San Jose and Bay Area go-to-market hiring market: 2025 review

Go-to-market hiring in San Jose and the Bay Area in 2025 was a two-speed market: AI-native companies with fresh funding hired sellers, solutions engineers and growth marketers aggressively, while much of established software kept GTM headcount flat or cut it. For employers, the result was plenty of applicants but intense competition for the small group of sellers who have closed AI, data or infrastructure deals.

This review covers what happened in Bay Area go-to-market hiring through mid-November 2025, which roles were hardest to fill, how pay and working patterns moved, the California rules that shape every search, and what founders and sales leaders should plan for in 2026.

The 2025 Bay Area hiring market in five numbers

Read together, those figures explain the year. The region shed tech jobs early in 2025, with the South Bay hit hardest, yet it remained the center of AI investment and AI talent. Capital concentrated in a relatively small number of AI companies, and those companies drove a disproportionate share of new GTM openings.

What happened to Bay Area GTM hiring in 2025?

A difficult first quarter

The year started badly. Beacon Economics estimates based on California Employment Development Department data showed the Bay Area losing a net 8,700 tech jobs in January and February 2025, which was 88% of the region's total job losses over those two months. By the end of the first quarter the estimated net tech loss had reached 11,100, with the South Bay down 5,800 and San Francisco-San Mateo down 4,600.

GTM teams were part of those cuts. Mature SaaS companies facing slower growth trimmed SDR teams, merged account executive segments and reduced marketing programs. For candidates, that meant a deep pool of experienced sellers in the South Bay and Peninsula looking for their next role in spring and summer.

AI-native companies kept hiring

At the same time, CBRE's Scoring Tech Talent 2025 report, published in September, found the number of Bay Area tech workers with AI skills rose 24% year over year to 76,079, the largest concentration in North America. CBRE also reported that the Bay Area has attracted about three-quarters of US AI venture funding since 2019, and that AI-related companies leased 1.1 million square feet of San Francisco office space in the first half of 2025.

The funding numbers show why. Crunchbase reported global venture funding of $97 billion in Q3 2025, up about 38% year over year, with around 46% going to AI companies. A small number of very large rounds accounted for much of that total. Freshly funded AI companies needed to convert technical interest into revenue, which meant first sales hires, solutions engineers, customer success teams able to drive adoption, and leaders who could build a repeatable motion.

The result: a two-speed market

By the second half of 2025, Bay Area GTM hiring looked like two different markets sharing one geography:

• AI-native and AI infrastructure companies at seed to growth stage: hiring founding AEs, enterprise sellers, solutions engineers and forward-deployed roles, often with aggressive timelines and competitive equity
• Established SaaS companies: replacing attrition, upgrading talent selectively and restructuring segments, with tight headcount budgets and longer approval cycles
• Security, data and infrastructure vendors in the South Bay: steady demand for enterprise sellers and SEs with technical credibility, especially where products touch AI workloads
• Vertical SaaS and services-led businesses: more cautious, with hiring tied closely to proven pipeline

Which GTM roles were hardest to fill in the Bay Area in 2025?

Applicant volume was rarely the problem. Relevance was. These were the roles that typically took longest to fill and drew the most competing offers in 2025.

Two patterns stood out. First, Bay Area employers increasingly wanted sellers who could hold their own in a technical conversation without leaning on an SE for every call. Second, solutions engineering became a pinch point: the people who can explain an AI product credibly to an engineering buyer are also attractive to product and engineering teams, so pay expectations rose. See /specialisms/solutions-engineering and /specialisms/account-executives for how we assess both.

How did pay move for Bay Area sales and marketing roles?

The Bay Area remains the highest-paying tech labor market in North America. CBRE reported an average annual tech wage of $193,116 for the region, and $215,072 in 2023 for tech talent employed by tech companies, the highest of any market it tracks. Those figures cover technical occupations, not sales, but they set the reference point GTM candidates compare themselves against, especially solutions engineers.

For sales pay, national benchmarks give a useful floor. The Bridge Group's 2024 AE benchmark reported a median AE on-target earnings of $190,000 with a 53:47 base-to-variable split and a median quota of $800,000. Its 2025 SDR report put median SDR OTE at $80,000, split $55,000 base and $25,000 variable, unchanged since 2022. Bay Area offers for comparable roles typically sit above those national medians, reflecting cost of living and competition from well-funded companies.

• Founding AEs at AI startups often traded a lower base for meaningful early equity, but the strongest candidates insisted on a credible cash OTE too
• Solutions engineers saw the clearest upward pressure, with variable pay usually a smaller share than for AEs
• SDR pay stayed broadly flat, consistent with the national data, but fewer entry-level seats were available
• Leadership packages leaned harder on equity and board-approved targets, with candidates scrutinizing runway and recent funding terms

For current role-by-role ranges, see /salary-guide. Because pay ranges must appear on California job postings, candidates also arrive with clearer expectations than in most other states.

