City ProfileSan Francisco · California · USEditorial

San Francisco

The densest concentration of startup and early-growth hiring on HN. Dominated by AI/ML and infrastructure roles; commands the highest senior compensation of any city in the index.

Postings · Jul 2026−20%3-mo momentum
96
postings
this month
12-Mo Trend · 3-mo rollingAug '25 → Jul '26
130 low3-mo avg · 164192.3333 high
Rank · US
#1of 30 US cities
Remote-friendly · This month
46%−20 pts vs US
Share of US postings
34.3%96 of 350
3-Mo momentum
Falling−20% vs prior 3 mo
§ 00Hiring Volume

Leads US volume and has held a consistent gap over the second-ranked city.

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
50,887since 2011 · 184 months
+47% YoY2025 vs 2024
2866
'22
1298
'23
1333
'24
1953
'25
1001
'26
All-time total
50,887184 months
↑ Best year
20186096
↓ Worst full year
20231298
Latest full year
2025+47% YoY
§ 01Compensation

Pays 3% over Atlanta for senior eng.

Median bands from the 414 San Francisco postings that disclosed USD pay across 2023–Present.

Senior eng · median · 2023–Present
USD190K
+3%vs Atlanta
Range by seniority · 2023–Present
Junior$160k – $250k n=17
Mid— n=6
Senior$173k – $203k n=124
Staff+$185k – $240k n=87

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

Senior eng median · US peer cities · 2023–Present
Where San Francisco sits in the US distribution
CityMedianvs San Francisco
01
San Franciscoyou are here
$190k—
02
New York
$190k0%
03
Washington DC
$185k−2.6%
04
Atlanta
$184k−3.3%

2023–Present disclosed pay only

§ 02Work Model

15 points less 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
55%
−15 ptsvs US · 70%
Remote
25%
Hybrid
30%
Onsite-only
45%
Work-model mix · by year
Remote share is cooling off in '26
RemoteHybridOnsite
'11
66% rem.
'12
61% rem.
'13
64% rem.
'14
62% rem.
'15
39% rem.
'16
25% rem.
'17
29% rem.
'18
31% rem.
'19
36% rem.
'20
60% rem.
'21
87% rem.
'22
91% rem.
'23
86% rem.
'24
75% rem.
'25
58% rem.
'26
52% rem.
Trailing 12 months · San Francisco vs US
San Francisco55% remote-friendly
US average70% remote-friendly
§ 03City Signature

The AI-first hiring market — a title it has held since 2023 and reinforced since.

Keywords counted across 1887 San Francisco hiring posts. Posts frequently list multiple skills.

#01
Top SkillTypeScript
483mentions↑ 40%
Mentions · Last 12 Months
AUG '2526% of postingsJUL '26
Leaderboardlast 12 mo
01TypeScript+40%483
02Python+19%436
03React+8%413
04Node.js+70%245
05Go−8%232
06Amazon Web Services (AWS)−15%216
07PostgreSQL−11%196
08Rust+48%176
09Kubernetes−27%154
10Machine Learning−40%132
Movers · 12-month change
What’s moving
Trending↗
  • 01Redis+295%
  • 02MacOS+262%
  • 03Snowflake+110%
  • 04Google Cloud+89%
Cooling↘
  • 01Django−52%
  • 02Terraform−52%
  • 03GitHub−41%
  • 04Machine Learning−40%

67% of jobs include at least one technical skill · share of postings mentioning the skill (12 months through Jul 2026)

Role mix · San Francisco vs USShare of postings by role category, past 3 years
San FranciscoUS baseline
Data Ml
match
13%
12%
+1 pts1.0×
Design
match
4%
3%
+1 pts1.3×
Engineering
match
67%
69%
−2 pts1.0×
Executive
match
1%
2%
−0 pts0.7×
Finance Accounting
match
0%
0%
−0 pts0.6×
Healthcare
match
0%
0%
0 pts0.8×
Legal Compliance
match
0%
0%
0 pts1.1×
Marketing
match
4%
3%
+1 pts1.4×
Operations
match
1%
1%
+0 pts1.4×
Other
match
2%
3%
−1 pts0.7×
Product
match
5%
4%
+1 pts1.1×
Sales
match
3%
3%
+0 pts1.1×
§ 04Similar Cities

Where else looks like San Francisco?

Cosine similarity across role mix, work-model split, and skill profile.

CityMatchPosts/moRemote%Sr. median
01
New YorkNew York · US
0.98
13440%$190k02
LondonGB
0.96
5362%$110k03
SeattleWashington · US
0.94
2083%$180k04
AustinTexas · US
0.92
1889%$160k05
Washington DCDC · US
0.64
2513%$185k

Match score = cosine similarity over (category share, work-model split, top-50 skill share)