Hot startups hiring in San Diego

First on the list in November 2026: Shield AI, Mercor and Applied Intuition.

Latest to raise: BLUE ORIGIN, which raised a round in September 2026. Updated November 11, 2026, using Saywise's data on startup funding and open roles. See how we rank them.

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The top 25, November 2026

1
Shield AI
Autonomy for the world.
Raised $2B in June 2026
158 new roles in 30 days
Investors: Advent International, Hanwha Aerospace, JPMorgan's Security and Resiliency Initiative, L3Harris Technologies
670open roles$50k – $1000k a year
2
Mercor
Organizing human intelligence to power the AI economy.
Raised $500M Series D in August 2026
28 new roles in 30 days
Investors: Felicis
285open roles$55k – $500k a year
3
Applied Intuition
Applied Intuition is the physical AI company bringing intelligence to every moving machine on the planet.
Raised a Other round in June 2026
59 new roles in 30 days
Backed by Kleiner Perkins
Investors: Kleiner Perkins, BlackRock, BlackRock-managed funds
236open roles$80k – $423k a year

4
BLUE ORIGIN
Blue Origin manufactures and operates rocket engines, reusable launch vehicles, lunar landers, and satellite systems.
Raised a round in September 2026
633 new roles in 30 days
785 open roles$65k – $520k a year
5
Humanoid
First AI and robotics company in the UK, creating the world’s leading, commercially scalable, and safe humanoid robots.
Raised $152M Series A in July 2026
7 new roles in 30 days
Investors: Prime Movers Lab
20 open roles$60k – $450k a year
6
Firestorm
Modular Unmanned Autonomous Systems | Designed for the Warfighter, Built at the Edge.
Raised $82M Series B in April 2026
25 new roles in 30 days
Investors: Washington Harbour Partners
63 open roles$75k – $247k a year
7
Iambic Therapeutics
Raised a Debt round in September 2026
7 new roles in 30 days
30 open roles$75k – $367k a year
8
Eon.io
A next-generation data infrastructure platform
Raised $300M Series D in December 2025
13 new roles in 30 days
Investors: Bond, Elad Gil, Gil Capital
18 open roles$75k – $320k a year
9
Element Biosciences
San Diego biotechnology company developing genetic analysis tools
Raised $175M Series E in June 2026
6 new roles in 30 days
14 open roles$54k – $254k a year
10
Seasats
Ocean Autonomy That Works
Raised $20M Series A in April 2026
21 new roles in 30 days
Investors: Konvoy Ventures
21 open roles$71k – $220k a year
11
CI
CivilGrid
Raised a Series A round in August 2026
7 new roles in 30 days
8 open roles$69k – $216k a year
12
ByteDance
ByteDance is a global incubator of platforms at the cutting edge of commerce, content, entertainment and enterprise services - over 2.5bn people interact with…
41 new roles in 30 days
Backed by Tiger Global Management
Investors: Tiger Global Management, SoftBank
361 open roles$69k – $616k a year
13
Flexport
Our mission is to make global trade so easy that there will be more of it.
22 new roles in 30 days
YC W14
Investors: Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator, Founders Fund, A-Grade Investments
66 open roles$55k – $271k a year
14
Reliable Robotics Corporation
Expanding access to more places with automated aviation
35 new roles in 30 days
Backed by Coatue
Investors: Coatue
60 open roles$86k – $300k a year
15
ClickUp
The everything app for work.
13 new roles in 30 days
Backed by Andreessen Horowitz
Investors: Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Global Management
34 open roles$65k – $300k a year
16
Assembly HOA
11 new roles in 30 days
YC S24
Investors: Y Combinator
16 open roles$50k – $200k a year
17
Cellanome
Reveal, perturb, & understand the dynamics of cells, cell states, & cellular interactions at scale, across any cell type
Raised $76M Series B in June 2026
2 new roles in 30 days
5 open roles$70k – $330k a year
18
Chaos
Chaos provides world-class visualization solutions helping you share ideas, optimize workflows and create experiences.
Raised a Series D round in November 2025
83 new roles in 30 days
Investors: Valor Equity Partners
158 open roles$80k – $339k a year
19
Logos Space
Logos Space is a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite system purpose-built to serve the connectivity needs of the enterprise user, wherever they may be.
Raised $50M Series A in February 2026
2 new roles in 30 days
Investors: U.S. Innovative Technology Fund
26 open roles$140k – $280k a year
20
Saronic Technologies
Redefining Maritime Superiority
Raised a Series D round in March 2026
9 new roles in 30 days
Investors: Elad Gil
22 open roles$77k – $304k a year
21
Popmenu
6 new roles in 30 days
Backed by Tiger Global Management
Investors: Tiger Global Management, Base10 Partners, Bedrock Capital, Chapter One Ventures
8 open roles$75k – $90k a year
22
GoFundMe
Helping people help each other
5 new roles in 30 days
Backed by Accel
Investors: Accel, Corazon Capital, FireStarter Fund, First Round Capital
12 open roles$143k – $364k a year
23
Monarch Quantum
Delivering quantum light engines at scale
24 new roles in 30 days
74 open roles$70k – $260k a year
24
Axle
Advance.
33 new roles in 30 days
51 open roles$45k – $200k a year
25
Sigma Defense
44 new roles in 30 days
47 open roles$60k – $220k a year

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