Software engineering · week of 12 October 2026
The lobby is the biggest floor
1,207 of the 2,781 software engineering jobs we counted state no number of years. Of the 1,574 that do, 644 ask for 5 to 7.
It’s a building of 2,781 jobs, one window each. Press a floor on the lift and see how many ask for that many years.
By the Glassbox team · the week of 12 October 2026
This story keeps to one week, 12 October 2026. The software engineering page starts a new count every Monday.
Each window is one of the 2,781 software engineering jobs we counted, lit by what its title says about level. Hatched: the title says nothing about level.
Source: Glassbox count, week of 12 October 2026 · how we count
Software engineer is the plainest job title there is. In the week of 12 October 2026 it mostly meant senior.
1,728 of the 2,781 jobs are senior, lead or principal. 424 read as intern, entry level or junior, 240 as mid level, and 389 don’t say. That’s the facade. The years a job asks for are a different list, and they’re what the lift stops at.
Let’s go in.
The lobby directory.
What the jobs name, by wing and by name. A job can name several skills, so the wings overlap.
| Wings · jobs naming a skill there | |
|---|---|
| DevOps and operations | 1,370 |
| Backend and systems | 1,174 |
| AI and machine learning | 901 |
| Cloud | 715 |
| By name · jobs naming it | |
| Python | 1,092 |
| Distributed systems | 694 |
| AWS | 622 |
| Go | 621 |
| TypeScript | 557 |
| C++ | 533 |
| Java | 482 |
| Languages | |
| Name at least one | 1,942 |
| Name two or more | 1,421 |
Counts are of the 2,757 jobs long enough to read. Only skills named by jobs at 10 or more employers are on the board, so one company’s hiring can’t make a pattern.
Source: Glassbox count, week of 12 October 2026 · how we count
Press a floor.
Each floor is a band of years the weekly page publishes, and its width is how many jobs ask for it. The lobby is where the jobs that state no number wait. It’s the biggest floor.
Press a floor, or call the lift from the street.
Floor widths are counts: 1,207 state no number, 200 ask for 0 to 2 years, 283 for 3 to 4, 644 for 5 to 7, 447 for 8 or more. The bands are the weekly page’s: 0 to 2 spans three values and 8+ is open ended. Behind the doors, each door is one job; the plates are titles from the 30 the page lists.
Source: Glassbox count, week of 12 October 2026 · how we count
| 8+ | 447 | ask for 8 years or more | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5–7 | 644 | ask for 5 to 7 years | |
| 3–4 | 283 | ask for 3 to 4 years | |
| 0–2 | 200 | ask for 0 to 2 years | |
| L | 1,207 | state no number of years |
A level is a word. Years are a number.
The facade lit its windows by what a title says. The lift stops at what the ad counts. They’re different lists, and a job can be on one, both or neither.
By level · the facade
- 1,728
- senior, lead or principal
- 424
- intern, entry level or junior
- 240
- mid level
- 389
- state no level
By years · the lift
- 644
- ask for 5 to 7
- 447
- ask for 8 or more
- 283
- ask for 3 to 4
- 200
- ask for 0 to 2
- 1,207
- state no number
Both plaques count the same 2,781 jobs. 389 state no level and 1,207 state no number of years. Stating no number isn’t asking for none.
Source: Glassbox count, week of 12 October 2026 · how we count
Back in the lobby.
861 of the 2,781 jobs are marked remote by their job board. You may never visit the building.
Where the 2,781 jobs are
- 1,384
- name a place in the US
- 844
- name a place elsewhere
- 553
- name no country we can read
- 861
- are remote, 31% of the 2,781
- 211
- are internships, 8%
- 660
- employers posted them. Rocket Lab Corporation has the most, 74.
Hatched: the job names no country we can read. Countries one by one are too few to show.
Source: Glassbox count, week of 12 October 2026 · how we count
Going up?
The plainest title in software mostly means senior: 1,728 of the 2,781 jobs. Among the 1,574 that state a number of years, the most common ask is 5 to 7: 644 of them. And the biggest floor states no number at all: 1,207 jobs, waiting in the lobby.
We can’t see how any employer reads an application, and we won’t guess. We can show what the ads write down. That’s where every applicant starts.
Curious how many of these skills are already on your CV?
One week, 12 October 2026. The software engineering page counts again on Monday.
How we counted
This page counts the software engineering jobs: titles like software engineer, developer or programmer. Backend, frontend, full stack and mobile jobs are job types of their own.
The job type comes from the title. Senior means a senior, lead or principal level in the same job type.
We look for about 250 named skills, by fixed rules, in the 2,757 ads long enough to read. The other 24 were too short.
The floors are the years bands the weekly page publishes: 0 to 2, 3 to 4, 5 to 7, and 8 or more. 1,574 of the 2,781 jobs state a number; the other 1,207 don’t. The level in a title (senior, junior, mid) is a separate count and never decides a floor.
The door plates quote titles and employers from the 30 the page lists, never the ads. Gender notes in titles, like (m/w/d), are left off the plates.
The jobs come from public job boards, read every six hours: employers' own boards on Greenhouse, Ashby, Lever and Workable, and job sites such as Remote OK, Remotive, Arbeitnow, Jobicy, Himalayas and We Work Remotely. Each job counts once, however many boards or cities list it.
What we can't see: jobs on boards we don't read, and jobs never posted in public; skills a job names in words that aren't on our list; whether a job is filled, how many people apply, or who gets hired.