Jack & Jill Report on Startup Hiring 2026: Hybrid Roles Boom, Entry-Level Roles Thin Out

Jack & Jill's November 2026 startup hiring report, drawn from 400,000+ candidates and millions of job ads, finds hybrid roles combining two domains — such as forward deployed engineers and applied AI engineers — are the fastest-growing in tech, while entry-level roles appear to be thinning. 29% of new joiners want to leave because they've stopped growing, 2.5 times the 11.5% citing pay, and 77.5% of applications get no reply or update after 90 days.