--- title: 'Tech & AI jobs in California' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/location/california' type: 'location' --- # Tech & AI jobs in California > Explore tech, startup, and AI jobs in California. Browse open roles from fast-growing companies hiring right now, filter by role, and see the cities, companies, and events that make California a place to build a career in tech. - **Open roles:** 21626 - **Hiring companies:** 1847 - **Region type:** state - **Timezone:** America/Los_Angeles - **Population:** 38,965,000 - **Cost of living:** 42% above the US average — driven by Bay Area housing. - **Climate:** Mild Mediterranean climate — dry, warm summers and cool, wet winters. Coastal fog in the Bay Area; more sun inland and south. - **Page:** https://feeny.ai/location/california ## Cities in California - [San Francisco](https://feeny.ai/location/california/san-francisco) — 10081 jobs - [Los Angeles](https://feeny.ai/location/california/los-angeles) — 1783 jobs - [Costa Mesa](https://feeny.ai/location/california/costa-mesa) — 1173 jobs - [Mountain View](https://feeny.ai/location/california/mountain-view) — 1149 jobs - [San Jose](https://feeny.ai/location/california/san-jose) — 935 jobs - [Palo Alto](https://feeny.ai/location/california/palo-alto) — 837 jobs - [Long Beach](https://feeny.ai/location/california/long-beach) — 713 jobs - [Hawthorne](https://feeny.ai/location/california/hawthorne) — 589 jobs - [San Mateo](https://feeny.ai/location/california/san-mateo) — 565 jobs - [Sunnyvale](https://feeny.ai/location/california/sunnyvale) — 535 jobs - [El Segundo](https://feeny.ai/location/california/el-segundo) — 513 jobs - [Irvine](https://feeny.ai/location/california/irvine) — 407 jobs - [San Diego](https://feeny.ai/location/california/san-diego) — 380 jobs - [Santa Clara](https://feeny.ai/location/california/santa-clara) — 339 jobs - [Menlo Park](https://feeny.ai/location/california/menlo-park) — 316 jobs - [Redwood City](https://feeny.ai/location/california/redwood-city) — 299 jobs - [Torrance](https://feeny.ai/location/california/torrance) — 280 jobs - [San Carlos](https://feeny.ai/location/california/san-carlos) — 201 jobs - [South San Francisco](https://feeny.ai/location/california/south-san-francisco) — 193 jobs - [Redlands](https://feeny.ai/location/california/redlands) — 181 jobs - [Fremont](https://feeny.ai/location/california/fremont) — 172 jobs - [Oakland](https://feeny.ai/location/california/oakland) — 146 jobs - [Foster City](https://feeny.ai/location/california/foster-city) — 138 jobs - [Berkeley](https://feeny.ai/location/california/berkeley) — 119 jobs - [Beverly Hills](https://feeny.ai/location/california/beverly-hills) — 101 jobs - [Sacramento](https://feeny.ai/location/california/sacramento) — 99 jobs - [Burlingame](https://feeny.ai/location/california/burlingame) — 97 jobs - [San Luis Obispo](https://feeny.ai/location/california/san-luis-obispo) — 91 jobs - [Santa Monica](https://feeny.ai/location/california/santa-monica) — 91 jobs - [Santa Ana](https://feeny.ai/location/california/santa-ana) — 89 jobs - [Huntington Beach](https://feeny.ai/location/california/huntington-beach) — 87 jobs - [Alameda](https://feeny.ai/location/california/alameda) — 84 jobs - [Milpitas](https://feeny.ai/location/california/milpitas) — 78 jobs - [Pleasanton](https://feeny.ai/location/california/pleasanton) — 74 jobs - [Playa Vista](https://feeny.ai/location/california/playa-vista) — 68 jobs - [Mojave](https://feeny.ai/location/california/mojave) — 66 jobs - [Garden Grove](https://feeny.ai/location/california/garden-grove) — 64 jobs - [Emeryville](https://feeny.ai/location/california/emeryville) — 64 jobs ## Top companies hiring in California - [Relativity Space](https://feeny.ai/companies/relativity-space) — 295 open roles - [OpenAI](https://feeny.ai/companies/openai) — 489 open roles - [Waymo](https://feeny.ai/companies/waymo) — 284 open roles - [Figure](https://feeny.ai/companies/figure) — 112 open roles - [Anthropic](https://feeny.ai/companies/anthropic) — 252 open roles - [Hadrian Automation](https://feeny.ai/companies/hadrian-automation) — 119 open roles - [Apex Technology, Inc.](https://feeny.ai/companies/apex-technology-inc) — 99 open roles - [Astranis](https://feeny.ai/companies/astranis) — 93 open roles - [Mach Industries](https://feeny.ai/companies/mach-industries) — 91 open roles - [Fashion Nova](https://feeny.ai/companies/fashion-nova) — 86 open roles - [WelbeHealth](https://feeny.ai/companies/welbehealth) — 106 open roles - [1X](https://feeny.ai/companies/1x) — 81 open roles ## Top Universities **Where California's tech talent studies** Much of the Bay Area talent pipeline runs through Stanford and Berkeley, whose alumni started or ran a large share of the companies below. Southern California adds Caltech, UCLA, and USC, so the state produces engineers on both ends — deep research in the north, design and media closer to Los Angeles. - **Stanford University** (Stanford, CA · 8,000 undergrads) — notable alumni: Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman, Marissa Mayer - **UC Berkeley** (Berkeley, CA · 32,700 undergrads) — notable alumni: Steve Wozniak, Eric Schmidt, Paul