City ProfileBoston · Massachusetts · US

Boston

Deep tech and life sciences make Boston structurally different from other top US markets. Proximity to MIT, Harvard, and a dense university cluster sustains a research-to-commercialization pipeline that shows up clearly in the hiring mix.

Postings · Aug 2026−20%3-mo momentum
6
postings
this month
12-Mo Trend · 3-mo rollingSep '25 → Aug '26
9.3333 low3-mo avg · 1825.6667 high
Rank · US
#6of 30 US cities
Remote-friendly · This month
100%+29 pts vs US
Share of US postings
2.5%6 of 296
3-Mo momentum
Falling−20% vs prior 3 mo
§ 00Hiring Volume

A consistent top-six US market with lower variance than coastal peers.

Annual totals for the last five years — every year shown is complete except 2026, hatched because it is still in progress.

Full yearPartial yearAll-time peak
All-time postings
10,270since 2011 · 185 months
+15% YoY2025 vs 2024
862
'22
350
'23
211
'24
242
'25
111
'26
All-time total
10,270185 months
↑ Best year
20161162
↓ Worst full year
2024211
Latest full year
2025+15% YoY
§ 01Compensation

Pays 9% under Seattle for senior eng — and 4% over Denver.

Median bands from the 36 Boston postings that disclosed USD pay across 2023–Present.

Senior eng · median · 2023–Present
USD167K
−9%vs Seattle+4%vs Denver
Range by seniority · 2023–Present
Junior— n=2
Mid— n=1
Senior$143k – $188k n=15
Staff+— n=9

Bar = p25 to p75 · tick on Senior = median. Junior & Mid & Staff+ shown hatched below the 10-sample floor.

Senior eng median · US peer cities · 2023–Present
Where Boston sits in the US distribution
CityMedianvs Boston
01
Seattle
$183k+9.6%
02
Atlanta
$183k+9.3%
03
Chicago
$171k+2.5%
04
Bostonyou are here
$167k—
05
Denver
$160k−4.2%

2023–Present disclosed pay only

§ 02Work Model

9 points more remote-friendly than the US baseline.

Trailing-12-month split, plus the yearly remote / hybrid / onsite mix all the way back.

Remote-friendly · Trailing 12 months
80%
+9 ptsvs US · 70%
Remote
12%
Hybrid
68%
Onsite-only
20%
Work-model mix · by year
Remote share is climbing back in '26
RemoteHybridOnsite
'11
70% rem.
'12
50% rem.
'13
51% rem.
'14
52% rem.
'15
32% rem.
'16
30% rem.
'17
23% rem.
'18
28% rem.
'19
41% rem.
'20
65% rem.
'21
85% rem.
'22
93% rem.
'23
87% rem.
'24
71% rem.
'25
75% rem.
'26
81% rem.
Trailing 12 months · Boston vs US
Boston80% remote-friendly
US average70% remote-friendly
§ 03City Signature

Deep tech and life sciences — not a consumer market.

Keywords counted across 198 Boston hiring posts. Posts frequently list multiple skills.

#01
Top SkillPython
109mentions↓ 19%
Mentions · Last 12 Months
SEP '2555% of postingsAUG '26
Leaderboardlast 12 mo
01Python−19%109
02TypeScript+8%100
03React−18%70
04Machine Learning+143%55
05UX/UI+36%54
06Amazon Web Services (AWS)+146%49
07Google Cloud−18%48
08Rust+18%32
09Go−37%31
10Docker−12%27
Movers · 12-month change
What’s moving
Trending↗
  • 01CI/CD+1117%
  • 02MongoDB+1006%
  • 03Linux (non-WSL)+453%
  • 04SQL+276%
Cooling↘
  • 01Git−77%
  • 02Django−61%
  • 03HTML/CSS−57%
  • 04IoT−52%

84% of jobs include at least one technical skill · share of postings mentioning the skill (12 months through Aug 2026)

Role mix · Boston vs USShare of postings by role category, past 3 years
BostonUS baseline
Data Ml
over-indexed
23%
12%
+10 pts1.8×
Design
match
1%
3%
−1 pts0.5×
Engineering
match
60%
69%
−9 pts0.9×
Executive
match
3%
2%
+2 pts2.0×
Finance Accounting
match
0%
0%
−0 pts0.0×
Healthcare
match
0%
0%
−0 pts0.0×
Legal Compliance
match
0%
0%
−0 pts0.0×
Marketing
match
2%
3%
−1 pts0.6×
Operations
match
1%
1%
−0 pts0.6×
Other
match
2%
3%
−1 pts0.7×
Product
match
6%
4%
+2 pts1.4×
Sales
match
2%
3%
−1 pts0.7×