Five smaller companies lead the list: Airbyte, Solve Intelligence, Unlearn.AI, Preference Model and Encord pay up to $350k with explicit visa support
Asked (summary)
US companies hiring software engineers at roughly $200k in San Francisco or London, willing to do an H-1B transfer, maybe PERM, possibly an EB-1 path — with equity and networking upside.
Asked (follow-up)
“No! these are too big corps. ANd I don't think I can get a job at antropic or openai”
This rebuild drops the frontier labs and covers 15 smaller-company and startup leads — 13 in the San Francisco area, 2 in London — researched 2026-10-02, one representative role each, with advertised pay quoted exactly as posted (USD except Encord, which is a GBP estimate). Some rows come from direct employer or ATS pages; many come from aggregators or recruiters, so they are ranked by source confidence, not headline pay.
Advertised pay ranges by action tier
Each bar is the posted base-pay range for one representative role. USD unless marked £ (Encord is a GBP estimate). Hover a bar for the role, visa wording and source.
Tier 1 — apply first (clearest role, pay and visa statement)Tier 2 — verify, then apply (third-party listing)Tier 3 — recruiter or identity unclear (confirm the legal employer)
What the bars cannot say
Airbyte is the only row with both H-1B and PERM filing history on record, and its posting names H-1B transfers, TN visas and green cards outright — about 78 employees, Series B, $181M raised. opensourcejobhub.com · ellis.com
London runs on the UK Skilled Worker route, not H-1B or PERM: Solve Intelligence (up to $250,000, full visa sponsorship, ~67 staff, Series B, $55M) and Encord (licensed sponsor, salary only an estimate) both show a UK sponsor signal. eadoz.com · solveintelligence.com
Preference Model posts the highest stated ceiling, $200K–$350K plus equity with visa sponsorship and relocation, on its own ATS page — the strongest direct-source signal after Airbyte. jobs.ashbyhq.com
Unlearn.AI ($165k–$210k, H-1B sponsorship available, ~65 staff, Series A, $17 million) has H-1B history but no PERM record found — ask when green-card sponsorship starts. simplify.jobs · myvisajobs.com
Five rows — Sartre Group, David Joseph & Company, RFS Group, Talently and FlowGen Labs — are recruiter- or aggregator-sourced where the actual employer may be confidential: get the legal employer name, cap table, salary band and a written sponsorship policy before sharing documents. hiring.camp
Immigration reality check
H-1B transfer support must be confirmed for the exact US role; a company-level statement is not enough.
PERM is a discretionary employer green-card process; a filing-history signal is not a promise, and a blank H-1B/PERM column below means the history was not resolved in this research, not that the company refuses sponsorship.
EB-1A is usually a self-petition built on your own record; EB-1B and EB-1C have narrow employer and role requirements. O-1 support (AfterQuery, Clera, Brilliant) can help build an extraordinary-ability track but is not EB-1 eligibility.
No job or equity grant can promise wealth; treat networking and equity upside as speculative. These roles are more attainable relative to frontier labs — not easy.
Recruiter-screen checklist
Do you transfer an existing H-1B?
Does this exact role qualify?
When does green-card sponsorship start?
Has the company filed PERM for software engineers?
Will counsel evaluate O-1/EB-1 later?
What is the equity percentage, strike price, latest preferred price and post-money valuation?
All 15 leads, ranked by confidence then attainability
Tier
Company
Role
Location
Advertised pay
Visa wording (as posted)
Size / funding
H-1B / PERM history
Sources
Research dated 2026-10-02: 15 smaller-company and startup software-engineering leads, one representative role per normalized company, with advertised pay quoted verbatim (USD except Encord, a GBP estimate). Tiers rank source confidence — direct employer/ATS postings first, third-party listings second, recruiter/confidential rows last — across more than ten independent job and profile hosts; no single host backs more than half the rows. Blank H-1B/PERM history means unresolved, not refused. Experience requirements and some equity details were cut for space; they live at the linked postings.