The state of startup engineering hiring, July 2026
1,887 live software engineering roles at 419 venture-backed US startups, 48% of postings include a salary range, senior posted base in San Francisco holds a $228K median. Every figure is read from the postings themselves.
Data frozen July 17, 2026 · published July 17, 2026 · free to cite with attribution
1,887
Live software engineering roles
419
Venture-backed companies hiring
48%
Postings that include a salary range
$228K
Median posted base, Senior, San Francisco
Chapter 1
Where the roles are
Share of the 1,887 live roles by market. San Francisco and New York anchor the board; remote covers US-remote postings.
Chapter 2
Who startups are hiring
Share of live roles by level. Mid-level carries most of the volume; the board runs new grad to staff.
Chapter 3
What the postings pay
Posted base salary from the 913 roles that carry a USD range: the dot is the median, the band the 25th to 75th percentile. Base only; startup offers add equity on top.
Mid
Senior
Staff
Pay transparency by market
Share of each market’s postings that include a salary range.
Chapter 4
Posting velocity
New engineering roles tracked per full week, June 8, 2026 to July 12, 2026. Average 89 new roles a week.
Chapter 5
The recently funded cohort
36 of the hiring companies closed a round in the last 12 months. They account for 244 live roles, 13% of the board.
The live version of this cut, updated daily, is on just raised.
Chapter 6
The stacks startups list
Share of roles whose posting names each technology, of roles that list a stack at all. A role can name several.
Methodology
- Source.Live software engineering roles on the roles.cc board: venture-backed US startups, pre-seed to Series C, postings read from each company’s own job site. The board as of July 17, 2026 is the sample; this page never recomputes.
- Pay. USD base ranges as posted; each role contributes the midpoint of its range once. Cells with fewer than 12 roles are suppressed. Equity and bonus are excluded.
- Velocity.Full weeks only. The board’s first week of tracking is excluded as bootstrap, and the current partial week is not shown.
- Funding. Round recency comes from public filings and announcements. We publish counts, not round sizes: filing amounts mix instruments and would overstate typical rounds.
Cite or embed this report
Free under CC BY 4.0: use any figure with attribution to roles.cc and a link to this page. For a custom cut of the data, hello@roles.cc.
Citation
roles.cc (2026). The state of startup engineering hiring, July 2026. https://www.roles.cc/reports/startup-engineering-hiring-july-2026
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<a href="https://www.roles.cc/reports/startup-engineering-hiring-july-2026"><img src="https://www.roles.cc/reports/startup-engineering-hiring-july-2026/opengraph-image" alt="The state of startup engineering hiring, July 2026" width="600" style="max-width:100%;border-radius:12px;" /></a> <p>Source: <a href="https://www.roles.cc/reports/startup-engineering-hiring-july-2026">The state of startup engineering hiring, July 2026</a>, roles.cc</p>
Questions people ask
Where do these numbers come from?
Live software engineering roles at venture-backed US startups on the roles.cc board, refreshed from each company's own job site. This report freezes the board as of July 17, 2026: 1,887 open roles at 419 companies, 913 with a posted salary range.
Can I cite or republish these figures?
Yes, free with attribution to roles.cc and a link to this report (CC BY 4.0). The numbers on this page are frozen, so a quoted figure stays checkable at this URL.
Why postings rather than a salary survey?
Survey data is self-reported and lags the market. A posted range on an open role is an offer a company is making right now, so the aggregate reflects the current hiring market rather than last year's outcomes.
How often do these reports come out?
Periodically, as the board accumulates a new window of data. The always-current version of the pay data lives on the roles.cc salary index.
The data is a live board.
Every figure in this report comes from roles you can open right now, sorted by how recently the company raised.