Samwise High Tech Recruiting Newsletter
Sunday, September 20, 2026
Flock Safety Offers Voluntary Buyouts as Customer Defections Mount
Flock Safety invited its 1,500-person workforce to apply for voluntary severance packages after 93 cities declined to renew their contracts in August alone, and Florida and Texas moved to block use of its license plate readers outright. The company said it would approve buyouts for a majority of interested employees, calling them the most generous packages it has ever offered; absent the program, Flock would almost certainly have needed to lay off staff. The Washington Post identified 46 cases of officers misusing Flock cameras to stalk former partners. The Atlanta-based startup raised $275 million at a $7.5 billion valuation in March 2025.
Sources: TechCrunch
Oracle Files WARN Notices for 441 More Bay Area Jobs
Oracle filed WARN Act notices covering 441 additional Bay Area positions: 279 in Redwood City, 99 in Santa Clara, and 63 in Pleasanton. The layoffs, scheduled to take effect November 13, extend a broader restructuring wave that has eliminated more than 700 California jobs since early 2025. The cuts arrive just days after Oracle reported a 121% jump in cloud infrastructure revenue in its most recent quarter, underscoring the company’s pivot away from traditional enterprise software headcount. Oracle relocated its headquarters from Redwood Shores to Austin, Texas in 2021 but remains one of the largest tech employers in the Bay Area.
Sources: San Francisco Chronicle
Harver Acquires Symphony Talent, Building End-to-End Talent Intelligence Platform
Predictive hiring platform Harver acquired Symphony Talent, creating a combined team of more than 300 employees serving over 1,500 enterprise clients worldwide. The deal, backed by private equity firm Rubicon Technology Partners, unites Harver’s pre-employment assessments, fraud detection, and reference-checking capabilities with Symphony’s recruitment marketing CRM and programmatic job advertising tools. The combination is designed to span the full talent lifecycle from workforce planning through on-the-job performance, with a primary focus on volume hiring verticals including retail, hospitality, and logistics. Together the companies bring more than 65 million assessed candidates and 100 million skills data points. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Sources: HR Tech Feed
Crosschq Rebrands as Brilliant AI, Targeting Hiring Fraud with Unified Platform
Crosschq relaunched as Brilliant AI, combining Crosschq, ApplicantX, and Traitify into a single hiring intelligence platform. The relaunch is backed by a new Bessemer Venture Partners investment and introduces Brilliant MCP, an agentic hiring intelligence layer trained on more than 200 million actual hiring outcomes. The platform integrates reference and interview intelligence, identity and fraud protection, and behavioral and cognitive assessments into one system. A core driver of the consolidation is rising candidate fraud: Gartner projects that one in four job applicants could be fraudulent by 2028. The three legacy product brands will continue operating under their own names.
Sources: HR Tech Feed
University of Phoenix Parent Acquires Workforce Intelligence Platform Fuel50 for $31.5M
Phoenix Education Partners, parent company of the University of Phoenix, agreed to acquire Fuel50 Inc. for approximately $31.5 million in cash, with up to $8.5 million in additional performance-based earnouts payable through 2027. Fuel50’s AI-powered workforce intelligence platform maps internal employee capabilities using an ontology spanning more than 5,000 skills. The transaction, expected to close within 30 days pending regulatory approval, reflects Phoenix Education’s push to bridge formal higher education and AI-era corporate talent development. Following the deal, Fuel50 will operate as an independent subsidiary under its own brand, with co-founder Jo Mills stepping in as CEO.
Sources: HR Tech Feed
AI/ML Tech Postings Surge 101% Year-Over-Year as Hiring Shifts Toward Intelligent Systems
AI and machine learning tech postings grew 101% year-over-year in August 2026, more than five times the 18% overall tech job posting growth rate, according to Dice’s August 2026 Tech Jobs Report. The surge reflects expanding demand well beyond narrowly defined AI engineering roles, with AI skills now embedded across a widening range of tech titles. Retail posted the largest month-over-month industry gain at 18%, while Manufacturing, Software, Consulting, and Finance each also grew. AI Product Managers, SAP SuccessFactors Managers, and Lead Solution Architects recorded the strongest month-over-month title growth. San Francisco and San Jose led all metro areas.
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Curated by JD · samwise.agency