $172K). Not an expected offer. From 595 salary listings among 1,830 roles, at 181 companies; levels and countries mixed.
Remote
270 of 1,830 roles (15%) list remote as the location; 114 of 465 companies (25%) have at least one such role.
Leading titles
Product Marketing Manager (87 companies), Marketing Manager (61 companies), Product Marketing (19 companies)

People and Ops

470 companies hiring · 2,611 open roles

Titles here mix recruiting, assistants and operations. This dictionary does not measure people-systems demand: HR systems such as Workday are not tracked. No keyword checklist this month: too many sampled titles and skill groups were unclear.

Title spot-check: 3 of 30 sampled titles misfiled, 8 unclear; skill groups: 2 of 15 misfiled, 3 unclear.

Largest employer
Gopuff, 315 of 2,611 roles (12%)
Named most
Project management (incl. the phrase project manager) (102), SQL (102), Python (50), Data analysis (49), Salesforce (31) job posts. Skill snapshot, September 30, 2026. Not a share of the role count above. Posts read and contributing companies were not saved for skill counts; do not divide by this chapter's role total.
Posted pay
Middle half of companies' typical posted salary: $110K to $170K (median $144K). Not an expected offer. The band covers the whole title group and is not a wage for any single title in it. From 649 salary listings among 2,611 roles, at 174 companies; levels and countries mixed.
Remote
191 of 2,611 roles (7%) list remote as the location; 84 of 470 companies (18%) have at least one such role.
Leading titles
Technical Recruiter (51 companies), Executive Assistant (44 companies), Recruiter (39 companies)

Security

300 companies hiring · 1,396 open roles

Title spot-check: 0 of 29 sampled titles misfiled, 1 unclear; skill groups: 1 of 15 misfiled, 0 unclear.

Largest employer
SpaceX, 99 of 1,396 roles (7%)
Named most
Python (288), AWS (191), Google Cloud / GCP (ambiguous uses included) (144), Azure (106), Large language models (LLMs) (102) job posts. Skill snapshot, September 30, 2026. Not a share of the role count above. Posts read and contributing companies were not saved for skill counts; do not divide by this chapter's role total.
Posted pay
Middle half of companies' typical posted salary: $175K to $246K (median $205K). Not an expected offer. From 449 salary listings among 1,396 roles, at 109 companies; levels and countries mixed.
Remote
214 of 1,396 roles (15%) list remote as the location; 75 of 300 companies (25%) have at least one such role.
Leading titles
Security Engineer (86 companies), Application Security Engineer (30 companies), Product Security Engineer (21 companies)

Clinical and Medical

56 companies hiring · 397 open roles

This dictionary has no clinical terms: clinical credentials and methods are not counted, so the skill line is thin and there is no checklist. Google Cloud / GCP is left out of this chapter: clinical posts use GCP for Good Clinical Practice.

Title spot-check: 1 of 28 sampled titles misfiled, 2 unclear; skill groups: 1 of 15 misfiled, 1 unclear.

Largest employer
Sailor Health, 60 of 397 roles (15%)
Named most
Project management (incl. the phrase project manager) (14) job posts. Skill snapshot, September 30, 2026. Not a share of the role count above. Posts read and contributing companies were not saved for skill counts; do not divide by this chapter's role total.
Posted pay
Too few companies had a captured salary range for these roles to say (we need 20).
Remote
87 of 397 roles (22%) list remote as the location; 20 of 56 companies (36%) have at least one such role.
Leading titles
Medical Director (6 companies), Associate Medical Director (3 companies), Clinical Trial Manager (3 companies)

Manufacturing and Hardware

195 companies hiring · 3,217 open roles · SpaceX is 849 of 3,217 roles (26%)

This dictionary does not measure CAD tools such as AutoCAD.

Title spot-check: 0 of 29 sampled titles misfiled, 1 unclear; skill groups: 0 of 15 misfiled, 1 unclear.

