Data & AI Jobs in the US: Who's Hiring Right Now (Oct 2026)

You keep hearing "the market is hot" and you want actual names, actual roles, and actual numbers instead of recycled optimism. Here is a snapshot pulled on 14 October 2026 from the JobRise live jobs feed, counting open listings in the United States. It is a map of what is posted today, not a market survey.

The headline numbers#

There are 519 open listings in Data & AI jobs in United States on the feed right now, with 305 posted in the last 30 days and 147 of those going up in the last 7 days alone. Listings are moving fast.

For scale, the JobRise Hiring Report: the US shows 13,720 open listings across all categories in the United States, with 8,471 posted in the last 30 days. Data and AI is a thin slice of that total, and the thinness is exactly why tailoring matters more than volume.

Who is hiring right now#

Ten companies hold a large share of the open listings. Anthropic leads with 65, followed by Scaleai at 36, and then the field tightens quickly: Faire (19), Lyft (18), Datadog (18), Pinterest (18), Figma (17), Airbnb (16), Klaviyo (16), Brex (13).

Some names on listings are recruiters or staffing firms, not the end employer. Read each posting twice before you assume who signs the paycheck.

The roles tell you what these companies actually want. Anthropic has "Policy Development, Technical AI Governance" open, which is a policy and governance seat rather than a modeling one, and Cohere is hiring "Member of Technical Staff - Post-training (Data Infrastructure)", an infrastructure-heavy ML role. Neuberger Berman wants a "Private Markets Secondary Data & AI Vice President", a finance seat with an AI mandate.

The spread widens further down the list. Deepgram needs a "Senior Data Scientist, Audio". Carrot has a "Business Intelligence Analyst". Spectrum Comm Inc is hiring a "Data Analyst".

Then come the roles that surprise people. City Wide Facility Solutions posted "AI Business Transformation Lead", a transformation job at a facilities company, and Harmony Homes wants a "Senior Director of Real Estate Financial Modeling and Capital Analytics". Neither is a tech firm.

What the mix says about the market#

Big tech and late-stage startups dominate the top of the list. Anthropic, Scaleai, Lyft, Datadog, Pinterest, Figma, Airbnb, Klaviyo, and Brex are all venture-backed or public technology companies. If you want volume, that is where the volume sits.

But the example roles show a second market hiding underneath. Agencies, contractors, and non-tech firms are buying AI skills too. Spectrum Comm Inc is a contractor, City Wide Facility Solutions runs facilities, and Harmony Homes builds houses, so none of them crack the top ten yet all three are hiring.

Finance and public policy are real lanes. Neuberger Berman, Man Group, and Cohere's policy role show demand for people who can sit between data work and a domain. If you have finance, legal, or policy experience, you are not locked out.

The job-type mix is blunt: Full-time (514), Part-time (4), Contract (1). This is a full-time market, and contract or freelance data work is barely posted here, so do not build a job search around it.

Where the jobs are#

San Francisco (175) and New York (105) hold more than half the listings. Boston (25) is a distant third. Seattle (9) and Denver (8) round out the top five.

If you live outside these metros, remote roles exist but are not the norm in this snapshot. Filter by city first, then expand.

What pay looks like, and why you should ignore most of it#

Only 15 of 519 listings show pay. That is the real story here: most employers in this market are not posting numbers.

Where numbers do appear, they are high and they vary. Cohere's "Member of Technical Staff - Post-training (Data Infrastructure)" lists CA$295K to CA$535K with equity and multiple ranges, while its "Technical Program Manager, AI Delivery" shows $140K to $220K with equity and multiple ranges. Its "Global Public Policy Manager, Compute, Infrastructure & Sovereign AI" role lists $150K to $240K.

Ramp posts more directly. "Senior Analyst, Employee Lifecycle Data (Workday)" is $90K to $120K with equity. "Machine Learning Engineer" is $200K to $330K with equity. "AI Solutions Strategist" is $170K to $230K with equity.

These are figures as posted on those specific listings on 14 October 2026, and ranges vary by role, level, and location, so verify current numbers with the employer before you anchor your expectations. Do not quote a snapshot to a recruiter.

Entry-level candidates, read this twice#

Only 2 of 519 listings carry entry-level titles such as intern, graduate, junior, or trainee. The two are "AI Research Engineer, New PhD Graduate" at Duolingo and "Junior Quant - PM Analytics" at Man Group.

That is the hardest fact in this snapshot. Most openings want people who can ship without hand-holding, and if you are early career you will need to compensate with a portfolio, a referral, or adjacent experience. Apply anyway.

How to apply this week#

Apply direct whenever you can, because company career pages and direct applications beat job-board reposts, which often lag the real listing by days and sometimes disappear before you finish tailoring.

Mirror the listing's keywords in your resume. If the posting says "post-training" and "data infrastructure", write those words. If it says "business intelligence", do not write "data analytics" and hope.

Run your resume through a free ATS resume checker before you send it. A resume that a parser cannot read is a resume nobody sees.

Here is a rewritten bullet example. Weak version: "Worked on data pipelines for the ML team." Stronger version: "Built data infrastructure for post-training pipelines, cutting data prep time for the ML team by 40%." The second one mirrors the words in a real posting and adds a number.

A 7-step plan#

• Pick 5 target employers from the top-ten list and 2 outside it, in your city or remote.
• Open each company's careers page and find the exact listing, not a recruiter repost.
• Copy the top 8 keywords and phrases from each listing into a working doc.
• Rewrite 3 resume bullets per target job using those words, with a number in each.
• Run the resume through the free ATS resume checker and fix what it flags.
• Apply direct on the company site, then send a short note to one person on the team.
• Track every application in a spreadsheet: company, role, date, contact, follow-up date.

FAQ#

How current are these numbers?

The snapshot is dated 14 October 2026 and comes from the JobRise live jobs feed. Counts change daily as listings open and close, so recheck before you plan around a specific number.

Should I apply to a job if I match only part of the listing?

Yes, if you match the core skills and can show proof of them. Skip roles where you miss the main requirement entirely, since the volume of applicants works against you.

Are the companies listed here all direct employers?

No. Some names on listings are recruiters or staffing firms. Read the posting carefully to see who the end employer is before you invest time tailoring your resume.

Is remote work common in data and AI roles right now?

The snapshot is city-heavy, with San Francisco and New York holding most listings. Remote roles exist but are not the majority, so filter by location first and expand after.

What if I have no data experience yet?

Look at the two entry-level listings and adjacent roles like business intelligence or analyst seats. Build one small project that uses the keywords from a real posting, then reference it in your application.