Florida
Florida's tech scene has grown fast, pulled by no state income tax and a wave of finance and crypto money into Miami. SpaceX and Relativity Space run launch operations on the Space Coast, ThreatLocker and KnowBe4 built cybersecurity businesses in Orlando and Tampa, and Miami keeps drawing fintech and crypto firms. The market is younger and more spread out than the coasts, but climbing.
Open Positions1,191 jobs in Florida
Where Florida’s tech talent studies
The state's public universities do the heavy lifting: the University of Florida produced Nvidia co-founder Chris Malachowsky and the lead architect of the IBM PC, while UCF is one of the largest engineering pipelines in the country. Miami and FSU add business and research depth (FSU's Sara Blakely built Spanx from scratch).
University of Florida
- Chris MalachowskyCo-Founder of Nvidia
- Mark AdlerCreator of the zlib and gzip compression tools
- Philip Don EstridgeFather of the IBM PC
- David NelmsFormer CEO of Discover Financial Services
- Manuel FernandezFormer CEO of Gartner
University of Miami
- Rony AbovitzFounder of Magic Leap and MAKO Surgical
- Micky ArisonChairman of Carnival Corporation
- Geisha WilliamsFormer CEO of PG&E, first Latina Fortune 500 CEO
- David KomanskyFormer CEO of Merrill Lynch
- Maurice R. GreenbergFormer CEO of AIG
Florida State University
- Sara BlakelyFounder of Spanx
- Robert A. HoltonChemist who first synthesized Taxol
- Todd CombsCEO of GEICO, investment manager at Berkshire Hathaway
- Maria ZemankovaPioneer of fuzzy relational database systems
- Richard W. RahnEconomist, chairman of the Institute for Global Economic Growth
University of Central Florida
- Alan EustaceFormer SVP of Engineering at Google
- Taylor GerringCo-Founder of Ethereum
- Brian CrutcherFormer CEO of Texas Instruments
- Angel RuizCEO of Ericsson North America
- Dan BenjaminFounder of 5by5 Studios
Florida International University
- Bill GurleyGeneral Partner at Benchmark Capital
- Robert B. CarterCo-CEO and CIO of FedEx
- David ShorData scientist and political analyst
- James F. O'BrienComputer-graphics professor at UC Berkeley
- Carlos O. ToranoPresident of Torano Cigars
University of South Florida
- George ReyesFormer CFO of Google
- John R. PatrickFormer Vice President at IBM
- Jordan ZimmermanFounder of Zimmerman Advertising
- Jim AtchisonFormer CEO of SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment
- Bill EdwardsCEO of Mad Dog Technology and Big3 basketball owner
Florida Atlantic University
- Maynard WebbFormer COO of eBay, board member of Visa and Salesforce
- Phil ZimmermannCreator of PGP email encryption
- Patricia McKayFormer CFO of Restoration Hardware
- George ZoleyFounder and CEO of The GEO Group
- Luis Alberto MorenoFormer President of the Inter-American Development Bank
Florida Institute of Technology
- Frank J. CanovaInventor of the IBM Simon, the first smartphone
- Ryan GellertCEO of Patagonia
- David P. NortonCo-creator of the Balanced Scorecard
- Herbert Hugh ThompsonFormer CTO of Symantec
- Svafa GronfeldtFormer deputy CEO of Actavis
Unicorn startups in Florida
The unicorn list runs on security and infrastructure: IT management at Kaseya, cloud and GPU compute at Vultr, threat response at ReliaQuest, and crypto rails at MoonPay. Magic Leap's AR headsets and Material Bank round out a scene that's more enterprise and deep-tech than the Miami-crypto headlines suggest.
Linked companies have open roles on Feeny · 5 of 12 linked
What’s happening in Florida
Upcoming events across Florida · powered by Luma
Tech jobs in Florida: common questions
How many tech jobs are open in Florida right now?
Feeny is tracking about 1,191 open tech roles in Florida, from roughly 269 companies hiring across the state. Each one is pulled from a company's own careers page, so a listing means a role that's live, not a stale repost. The openings spread across several metros rather than concentrating in one, from Miami to Orlando to the Space Coast. Filter by city or discipline to narrow it down.
Which Florida cities have the most tech jobs?
Florida is unusually spread out for a tech state, with no single dominant hub. Miami and Fort Lauderdale carry the fintech and crypto money in the south; Orlando and Tampa hold cybersecurity and a broader software base; and Cape Canaveral anchors launch operations on the Space Coast. Jacksonville rounds out the north. Across the 5 Florida cities we index, the work is genuinely distributed.
What companies are hiring for tech roles in Florida?
Space is the headline draw: SpaceX and Relativity Space both run launch operations on the Space Coast around Cape Canaveral. Cybersecurity is the Orlando and Tampa story, where ThreatLocker and KnowBe4 built sizable businesses. Miami leans into fintech and crypto, riding the wave of finance money that moved in. Feeny lists roles from about 269 companies statewide, so the current set is worth a direct look.
What kinds of tech roles are common in Florida?
The mix reflects how spread out the state is. The Space Coast needs aerospace and launch engineers thanks to SpaceX and Relativity. Orlando and Tampa skew toward cybersecurity, with ThreatLocker and KnowBe4 hiring security and software people. Miami's fintech and crypto scene pulls in backend, payments, and blockchain roles. It's less a single specialty than several regional ones stitched together.
What is it like to work in tech in Florida?
Florida grew fast on a simple lever: no state income tax, which put more of a paycheck in your pocket and drew a wave of finance and crypto money to Miami. Cost of living runs about 3 percent above the national average, but that hides a split, since Miami housing is expensive while much of the rest of the state is not. The scene is younger and more geographically scattered than the coasts, so you pick a metro and a vibe. The honest trade is that Miami's cost has caught up with the tax savings.
Tech & AI Jobs in the South
Explore open tech, startup, and AI roles in more states in the South.
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