Mid-Senior Roles Take 55% of India's 123,000 Active Tech Openings as Entry-Level Demand Dips
India has 123,000 active tech openings, an 18-month high, but 55% are mid-senior and entry-level openings fell 6% from September. See which cities lead.
India's active technology job openings reached 123,000 in October 2026, the highest level in 18 months, in the October edition of Xpheno's Active Tech Jobs Outlook, and mid-senior positions accounted for 68,000 openings, or 55% of the total. So the market is at an 18-month high, but more than half of what is open asks for experience, while entry-level openings fell 6% sequentially to 15,000. For Metaintro readers in India's tech workforce, the useful questions are which experience levels are being hired, which employers are behind the rise, which cities hold the openings, and what a fresher can do this month. Here is that detail.
What Did Xpheno's October Tech Jobs Outlook Find?
Active tech demand rose 5% month-on-month and 17% year-on-year in October, extending a four-month recovery from the record low seen in June. In September, overall hiring demand in the IT sector stood at 117,000 roles, close to the high of 119,000 recorded in March 2026.
Technology jobs made up 51% of India's total active talent demand in October, a share that was flat from September and three percentage points higher than a year earlier.
The pool also became fresher, with Xpheno's freshness index, which measures openings published or refreshed in the preceding two weeks, stood at 49%, up three percentage points from September and six from October 2025. Nearly half of the active openings were therefore recent or freshly updated postings.
Xpheno is a specialist staffing firm and the insights partner on KDEM's Silicon Beach Skills report on the Udupi and Mangaluru cluster, KDEM being the Karnataka Digital Economy Mission.
What Counts as an Active Opening in This Tracker?
Active jobs are openings directly published by employers that remain active, have been refreshed or are accepting applications during the period covered. The count draws on company career pages, official job pages on prominent social media platforms and direct postings on major job boards.
Two things are left out. Recruitment mandates and openings published through recruitment and staffing agencies are excluded. So this figure does not cover every vacancy, and the openings it does count are ones an employer posts itself, on its own career page, an official job page on a prominent social media platform, or a direct posting on a major job board.
These are active openings published by employers, not hires, and the 49% freshness reading shows how many were posted or refreshed in the previous two weeks.
Which Experience Levels Are Employers Asking For?
The rest of the ladder looks like this.
- Entry-level. 15,000 openings, down 6% from September but up 15% from a year earlier.
- Mid-junior. 7,000 openings, rising 40% month-on-month and 17% year-on-year.
- Senior. 2,000 openings.
- Other or undefined levels. Another 31,000 openings were classified under other or undefined levels, roles that do not carry a defined level.
The undefined group is large, so the level split is not a complete picture of which levels the open roles are for. What it does show is direction. Entry-level openings are higher than a year ago, but they slipped in October while mid-senior demand rose.
Talent action in the IT Services cohort is being driven by a combination of demand in AI Engineering roles, Analyst roles and Technical Lead roles, Kamal Karanth, co-founder of Xpheno, said, according to the Financial Express report.
Which Employers Are Driving the Rebound, and Which Are Not?
IT services firms are driving the recovery. Active openings in that segment rose 16% sequentially to 66,000, up 57% from October 2025, and October demand was the segment's highest in 18 months. In a cohort of six major IT services companies, the active talent pool in AI engineering, analyst and technical leadership roles has grown between 14% and 22% over the last two quarters.
Among Global Capability Centres, GCC tech hiring remained unchanged from September at 18,000 openings but was up 64% year-on-year, about 15% of overall active tech demand.
Two employer groups are still below October 2025.
- Software product companies. 16,000 openings, down 16% month-on-month and 38% year-on-year.
- Funded technology startups. 12,000 openings, unchanged from September but 29% below October 2025.
Smaller groups round out the count, with tech functions within the Big Four and Big Ten at 5,000 openings and technology roles in non-tech sectors at 6,000.
For a job seeker, this split is practical. A candidate who has only been applying to product companies and startups is fishing in the two pools that are below last year's level.
Which Roles and Skills Are in Demand?
Core tech and engineering remained the largest functional category, with 61,000 openings, about half of total demand, and the category grew 5% month-on-month and 2% year-on-year.
Other functions make up the rest.
- Tech business development, sales and marketing. 14,000 openings, increasing 8% month-on-month and 17% year-on-year.
- Tech consulting and advisory. 5,000 openings, up 25% from September.
- IT project management. 3,000 openings.
- Other technology functions. 40,000 openings, up 60% year-on-year.
The roles named behind the IT services rise include AI engineering, analyst positions and technical leadership. In September, IT services openings stood at 57,000, the highest since February 2025.
Is Office Work Back for Tech Roles in India?
For most active tech openings, yes. Full-time work-from-office openings reached 100,000, accounting for 81% of all active technology openings, and that demand increased 9% month-on-month and 32% year-on-year.
One caution on reading these numbers. Full-time roles numbered 93,000, or 76% of total demand, in a separate employment-type split, while full-time work-from-office openings reached 100,000 in the work-format split. The two splits do not reconcile, so read the work-format numbers as a direction, which points toward office-based roles.
On employment type, contract positions rose 33% sequentially to 4,000, while internship and part-time openings also increased 33% to 4,000, up 95% year-on-year.
Which Cities Have the Most Tech Openings?
- Bengaluru. 31,000 openings, up 11% from September, though Bengaluru was down 11% year-on-year despite its monthly recovery.
- Hyderabad. 14,000 openings, registering the strongest month-on-month growth among the major cities at 27%, and a 40% year-on-year increase.
- Delhi NCR. 9,000 openings with no monthly change, and down 10% year-on-year.
- Chennai. 8,000 openings, up 14% from September, and unchanged from a year earlier.