Largest employer
SpaceX, 849 of 3,217 roles (26%)
Named most
Python (476), Data analysis (120), SQL (106), Project management (incl. the phrase project manager) (103), AWS (60) job posts. Skill snapshot, September 30, 2026. Not a share of the role count above. Posts read and contributing companies were not saved for skill counts; do not divide by this chapter's role total.
Posted pay
Middle half of companies' typical posted salary: $126K to $193K (median $154K). Not an expected offer. From 728 salary listings among 3,217 roles, at 74 companies; levels and countries mixed.
Remote
40 of 3,217 roles (1%) list remote as the location; 25 of 195 companies (13%) have at least one such role.
Leading titles
Electrical Engineer (41 companies), Mechanical Engineer (40 companies), Manufacturing Engineer (24 companies)

Each field's full skill table (where published), its companies hiring and, where published, a keyword checklist are in the PDF. No checklist this month for Customer Success and Technical Support, Design, People and Ops or Clinical and Medical.

How to use this

Say what you have done, in the words employers use

This is a record of what employers wrote in their posts, not a promise about what gets anyone hired. Name a skill only if you have used it. Learn one only when it keeps showing up in roles you want.

Name the specific tool or method you used, next to the work you used it in. The counts tell you what is common across many posts; the posting you are applying to tells you what that employer wants. When the two differ, follow the posting.

Method and limits

How we counted, and what this is not

Where this comes from. Job posts that 941 companies published on their own hiring systems, read through those systems' public APIs where their terms and robots rules permit it. Companies enter the feed through discovery sweeps with an identity check (the board must name the employer the pointer named); failures and removals are logged. A source is removed when its terms or robots rules disallow us: this month SmartRecruiters, whose 22 companies and 56,542 open roles were taken out of every figure before publication, and Dayforce, whose 6 companies and 479 open roles were taken out of every figure after this page went live (see the corrections log). Job boards, recruiters and companies we do not read are not in it. We did not sort locations by country, and no figure here is a hire or an outcome.

Two clocks. Skill counts were taken from the posts open on September 30, 2026, 07:07 UTC. Open roles, companies, titles, pay and remote are rebuilt from our record of every post, as of October 1, 2026, 00:00 UTC, computed on October 11, 2026 from each post's last-seen title, location and pay. Edits made after the month closed can show up in them, and we have not measured how much.

Corrections. Editions are kept as published. A correction re-issues the figures and is dated in the corrections log below; the earlier version stays in our history.

What you can check, and what you cannot yet. Every aggregate this report prints, with the field rules, the dictionary and the spot-check tallies, is in one file with no account needed: the frozen data file. A machine-readable evidence appendix (post identifiers, matched passages, employer contributions) is deferred to the October edition. Until it exists, these cannot be audited from outside: which posts each skill count matched, which companies each company count includes, the individual spot-check judgments, and the rebuilt open-role counts behind every field total.

Skills are dictionary matches. We match a fixed list of 53 skills, tools and credentials by their listed wordings, in the requirements and preferred sections of each post. That misses a skill written another way, and it can count a wording that means something else: GCP is matched as Google Cloud, and clinical posts use it for Good Clinical Practice; CPA is matched as the accounting license, and sales posts use it for cost per acquisition. Both carry the label ambiguous uses included, Google Cloud is left out of the clinical chapter and CPA out of the sales chapter. The list does not include, for example, Excel, Figma, Java, Go or React. A skill is printed only when at least 5 posts name it. The skill run saved 43,215 count rows, one per role family and skill; that is not the number of posts read, which was not saved, so skills are counts, never shares.

Fields come from job titles. A role joins a field when its title matches that field's keywords. Rules are tried in a fixed, numbered order and the first match wins, so a title reaches a later rule only if every earlier rule passed it by. Some titles are ambiguous to our classifier: a design-engineer or systems-engineer title that no earlier rule took reaches the no-field rule and is left out. The rules, in order, are listed below. 30% of open roles matched no field.

