foundation models jobs in 2026 — demand, top roles hiring, and related skills
As of 2026-09-03, foundation models appears in 563 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the past 90 days — most often required for Machine Learning Engineer roles, with demand up 39% vs the prior 4 weeks.
Last updated · 90d ending 2026-09-03
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Frequently asked questions about foundation models
+Is foundation models in demand in 2026?
Yes. foundation models appears in 563 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the 90 days ending 2026-09-03, with demand up 39% vs the prior 4 weeks. It is most often required for Machine Learning Engineer roles (12% of Machine Learning Engineer postings list it).
+What jobs require foundation models?
According to the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-09-03, the job titles most likely to require foundation models are Machine Learning Engineer (12% of postings list foundation models), Software Engineer (6% of postings list foundation models), AI Engineer (5% of postings list foundation models).
+What skills are commonly paired with foundation models?
Across job postings indexed by Skillenai (90 days ending 2026-09-03), foundation models most often appears alongside Python, machine learning, PyTorch, fine-tuning, Generative AI.
+Where is foundation models most in demand?
As of 2026-09-03, the metro areas posting the most jobs requiring foundation models are San Francisco, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, New York City, London, according to the Skillenai jobs index.
+How can I keep up with new foundation models content and jobs?
Skillenai indexes news, blog posts, and research papers mentioning foundation models alongside the jobs index. You can subscribe to a daily email digest of new foundation models content from your Skillenai account.
Weekly job postings requiring foundation models — last 90 days
Salary distribution
Box = 25th–75th percentile · tick = median · whisker = 10th–90th · USD, annualized
Job titles most likely to require foundation models
| Role | Postings mentioning | % requiring |
|---|---|---|
| Machine Learning Engineer | 70 | 12.4% |
| Software Engineer | 36 | 6.4% |
| AI Engineer | 27 | 4.8% |
| Product Manager | 25 | 4.4% |
| ML Engineer | 24 | 4.3% |
| Research Scientist | 16 | 2.8% |
| Machine Learning Scientist | 14 | 2.5% |
| Data Scientist | 12 | 2.1% |
| AI Research Scientist | 10 | 1.8% |
| Research Engineer | 10 | 1.8% |
Top metros hiring for foundation models
| Name | Postings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | 46 | 8.2% |
| Mountain View | 42 | 7.5% |
| Sunnyvale | 31 | 5.5% |
| New York City | 27 | 4.8% |
| London | 25 | 4.4% |
| Seattle | 14 | 2.5% |
| Bangkok | 12 | 2.1% |
| Berlin | 11 | 2.0% |
| San Jose | 10 | 1.8% |
Skills commonly paired with foundation models
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How this was computed
Counts derive from the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-09-03. Skills are resolved against the Skillenai canonical taxonomy, so the same entity is counted whether a posting writes 'Python', 'Python 3', or 'python'. Pages refresh weekly (or daily for the top-50 most-requested skills).
- source
- Skillenai jobs index, deduplicated daily
- entity_id
- 8d6f5aea4009fcb3
- data_as_of
- 2026-09-03
- window_days
- 90
The demand, skills, and geo numbers on this page come from the same Skillenai labor market index that powers our API. Use it for compensation benchmarking, hiring-competition analysis, and skill-adoption tracking.
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