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 195 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.
Rankings as of Sep 2, 2026, from live public job postings.
| Rank | Company | Open engineering roles |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Waymo | 195 |
| 2 | Olsson | 117 |
| 3 | Saronic | 104 |
| 4 | CesiumAstro | 100 |
| 5 | Celonis | 84 |
| 6 | nScale | 65 |
| 7 | Mistral AI | 64 |
| 8 | ElevenLabs | 62 |
| 9 | Apex Technology Inc | 60 |
| 10 | Hermeus | 60 |
| 11 | Etched | 55 |
| 12 | Leverdemo 8 | 52 |
| 13 | Tenstorrent | 51 |
| 14 | Mercor | 50 |
| 15 | Nord Security | 50 |
| 16 | Ajax | 47 |
| 17 | Varda | 45 |
| 18 | Replit | 44 |
| 19 | Cohere | 44 |
| 20 | Wayve | 39 |
| 21 | Cursor | 39 |
| 22 | Agoda | 37 |
| 23 | Allen Control Systems | 37 |
| 24 | Cresta | 35 |
| 25 | Deepgram | 33 |
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, Olsson, Saronic 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.
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