- Mumbai. 6,000 openings after a 20% monthly increase, and up 50% on the year.
- Pune. 6,000 openings, down 14% from September, and up 20% on the year.
Outside the hubs, tier-2 and tier-3 locations accounted for 40,000 openings. Demand there fell 2% month-on-month but was up 67% year-on-year.
What Is Happening in Smaller Tech Cities Like Mangaluru and Udupi?
For one smaller cluster, a KDEM report with Xpheno as insights partner maps the talent pool of Udupi and Mangaluru, a focus cluster Beyond Bengaluru. It counts the region's white-collar talent pool, not job openings. The Silicon Beach Skills report on Udupi and Mangaluru, Edition 2, dated September 2026, was produced with KDEM, a Section 8 organization promoted by Government of Karnataka and Industry.
The Udupi and Mangaluru cluster has an active and accessible white-collar talent pool of 280k, against the 240k reported in September 2025. Experienced white-collar talent with more than 1 year of working experience grew 17% YoY, moving up to 105k from 90k in 2025.
The volume of outbound jobseekers from the region dropped by a significant 20% over the year, while inbound interest from talent outside the region has marginally grown by 3%. In the region's industry mix, the IT / ITeS sector remains the largest with almost one-fourth of the total active workforce employed in it and has registered a 21% YoY growth.
The cluster's top white-collar skill groups are Programming (25.6k), Business Skills (22.3k) and Finance & Accounting (18.1k). Talent with 1 to 5 years of experience makes up 46% of the active workforce. At the senior end, professionals with 15+ years of experience make a significant 14% of the active workforce. These are counts of the region's talent pool, not job openings.
The Beyond Bengaluru Mission is about turning intent into outcomes, Sanjeev Kumar Gupta, CEO of the Karnataka Digital Economy Mission, said, according to the Silicon Beach Skills report.
The Beyond Bengaluru Mission, led by KDEM, focuses on six key clusters, Mysuru, Mangaluru, Hubballi, Kalaburagi, Shivamogga, and Tumakuru. As of March 2025, the mission had onboarded 126 companies and created 5,500+ direct jobs. For a tech worker in Karnataka, talent, infrastructure, incubators and colleges for Mysuru, Mangaluru and Hubballi are listed on the KDEM Beyond Bengaluru cluster pages.
Where Can Freshers Build Skills Employers Are Asking For?
With entry-level openings at 15,000 in October, against 68,000 mid-senior openings, one government-backed starting point is FutureSkills Prime, a digital skilling initiative by nasscom & MeitY, which runs courses, pathways and industry-backed nasscom certification programs aligned with National Occupational Standards (NOS) and National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF).
Here is some of what is on offer.
- A diagnostic first. A Competency Diagnostic Assessment for personalised tech recommendations matched to your skills and career goals.
- Course areas. Tracks include AI and ML courses, cloud computing courses, big data analytics courses and cybersecurity skills courses.
- A route to openings. Internships & Job Opportunities with Talent Connect.
- Incentives. Govt. of India Incentives on course completion for Government Incentive Eligible Programmes.
- Learning by doing. Experiential Learning for building industry-ready skills, plus engagement with industry experts via Bootcamp & Career Mantra sessions.
- Credits. An opportunity to earn credits via NCrF for industry-defined jobs and competencies.
- Proof of skill. Industry-approved nasscom Certifications to enhance employability sit alongside Hackathons & Subject Olympiads with outcome-based assessments & credit assignments.
Courses and pathways in the most in-demand skills are listed at discounted prices.
What This Means for Tech Job Seekers, and What Should You Do Next?
The headline is real, with active tech openings at an 18-month high. More than half of the openings are mid-senior, 81% are work-from-office, and IT services companies remain the biggest source. A fresher who reads the 123,000 figure as an easy door is reading only the headline, while the split shows where a way in exists. Here is what to do.
- Experienced engineers, go where the growth is. IT services openings sit at 66,000, up 57% from October 2025, the segment at the centre of what TCS's big AI bet means for IT services careers. GCC openings held at 18,000, up 64% year-on-year, and India GCC hiring has bounced back from a layoff cycle before.
- Freshers, aim at the mid-junior step too. Mid-junior openings rose 40% month-on-month to 7,000, while entry-level openings fell 6% sequentially, so mid-junior openings grew in October while entry-level openings shrank.
- Do not skip internships and contract roles. Internship and part-time openings were up 95% year-on-year, and contract roles rose 33% from September but were down 33% from a year earlier. Both are small pools of 4,000 openings each.
- Apply on employer pages. The tracker counts ads published directly by employers on career pages and job boards, and excludes openings routed through recruitment and staffing agencies, so employers' own postings, on their career pages, official social media job pages and direct job-board ads, are where these openings sit.
- Plan for the office. With 81% of openings in the work-from-office split, factor commute and relocation costs into any offer.
- Look beyond the six hubs. Tier-2 and tier-3 locations held 40,000 openings, up 67% year-on-year, and talent, incubators and colleges for Mysuru, Mangaluru and Hubballi are listed on Karnataka's Beyond Bengaluru cluster pages.
- Build one provable skill. Pick an AI, cloud or data analytics track and finish a project you can show.
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People Also Asked
Q: How many tech jobs are open in India right now?
A: There were 123,000 active tech openings in October 2026, the highest level in 18 months in Xpheno's outlook, a figure that excludes openings routed through recruitment and staffing agencies.
Q: Are there entry-level tech jobs in India in 2026?
A: Yes, but fewer than for experienced staff, with entry-level openings at 15,000, down 6% from September but up 15% from a year earlier, against 68,000 mid-senior openings.
Q: Which Indian city has the most tech job openings?
A: Bengaluru, with 31,000 openings, followed by Hyderabad with 14,000 and Delhi NCR with 9,000.
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