Role Trends, Q4 2025 (Via Leopard Jobs Data 2025):
Backend engineers remain the highest-comp group after AI/infra: Strong backend + distributed systems skills move comp closer to $185k–$195k.
Full Stack engineers with infra/AI keywords tend to have higher salary requirements: up towards $185–200k and commanding 220k+ at the Staff Level and in person in SF & NYC.
AI/ML ecosystem skills reliably push comp above $195–200k: PyTorch, TensorFlow, MLOps, Apache Spark, Kafka
Data infrastructure, warehousing & modeling skills: all increase salary averages to jump above $200k+
AI Engineering Trends, Q4 2025 (Via Leopard Jobs Data 2025):
AI is becoming a default part of general SWE job descriptions. Across all 2025 roles, 1 in 6 backend or full stack jobs included an AI-related responsibility even when the title didn’t mention AI.
Most of the AI role descriptions are very backend & infra-heavy. Over 70% of AI-tagged roles include backend, infra, or data pipeline responsibilities inside the job description.
In 2025, companies want engineers who can ship AI features. Over 70% of the 2025 AI-tagged roles included backend or infra keywords, while fewer than 10% mention model training or research.
Salary & Equity Trends, Q4 2025 (Via People/Talent Roundtable):
In-person vs remote seems to be creating two salary classes. Salaries increasing for early stage in-person SF startups due to smaller teams.
Same 6-year experience software engineer: $220k in-person SF vs $160k remote
Eng w/ 10 years experience: $240-250k in-person SF vs $170-180k remote
Candidates don’t seem to care about equity anymore.
In multiple offer scenarios, most talent leaders across startups are seeing candidates choose the high cash option.
Carta shared that equity exercising down to 20% of recipients
“Candidates care more about: will this job still exist in 1–3 years? Not the equity upside.”
Some companies removing equity for level 4 and below. High turnover roles get annual bonus instead. Equity reserved for senior technical talent expected to stay 4+ years.
High-growth AI startups are the exception; they are bringing back the equity spreadsheet & showing strong equity stories.
AI Interviewing Trends (via People/Talent Leaders Roundtable):
There's a big shift where startups are shifting banning AI during the interview to requiring AI usage. Candidates in 2026 must demonstrate intelligent AI usage in interviews, and get disqualified for not using AI (considered “old school”). We plan on collecting better data on interview process trends, so expect more insights on interview process length, structure and dropoff in the next newsletter!
Leveling Trends (Via People & Eng Leader Slack Communities) :
A candidate asked Leopard whether taking a more junior title at a small startup would hurt her long-term career, so we polled the Engineering Leaders & People Leaders Communities
People Leaders largely said no, titles didn't matter to them when assessing a candidate. They shared that what matters most is impact, scope, and results. They also emphasized that early startups have such compressed leveling systems, and cross-company titles aren’t standardized, so titles don't mean much since there's so much variance across organizations.
“Your initial title is about how you interview. Your title after a year is about how you perform.”
- People Leader, November 2025
Engineering Leaders were more divided. Many agreed that if titles are more generic at the company and there’s a clear path back to Senior, it shouldn't be a big red flag. But some cautioned that level-coded titles (e.g. “SWE II”) can signal underperformance and may slow progression to Staff+. They recommended she craft a strong narrative for the tradeoff, make sure to get clarity on review and promotion timelines, and ideally ask for a six-month re-evaluation to ensure the step down doesn’t become permanent.
“Titles might not matter, but a visible backslide can raise eyebrows. She should make sure to craft a clear narrative, and show that she made a smart tradeoff / that taking a more junior title paid off in learning or industry shift.”
- Engineering Leader, November 2025
“I don’t think this matters at all. Early startups often only have 3–4 levels total. ‘Senior’ can mean 4 years or 20+ depending on the company.”
Visa Trends (Via Call Notes with Immigration Lawyer Saja Raoff):
H-1B transfers are still legally valid and remain a path for skilled hires. Existing H-1B holders and renewals are exempt from the new 2025 fee, and for employers willing to sponsor, transfers continue to work as a way to hire or retain talent without going through the lottery. The role just needs to qualify as a “specialty occupation” tied to relevant degrees/skills.
Merit-based paths (O-1, NIW, EB-1A) are becoming a more popular recommendation for for strong engineers: Attorneys are increasingly steering candidates toward extraordinary-ability and national-interest petitions because H-1B is crowded, costly, and unpredictable. Even for mid-career engineers, they’re advising early evidence-building: independent publications, speaking roles, judging, leadership scope, documented
Higher costs and tighter scrutiny are raising the bar for H-1B, O-1, NIW, and EB-1A filings, so lawyers are urging applicants to over-document & maintain clean compliance. With proposals like the $100K H-1B fee and slower processing timelines, attorneys are coaching candidates to submit more evidence than required, keep full copies of all filings, document USCIS interactions, file AR-11 address changes immediately, and use premium processing when timing matters. For employers, this means treating immigration support as a legal process — helping candidates present a strong, well-documented petition rather than treating sponsorship as a simple form submission.
