Ask HN: Who is hiring? (January 2026)

Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall Hiring Themes

  • Very broad range of roles: core software (backend, full-stack, infra), AI/ML (LLMs, agents, MLOps), robotics, security, fintech, healthcare, edtech, and government/nonprofit.
  • Strong skew toward:
    • Agentic/LLM-based systems and AI infrastructure.
    • Devtools, observability, infra-as-code, and data platforms at high scale.
    • Robotics/automation for physical industries (manufacturing, logistics, construction, drones, solar).
    • Healthcare and bioinformatics (clinical copilots, diagnostics, genomics).
  • Mix of VC-backed hypergrowth, bootstrapped profitable startups, and a few large incumbents (Cloudflare, Bloomberg, Microsoft, SurveyMonkey, etc.).

Remote, Onsite, and Work Schedules

  • Many roles are remote-first (global or region-restricted), but a significant number mandate onsite or hybrid in SF/NYC/European hubs.
  • Several commenters probe remote exceptions:
    • Some companies explicitly restrict to local/hybrid (e.g., commute radius, office days).
    • Others (e.g., Neon Health and Cloudflare Durable Objects) clarify that official postings say onsite/hybrid but exceptions or team-dependent remote arrangements may exist, causing some confusion.
  • A commenter requests a clear “4DWW” (four-day workweek) tag so candidates can filter quickly.
    • Another notes it would save time because openness to 4DWW is rarely explicit.
    • Skepticism about prevalence of true 4DWW; one reply says it exists but is uncommon, with examples in Sweden.
    • One company (FetLife) explicitly advertises 4-day summer workweeks.

Candidate Experience, Pay, and Process

  • Applicants question:
    • Whether certain “remote” roles adjust compensation by geography (e.g., MixRank).
    • Missing compensation details for some early-stage hardware/robotics posts.
  • Goody’s recurring staff engineer ad sparks discussion:
    • Multiple people report applying with no response.
    • The company explains it is a rolling posting, hires continuously, and intentionally sends responses only to matches to avoid mass rejection emails; acknowledges differing expectations and considers changing this.

Ethics, Product Scope, and Off-Topic Drift

  • Deepfake detection startup questioned about long-term viability of detection-only approaches and the arms race; company replies that detection is just one layer, alongside watermarking and source-tracing work.
  • Strong disagreement over an AI romantic companion startup:
    • One commenter warns of serious societal/psychological harm and offers to suggest alternative startup ideas.
    • Others argue it may be no worse than existing vices and might even improve emotional skills.
    • A follow-up cites neuroscience/anthropology to argue it’s uniquely risky.
    • Moderators explicitly mark this subthread as off-topic for a hiring post.

Meta and Tools

  • Multiple external tools shared for navigating the massive thread (search/chat or aggregated views).
  • Occasional notes about site performance or broken signup links on company pages.
  • One person mistakenly posts a “who wants to be hired” résumé; another points them to the correct monthly thread.