The title spot-check. An AI reviewer, given only each title and its company, judged up to 30 random titles per field, at most one per company. These were separate draws over two field lists: 73 of 301 misfiled under the first list of 11 fields, and 10 of 404 misfiled, 26 unclear, under the current 14. Titles from companies removed this month are dropped from the counts. Fields whose rules changed after review were drawn and judged again. A field above 15% misfiled is not published; that line is an editorial rule, not proof of accuracy, and unclear verdicts are printed but not counted toward it. The check covers how titles were sorted, not pay or remote.

Listed as required, listed as preferred. A skill named in a post's requirements section is listed as required; in its preferred section, listed as preferred. In each field, one list ranks skills by required mentions and the other by preferred mentions, each needing at least 10 mentions on its side. A skill can be on both lists.

Units. Titles count companies; skill and employer lists count posts; remote figures use the denominators shown. Fields and pay count companies, one each. Skills and AI products count job posts, so a company with many posts counts many times. When one employer holds more than 25% of a field's roles, its share is printed beside the field's role total.

Pay. Only US-dollar annual ranges that an employer published and we could read, taken at the midpoint. For each company we take its typical (median) midpoint, and we print the middle half of companies. A field needs 20 companies with pay to print a band. Sales ranges may include commission. We do not tie pay to skills.

Disclosure. Source of You is built with Anthropic's Claude models, and Anthropic is one of the companies in the feed. Its posts are counted like any other company's.

What we did not measure. Cities, countries, seniority, industry, how long a post had been open, and how many people applied.

Corrections

  • October 11, 2026: SmartRecruiters companies removed before publication: robots disallow. 22 companies and 56,542 open roles left every figure. No skill count changed: no SmartRecruiters post was ever readable to the skill count.
  • October 11, 2026: Dayforce companies removed after this page went live: robots disallow. 6 companies and 479 open roles left every figure, and skill counts dropped by the 82 skill mentions in their posts. Figures updated.
The field rules, in match order, and their spot-check

Each title is lowercased and every run of characters other than letters, digits and the ampersand becomes a space, so FP&A stays fp&a and matches the keyword as printed. Keywords are written in that same form. A store or requisition number in brackets, and anything after it, is cut, as is a dash followed by a street number. Rules are tried in the numbered order below; the first whose keywords match and whose exceptions do not, wins. A keyword ending in * matches any word that starts with it. Titles that hit the no-field rule, or no rule, are left out.

  1. 1. Customer Success and Technical Supporttitle spot-check: 0 of 26 misfiled, 0 unclear

    customer success*, customer support, customer service*, customer care, customer experience, client success, client support, technical account manager*, technical support, tech support, it support, help desk, helpdesk, service desk, desktop support, product support, application support, applications support, cloud support, support engineer*, support specialist*, support agent*, support representative*, support rep, support associate*, support analyst*, support technician*, support manager*, support lead*, support team, support operations, call center, contact center, member services, customer onboarding, implementation manager*, implementation specialist*, implementation consultant*, customer service rep*

    Except with: sales, clinical, designer

  2. 2. Solutions and Sales Engineeringtitle spot-check: 0 of 27 misfiled, 2 unclear

    solutions engineer*, solution engineer*, solutions architect*, solution architect*, solutions consultant*, solution consultant*, sales engineer*, pre sales, presales, value engineer*, customer engineer*

  3. 3. Salestitle spot-check: 0 of 28 misfiled, 0 unclear

    sales, account executive*, account manager*, account director*, business development, bdr, sdr, partnerships, partner manager*, channel manager*, alliances, revenue operations, revops, deal desk

    Except with: marketing

  4. 4. Securitytitle spot-check: 0 of 29 misfiled, 1 unclear

    security, infosec, cyber*, appsec, grc, penetration, threat*, soc analyst, red team, vulnerability, governance risk