Otellini - **Caltech** (Pasadena, CA · 1,000 undergrads) — notable alumni: Gordon Moore, Frances Arnold, Charlie Munger - **UCLA** (Los Angeles, CA · 32,400 undergrads) — notable alumni: Sara Blakely, Bill Gross, Troy Carter - **USC** (Los Angeles, CA · 21,000 undergrads) — notable alumni: Marc Benioff, Neil Blumenthal, Brian Chesky - **UC San Diego** (La Jolla, CA · 33,000 undergrads) — notable alumni: Susan Wojcicki, Irwin Jacobs, Mike Judge ## Top Unicorns **Unicorn startups in California** California is home to more private tech unicorns than any other state, and the roster below reflects it: frontier AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic, payments and fintech in Stripe and Chime, and design tools like Figma and Canva. - **[OpenAI](https://feeny.ai/companies/openai)** — $300B · Frontier AI research & products - **[Stripe](https://feeny.ai/companies/stripe)** — $65B · Payments infrastructure - **[Databricks](https://feeny.ai/companies/databricks)** — $62B · Data & AI platform - **[Anduril](https://feeny.ai/companies/anduril-industries)** — $28B · Defense technology - **[Anthropic](https://feeny.ai/companies/anthropic)** — $60B · AI safety & research - **[Scale AI](https://feeny.ai/companies/scale-ai)** — $14B · Data labeling for AI - **[Figma](https://feeny.ai/companies/figma)** — $12B · Collaborative design - **[Chime](https://feeny.ai/companies/chime-financial-inc)** — $25B · Consumer fintech - **Rippling** — $16B · HR & IT platform - **Canva** — $32B · Design platform - **[Discord](https://feeny.ai/companies/bitmex)** — $15B · Community chat - **[Notion](https://feeny.ai/companies/notion)** — $11B · Connected workspace ## Events **What's happening in California** - [AI x Fashion Coffee Club](https://luma.com/xfbtidsx) — 2026-08-07 · San Francisco - [co routine("Moniker")](https://luma.com/devx-co-routine-aug-7-2026) — 2026-08-07 · San Diego - [Snowflake X Beta Fund X Evermind Agent & Token Economy Hackathon](https://luma.com/beta-fdnw) — 2026-08-07 · San Francisco - [Drive a Supercar at Sonoma Raceway](https://luma.com/8j1enbqt) — 2026-08-07 · San Francisco - [Off Season II Festival](https://luma.com/festival) — 2026-08-08 · San Francisco - [opening night: GRADATIONS](https://luma.com/r2d4i6wp) — 2026-08-08 · Los Angeles - [Free Stage Play | The Light in Your Heart and the Way Back Home (by Tiangu Troupe)](https://luma.com/evrao38u) — 2026-08-08 · San Francisco - [After Her Coastal Hike](https://luma.com/xwv7z1wx) — 2026-08-08 · Los Angeles - [San Francisco | Claude Impact Lab](https://luma.com/claude-7lr5) — 2026-08-08 · San Francisco ## FAQ **Tech jobs in California: common questions** ### How many tech jobs are open in California right now? Feeny is tracking roughly 21,626 open tech, startup, and AI roles across California, from 1,847 companies hiring at the moment. It is by far the largest market on the site, and it should be: more AI labs, unicorns, and venture money sit here than anywhere else. The figure updates as boards refresh, so it reflects who is actually hiring this week. ### Which California cities have the most tech jobs? San Francisco leads and it is not close, with the frontier AI labs and a deep bench of startups clustered in the city. The rest of the Bay Area does the heavy lifting around it: Mountain View, Palo Alto, and San Jose carry Big Tech and semiconductors, while Los Angeles brings aerospace and entertainment tech. Feeny indexes roles across 38 California cities in total, and the density thins fast as you move from the Bay south, so a handful of metros hold most of the openings. ### What companies are hiring for tech roles in California? This is the home turf of the AI labs, so OpenAI, Anthropic, and the model-and-tooling companies around them hire constantly, alongside the infrastructure and fintech names like Stripe. Southern California adds a different flavor with SpaceX and the defense-tech and entertainment companies near LA. The result is a state where you can chase frontier research, hyperscale infrastructure, or hard-tech hardware without leaving the market. ### What kinds of tech roles are common in California? California is where the deepest technical roles concentrate. The AI labs want research scientists and ML engineers, the infrastructure companies hire distributed-systems and platform people, and the hardware side around aerospace and chips needs real engineering, not just software. It skews senior and specialized at the top, but the sheer volume of startups means founding-engineer and early product roles are always open for people who want to build from scratch. ### What is it like to work in tech in California? The Bay Area is the most concentrated tech culture on earth, and that cuts both ways. Housing is the most expensive in the country and the pace is relentless, but you are surrounded by the people building the field, and the informal network of former colleagues, investors, and founders is the real product. Southern California trades some of that intensity for space and a broader industry mix. Either way, this is the market where ambition is the baseline, not the exception. --- _Source: https://feeny.ai/location/california_