12 Best AI Engineer Job Boards in 2026

The best AI engineer job boards in 2026: Wellfound for startup roles with free unlimited posts, LinkedIn for volume and passive-candidate reach, AIJobs.ai for a paid AI-only board with published prices, Hugging Face for sourcing ML researchers by their public work, and Toptal for vetted contract engineers. YC companies get Work at a Startup, Hacker News "Who is hiring?" is a free monthly thread, 80,000 Hours covers AI safety and policy roles, and Welcome to the Jungle (formerly Otta) and Built In win on candidate experience and employer branding.

The AI engineer market changed in 2025. Generalist boards have not caught up. Most still treat "AI engineer" as a synonym for "data scientist" or "ML researcher," which it is not. Every board claims AI talent; few can show you engineers who have actually shipped LLM apps, RAG pipelines, agent frameworks, and production inference workloads instead of just listing them on a resume. Salary ranges swing widely between regions and seniority tiers. Specificity matters more than reach.

This guide compares the 12 best AI engineer job boards and hiring channels in 2026: what each one covers, the employer pricing each publishes (and where it does not), pros and cons, and a framework to pick the right board for your role, your budget, and your hiring timeline. Pricing and product details were checked on each company's own site on 2026-09-26. No hands-on hiring test is claimed.

Best AI engineer job boards: a brief overview

• Wellfound (AngelList Talent): Best for startup and seed-to-Series-B AI roles with equity comp.
• LinkedIn: Best for volume and passive-candidate reach across every seniority tier.
• AIJobs.ai: Best paid AI-only board with published, flat posting prices.
• Hugging Face Hub: Best for sourcing ML researchers and open-source contributors by their public work.
• Anthropic Careers: Best as a benchmark for top-tier safety and frontier AI roles.
• Foorilla (formerly ai-jobs.net): Best low-cost featured slot on a salary-first tech board with an AI and data section.
• Welcome to the Jungle (formerly Otta): Best for curated, candidate-first AI roles in the UK, Europe and the US.
• Y Combinator Work at a Startup: Best for YC founders hiring engineer #1 through #10.
• Hacker News "Who is hiring?": Best free monthly thread for reaching engineers who read Hacker News.
• Built In: Best for US tech-hub AI roles with strong employer branding.
• 80,000 Hours Job Board: Best for AI safety, alignment and AI policy roles.
• Toptal: Best for vetted freelance and contract AI engineers on demand.

1. Wellfound (AngelList Talent), best for startup AI roles with equity transparency

Wellfound (formerly AngelList Talent) is a job board built for venture-backed startups. Wellfound says 27,000+ companies hire on the platform, and its job cards show salary ranges and equity next to the role. For AI engineers who want to work on GenAI products at seed-to-Series-B startups, the platform surfaces roles that rarely appear on traditional boards.

Key features

• Salary and equity ranges on job cards
• Direct lines to founders and hiring managers, per Wellfound, not third-party recruiters
• Filters for funding stage, remote policy, and tech stack
• Built-in ATS, or sync your own

Best for

• Seed-to-Series-B startups hiring AI engineers with equity comp
• Candidates who want startup roles and equity transparency
• Founders who want to message engineers directly without a recruiter layer

Pricing

• Job posts: free, unlimited listings
• Job Ads (top-of-search placement): from $200 per ad
• Reach AI sourcing: free Explore tier, paid seats from $135 per seat per month
• Autopilot dedicated recruiter: $500 per month per open role plus a 10% placement fee on hire

Pros

• Large startup base: 27,000+ companies, per Wellfound
• Salary and equity visible upfront cuts down on mismatched applicants
• Founder-led messaging shortens time-to-first-interview
• Strong filtering by funding stage and remote policy

Cons

• Skews heavily toward seed-to-Series-B; thin coverage at FAANG-scale or pure research
• Volume in non-US markets is limited compared to LinkedIn

2. LinkedIn, best for volume and passive-candidate reach

LinkedIn has over 1 billion members, according to its own job posting page, which makes it the biggest audience on this list. Big-tech AI labs, enterprises and later-stage startups post here, and its targeting tools give an AI hiring manager the widest reach of any channel in this guide.