Return to office and the San Jose market

Office expectations hardened across Bay Area tech in 2025. Salesforce set the tone in 2024, requiring select employees in sales and several other functions to be in the office four to five days a week from October 2024, with marketing and product teams on at least three days. Many Bay Area employers followed with three-day or four-day patterns for GTM teams, arguing that new sellers ramp faster near experienced colleagues.

For hiring, the effect was uneven. Candidates in San Jose and the South Bay generally accepted three days a week if the office was within a reasonable commute; requests to travel to San Francisco three or more days a week from the South Bay cut shortlists noticeably. Fully remote GTM roles still existed, mostly for field enterprise sellers covering territories outside California, but they attracted very large applicant pools and longer processes.

California rules that shape every Bay Area GTM search

Employers hiring into California, including those based in the UK or elsewhere in the US, need to account for state rules that affect how roles are advertised and offered.

• Pay ranges in job postings: Under SB 1162, effective January 1, 2023, employers with 15 or more employees must include the salary or hourly wage range they reasonably expect to pay in job postings, including postings made by third parties such as recruiters on their behalf.
• Pay data reporting: Private employers with 100 or more employees must file annual pay data reports with the California Civil Rights Department.
• Noncompetes are void: California has long treated employee noncompete agreements as void. AB 1076 and SB 699, effective in 2024, extended that position to contracts signed outside California and gave employees a private right of action when an employer tries to enforce one.
• Commission plans in writing: Since January 1, 2013, Labor Code section 2751 has required employers to give anyone paid on commission for work in California a written, employer-signed agreement setting out how commissions are computed and paid, with a signed receipt from the employee. Get comp plans signed before start dates.

The noncompete point matters for hiring strategy. A seller at a competitor in California can generally join you without a noncompete standing in the way, although nonsolicitation of customers using trade secrets and confidentiality obligations still apply. That makes direct competitor hiring more feasible in the Bay Area than in many other markets, and it is one reason counteroffers are often the main obstacle, not legal restrictions.

How did AI change the shape of Bay Area GTM teams?

Beyond headcount, 2025 changed what Bay Area GTM teams look like. Three shifts mattered most for hiring.

First, the line between selling and solutioning blurred. AI products are often bought after a proof of concept on the customer's own data, so the technical evaluation sits much earlier in the cycle. Many AI companies paired every AE with an SE from first meeting, or hired hybrid roles, sometimes titled forward-deployed engineer or solutions architect, who sit between sales, product and engineering. That widened the competition for technical GTM people well beyond traditional SaaS.

Second, pricing models moved toward usage and consumption. When revenue depends on how much a customer actually uses, the first contract is smaller and the expansion matters more. Employers responded by giving customer success and account management teams expansion targets, and by hiring CSMs who can drive technical adoption. Comp plans followed, with more teams paying on consumption or committed spend rather than signed annual contract value alone.

Third, top-of-funnel work was automated faster than other roles. Outbound sequencing, research and enrichment tools absorbed part of what SDRs used to do, and several established companies reduced SDR headcount or merged sales development into marketing. Fewer entry-level seats meant tougher competition for SDR roles and a higher bar for the SDRs who were hired: written communication, research skills and comfort with AI tooling became interview topics in their own right.

For employers outside California hiring into the Bay Area, including UK companies opening a US office, the practical lesson is to hire for the motion you actually run. A seller who thrived with a mature SaaS playbook and large SDR support may struggle in an AI company where the AE runs technical discovery, sources pipeline and manages a consumption ramp.

What should Bay Area employers plan for in 2026?

What 2025 meant for GTM candidates in the Bay Area

For candidates, 2025 rewarded specificity. Sellers who could point to closed deals with technical buyers, clear quota attainment and a credible story about why they wanted an AI or infrastructure company were in demand. Generalist SaaS sellers from companies that had cut headcount found the market slower and more competitive, especially at the mid-market level.

• Quantify your track record: quota, attainment by year, average deal size and sales cycle, and the buyers you sold to
• Show technical curiosity: candidates who had used the products they wanted to sell, or could explain the basics of the technology, progressed faster
• Ask hard questions about funding and runway: equity is only valuable if the company reaches the next round
• Be realistic about office days: three or more days a week became a common expectation for Bay Area GTM roles during 2025

If you are considering a move, register with us at /candidates#register; many Bay Area GTM roles are filled before they are advertised, and live roles are listed at /jobs.