Titlesby GlyphWho is hiring, July 2026
261 postings in the Hacker News thread mention 36 tracked titles; the most mentioned is Full Stack Engineer, in 15% of them.
Titles in this thread
Change: percentage points against a year before| # | Title | Posts | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Full Stack EngineerWorks across the browser, the API and the database; the default startup hire.15% · e.g. PrairieLearn | 15% | 40 | -3.2 |
| 2 | Product EngineerA full-stack engineer who owns product decisions too, not just tickets.8.0% · e.g. Kyra Health | 8.0% | 21 | +1.9 |
| 3 | AI EngineerA software engineer who builds products on top of models rather than training them.7.3% · e.g. Shepherd | 7.3% | 19 | +0.9 |
| 4 | Staff EngineerThe senior individual-contributor track: technical leadership without managing people.7.3% · e.g. Kyra Health | 7.3% | 19 | +0.0 |
| 5 | Founding EngineerOne of a startup's first engineers, usually with equity and a wide remit.6.1% · e.g. Talk Machine | 6.1% | 16 | -0.9 |
| 6 | Platform EngineerBuilds the internal platform other engineers deploy on: clusters, CI, paved roads.5.7% · e.g. Odin | 5.7% | 15 | -0.1 |
| 7 | Engineering ManagerManages a team of engineers: hiring, delivery and careers.5.7% · e.g. Hover | 5.7% | 15 | +0.2 |
| 8 | Forward Deployed EngineerAn engineer who ships software inside a customer's environment, part builder and part consultant; Palantir coined it, AI labs made it common.5.4% · e.g. MONUMENTAL | 5.4% | 14 | +3.9 |
| 9 | Product ManagerDecides what gets built and why, and gets it shipped.4.6% · e.g. Ontix | 4.6% | 12 | -2.1 |
| 10 | Machine Learning EngineerTrains, ships and maintains machine learning models in production.3.8% · e.g. WireScreen | 3.8% | 10 | -1.7 |
| 11 | Data EngineerBuilds the pipelines, warehouses and platforms that move and store data.3.8% · e.g. Yuzu Health | 3.8% | 10 | -0.1 |
| 12 | Security EngineerFinds and fixes weaknesses in systems, code and cloud accounts.3.4% · e.g. Beacon AI | 3.4% | 9 | +1.0 |
| 13 | Developer AdvocateRepresents developers to a company and the company to developers: docs, demos, talks.3.1% · e.g. Friendly Captcha | 3.1% | 8 | -0.2 |
| 14 | DevOps EngineerAutomates builds, deploys and infrastructure; the title that took over from sysadmin.3.1% · e.g. Ecosmic | 3.1% | 8 | -0.8 |
| 15 | Site Reliability EngineerKeeps production up with software: on-call, SLOs and automation; Google's term.2.3% · e.g. Grafana Labs | 2.3% | 6 | -0.7 |
| 16 | Data ScientistUses statistics and models to answer questions with data; the "sexiest job" of 2012.1.9% · e.g. SmarterDx | 1.9% | 5 | +0.4 |
| 17 | Member of Technical StaffA deliberately flat title from Bell Labs, revived by AI labs for engineers and researchers alike.1.9% · e.g. Adyen | 1.9% | 5 | +1.6 |
| 18 | Research EngineerWrites the code that makes research run: training runs, experiments, infrastructure.1.5% · e.g. Flow Traders | 1.5% | 4 | +0.9 |
| 19 | Head of DataLeads a company's data team: analytics, data science and data engineering.1.1% · e.g. We The Flywheel | 1.1% | 3 | +1.1 |
| 20 | Technical Product ManagerA product manager for platforms, APIs and developer products.1.1% · e.g. Ontix | 1.1% | 3 | +0.5 |
| 21 | Solutions EngineerThe technical half of a sale: demos, proofs of concept and integration help.1.1% · e.g. Quantum Rise | 1.1% | 3 | -1.3 |
| 22 | MLOps EngineerRuns the training, serving and monitoring infrastructure that ML teams depend on.1.1% · e.g. Foxglove | 1.1% | 3 | +0.5 |
| 23 | Product DesignerDesigns how a product works and looks, from research to the final screen.1.1% · e.g. Lago | 1.1% | 3 | -3.4 |
| 24 | Applied AI EngineerTurns frontier models into working products for specific customers or use cases.1.1% · an example posting | 1.1% | 3 | +0.2 |
| 25 | Design EngineerHalf designer, half front-end engineer: prototypes and ships polished interfaces.0.80% · e.g. Foxglove | 0.80% | 2 | -1.0 |
| 26 | Research ScientistDesigns and runs experiments to push what models can do; usually a PhD role.0.80% · e.g. Surge AI | 0.80% | 2 | -1.0 |
| 27 | Agent EngineerBuilds LLM agents that plan and call tools, and the harnesses that keep them reliable.0.40% · e.g. We The Flywheel | 0.40% | 1 | -0.8 |
| 28 | Head of AILeads the AI or ML group below the C-suite: VP, director or head.0.40% · an example posting | 0.40% | 1 | +0.4 |
| 29 | AI Solutions ArchitectDesigns how a customer should use AI models and services, from architecture review to a working proof of concept.0.40% · e.g. Quantum Rise | 0.40% | 1 | +0.1 |
| 30 | Data Product ManagerTreats data sets and data platforms as products with users and roadmaps.0.40% · e.g. Foxglove | 0.40% | 1 | +0.4 |
| 31 | Analytics EngineerModels raw data into clean, tested tables (usually with dbt) for analysts and dashboards; named by dbt Labs around 2019.0.40% · e.g. Connie Health | 0.40% | 1 | +0.1 |
| 32 | Applied ScientistResearch methods pointed at a product problem; Amazon made the title mainstream.0.40% · e.g. Prior Labs | 0.40% | 1 | +0.4 |
| 33 | GTM EngineerBuilds sales and marketing systems with data enrichment, automation and language models instead of adding headcount.0.40% · e.g. Beautiful.ai | 0.40% | 1 | -0.2 |
| 34 | Blockchain EngineerWrites smart contracts and protocol code; peaked with the 2018 and 2021 crypto cycles.0.40% · e.g. Category Labs | 0.40% | 1 | +0.1 |
| 35 | Data AnalystAnswers business questions with SQL, dashboards and spreadsheets.0.40% · e.g. Oscilar.com | 0.40% | 1 | -0.5 |
| 36 | Chief AI OfficerThe executive who owns AI strategy across a company; common since 2024.0.40% · e.g. Namecoach/Euphonia | 0.40% | 1 | +0.4 |