Key features

• Job alerts and AI-assisted candidate matching
• Recruiter and Recruiter Lite tiers for outbound sourcing
• InMail to passive candidates outside the public job pool
• Company pages for employer branding

Best for

• Enterprises hiring senior AI engineers and ML leads at scale
• Recruiters running passive-candidate outbound campaigns
• Candidates open to inbound but not actively applying

Pricing

• LinkedIn does not publish a flat job post price; its page says pricing varies with the role, the job location and the number of hires
• Recruiter and Recruiter Lite are separate paid products

Pros

• Biggest audience on this list: 1B+ members, per LinkedIn
• Excellent filtering by seniority, location, and skill
• Strong employer brand surface through company pages

Cons

• Application volume is high and quality varies widely
• Costs add up fast at scale; not budget-friendly for early-stage startups

3. AIJobs.ai, best paid AI-only board with published prices

AIJobs.ai is a job board only for artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science roles, from AI startups and established companies. Like Wellfound and Foorilla, it prints its employer prices on a public page, so you know the cost before you talk to anyone. The site says a single post reaches its 30,000 monthly visitors.

Key features

• AI, ML and data science roles only
• Single posts stay live for 30 days with top placement on the homepage
• Featured placement across category and blog pages, plus posting to its social accounts
• Permanent company page with your logo

Best for

• Startups that want an AI-only audience without a subscription
• Teams hiring two to ten AI roles who can use a job pack
• Hiring managers who want a fixed, known cost per role

Pricing

• Single job post: $299 for 30 days
• Highlight add-on: $49
• Job packs: 3 jobs for $749, 5 jobs for $1,099, 10 jobs for $1,799

Pros

• Every listing sits next to other AI roles, not general business jobs
• Flat, published pricing with no sales call
• Pack discounts for teams hiring several roles

Cons

• No free posting tier
• Audience size (30,000 monthly visitors, per the site) is a fraction of LinkedIn's reach

Skip it if you need passive senior candidates who are not browsing job boards; LinkedIn Recruiter or a placement partner reaches them better.

4. Hugging Face Hub, best for sourcing ML researchers by their public work

Hugging Face is the main hub of the open-source AI community. It does not run an employer job board: "Hugging Face Jobs" is a compute product that runs code on CPUs and GPUs in the cloud, and Hugging Face's own openings sit on its Workable careers page. We keep it on this list as a sourcing channel. Profiles on the Hub show the models, datasets and Spaces people have published, which is hard evidence for research-leaning and fine-tuning roles.

Key features

• Public profiles with models, datasets and Spaces a person has published
• Organization pages that show who contributes to which projects
• Direct visibility into candidates' open-source footprint

Best for

• Companies hiring ML researchers and model engineers
• Roles requiring deep transformer, fine-tuning, or inference expertise
• Recruiters who source by published work rather than resumes

Pricing

• No job posting product; browsing public profiles is free

Pros

• Candidates often have public, verifiable open-source contributions
• Strong fit for fine-tuning, evaluation, and model deployment roles

Cons

• Not a job board: you cannot post a role, so all outreach is manual
• Skews research and ML over applied AI engineering

5. Anthropic Careers, best as a benchmark for frontier AI roles

Anthropic Careers is not a job board in the marketplace sense: it is a single-employer careers page. We include it because it is a useful benchmark for what frontier AI roles look like in 2026: detailed role scopes, published pay ranges, and teams that mix research and engineering. Anthropic's careers page says its "engineers here do lots of research, and researchers do lots of engineering." Its Greenhouse board listed 618 open roles when we checked, and US listings include an annual compensation range. If you would rather have agents built than staff a lab-style team, see our AI agent development service.

