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 · May 2026−16%3-mo momentum
158
postings
this month
12-Mo Trend · 3-mo rollingJun '25 → May '26
149.6667 low3-mo avg · 168192.3333 high
Rank · US
#1of 30 US cities
Remote-friendly · This month
57%−16 pts vs US
Share of US postings
34.5%158 of 518
3-Mo momentum
Falling−16% 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
50,655since 2011 · 182 months
+47% YoY2025 vs 2024
2866
'22
1298
'23
1333
'24
1953
'25
769
'26
All-time total
50,655182 months
↑ Best year
20186096
↓ Worst full year
20231298
Latest full year
2025+47% YoY
§ 01Compensation

Pays 4% over Seattle for senior eng.

Median bands from the 398 San Francisco postings that disclosed USD pay across 2023–Present.

Senior eng · median · 2023–Present
USD190K
+4%vs Seattle
Range by seniority · 2023–Present
Junior$160k – $243k n=16
Mid— n=5
Senior$173k – $203k n=127
Staff+$175k – $235k n=79

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
Seattle
$183k−4.0%
04
Atlanta
$183k−4.0%

2023–Present disclosed pay only

§ 02Work Model

14 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
56%
−14 ptsvs US · 71%
Remote
27%
Hybrid
30%
Onsite-only
44%
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
54% rem.
Trailing 12 months · San Francisco vs US
San Francisco56% remote-friendly
US average71% remote-friendly
§ 03City Signature

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

Keywords counted across 2042 San Francisco hiring posts. Posts frequently list multiple skills.

#01
Top SkillTypeScript
499mentions↑ 18%
Mentions · Last 12 Months
JUN '2524% of postingsMAY '26
Leaderboardlast 12 mo
01TypeScript+18%499
02Python−3%441
03React−9%437
04Go+3%269
05Node.js+61%256
06Amazon Web Services (AWS)−30%231
07PostgreSQL−21%201
08Rust+54%192
09Kubernetes−35%177
10Make+40%166
Movers · 12-month change
What’s moving
Trending↗
  • 01MacOS+1636%
  • 02Redis+251%
  • 03Snowflake+194%
  • 04Vercel+120%
Cooling↘
  • 01Django−58%
  • 02Machine Learning−47%
  • 03Terraform−42%
  • 04Kubernetes−35%

69% of jobs include at least one technical skill · share of postings mentioning the skill (12 months through May 2026)

Role mix · San Francisco vs USShare of postings by role category, past 3 years
San FranciscoUS baseline
Data Ml
match
13%
12%
+0 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 pts1.3×
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
13749%$190k02
LondonGB
0.95
5548%$100k03
SeattleWashington · US
0.94
2092%$183k04
Los AngelesCalifornia · US
0.93
1664%—05
AustinTexas · US
0.91
17100%$160k

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