Karat blog

To assess engineering skills in financial services, organizations should define the competencies needed for each role, develop interview content that measures both foundational engineering and AI skills, evaluate candidates in realistic environments, and standardize their interviews and scoring. By taking these steps, you’ll be able to reliably identify software engineers who can build secure products […]

In every issue of The Talent Signal newsletter, Karat Co-Founder and President Jeffrey Spector explores the trends reshaping technical hiring. From changing skill requirements to new hiring challenges, the series helps engineering leaders understand how the broader landscape is changing software engineering and what it means for building high-performing teams. One of the biggest themes […]

Financial services engineering leaders are tasked with modernizing legacy systems, shipping new digital products, and navigating an AI revolution – all while competing with big tech and fast-growing startups for increasingly scarce engineering talent. To better understand where FinServ engineering leaders are feeling the most pressure, Karat analyzed data from 303 CTOs, CIOs, VPs of […]

CTOs, CIOs, and VPs of Engineering are under pressure. They’re being asked to scale AI-ready teams faster, modernize aging infrastructure, and do both with tighter budgets. Where you hire is now an important strategy, rather than just a recruiting decision. For years, hiring was concentrated in coastal cities. Now, AI transformation is reshaping the U.S. […]

London is Europe’s largest market for software engineering talent and one of the world’s most significant hubs for enterprise technology. In Karat’s 2026 Top Cities for Engineering Talent report, London jumped up 14 spots from last year to rank 16th globally. In Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), London comes in second for elite […]

San Francisco and the larger Bay Area have long been the world’s most iconic engineering market. While many headlines over the last few years have reported on companies and tech workers leaving California for lower-cost markets like Texas, our data shows that San Francisco remains one of the world’s most concentrated and competitive markets for […]

Toronto jumped nine spots in Karat’s 2026 ranking of the top cities for engineering talent to become the fifth city in the world for elite engineering talent, with 29.2% of candidates estimated to be in the top quartile globally. For years, Toronto has been on the rise as a tech hub. Now, it is North […]

Seattle jumped up six spots to earn Karat's title of the world’s top city for elite talent in 2026, with 38.2% of candidates in the top quartile of global candidates.

For the last two years, the narrative around software engineering talent was simple: talent was dispersing. Remote work, lower costs, and distributed teams were expected to flatten the global talent map. Companies (and top talent) were fleeing the coastal tech hubs in search of something different. Karat’s 2026 Top Cities data shows a different reality. […]