Key features

• Research, engineering, policy, operations and business teams
• Detailed role scopes with explicit responsibilities and qualifications
• Annual compensation ranges on US role listings
• Safety and alignment roles published alongside engineering

Best for

• Candidates benchmarking comp and scope for AI engineer roles
• Hiring managers studying how a frontier lab structures AI hiring
• Researchers targeting safety and alignment tracks

Pricing

• Not applicable: single employer

Pros

• Clear reference for how to scope an AI engineer role
• Published pay ranges on US listings
• Strong signal of what frontier AI work actually entails

Cons

• Not a marketplace: you cannot post jobs here
• Roles are highly competitive; conversion rate is low for most candidates

6. Foorilla (formerly ai-jobs.net), best low-cost featured slot with an AI and data section

ai-jobs.net now redirects to Foorilla, which lists tech jobs with salary ranges and has a dedicated data, AI and machine learning section. The feed is broader than it used to be: the main hiring page mixes AI roles with DevOps, help desk and other engineering jobs. For employers, the draw is a cheap featured slot with published prices. Foorilla publishes AI summaries of each role and links out to your own ATS for applications.

Key features

• Data, AI and machine learning section at foorilla.com/hiring/data-ai-and-machine-learning/
• Salary range shown on listings; required for all featured listings
• Applications go to your ATS or careers page (no apply-by-email)
• AI-written summaries instead of full job descriptions

Best for

• Startups and SMBs promoting an AI role on a small budget
• Remote-friendly roles that benefit from salary-first listings
• Candidates who filter by salary before anything else

Pricing

• Featured listing: $192 for 30 days, $256 for 60 days
• Featured posts are arranged by email; Foorilla replies with a payment link if the role fits its audience

Pros

• Low published price for a featured slot
• Salary transparency is required for featured roles
• Global mix of remote and on-site roles

Cons

• No longer an AI-only board: AI roles sit next to general tech jobs
• Limited employer branding features compared to Built In or Welcome to the Jungle

7. Welcome to the Jungle (formerly Otta), best for curated, candidate-first AI roles

Otta is now Welcome to the Jungle: otta.com redirects to Welcome to the Jungle UK, which describes itself as "formerly Otta." It built its reputation on candidate-first curation, and the UK site says it shows "only relevant roles" with 70,000+ live jobs from over 3,500 companies. For AI engineers in the UK, EU, and parts of the US, it is a high-signal board, and pairs well with our list of the best AI development companies in the UK if you are hiring through an agency instead.

Key features

• Curated listings with no outdated or duplicate jobs, per the site
• Salary data and company insights next to each role
• Company culture profiles with mission, perks, and values
• UK, France and US sites

Best for

• Product-led AI startups hiring mid-to-senior engineers
• UK and EU AI roles
• Candidates who prioritize culture and salary transparency

Pricing

• Employer pricing is not published; the employer site routes to a sales and pricing contact

Pros

• Curated listings improve candidate experience and brand
• Salary transparency helps reduce drop-off
• Strong UK/EU reach with US coverage
• Above-average company profile depth

Cons

• Smaller US footprint than LinkedIn or Wellfound
• Pricing is quote-based, so you cannot compare cost upfront

8. Y Combinator Work at a Startup, best for early-stage AI engineer hires

YC's Work at a Startup is limited to Y Combinator companies, which makes it small but high-density. Candidates apply to YC startups with a single free profile, and founders can contact them directly. For engineers who want to work on early-stage AI products, it is a concentrated funnel, and the YC brand draws strong applicants.