    Except with: guard, security officer, marketing, facility security

  5. 5. Clinical and Medicaltitle spot-check: 1 of 28 misfiled, 2 unclear

    clinical*, regulatory affairs, medical affairs, medical science*, medical writer*, medical director, medical monitor, medical information, nurse, nursing, pharmac*, biostatistic*, drug safety, gmp, gxp, physician, physical therapist*, occupational therapist*

    Except with: counsel, attorney, lawyer, engineer, engineering, software, marketing, machine learning, consultant, implementation, application specialist*, sales, architect*, product lead*, product manager*

  6. 6. Data and MLtitle spot-check: 0 of 30 misfiled, 3 unclear

    machine learning, ml, mlops, data scien*, data engineer*, data analyst*, data analytics, analytics, business intelligence, bi, data architect*, data platform, ai engineer*, ai researcher*, ai scientist*, research scientist*, applied scientist*, research engineer*, product analyst*, quantitative, quant, statistician*, decision scien*, computer vision, nlp, deep learning

    Except with: product manager*, product owner*, marketing analytics, people analytics, hr analytics, workforce analytics

  7. 7. Finance and Legaltitle spot-check: 2 of 30 misfiled, 0 unclear

    finance, financial, fp&a, accounting, accountant*, controller, counsel, legal, paralegal, attorney, lawyer, compliance, audit*, tax, treasury, accounts payable, accounts receivable, billing, bookkeep*, actuar*, underwrit*, credit risk, investor relations, investment*, litigation, litigator*

    Except with: engineer, engineering, program manager*, software, developer*

  8. 8. Program and Project Managementtitle spot-check: 0 of 28 misfiled, 1 unclear

    program manager*, programme manager*, project manager*, program management, project management, project coordinator*, program coordinator*, scrum master*, delivery manager*, pmo, program lead, project lead

  9. 9. Producttitle spot-check: 0 of 29 misfiled, 0 unclear

    product manager*, product management, product owner*, product lead*, head of product, director of product, vp of product, vp product, chief product, product director*, product operations

    Except with: design, designer, product marketing

  10. 10. Manufacturing and Hardwaretitle spot-check: 0 of 29 misfiled, 1 unclear

    manufactur*, mechanical, electrical, hardware, harness, physical design, asic, fpga, rtl, pcb, analog, rf, firmware, process engineer*, industrial, supply chain, logistics, quality engineer*, supplier quality, quality inspector*, quality technician*, quality control, machinist*, assembl*, cnc, weld*, propulsion, avionics, aerospace, structural, civil, chemical engineer*, controls engineer*, field service, production supervisor*, production technician*, production operator*, maintenance technician*, materials engineer*, thermal, optical, silicon, semiconductor, cad, rocket, warehouse, plant manager*, test technician*, hardware test*, layout designer*, rfic, combustion, design verification, battery, spacecraft, mechanical designer*, electrical designer*, cmm, commissioning

    Except with: software, sdet, site reliability, database reliability, sourcing, procurement, deployment engineer*, data quality, industrial design*

  11. 11. Designtitle spot-check: 0 of 30 misfiled, 2 unclear

    designer*, product design, design director*, design manager*, design lead*, head of design, design systems, ux, user experience, user research*, ux research*, design research*, content design*, creative director*, art director*, illustrator*, visual design*, graphic*, motion design*, brand design*, design operations, design ops, industrial design*

    Except with: engineer, instructional, solution designer*, level designer*, systems designer*, sound designer*, game designer*, combat designer*, narrative designer*, technical designer*, satellite

  12. 12. No field (ambiguous titles)

    design engineer*, systems engineer*, quality assurance, test engineer*, qa

    Except with: software, sdet, automation

  13. 13. Marketingtitle spot-check: 2 of 30 misfiled, 3 unclear

    marketing, marketer*, demand gen*, demand generation, brand, communications, comms, public relations, pr, content strateg*, content market*, content writer*, copywriter*, seo, social media, community manager*, event market*, events market*, lifecycle, influencer*, creative strateg*

