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Your Seattle job search just got a map

Your Seattle job search just got a map

Seattle layoffs and 2,500+ open eng roles, CyberArk cuts, and the real hiring pockets: revenue AI, spatial AI, and data-center power.

February 19, 2026

"Focus on the inputs you control and the outputs will follow." -FS

👋 Welcome, Jobseekers

Seattle tech is in the grinder: layoffs stack up while 2,500+ engineering roles stay open and data science heats up. This newsletter breaks down where the hiring oxygen is coming from, from revenue-backed AI at Snap and Canva to spatial AI’s $1B bet and the data-center power gold rush. Plus local funding wins, Microsoft cooling on Copilot, and a fresh CyberArk layoff gut punch.

🧑‍✈️ Career CoPilot: What's Actually Happening in Seattle Tech Right Now
📉 Layoff Report: 700 CyberArk employees to lose jobs after $25b exit
🔈️ Top Tech Signals This Week: Spatial AI is getting serious money

What's Actually Happening in Seattle Tech Right Now

The Bay Area tends to get most of the attention when it comes to tech layoffs, but Seattle's tech scene is going through it right now. Layoffs, hiring freezes, entire teams dissolved overnight. But it's not all bad news. Here's what actually matters this week.

1. The Layoffs Aren't Slowing Down. Thousands more Puget Sound tech workers got the tap on the shoulder this month. Amazon, Meta, Expedia, Zillow, T-Mobile -- the list keeps growing, and Seattle-area unemployment just crossed 5%. If you're in the thick of it, you're not alone. Not even close.

2. But Companies Are Hiring Engineers. Despite the doom scroll, over 2,500 software engineering roles are open in Seattle right now. Amazon (yes, the same one), Nintendo, Tesla, Palantir, and a wave of startups are actively recruiting. The market is brutal AND full of opportunity.

3. Data Science Is Having a Moment. If you've been eyeing a pivot into data, Seattle companies are hungry for data scientists. AI isn't just taking jobs -- it's creating demand for people who can actually build and interpret the stuff.

4. ZAST.AI Just Raised $6M for AI-Powered Security. Seattle-based ZAST.AI closed a $6M Pre-A round to scale their "zero false positive" vulnerability detection platform. Cybersecurity + AI = one of the few sectors that genuinely can't hire fast enough.

5. Avalanche Energy Pulled In $29M for Fusion. Seattle's Avalanche Energy raised $29M to build desktop-sized fusion reactors. Yes, really. They're building a test facility in Richland, WA and scaling their team. PNW climate tech is alive and funding.

6. Microsoft Is Walking Back Its AI-Everywhere Strategy. After a mountain of user backlash, Microsoft is scaling down Copilot integrations in Windows 11 and rethinking Recall entirely. Engineers have been told to pause new AI features and focus on stability. Turns out people want their OS to work before it thinks.

If you're in Seattle and navigating a layoff, a job search, or just trying to figure out what's next -- we just launched #8-loc-seattle in the Offboard Slack. It's a dedicated space for Seattle tech workers to share leads, swap notes on severance and COBRA, vent when it's rough, and help each other land somewhere good. Real people, no recruiter spam. Come join us.

This week’s map for tech jobseekers

Something is snapping into focus: the companies that can turn AI into real product value are pulling ahead, while everything “cool-but-unclear” is getting pressured. The winners this week fall into two buckets: revenue-backed consumer and product platforms and infrastructure powering the next wave.

Signal 1: Revenue-backed AI products are still hiring

The revenue signal is loud. Snap’s Snapchat+ push hit 25M subscribers and drove direct revenue to a $1B ARR run-rate, and Canva hit $4B in revenue as AI and LLM referral traffic rises. Translation: these teams have oxygen. For mid-level and senior candidates, this is the kind of environment where hiring stays open for product, design, engineering, data, and growth because the business case is already proven.

Signal 2: Spatial AI is getting serious money

Funding is concentrating in high-leverage bets. World Labs raised a massive $1B round with Autodesk participating to bring “world models” into 3D workflows. If you have any blend of 3D, vision, simulation, CAD tooling, or applied ML, this is a real lane, not a vibe.

Signal 3: Data-center power is the new gold rush

The picks-and-shovels story is real again. Data centers are exploding, and power is the constraint. Heron Power raised $140M to ramp production of grid-altering tech and DG Matrix raised $60M to make data-center power smarter. If you are hardware, embedded, infra PM, firmware, or systems, this is one of the clearest near-term hiring pockets.

Caution tape: Volatility, churn, and security drag

Big-tech “moonshots” still get cut fast. Amazon halted its Blue Jay robotics project after less than six months. M&A creates churn too, even when it sounds positive. Etsy selling Depop to eBay likely means shifting roadmaps and uncertainty windows. And if you’re sniffing around fintech, assume security is part of the interview loop: Figure confirmed a data breach, and incidents like that often trigger freezes and reorganizations.

Fast target list from this week’s news

Start here: Snap, Canva, World Labs, Heron Power, DG Matrix, plus Airbnb leaning into AI for search, discovery, and support.

Source: TrueUp

700 CyberArk employees to lose jobs after $25b exit; Telstra to axe up to 650 roles in mass redundancy round, some jobs to be outsourced to India

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