annotation jobs in 2026 — demand, top roles hiring, and related skills

As of 2026-10-29, annotation appears in 194 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the past 90 days — AI Data Annotator has the most postings mentioning annotation.

Last updated · 90d ending 2026-10-29

Postings · last 90 days
194
Top role · 6.7% of skill postings
Top hiring metro
San Francisco

Which roles want annotation?

Upload your resume and Skillenai will show which roles your annotation experience fits, which skills you already cover, and what is missing.

Frequently asked questions about annotation

+Is annotation in demand in 2026?

Yes. annotation appears in 194 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the 90 days ending 2026-10-29. AI Data Annotator accounts for the most postings mentioning annotation (6.7% of all postings mentioning annotation).

+What jobs require annotation?

According to the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-10-29, among roles with at least 20 postings, the highest shares mentioning annotation are AI Data Annotator (37.1% of that role’s postings mention annotation), AI Response Evaluator (7.4% of that role’s postings mention annotation), Team Lead (7.4% of that role’s postings mention annotation).

+What skills are commonly paired with annotation?

Across job postings indexed by Skillenai (90 days ending 2026-10-29), annotation most often appears alongside data labeling, evaluation, prompt creation, Python, model evaluation.

+Where is annotation most in demand?

As of 2026-10-29, the metro areas posting the most jobs requiring annotation are San Francisco, New York City, Seattle, Berlin, Sydney, according to the Skillenai jobs index.

+How can I keep up with new annotation content and jobs?

Skillenai indexes news, blog posts, and research papers mentioning annotation alongside the jobs index. You can subscribe to a daily email digest of new annotation content from your Skillenai account.

+Which skills come before and after annotation?

The skill-flow chart shows skills documented in adjacent positions across observed employer changes. An outgoing skill is documented in the following position but not the preceding one. These are ideas to explore, not proven prerequisites, acquisition dates, or levels of mastery. Each ribbon counts employer moves with that skill pair; one move can contribute several pairs.

Weekly indexed postings requiring annotation — last 90 days

Career paths around annotation

Skills documented before and after this skill across employer changes.

Historical career profiles · all locations

Skills before annotation

Before annotationObject Injection → annotation: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairEJB → annotation: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairparticle detectors → annotation: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairpython → annotation: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairinformation architecture → annotation: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairparticles → annotation: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairon-call rotations → annotation: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairServlets → annotation: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairannotationObject Injection: 1 movesObject Injection1 movesEJB: 1 movesEJB1 movesparticle detectors: 1 movesparticle detectors1 movespython: 1 movespython1 movesinformation architecture: 1 movesinformationarchitecture1 movesparticles: 1 movesparticles1 moveson-call rotations: 1 moveson-call rotations1 movesServlets: 1 movesServlets1 moves

Skills after annotation

After annotationannotation → usability testing: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairannotation → style guide: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairannotation → online tools: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairannotation → Data Visualization: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairannotation → text annotation: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairannotation → gamification: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairannotationusability testing: 1 movesusability testing1 movesstyle guide: 1 movesstyle guide1 movesonline tools: 1 movesonline tools1 movesData Visualization: 1 movesData Visualization1 movestext annotation: 1 movestext annotation1 movesgamification: 1 movesgamification1 moves
How to read this chart · view counts

Each side is an independent set of observed employer moves, not the same people followed through three stages. Ribbon widths compare move counts within that side. Internal moves are not included.

The following position documents a skill that the preceding position does not. Skills must be linked to both positions, with clear dates and no overlap. One move can connect several skill pairs. These patterns suggest skills to explore; they do not establish prerequisites, when a skill was learned, or a higher skill level.

Source: Skillenai talent graph, historical career profiles. Historical descriptions and coverage can change. Only the leading published connections are shown.

Observed connections and move counts
ConnectionMoves
Before: Object Injection1
Before: EJB1
Before: particle detectors1
Before: python1
Before: information architecture1
Before: particles1
Before: on-call rotations1
Before: Servlets1
After: usability testing1
After: style guide1
After: online tools1
After: Data Visualization1
After: text annotation1
After: gamification1

Roles most likely to require annotation

Among roles with at least 20 postings in the same period.

RolePostings mentioning skill% of role postings mentioning skill
AI Data Annotator1337.1%
AI Response Evaluator27.4%
Team Lead27.4%
Deep Learning Engineer26.7%
AI Evaluator24.5%
AI Tutor24.1%
AI Evaluation Specialist14.0%
Quality Control Specialist13.6%
AI Safety Evaluator13.4%
Technical Writer33.2%

Roles with the most annotation postings

RolePostings mentioning skillShare of skill postings
AI Data Annotator136.7%
Software Engineer115.7%
AI Quality Evaluator105.2%
Linguist Contributor84.1%
Product Manager84.1%
QA Expert84.1%
Technical Program Manager63.1%
AI Data Contributor42.1%
AI Trainer42.1%
Linguist42.1%

Top companies posting jobs requiring annotation

Employers ranked by indexed job postings in the last 90 days.

Top companies posting jobs requiring annotation
CompanyPostings · 90 days
OpenBrain45
Welo Data37
Canva14
Mercor10
Remote5
YO AI Labs5
Anthropic4
CLERA4
xAI3
UserTesting3

Job postings indexed over the past 90 days, grouped by resolved employer. Counts are postings, not hires. Companies without a published page appear without a link.

Top metros hiring for annotation

NamePostingsShare
San Francisco157.7%
New York City73.6%
Seattle42.1%
Berlin31.5%
Sydney31.5%
Amsterdam21.0%
Boston21.0%
London21.0%
Palo Alto21.0%

Skills commonly paired with annotation

Explore related pages

How this was computed

Weekly job-count charts omit the incomplete current week (weeks start Monday, UTC). Totals include all postings in the stated window. Counts derive from the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-10-29. Skills are resolved against the Skillenai canonical taxonomy, so the same entity is counted whether a posting writes 'Python', 'Python 3', or 'python'. Role prevalence divides postings mentioning annotation by all postings for each role in the same window, ranking roles with at least 20 postings. Role distribution divides each role’s annotation postings by all annotation postings, including postings without a role. Shares need not sum to 100% for the displayed roles. Pages refresh weekly (or daily for the top-50 most-requested skills). An adjusted trend is not shown because comparable posting coverage is insufficient.

source
Skillenai jobs index, deduplicated daily
entity_id
ce1fc745e694372c
data_as_of
2026-10-29
window_days
90
Compiled by Jared Rand · Data sourced from the Skillenai labor market index