Key features

• Limited to YC-backed companies
• Founder-led messaging and applications
• One candidate profile visible to YC startups
• Filters by role, location and remote work

Best for

• YC AI startups hiring engineer #1 through #10
• Candidates who want early-stage roles
• Engineers seeking founder-led teams with high equity upside

Pricing

• Free for candidates
• Only YC companies can post; YC lists no posting fee

Pros

• Founders can contact candidates directly, per YC
• Founder-led process speeds up hiring
• Candidate quality skews strong due to YC brand

Cons

• Only YC companies can post: not accessible to outside employers
• Heavy startup-only bias; no enterprise roles

9. Hacker News "Who is hiring?", best free monthly thread for engineer reach

At the start of each month, the whoishiring account opens an "Ask HN: Who is hiring?" thread on Hacker News, and companies reply with their open roles. The September 2026 thread opened on September 1 and had 397 comments when we checked. It is not AI-only, but AI is well represented: when we counted on 2026-09-26, 150 of the 256 top-level posts mentioned AI, LLMs or machine learning. The thread rules ask for one post per company, written by someone at the hiring company, with no recruiting firms or job boards.

Key features

• New thread every month, plus a parallel "Who wants to be hired?" thread for candidates
• Posts state location, and REMOTE or ONSITE
• Third-party search tools linked from the thread itself
• Direct contact with the hiring team

Best for

• Startups hiring engineers who read Hacker News
• Remote-first AI teams
• Founders who can write a clear, plain-text job post

Pricing

• Free; one post per company per thread

Pros

• No cost and no account tier
• The "Who wants to be hired?" thread lets you source candidates in the same month

Cons

• One plain-text comment, no filters or ATS
• Recruiters and agencies are not allowed to post

Skip it if you are a recruiting firm, or you need to post many roles at once; the one-post-per-company rule limits you to a single comment.

10. Built In, best for US tech-hub AI roles with strong employer branding

Built In runs city sites across US tech hubs (Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Colorado, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, NYC, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington DC) plus Built In Remote, and it has a dedicated "Artificial Intelligence" jobs category. It pairs job posts with rich employer profiles, including tech stacks, perks, and culture content. For mid-to-senior US AI hiring with employer-brand investment, it is a strong option.

Key features

• Artificial Intelligence jobs category across US hub sites
• Rich employer profiles, tech stack pages, and culture content
• City pages that match "AI jobs in [city]" searches
• ATS integrations (Greenhouse, Lever, Workday and others)

Best for

• US-based AI employers investing in employer brand
• Companies hiring mid-to-senior AI engineers in specific cities
• Candidates targeting tech hubs over fully remote roles

Pricing

• Free job postings available
• Paid Basic, Core and Enterprise packages; prices are not published

Pros

• City pages rank for "AI jobs in [city]" searches
• Rich employer profiles improve conversion
• Recruitment marketing tools beyond job posting

Cons

• Every regional site is a US city; limited reach for non-US hiring
• Paid packages are overkill for one-off hires

11. 80,000 Hours Job Board, best for AI safety and AI policy roles

The 80,000 Hours Job Board lists roles it considers high-impact, with a strong focus on reducing risks from advanced AI. Listings are "handpicked," in the site's words: the team monitors organizations' vacancy pages, takes submissions, reviews each role and then publishes it. If you hire for AI safety research, alignment, evaluations or AI governance, the board's readers are people looking for that exact work.

Key features

• Curated listings with an AI safety and policy focus
• Filters including salary, plus job alerts
• Submission form for roles you want listed
• Career advice content and one-on-one advising for candidates

Best for

• AI safety labs, evals teams and research nonprofits
• AI policy and governance roles
• Candidates choosing a career in AI safety

Pricing

• Free for candidates
• Employers submit roles through a form; the FAQ lists no fee, and the team decides what gets listed

Pros

• Audience self-selects for AI safety and policy work
• Editorial review keeps listings on topic
• Candidate advising brings people to the board

Cons

• You cannot buy a listing; the team may decline your role
• Narrow fit: little reach for general applied AI engineering roles

Skip it if you are hiring for a product AI engineering role with no safety, research or policy angle; Wellfound or AIJobs.ai fit better.

