Every humanoid company is competing in a contested talent market. The ones that win know which slice of it is actually movable, and when.
Humanoid companies keep telling me the talent pool is tiny. It isn't. It's crowded, it's competitive, and it moves in patterns you can read. This issue is about reading them, so you can land every key hire as we move into 2027.
There are two markets here. The total talent market is who could do the job today. The movable talent market is the much smaller group most likely to be open to a move. Most hiring plans are built on the first. The good ones are built on the second.
Where humanoid talent comes from
If you're hiring in humanoids, you're not just competing with other humanoid companies. More people have moved in from automotive and self-driving, other robotics and big tech in 2026 so far than in all of 2025, and it's only October.
Other robotics is the biggest source, at about four in ten. No single background owns this market, which means you can build your pipeline from three directions, not one.
On the automotive and self-driving side, Tesla is by far the biggest source, including its own people moving across to Optimus, followed by Lucid Motors, Zoox, Cruise and Rivian. Figure is already hiring from the top three, so if you go after Tesla's car teams, expect to compete with Figure.
Figure took about a quarter of all these moves, and half of everyone who moved was an engineer. My read: with these hires, humanoid companies aren't training talent. They're hiring it ready-made to get to scale and deployment faster.
Here's where those moves landed.
If you're not Figure, you're competing with it for the same people. So sell what's harder to get at a company growing that fast: bigger scope, a more senior role and real ownership.
Boston Dynamics trains them. Figure hires them.
If you are hiring experienced humanoid engineers, map the Boston Dynamics alumni network before you map your competitors.
Look at moves between humanoid companies and two names jump out. Far more moves go from Boston Dynamics to a rival than the other way. Figure is the reverse. The single most common route is Boston Dynamics to Figure.
That's not a knock on Boston Dynamics. It's what reach looks like. People who leave have usually been there more than three years, and they go to Figure, Humanoid and Agility Robotics more than anywhere else. Get in touch around the three-year mark.
So Boston Dynamics leavers are experienced. Most are senior or above, and most stayed three years or more. If you know who's most likely to be open to a move, you stop working the total market and start working the movable one. The next section breaks that down by role.
The movable talent market
If you are hiring in humanoids, build your strategy on the movable market, not the total one. A long list of names feels like a pipeline. It usually isn't. What matters is who on that list is most likely to be open to a move.
The total talent market is the current staff in these teams. The movable talent market is the people is what you should focus your search on.
At Figure, Agility, Apptronik and Humanoid, only one in five is movable, and the same goes for engineers. On the manufacturing, field and test floor, it's fewer than one in ten. That's not loyalty, it's growth: more than half their people are less than a year into their current role. So call the minority who've been there longer.
Robotics startups (all niches) are a larger pool. More than four in ten are movable, and the typical person has been in their role about a year and a half.
So look across robotics, not just humanoids, and start with the movable people.
Manufacturing, field and test is the thinnest movable pool at the four. Start those searches first, and widen them to robotics startups, where a third are movable.
What each company actually hires
Since 2023, each company has hired a clear type:
- Figure hires for volume, mostly below senior level and many into manufacturing, field and test.
- Agility hires experience.
- Humanoid (UK) hires credentials, with the highest share of Masters and PhDs here.
- Startups (mostly humanoid) take the most people straight into their first job. About one in eight of their hires are leaders. At humanoid startups, a quarter of those leaders are founders and most of the rest were already leaders.
Know which profile each company wants, then go where they aren't looking. If you need a leader, hire someone already leading, not someone else's best engineer.
In the table, years of experience means time since someone's first proper job, on the day they joined.
Pitch against the profile. If they hire volume, sell seniority and ownership. If they hire experience, sell scope.
Robotics startups (all niches)
If you are hiring at a startup, you are competing on pace and scope against companies that are hiring fast.
Embodied AI startups are hiring at roughly twice the pace of autonomy or manipulation startups, relative to their size. Physical Intelligence and Sunday made the most new hires of any startup since April.
Here's what that means for you. In my experience, a five-stage, eight-week process is longer than good candidates stay on the market, and they usually have more than one offer. The company, the salary and the leadership team will always matter most. But speed is the one thing fully in your control, and I still see teams lose people on it.
Most people who have left robotics startups did so within two years, sooner at the smallest companies. Part of that is just how young these teams are. Either way, good startup people come back onto the market often. Keep in touch.
New hires per 100 staff, April to October 2026. Higher means more hiring for its size.
If you're in a slower niche, you're still competing for the same people as the fastest one. Match the pace.
The short version
The total talent market tells you who could do the job. It's big, it's crowded and everyone is looking at it. The movable talent market is who's most likely to be open to a move. It's smaller, and it's where I'd start.
For critical hires and growth plans, that difference is everything. Know where people come from, where they go next, how long they've been in post and what each company hires, and you stop guessing.
Scaling a humanoid company in 2027 isn't just an engineering problem. It's a talent strategy problem. The companies that treat it like one will win the race.
Open roles
Active roles we're working on right now, from startups to scale-ups:
- Staff Mechanical Engineer, Dexterous Hands: Boston
- Senior Mechanical Lead, Humanoid Hands: San Francisco Bay Area
- Senior Mechanical Lead, Legged Robotics: Paris
- VP Engineering, Autonomy: San Francisco Bay Area
- Senior Robot Learning Researcher: Europe or US (remote)
- Robotics Systems Lead: San Francisco Bay Area and Germany
- Autonomy ML Research Lead: UK
- Director of Product, Humanoids: Germany
- Senior Robotics Reliability Engineer: Zurich
Hiring for something similar, or open to a move? Drop me a DM and we'll find a time to chat.
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