Top Companies Hiring for Software Jobs in Denver (Oct 2026)

You are job hunting for a software role in Denver and you want to know who is actually hiring before you send another application. The answer depends on one dated snapshot, not on vague talk about the market. Here is what the listings show.

The numbers behind this list#

As of 14 October 2026, JobRise's live jobs feed shows 51 open Software jobs in Denver. Of those, 39 were posted in the last 30 days and 11 in the last 7 days. These are counts of open listings, not a market survey.

Denver has 219 open listings across all categories, so software roles are a large slice of the city's activity. Nationally, the same feed shows 1,827 Software listings in the United States, and you can read more context in the JobRise Hiring Report: the US. Denver's 51 is roughly a small share of that national total, which means Denver is a real but concentrated market.

Every listing in this slice is full-time. That is unusual and worth noting, because it rules out a common assumption about contract-heavy tech markets.

Companies ranked by open listings#

This ranking comes from the titles and counts on the listings themselves. Some of these names are recruiters or staffing firms, and I flag that where the title suggests it. Do not read anything into a company beyond what its listings show.

1. Fastly, 15 open listings. Example: "People Systems Architect".
2. Gusto, 13 open listings. Example: "Staff Software Engineer, Gusto Pro Integrations".
3. Fivetran, 9 open listings.
4. Datadog, 4 open listings. Example: "Incident and Escalations Manager 3 - US-West".
5. Klaviyo, 2 open listings.
6. Palantir, 2 open listings. Example: "Software Engineer, New Grad".
7. Consult Red, 1 open listing. Title: "Senior Embedded Software Engineer - RDK-B/Wi-Fi (Contract, Onsite - Denver, CO)". The title says contract, even though the feed classifies the slice as full-time, so read the posting carefully.
8. Red Bull, 1 open listing. Title: "National Productivity Engineer".
9. Felsburg Holt & Ullevig, 1 open listing. Title: "Traffic Engineer, Mid-Level - T0017".
10. Propeller, 1 open listing. Title: "Technical Support Team Manager".

Two listings sit outside the top ten by name in the examples I saw: "Campus Building Engineer" at National Western Center. Titles like that tell you the category is broader than pure coding.

How to read the titles#

The titles reveal three employer types, and each needs a different approach.

First, the core software employers: Fastly, Gusto, Fivetran, Datadog, Klaviyo, Palantir. Titles here are engineering and platform work, from "Staff Software Engineer" to "People Systems Architect".

Second, the embedded and hardware-adjacent role at Consult Red. If you have Wi-Fi, RDK-B, or embedded C experience, you face far less competition here than at a general backend posting.

Third, the adjacent technical roles: Red Bull, Felsburg Holt & Ullevig, Propeller, National Western Center. These are engineering and systems jobs in non-tech companies. They pay differently and interview differently, and they are often overlooked by candidates who filter by tech brand.

One more reality check: exactly 1 of the 51 listings looks entry-level by title, the "Software Engineer, New Grad" role at Palantir. If you are early career, Denver's software slice is not built for volume applications at the junior level.

How to target each employer type#

For the large software employers, apply to two or three roles at most and tailor each. A hiring manager at a company with 15 open roles can tell when you blasted everything.

For the embedded and hardware-adjacent role, lead with specifics. Name the protocol, the chip family, the debugging tools you have used. Vague language kills these applications.

For adjacent technical roles, translate your software background into their domain language. A traffic engineering firm cares that you can write reliable code and talk to non-engineers. Say that plainly.

Before you apply anywhere, run each employer through the free company insights tool so you walk in knowing what they build and who they hire.

Referral and outreach scripts#

Referrals beat cold applications at the large employers. Use these as written, then adjust the details.

Cold message to a second-degree contact:

"Hi Sam, I saw Fastly has 15 open software roles in Denver right now. I'm a backend engineer with six years of Go and I've been on call for a payments platform, so the reliability side of your stack is what interests me most. If anyone on your team is open to a 15-minute chat about the culture, I'd be grateful. No pressure to refer me."

Message to a recruiter at a staffing firm:

"Hi Jordan, I noticed the Consult Red embedded role in Denver and my background matches the RDK-B and Wi-Fi requirements closely. I'm local and can be onsite. Are you the right person to send my resume to, and is the contract term fixed or extendable?"

Follow-up after applying, sent to the hiring manager:

"Hi Priya, I applied for the Staff Software Engineer role on the Gusto Pro Integrations team last week. I've built and maintained third-party API integrations that handled retries and rate limits at scale, and I wrote up one failure mode we fixed in a short doc I'm happy to share. Happy to talk whenever suits you."

Note what each script does: it names the role, proves one relevant detail, and asks for something small.

A 7-step plan#

1. List the top six companies above and pick the two that fit your background best. Skip the rest for now.
2. Read each posting twice and pull out the exact nouns: languages, systems, domains. Those words go into your resume.
3. Rewrite your top three resume bullets to mirror those nouns. Here is a worked example.

Before: "Worked on the payments platform and helped improve performance."

After: "Cut p95 checkout latency from 900ms to 240ms by moving rate-limit checks into a Redis sidecar, then wrote the runbook the on-call team still uses."

4. Check each employer in the company insights tool and note one concrete fact you can mention in a message.
5. Find two people at each target employer and send the referral script above. Aim for four messages total this week.
6. Apply to no more than five roles, each with a tailored resume. Track the date, the contact, and the follow-up date in a spreadsheet.
7. Follow up once after seven days, then move on. Silence is common, and it is not a verdict on you.

What to expect on pay#

No listing in this snapshot shows a salary. That is the honest state of these 51 roles. For Denver software work, reported ranges vary widely by seniority and by employer type, and you should verify current figures on the official Colorado job posting or the state's pay transparency resources before you negotiate.

FAQ#

How current are these numbers?

They are a snapshot dated 14 October 2026 from JobRise's live jobs feed, counting open listings. Listings change daily, so check the live search before you act on any count.

Are any of these companies staffing firms?

Some names in the list may be recruiters or staffing firms rather than the end employer. The listing titles are the only signal available here, so read each posting to see who you would actually work for.

Is Denver a good market for entry-level software engineers?

Only 1 of the 51 listings looks entry-level by title, so volume alone will not carry you. Target that role directly and look at adjacent technical roles where your competition is thinner.

Why do some titles not look like software jobs?

The category is broad. Roles like "Traffic Engineer" and "Campus Building Engineer" appear because the feed groups technical and engineering work together. Read the title before you assume the work.

Should I apply to all the roles at a big employer?

No. Pick two or three that match your background and tailor each one. Applying to all 15 at one company usually ends with none of them moving forward.