12. Toptal, best for vetted freelance and contract AI engineers

Toptal's AI vertical supplies freelance and contract AI engineers, screened through a multi-stage process. Toptal says that of the thousands of applications it sees each month, typically fewer than 3% are accepted. For teams that need an AI engineer on a project basis (proof-of-concept, RAG pipeline, agent prototype) without committing to a full-time hire, it is a mature option. AY Automate complements this for teams that want managed delivery rather than freelance staffing. See our AI agent development service.

Key features

• Multi-stage screening (fewer than 3% of applicants accepted, per Toptal)
• Specialized AI/ML talent pool
• No-risk trial: you are not billed if you are not satisfied, per Toptal
• Hourly, part-time, and full-time contract options

Best for

• Teams needing freelance AI engineers for project work
• Proof-of-concept and prototype builds
• Companies that want vetted talent without an internal screening process

Pricing

• Toptal does not publish hourly rates for AI engineers; a talent matcher quotes per engagement
• No-risk trial period before billing

Pros

• Strong vetting reduces hiring risk
• Fast matching: Toptal says the average time to match is under 24 hours
• Flexible engagement models (hourly to full-time contract)

Cons

• Rates are not published, so you cannot compare cost before a call
• Built for freelance and contract work, not permanent senior hires

How to choose the best AI engineer job board for your role

1) Are you hiring full-time or contract?

If you need a permanent AI engineer, your shortlist is LinkedIn, Wellfound, AIJobs.ai, Welcome to the Jungle, and Built In. LinkedIn and Wellfound give the broadest reach. Welcome to the Jungle and Built In win on candidate experience. For startup hires with equity comp, Wellfound is the default. See our guide to how to hire AI engineers for full-cycle hiring playbooks.

If you need contract or fractional help, Toptal is a mature vetted marketplace, and managed delivery partners like AY Automate offer a different model: outcomes instead of hours.

2) Are you a startup, a YC company, or an enterprise?

YC companies should post on Work at a Startup first. Early-stage non-YC startups should lead with Wellfound, add the monthly Hacker News "Who is hiring?" thread, and pay for AIJobs.ai or a Foorilla featured slot when a role needs more reach. Enterprises should run LinkedIn Recruiter with Built In for branded employer presence. Companies hiring research-leaning ML talent should source on Hugging Face, and AI safety teams should submit roles to 80,000 Hours.

3) How much can you spend on hiring channels?

Bootstrapped budgets can run Wellfound free posts, Hacker News "Who is hiring?" (free), and Work at a Startup if you are a YC company. Mid-budget teams add AIJobs.ai ($299 per post), a Foorilla featured slot (from $192), Wellfound Job Ads (from $200), and individual LinkedIn posts. Enterprise budgets add LinkedIn Recruiter, Welcome to the Jungle, and Built In. Toptal is best treated as a per-project line item, not a hiring channel.

4) How specific is the role?

For frontier research, ML training, and fine-tuning roles, Hugging Face sourcing and Anthropic Careers (as a benchmark) lead. For applied AI engineering (RAG, agents, Claude Agent SDK, LangGraph), Wellfound, LinkedIn, and AIJobs.ai reach the right people. Before posting anywhere, get the scope right with our AI engineer job description template. A vague JD attracts generic applicants and slows every channel on this list.

Where AY Automate fits in

AY Automate is not a job board. We are an AI agent development partner for teams that want to ship production agents and automations without spending six months staffing an internal AI team. We build with the Claude Agent SDK, LangGraph, and modern RAG patterns, and we deliver in EN, FR, and AR. If you want an engineer on your team rather than a project, we also place AI developers from our own bench: from $60,000 a year, placed in 2 to 4 weeks, with a 90-day replacement guarantee. If you are stuck between "hire an AI engineer" and "need this shipped in 60 days," talk to us. We'll be honest about whether you should build an internal team, hire freelance, or work with a partner. Book a free consultation and we'll scope it together.

FAQ

What is an AI engineer job board?

