Recruits Lab Research Center

    Original Hiring Research & Market Intelligence

    Hiring intelligence for AI, life sciences, healthcare, cybersecurity, and technology leaders — written by the recruiters running these searches. Each report states its own sources, timeframe, and limitations.

    How we produce this research

    Published research (5)

    Life SciencesQ2 2026

    State of Life Sciences Hiring Report — Q2 2026

    Precision hiring has arrived. AI skill premiums, slower velocity, hybrid as advantage, and why the best candidates aren't applying.

    Precision HiringAI Skill PremiumHiring VelocityHybrid Work
    Read the report
    AI & Machine Learning2026

    2026 AI Engineer Hiring Report

    Compensation benchmarks, time-to-hire, in-demand skills, geographic hotspots, and what founders should do to win the hardest AI talent.

    CompensationTime-to-HireFounding EngineersAI Research
    Read the report
    AI & Machine LearningAugust 2026

    2026 Forward Deployed Engineer Talent Report

    What the Forward Deployed Engineer market actually looks like in 2026 — role definition, where the talent comes from, technical versus customer-facing requirements, and how FDE differs from software, AI, and sales engineering.

    Forward Deployed EngineeringEnterprise AIAI EngineeringDeployment Engineering
    Read the report
    AI ResearchAugust 2026

    2026 AI Research & Foundation Model Talent Report

    How foundation model organizations staff research in 2026 — Research Engineer vs Research Scientist vs Member of Technical Staff, pretraining and post-training talent, multimodal and speech, and research-to-production hiring.

    AI ResearchFoundation ModelsPretrainingPost-training
    Read the report
    AI & Machine LearningAugust 2026

    2026 Agentic AI Hiring Report

    How companies are staffing production agent systems in 2026 — role definitions, the skills that actually matter, orchestration and evaluation ownership, and where agentic AI hiring goes wrong.

    Agentic AIAI EngineeringLLM EngineeringEvaluation
    Read the report

    What we cover

    Research is organized by the markets we recruit in. Each area connects to the recruiting practice behind it, so you can move from the intelligence to the people who work that market.

    AI Research & Foundation Models

    Talent-market intelligence for research organizations: research engineers, research scientists, members of technical staff, pretraining, post-training, multimodal, and speech.

    Life Sciences & Biotech

    Scientific, clinical, regulatory, and commercial hiring across biotech, medtech, diagnostics, CRO/CDMO, and healthcare technology.

    Technology & SaaS

    Engineering, product, and go-to-market hiring across venture-backed and growth-stage software companies.

    Research in development

    We publish a report when the underlying material supports it, not on a content calendar. Areas we are actively building research toward:

    LLM EngineeringAI Infrastructure & ML SystemsMultimodal AISpeech & Audio AIAI Compensation BenchmarksStartup AI HiringCybersecurity Hiring ReportStartup Hiring Report

    In the meantime, the AI Recruiting Hub, compensation guides, and hiring guides carry our current market intelligence.

    Trusted by founders, venture-backed startups, and hiring leaders across AI, life sciences, and technology.

    Research, delivered.

    Subscribe to receive new hiring research and market intelligence from Recruits Lab.

    Free Strategy Review

    Need Help Hiring?

    Schedule a free 30-minute Hiring Strategy Review and walk away with a clear plan tailored to your roles.

    • Hiring market insights
    • Salary benchmarking
    • Talent availability analysis
    • Recruiting strategy recommendations
    Book Free Strategy Review