The Monthly Beat - March '25 Edition

A recap of the most interesting Pittsburgh tech news from the past few weeks and upcoming local tech events.

Hey everybody,

Sorry for being a couple of days late here. Just started my new remote job at Machinify on Monday, so it’s been a busy past few days. It’s been a tumultuous month of news at the national level, but let’s once again take a look at what’s going on with tech here in town. I wrote a less lengthy big story this month and opted for more headlines, as there were just a lot of interesting things that happened in February. All companies are in Pittsburgh unless otherwise noted.

What Happened this Past Month

The Big Story

Layoffs Continue, Job Openings Remain Low

I really don’t even need to say anything about this, as yinz are definitely already in the know. But the layoffs continue locally, with Astrobotic letting 16 people (6% of its workforce) go and multiple local branches of government agencies being hit by DOGE’s cuts. Hang in there, folks. I don’t think it’s going to get any easier anytime soon.

In the spirit of supporting the tech workers in this community, here are a few links to jobs in Pittsburgh that I was able to find during my research for this post that may have flown under your radar:

• Aurora has several roles open, mostly senior and above.

• First National Bank has a few new tech roles posted in that big fancy new building of theirs.

• Gecko Robotics has a wide variety of open roles posted on-site in Pittsburgh.

• Kef Robotics has 4 on-site tech roles posted, mixed levels, and travel required.

• Lucas Systems has two software engineering roles posted on-site in Wexford.

• Machinify, the company I just joined, is hiring 9 mostly senior and data-oriented roles and is fully remote.

• Skild AI is still looking to hire multiple roles at multiple levels on-site in Pittsburgh.

• Wabtec is hiring a few tech roles on-site in Pittsburgh, mostly IT and networking.

Best of luck to all of you who are currently job searching!

The Headlines

• AI healthcare transcription company Abridge had a huge month, announcing three new partnerships with various healthcare systems and a $250 million round of Series D funding. Their CEO and Founder was also highlighted with a profile piece in Fortune magazine. My main takeaway is that he listened to Fugazi growing up, so he’s probably chill?

• NEXTPittsburgh published a great piece highlighting the work of Tikkun Olam Makers’ local Pittsburgh chapters. The international organization “creates and disseminates affordable solutions to neglected challenges of people living with disabilities, the elderly and the poor.” Members in Pittsburgh created an open source model for 3D-printed prosthetic limbs, which are both cheaper and more adaptable to various tasks.

• Duolingo, meanwhile, briefly killed its mascot, Duo the owl, then brought him back to life in a bid to get users back on the app and continue growing after its insane growth in 2024. Meanwhile, members of the C-suite continue to dump their stocks at an unprecedented rate.

• Let’s talk robots. A Carnegie Mellon researcher has developed a robot that can locate and remove screws from the backs of flat panel TVs, allowing teams to more quickly disassemble them for recycling much more easily.

• Gecko Robotics is now partnered up with NAES, America’s largest independent power operator, to track and identify power grid maintenance needs with their AI and robots.

• GatherAI is switching to US-made drones. They don’t really give many reasons why in the press release, but you can probably guess.

• Technical.ly published a great interview of a local female machinist and her thoughts on how women can succeed in male-dominated fields like robotics.

• Self-driving company Neya Systems announced the launch of their new N-Drive off-road self-driving product. The company is using Unreal Engine (yes, the game engine) to simulate off-road conditions, allowing them to train their self-driving models without physical testing.

• Also in self-driving, Aurora publicly commented that they’re “optimistic” that the Trump administration will allow them to not put out cones when their self-driving trucks pull over. If they don’t, though, ConeBot™️™️™️ is very much still in play.

• You know what’s cooler than self-driving cars and trucks? Self-driving trains. Smart railroad company Wabtec unveiled a self-driving locomotive prototype downtown. The company has also been gobbling up other companies and signing big contracts to send its trains to Africa.

• PublicSource had a couple of great pieces this past month, digging into how AI is affecting local labor unions and highlighting the voices and perspectives of remote workers. I’d recommend keeping up with the whole Pittsburgh At Work series that they’re doing—excellent stuff!

• Speaking of AI, in what may be one of the most cringe moves ever, the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council has named their upcoming AI chatbot “Artzy.” Really guys? Really?

• That big new First National Bank building is now open. It’s also real fancy. Amenities include touchless entry, Zoom conference rooms, a café, a fitness facility, and an outdoor space.

• Concerning a couple other local banks, tech workers on the Pittsburgh Subreddit recently discussed what it’s like to work in tech at BNY and PNC. Basically everyone agreed that the culture at BNY was “super toxic.” Comparatively, folks generally agreed that at PNC, the culture varies per team and “the only universal is that the pay is decidedly subpar.”

• Last but not least, local game developer Schell Games is expanding on their success with the VR version of Among Us by launching Among Us 3D. So you will no longer have to have a VR system to play the game, and it’s also cross-play, allowing you to play with folks across PC, Meta Quest, Steam VR, PlayStation VR 2, and PICO. Sus.

For the Days Ahead

• It’s Lent, AKA Fish Fry Season! Check out Code for Good’s super cool interactive fish fry map to get some tasty fish through Easter.

• Inclusive coding group Code and Coffee is 1:30-3:30pm this Saturday in Oakland. RSVP on Meetup.

• The Pittsburgh B2B Software Meetup is at Alloy26 on the last day of the March. RSVP on Meetup.

• The February AI@Work event was absolutely fantastic, and it returns on April 10th. At the last event, we had demos of a thoughtfully designed AI writing tutor, a complex AI pipeline, and a genuine homebrewed deep research agent, as well as tons of great discussion around the latest developments in the space. If you’re building things with AI and want to be at the next one, request to join here.

• PyCon, the Python programming language conference, is back in Pittsburgh May 14-27th. Register here (I will most likely be going!)

• JuliaCon, the Julia programming language conference, will also be in Pittsburgh July 21–26th. Tickets go on sale March 15th here. (I will most likely not be going, but bless you if you’re a Julia user!)

• Trying to make time to go to all these cool events? Check out Confirmed, a locally owned and developed time manager/scheduler app. Plans start at $5/month for a single user, and you can get your first month free with offer code techbeat!

• As always, I’m looking for guest writers! Do you have a local Pittsburgh tech topic you’d like to wax poetic about? Hit me up! Spoiler alert: It’s not a paid gig, but I would be more than willing to host or repost your piece if you want to publish it somewhere else as well.

That’s all for this month! Maybe I’ll see you at Beerhive for some March Madness games between now and April?

—Austin