# AI Hiring Index: October 2026

> Monthly data on AI hiring: open roles, the most wanted skills, top hiring companies and salaries, counted from live employer job boards by AIJobsGrid.

- **Open roles:** 8775
- **New in September 2026:** 2300
- **Companies hiring:** 191
- **Typical salary (USD):** $212k
- **Remote share:** 27%

## Open roles by specialism

- [AI/LLM Engineer](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/ai-llm-engineer): 1091
- [Machine Learning Engineer](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/machine-learning-engineer): 429
- [AI Product Manager](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/ai-product-manager): 403
- [MLOps / Infrastructure](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/mlops-infrastructure): 362
- [Robotics](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/robotics): 303
- [Research Scientist](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/research-scientist): 279
- [Data Scientist](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/data-scientist): 273
- [AI-Powered Marketing](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/ai-marketing): 211
- [Data Engineer](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/data-engineer): 206
- [AI-Powered Sales](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/ai-sales): 196
- [Analytics Engineer](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/analytics-engineer): 156
- [Computer Vision](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/computer-vision): 140
- [AI Growth & Revenue Ops](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/ai-growth-ops): 49
- [Prompt / Eval Engineer](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/prompt-eval-engineer): 45
- [AI Safety & Alignment](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/ai-safety-alignment): 43
- [NLP](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/nlp): 22
- [AI Designer](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/ai-designer): 15

## Most wanted skills

- Python: 3983
- LLMs: 2090
- Agents: 1785
- C++: 1424
- AWS: 1326
- SQL: 1310
- Kubernetes: 1213
- GCP: 969
- Azure: 846
- TypeScript: 842
- Java: 796
- Rust: 658
- Generative AI: 647
- PyTorch: 641
- JavaScript: 603

## Companies with the most open roles

- [Anduril](https://aijobsgrid.com/companies/anduril): 1574
- [OpenAI](https://aijobsgrid.com/companies/openai): 485
- [Anthropic](https://aijobsgrid.com/companies/anthropic): 221
- [Shield AI](https://aijobsgrid.com/companies/shield-ai): 207
- [Databricks](https://aijobsgrid.com/companies/databricks): 201
- [Snowflake](https://aijobsgrid.com/companies/snowflake): 200
- [Waymo](https://aijobsgrid.com/companies/waymo): 178
- [Okta](https://aijobsgrid.com/companies/okta): 169
- [Zoox](https://aijobsgrid.com/companies/zoox): 144
- [Graphcore](https://aijobsgrid.com/companies/graphcore): 142
- [Celonis](https://aijobsgrid.com/companies/celonis): 139
- [Cloudflare](https://aijobsgrid.com/companies/cloudflare): 128
- [Reddit](https://aijobsgrid.com/companies/reddit): 115
- [Skydio](https://aijobsgrid.com/companies/skydio): 108
- [Braze](https://aijobsgrid.com/companies/braze): 106

## Open roles by country

- United States: 5687
- United Kingdom: 508
- India: 422
- Canada: 304
- Germany: 200
- Singapore: 136
- Australia: 118
- Ireland: 96
- France: 88
- Japan: 80

## Typical salary by specialism

- [AI Safety & Alignment](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/ai-safety-alignment): $398k
- [Research Scientist](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/research-scientist): $280k
- [NLP](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/nlp): $251k
- [MLOps / Infrastructure](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/mlops-infrastructure): $250k
- [Machine Learning Engineer](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/machine-learning-engineer): $238k
- [Prompt / Eval Engineer](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/prompt-eval-engineer): $238k
- [Data Scientist](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/data-scientist): $233k
- [AI/LLM Engineer](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/ai-llm-engineer): $231k
- [Computer Vision](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/computer-vision): $230k
- [Data Engineer](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/data-engineer): $223k
- [AI Product Manager](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/ai-product-manager): $223k
- [Robotics](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/robotics): $219k
- [AI Designer](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/ai-designer): $199k
- [Analytics Engineer](https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-jobs/analytics-engineer): $184k

## Typical salary by level

- Exec: $274k
- Principal: $258k
- Staff: $251k
- Lead: $224k
- Senior: $195k
- Entry: $130k
- Intern: $120k

Counts cover live roles tracked on AIJobsGrid, not all AI hiring. Credit: AIJobsGrid AI Hiring Index, October 2026.

---
Source: AIJobsGrid (https://aijobsgrid.com). Listings come from each employer's own job board and are removed when the employer closes them. Apply through the employer link on each job.
Site map for AI tools: https://aijobsgrid.com/llms.txt