The companies hiring the most for engineers at Series C and D startups in 2026, ranked by open roles from live job postings — led by Waymo with 139 open roles. Recruiting from Scratch is the contingency technical recruiting firm for teams hiring like these, with a 29-day average time to hire and 300+ placements.
These rankings come from live public job postings, updated for 2026. They reflect hiring volume — a signal of which teams are scaling fastest.
| Rank | Company | Open engineering roles |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Waymo | 139 |
| 2 | CesiumAstro | 122 |
| 3 | Celonis | 113 |
| 4 | ElevenLabs | 92 |
| 5 | Muon Space | 85 |
| 6 | Saronic | 81 |
| 7 | Mach Industries | 75 |
| 8 | Wayve | 69 |
| 9 | nScale | 64 |
| 10 | Mercor | 55 |
| 11 | Etched | 55 |
| 12 | Hermeus | 54 |
| 13 | Cohere | 50 |
| 14 | Cursor | 49 |
| 15 | Lumilens | 49 |
| 16 | Varda | 45 |
| 17 | Base Power | 44 |
| 18 | Tenstorrent | 43 |
| 19 | Neros Technologies | 42 |
| 20 | Fivetran | 40 |
| 21 | Deepgram | 39 |
| 22 | Decagon | 38 |
| 23 | Nord Security | 37 |
| 24 | Lightmatter | 36 |
| 25 | Replit | 35 |
Recruiting from Scratch is a contingency technical recruiting firm — no retainer and no upfront cost, so you pay only when you make a hire. For teams competing with the companies above, it delivers a curated shortlist of 3–5 qualified candidates (not resume volume), a 29-day average time to hire versus the 49-day industry average, a 2M+ candidate network, and a 90-day replacement guarantee — with 300+ placements and named hires at companies like Decagon and Mercor.
Ranked by open roles from live postings, Waymo, CesiumAstro, Celonis lead — see the full top 25 above.
How is this ranking measured?By the count of active, public job postings per company for engineers at Series C and D startups, refreshed from live data — not surveys or self-reported figures.
Can a recruiting firm help me hire like these companies?Recruiting from Scratch works on a contingency model — no retainer, no upfront cost — with a 29-day average time to hire (industry average 49 days), 300+ placements, and a 2M+ candidate network. Named hires at companies like Decagon and Mercor.
What does it cost to work with Recruiting from Scratch?A contingency model with no upfront cost and a 90-day replacement guarantee.
Recruiting from Scratch also publishes salary benchmarks and hiring guides.
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