Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (April 2026)

Hacker News Discussion ↗

Engineers, designers, data scientists, security specialists, and product leaders from around the world use this April 2026 Ask HN thread to advertise that they’re open to new roles, with a strong tilt toward remote work and contract or early-stage startup opportunities. Skills span everything from low‑level systems, DevOps, and data engineering to UI/UX, mobile, and AI/LLM tooling, with many candidates emphasizing experience taking products from 0–1, modernizing legacy systems, and working in highly regulated or mission‑driven domains.

Range of roles and seniority

  • Thread is almost entirely people advertising themselves for hire.
  • Roles span backend, full‑stack, mobile (iOS/Android), data/ML/AI, DevOps/SRE, embedded/firmware, security, product management, and UX/UI/product design.
  • Seniority ranges from interns and junior developers to staff/principal engineers, CTOs, VPs of Engineering, and long‑time consultants.

Technologies and domains

  • Heavy representation of modern web stacks: TypeScript/JavaScript, React/Next.js, Node.js, Python backends (Django/FastAPI/Flask), Java, C#/ASP.NET, Go, Rust.
  • Many infrastructure and DevOps specialists emphasize AWS/Azure/GCP, Kubernetes, Terraform/Ansible, CI/CD, observability stacks, and high‑availability systems.
  • Strong presence of AI/ML/LLM work: RAG, agentic systems, MCP, LangChain/LangGraph, vector databases, model evaluation, on‑device ML, and classical DS/ML.
  • Niche domains include HFT/quant finance, operations research and optimization, database internals/Postgres performance, DSP/audio, robotics, CFD, embedded IoT, radio/WiFi, and security/pentesting.

Work arrangements and geography

  • Majority prefer fully remote; many are open to hybrid, and a minority insist on on‑site.
  • Locations are globally distributed (US, Canada, Europe, Asia, South America, etc.), with varying willingness to relocate; some constrained to specific countries or regions.
  • Several explicitly seek contract/freelance or fractional work; others want full‑time roles, often at startups or small product teams.

Preferences, values, and constraints

  • Multiple posters specify industries they will not work in (e.g., gambling, ads/surveillance, predatory finance) and express interest in positive‑impact work (healthcare, education, climate, social good, Africa‑focused work).
  • Several reject certain hiring practices (e.g., timed LeetCode‑style interviews) or “AI‑wrapper”/“vibecoded” startups.
  • Some highlight non‑traditional backgrounds (law, economics, farming, music, mechanical engineering) transitioning into software and data work.

Notable specializations

  • Dedicated experts in Postgres rescue architecture, AWS architecture, operations research (MILP/CP), UI/UX for SaaS, iOS/macOS apps, game engines/graphics, and long‑time Linux/SRE/ISP networking.
  • Multiple people emphasize 0→1 product building, greenfield system design, and stabilizing legacy systems.

Meta discussion

  • Very little back‑and‑forth; a few short replies compliment specific portfolios or apps.
  • One brief sub‑thread criticizes perceived AI‑generated “slop” in another context, reflecting sensitivity to low‑effort AI content, but this is peripheral to the main job‑seeking focus.