    Except with: engineer

  14. 14. People and Opstitle spot-check: 3 of 30 misfiled, 8 unclear

    recruit*, talent acquisition, talent partner*, sourcer*, people partner*, people operations, people ops, people business partner*, head of people, vp of people, chief people, human resources, hr business partner*, hr generalist*, hr manager*, hr advisor*, hr operations, hr coordinator*, hr director*, head of hr, hr specialist*, hr partner*, hrbp, hris, people systems, payroll, benefits specialist*, benefits manager*, benefits analyst*, benefits operations, director of benefits, benefits partner*, compensation, total rewards, learning and development, chief of staff, business operations, bizops, strategy and operations, operations manager*, operations associate*, operations analyst*, operations specialist*, operations coordinator*, operations lead*, operations director*, director of operations, head of operations, office manager*, workplace, facilities, executive assistant*, administrative assistant*, office coordinator*, procurement, people analytics, hr analytics, workforce analytics

  15. 15. Software Engineeringtitle spot-check: 2 of 30 misfiled, 3 unclear

    software, backend, back end, frontend, front end, full stack, fullstack, developer*, devops, sre, site reliability, database reliability, platform engineer*, infrastructure engineer*, cloud engineer*, engineer, engineering manager*, director of engineering, head of engineering, vp of engineering, vp engineering, engineering lead*, member of technical staff, programmer*, sdet, mobile, ios, android, forward deployed, architect

The title spot-check drew up to 30 random titles per field, at most one per company, and an AI reviewer, given only the title and company, judged each one. It also drew 15 skill-count groups per field, weighted by posts; a field whose groups crossed the editorial line has no skill panel. Separate draws over two field lists: under the first list, 73 of 301 sampled titles were misfiled; under these rules, 10 of 404.

The dictionary: every skill we track and every wording we match

All 53 skills, tools and credentials we count, with every wording that counts as a match. A post that names a skill in several wordings counts once. Terms marked with a check need nearby words before they count (for example, Cursor only near coding words, Gemini only near AI words). Nearby means within 64 characters on either side of the match. A negation word (no, not, without) within 28 characters before a match, in the same sentence, drops it.

  • 5G
  • Agile: Scrum, Kanban
  • AI agents: agentic, agentic workflows, multi-agent, agentic AI
  • AWS
  • AWS Certified: AWS certification, AWS certified
  • Azure
  • CFA
  • CI/CD: continuous integration, continuous delivery
  • CISSP
  • Claude: Claude Opus, Claude Sonnet, Claude Haiku, Claude Code
  • computer vision
  • Copilot: GitHub Copilot
  • CPA
  • Cursor(checked)
  • data analysis: data analytics
  • data engineering
  • data visualization
  • deep learning
  • DevOps
  • Docker
  • fine-tuning: fine tuning, finetuning
  • Gemini(checked)
  • generative AI: gen AI, genAI, GenAI
  • Google Cloud: GCP
  • GPT: GPT-4, GPT-4o, ChatGPT, GPT-5
  • GraphQL
  • Hugging Face: HuggingFace
  • JavaScript
  • Kubernetes
  • LangChain
  • large language models: large language model, LLM, LLMs
  • Llama(checked)
  • LlamaIndex
  • machine learning
  • microservices
  • Mistral
  • MLOps
  • model evaluation: LLM evaluation, LLM evals
  • NLP(checked): natural language processing
  • PMP
  • product management
  • project management: project manager
  • prompt engineering: prompt design, prompting
  • Python
  • PyTorch
  • RAG(checked): retrieval-augmented generation, retrieval augmented generation
  • REST APIs: REST API, RESTful, RESTful APIs
  • Salesforce
  • SQL
  • TensorFlow
  • Terraform
  • TypeScript
  • vector databases: vector database, vector search
Get the PDF

Free with a Source of You account.

Build your free record: one record of your actual work, and your resume comes out of it.