Titlesby GlyphWho is hiring, August 2026
230 postings in the Hacker News thread mention 33 tracked titles; the most mentioned is Full Stack Engineer, in 16% 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.16% · e.g. Snout | 16% | 36 | -3.3 |
| 2 | Product EngineerA full-stack engineer who owns product decisions too, not just tickets.11% · e.g. Kyra Health | 11% | 25 | +6.0 |
| 3 | Staff EngineerThe senior individual-contributor track: technical leadership without managing people.8.3% · e.g. Kyra Health | 8.3% | 19 | -2.2 |
| 4 | AI EngineerA software engineer who builds products on top of models rather than training them.7.0% · e.g. Snout | 7.0% | 16 | +1.1 |
| 5 | Founding EngineerOne of a startup's first engineers, usually with equity and a wide remit.5.7% · e.g. Octozi | 5.7% | 13 | -1.8 |
| 6 | Product ManagerDecides what gets built and why, and gets it shipped.5.2% · e.g. Snout | 5.2% | 12 | -1.0 |
| 7 | Platform EngineerBuilds the internal platform other engineers deploy on: clusters, CI, paved roads.4.8% · e.g. Snout | 4.8% | 11 | +0.9 |
| 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.4.8% · e.g. Middesk | 4.8% | 11 | +3.8 |
| 9 | Security EngineerFinds and fixes weaknesses in systems, code and cloud accounts.3.9% · an example posting | 3.9% | 9 | +1.6 |
| 10 | Data EngineerBuilds the pipelines, warehouses and platforms that move and store data.3.5% · e.g. Snout | 3.5% | 8 | +0.5 |
| 11 | Data ScientistUses statistics and models to answer questions with data; the "sexiest job" of 2012.3.0% · e.g. SmarterDx | 3.0% | 7 | +0.4 |
| 12 | Machine Learning EngineerTrains, ships and maintains machine learning models in production.3.0% · an example posting | 3.0% | 7 | -2.6 |
| 13 | Engineering ManagerManages a team of engineers: hiring, delivery and careers.2.6% · e.g. Role: Engineering Manager | 2.6% | 6 | -3.3 |
| 14 | Research ScientistDesigns and runs experiments to push what models can do; usually a PhD role.2.2% · e.g. Harmony AI | 2.2% | 5 | +0.6 |
| 15 | Research EngineerWrites the code that makes research run: training runs, experiments, infrastructure.1.7% · e.g. PostHog | 1.7% | 4 | +1.0 |
| 16 | Applied AI EngineerTurns frontier models into working products for specific customers or use cases.1.3% · e.g. Snout | 1.3% | 3 | +1.0 |
| 17 | DevOps EngineerAutomates builds, deploys and infrastructure; the title that took over from sysadmin.1.3% · e.g. Open Education Applications / Neon | 1.3% | 3 | -1.7 |
| 18 | Solutions EngineerThe technical half of a sale: demos, proofs of concept and integration help.1.3% · e.g. Checkly | 1.3% | 3 | -0.3 |
| 19 | Developer AdvocateRepresents developers to a company and the company to developers: docs, demos, talks.1.3% · e.g. Friendly Captcha | 1.3% | 3 | -0.3 |
| 20 | Site Reliability EngineerKeeps production up with software: on-call, SLOs and automation; Google's term.1.3% · e.g. GetEpic.com | 1.3% | 3 | -1.3 |
| 21 | Member of Technical StaffA deliberately flat title from Bell Labs, revived by AI labs for engineers and researchers alike.1.3% · e.g. Aptura AI | 1.3% | 3 | +1.3 |
| 22 | MLOps EngineerRuns the training, serving and monitoring infrastructure that ML teams depend on.1.3% · e.g. Prior Labs | 1.3% | 3 | +1.0 |
| 23 | Agent EngineerBuilds LLM agents that plan and call tools, and the harnesses that keep them reliable.0.90% · e.g. Flywheel Motion | 0.90% | 2 | -0.1 |
| 24 | Design EngineerHalf designer, half front-end engineer: prototypes and ships polished interfaces.0.90% · e.g. Lopaka | 0.90% | 2 | -1.7 |
| 25 | Applied ScientistResearch methods pointed at a product problem; Amazon made the title mainstream.0.90% · e.g. Prior Labs | 0.90% | 2 | +0.9 |
| 26 | Deep Learning EngineerTrains neural networks; the 2016 to 2019 name for what became ML engineering.0.40% · e.g. Palace Cybersecurity | 0.40% | 1 | +0.4 |
| 27 | Head of DataLeads a company's data team: analytics, data science and data engineering.0.40% · e.g. DuckDuckGo | 0.40% | 1 | +0.4 |
| 28 | Product DesignerDesigns how a product works and looks, from research to the final screen.0.40% · e.g. Baton | 0.40% | 1 | -3.2 |
| 29 | Head of AILeads the AI or ML group below the C-suite: VP, director or head.0.40% · an example posting | 0.40% | 1 | +0.1 |
| 30 | Blockchain EngineerWrites smart contracts and protocol code; peaked with the 2018 and 2021 crypto cycles.0.40% · e.g. Category Labs | 0.40% | 1 | +0.4 |
| 31 | Data Product ManagerTreats data sets and data platforms as products with users and roadmaps.0.40% · e.g. Foxglove | 0.40% | 1 | +0.4 |
| 32 | 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 | +0.4 |
| 33 | Data AnalystAnswers business questions with SQL, dashboards and spreadsheets.0.40% · e.g. Data analyst | 0.40% | 1 | -0.3 |