An AI engineer job board is a hiring channel focused specifically on AI, ML, and applied AI engineering roles. It differs from general job boards (Indeed, ZipRecruiter) by either being purely vertical (AIJobs.ai, 80,000 Hours for AI safety) or by offering AI-specific filtering and candidate signals within a larger platform (LinkedIn, Wellfound).

How is an AI engineer job board different from a general tech job board?

General tech boards lump AI engineers in with data scientists, backend engineers, and ML researchers. AI-specific boards separate applied AI engineering (LLM apps, agents, RAG) from research and from data infrastructure, which gives both sides better filtering. They also tend to surface AI-native employers candidates actually want to work for.

How do I verify an AI engineer candidate is legit?

Ask for shipped, production AI work, not side projects. Verify open-source contributions on GitHub or Hugging Face. Run a paid one-day take-home that mirrors real work: build a small RAG pipeline, ship a Claude Agent SDK prototype, or evaluate a model. Reference checks should focus on outcomes shipped, not titles held.

How much does it cost to hire an AI engineer in 2026?

Salary is the big number, and it varies by region and seniority; our AI engineer salary guide breaks it down. Channel costs are small by comparison: Wellfound posts are free, AIJobs.ai charges $299 per post, a Foorilla featured slot costs $192 for 30 days, and LinkedIn and Toptal quote per role.

Which AI job boards publish their employer prices?

On this list, Wellfound (free posts, Job Ads from $200), AIJobs.ai ($299 per 30-day post, packs from $749) and Foorilla ($192 or $256 per featured listing) publish prices on their own sites. LinkedIn, Welcome to the Jungle, Built In paid plans and Toptal quote per customer. All prices were checked on 2026-09-26.

Where can I post an AI engineer job for free?

Wellfound lets any company post unlimited jobs for free. The Hacker News "Who is hiring?" thread is free, with one post per company each month. YC companies can use Work at a Startup, Built In offers free postings, and 80,000 Hours takes role submissions through a form for AI safety and policy roles, with no fee listed.

What happened to Hired?

Hired, the reverse marketplace where employers sent salary-first interview requests, is no longer a standalone service. As of June 14, 2024 it became part of LHH Recruitment Solutions, an Adecco Group business, and hired.com now redirects to LHH. We removed it from this list in September 2026 for that reason.

How long does it take to hire an AI engineer?

It depends on the channel. A full-time search through job boards runs through sourcing, screening and several interview rounds, so plan in months, not weeks. Toptal says you can typically hire an AI developer through its platform in about 48 hours. Internal references and warm intros from VCs are often the fastest route of all.

Is a specific certification or badge important for AI engineers?

Less than you'd think. Shipped production work, open-source contributions, and evidence of building with frontier models matter far more than coursework certificates. Cloud and model vendor certifications can be useful tiebreakers for cloud-deployment roles but are not gating credentials at most AI-native employers.

Should I post on LinkedIn or Wellfound first?

If you are a venture-backed startup hiring under Series B, post on Wellfound first. The audience matches, posting is free, and salary/equity transparency works in your favor. If you are an enterprise or a later-stage company hiring at scale, LinkedIn gives you the volume and passive reach you need. Most serious roles end up on both.

Is a placement service faster than a job board?

Usually, because the sourcing and screening are already done. A job board only gets you applicants; you still screen, interview and close. A placement service matches you with engineers it has already vetted. AY Automate places engineers from its own bench in 2 to 4 weeks, from $60,000 a year, with a 90-day replacement guarantee.

Can a job board help train my internal AI team?

Job boards hire; they don't train. If you need to upskill an existing team on Claude Agent SDK, LangGraph, RAG, or agent orchestration, work with a delivery partner who can pair-build with your engineers. AY Automate runs enablement engagements where we ship the first agent alongside your team and leave them with the patterns to ship the next one solo.

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To skip the job board search and hire a pre-vetted AI engineer directly, AY Automate engineer placement matches you with an engineer from our own bench in 2 to 4 weeks.