"stop hiring humans..." ➜ proceeds to hire an army of humans
An extra-long list of jobs today + stealth openings + a new way to think about your job search
Ello Ello,
An extra-long list of open jobs this week, plus 3️⃣ stealth startups low-key searching for someone like you.
xoxo,
Jordan
Company spotlight: Artisan
AI won’t put software engineers out of a job, but they will be called to build the workforce of the future. Artisan, backed with a $25 million series A, is building a squad of AI agents to handle the boring bits. The company stirred up quite a bit of controversy with its Stop Hiring Humans billboards, yet they’re very much hiring humans. They’ve got a dozen open engineering roles, many of them REMOTE 🚨.
The CEO Jaspar Carmichael-Jack admits the billboards were just a little stunt to get people riled up. In fact, he told TechCrunch that “human labor becomes more valuable when you have the AI content.” Seeeeeeee?! I told you.
This is your chance to be a part of something weird, and a little contradictory—and a little dangerous!
Fresh j.o.b.s.
PACT founder Skye Bork is looking for a founding engineer with spike and/or AI experience to join her startup that connects patients with clinical trials and helps them manage the process. She started the company after losing her father to glioblastoma and wants someone equally committed to making healthcare better. Email Skye directly at skye@pact-ai.com.
GTM analytics startup Equals is hiring a software engineer to join their founding team in NYC. Salary range is $180K–$250K.
French startup Amo is building a new kind of social app for building deeper relationships, not more of them. Quality over-quantity, ya know? Six engineering roles are open in their trés cool Paris offices.
Open-access AI cloud company Hyperbolic has five open engineering roles in the SF offices. To apply, email contact@hyperbolic.xyz with your background and how you heard about the company (that would be me).
Sauron home security is hiring for a bunch of cool roles, including camera integration engineer and senior perception software engineer. The founding team has quite the pedigree, including Eventbrite co-founder, Hims & Hers co-founder, and research engineer at robot taxi company Zoox.
Hook needs a London-based software engineer and a product designer for their customer growth/revenue prediction platform. Perks include a hybrid schedule and private health insurance.
Digital threat cybersecurity startup Outtake needs engineers at its Brooklyn offices. Enjoy flexible PTO and 100% covered medical, vision, and dental. 😬
Copper, “the Tesla of induction stoves,” needs an embedded systems engineer at its Berkeley HQ. A rare software job in a hardware world.
🚨 Stride, the portable benefits platform for indie workers, needs a REMOTE full-stack engineer. Comp is $171K–$186K + equity.
Avalanche makes micro-fusion reactors, which means something really smart. They’re looking for a smarty-pants plasma physics code director (think C++ and Python) to work with them in Seattle.
Enterprise sustainability platform Watershed is looking for a bunch of engineers in … Mexico City, SF, London, and NYC. No bad options there. The hiring process is: 1–2 convos about the company, experience interview/skills eval, then virtual panel interview.
Hanomi is building AI for mechanical engineers who want to go “3D to 2D in minutes.” They need an AI senior product engineer and a full-stack product engineer. The team splits time between Bangalore and SF, so ask about relocation assistance.
Invite-only sublet platform Kiki is looking for their founding engineer based in their London offices in Shoreditch. They will sponsor UK visas! App instructions are at the end of their founder’s “hiring manifesto.”
Toby Talks
It’s tempting to apply to every open role, but it’s not a great look. "Spray and pray is a recipe for burnout and disappointment. The best candidates aren't just applying to jobs; they're solving for the company's specific needs before they even get an interview." — Mindy East, HR leader and career coach
I have my own take on this: limit yourself to applying to 1-2 roles per company. Most recruiters in a given company are able to see all of your current and past applications. If you are applying to many different types of roles, this will signal a lack of clarity and depth, making recruiters wonder if you have depth in any of the disciplines you’ve applied for.
Stealth jobs 🥷
Maybe you prefer to fly under the radar? Serve enigma energy to your public persona? Try these stealth startups.
Manish Agrawal (ex-Microsoft, ex-Google) is in stealth with “a company at the intersection of AI and digital marketing. He needs a founding engineer.
Ali Fozooni is building “an AI-agentic product to shake up a massive industry” and needs a founding engineer to help. You can DM Ali on LinkedIn.
Main character mystery moment for these two MIT grads who are “reimagining a massive productivity software category with AI and have raised $7M+ from Tier 1 investors.” DM Sudhanshu Mishra on LinkedIn for more info or to submit referrals (and collect a $25K bonus).
MORE job hunting tip(s)
This CNET article on how to get hired has some little gems. Here are my favorites:
Be choosy. Quality is better than quantity when it comes to job searching.
AlwaysBeReady. You know this, of course. That’s why you read job hunting sux. But it’s good practice to be ready to apply as quickly as possible and get seen first.
NetTWerk. If you’re job searching, start talking. A strong referral is gold in the startup world, so tell people you’re looking. Actually, you can tell me directly by applying to the a16z talent network and I’ll make the net-twerk for you.
Maybe you’re not looking for a job, maybe you’re looking for a co-founder?
My a16z speedrun colleagues put together this cool Substack on how 40 successful founders found their cofounders—the Thelma to their Louise (skipping the grim ending but keeping the young Brad Pitt energy).
Among the highlights:
Besties from school and work are the most popular future co-founders
Finding the right co-founder is a little like dating, and it helps to see how they work before diving in
Hitting someone up on LinkedIn also works to find a co-founder, so beef up your profile if you want to be discovered
So, as you’re looking for your next startup job, maybe don’t rule out the C-suite.
Required reading
Here’s your tea 🫖. Here’s your blanket. Here are five things you should read this week.
Tech journalist Joanna Stern is spending a year letting AI take over her life in every way possible. She’s documenting it here.
Apparently you can run your own LLM on your laptop now?
Scientists may have solved the problem of topological qubits in quantum computing. We’re truly living in the future.
There’s a giant scavenger hunt taking place in San Francisco.
The 10 European startups that became unicorns in 2025 (including Lovable :)
👨🏻💻 Thanks for reading. OK, byeeeeee.
PS: Apply to the a16z talent network. We look at every application. Like, really.