Hacker News's monthly hiring marketplace is live for February 2026, with 56 developers posting resumes in the 'Who wants to be hired?' thread and a companion post listing 93 open positions.
The numbers tell a story. Senior and staff roles command $200k-$250k (PostHog's Staff SWE hits the top end). Mid-level full-stack positions range $100k-$140k. Remote work isn't just available—it's dominant, though visa sponsorship remains patchy.
What's actually interesting here
The format matters. No recruiters, no agencies, no job boards. Just candidates and hiring managers. That directness makes these threads useful as market signals—what people are actually looking for, what they're willing to pay, where flexibility exists.
Early posts show the usual pattern: backend engineers (Python/Go/Rust), DevOps specialists with 10+ years moving toward platform roles, and data scientists with PhDs. One Ohio-based engineer with 14 years is planning a Europe move in 2.5 years. Another built a NES emulator and ported Zork to Clojure—the kind of side projects that either intrigue hiring managers or get ignored entirely.
The portfolio question
GitHub presence varies wildly. Some candidates link extensive project histories. Others just list technologies. The gap between 'should have interesting commits' and 'actually matters for hiring' remains unclear. CTOs tell us they look, but rarely make it the deciding factor.
Context: the broader market
hnhiring.com has tracked 57,938 HN jobs since 2018. This month's 93 positions sit in normal range—not a surge, not a drought. Remote-first continues, but 'remote US/Canada only' appears frequently enough to note.
The thread launched five hours in, 12 points, standard format. No controversy, no surprises. Just the monthly ritual of developers saying 'I'm available' and companies saying 'we're looking.'
The real test: how many of these 56 posts turn into actual hires. We'll see.