VC firm Redpoint tells startups to buckle up for a hiring showdown. Here's the 13-slide deck it shared with founders.

San Francisco continues to dominate the AI job market, but New York City is quickly establishing itself as a formidable competitor in the tech arena. In recent times, many HR departments experimented with shorter or front-loaded vesting schedules for employees. However, a shift back to traditional linear vesting is now evident, as this model aligns better with candidate expectations, according to Atli Thorkelsson, head of talent network at Redpoint Ventures. The focus of interviews has also evolved, with candidates increasingly being quizzed on their AI skills compared to just a year ago. This heightened demand for expertise in machine learning has resulted in engineers in this field receiving higher salaries and equity than their software engineering peers. Top-tier talent is gravitating towards AI firms, which are known for offering lucrative compensation packages. Amid a tightening job market, companies are prioritizing retention, leading to a trend where employees are opting to stay with their current employers. Thorkelsson highlights that the job market's upper echelons are experiencing unprecedented competition. While the broader tech sector is witnessing a dual landscape—one where job opportunities are stagnant and workers remain in place, contrasted with a vibrant and expanding AI sector—companies are finding themselves in a transformative hiring environment. To equip founders with insights on these dynamics, Thorkelsson prepared a comprehensive slide deck detailing current tech hiring trends. This presentation was shared during Redpoint's third annual InfraRed Summit, an event that connects founders of emerging cloud infrastructure companies. The slide deck draws on data from various sources, including Pave, TrueUp, and SignalFire, reflecting the rapid growth of tech firms. Thorkelsson pointed out that the data primarily represents companies actively hiring in the tech sector, leading to an overrepresentation of those firms in the analysis. The deck features visual data that distinguishes between individual contributors and managers, shedding light on the evolving landscape of tech employment.