🇮🇳 India Hiring Trends

How startup hiring in India is changing and which roles are in demand, measured as shares of startup job postings so it reflects hiring rather than how many startups we track.

Share of startup postings: 5.2%; Last 12 months
Change in share: -8.1%; From 5.6% the 12 months before
Most in-demand role: Software Engineer; 11.8% of postings here

India's share of startup hiring

India accounted for 5.2% of startup job postings in the last 12 months, down from 5.6% in the 12 months before.

Jobs in India went from 5.3% to 5.6% of startup job postings in a year

India share of startup job postings

Per quarter since Q1 2017.

Show the data

Quarter	Share of postings
Q1 2017	2.3%
Q2 2017	1.8%
Q3 2017	2.2%
Q4 2017	2.0%
Q1 2018	1.8%
Q2 2018	2.2%
Q3 2018	2.3%
Q4 2018	1.6%
Q1 2019	1.7%
Q2 2019	2.0%
Q3 2019	1.7%
Q4 2019	2.6%
Q1 2020	3.3%
Q2 2020	3.1%
Q3 2020	3.3%
Q4 2020	3.5%
Q1 2021	3.3%
Q2 2021	3.2%
Q3 2021	3.6%
Q4 2021	3.5%
Q1 2022	3.6%
Q2 2022	3.7%
Q3 2022	3.8%
Q4 2022	4.0%
Q1 2023	4.3%
Q2 2023	4.8%
Q3 2023	5.1%
Q4 2023	5.2%
Q1 2024	5.0%
Q2 2024	6.1%
Q3 2024	6.2%
Q4 2024	6.1%
Q1 2025	5.7%
Q2 2025	6.0%
Q3 2025	5.3%
Q4 2025	5.0%
Q1 2026	4.7%
Q2 2026	4.9%
Q3 2026	5.6%

Roles in demand in India

Software Engineer is the most in-demand startup role in India, with 11.8% of postings in the last 12 months.

Largest roles

Role	Share, prior 12 months	Share, last 12 months	Change
Software Engineer	12.4%	11.8%	-4.8%
Customer Service	4.5%	4.5%	+1.3%
Senior Software Engineer	4.6%	4.2%	-8.4%
Product Manager	2.7%	2.7%	-2.3%
Quality Assurance (QA)	1.9%	2.0%	+0.4%
H.R.	1.7%	1.8%	+4.4%
Software Engineer I	2.0%	1.8%	-10.7%
Finance/Accounting	1.5%	1.6%	+9.8%
Support Engineer	1.8%	1.6%	-14.5%
Data Engineer	1.6%	1.5%	-6.6%
Operations Engineer	1.3%	1.4%	+10.1%
Software Development Engineer	1.7%	1.4%	-20.3%
Staff Software Engineer	1.2%	1.4%	+11.8%
DevOps	1.5%	1.3%	-8.4%
Engineering Manager	1.3%	1.2%	-8.8%

Roles gaining share

Role	Share, prior 12 months	Share, last 12 months	Change
Platform Engineer	0.18%	0.61%	+241.2%
AI Engineer	0.34%	0.95%	+175.0%
Solution Architect	0.13%	0.29%	+128.2%
Senior Quality Assurance (QA)	0.15%	0.33%	+113.0%
Operations Associate	0.14%	0.29%	+112.6%

Methodology

Trends come from job postings on startup.jobs, sourced from startups' career pages and jobs posted directly by employers. Employers our vetting rejected or couldn't confirm as startups are left out.
We keep adding startups, so posting counts grow even when hiring doesn't. Every trend is therefore a share of all startup postings in the same period, which stays comparable as coverage grows.
Broad catch-all titles such as Manager or Specialist are left out of role rankings.
Quarterly shares start in 2017 and cover complete quarters. Changes compare the last 12 full months with the 12 before.

You are welcome to cite these figures with a link: Source: Startup Jobs, startup.jobs/locations/india/trends

For salaries, remote work, and AI hiring, see the startup hiring statistics.