What's the remote job search like for US developers nowadays?

The job market is on fire. Devs are in crazy high demand, and everyone is looking for Seniors+. My advice would be round out your profile on LinkedIn if you're looking for middling Senior level jobs, and you'll get bombarded by recruiters. If you're looking for startups, niche, founding engineer gigs, AngelList is a solid resource.

If you're not in a hurry to leave your current position I'd recommend pushing back against leetcode/hackerrank/algo code challenges in interviews and only take interviews with companies that have an out-of-the-broken-box interview process. I've found the best companies are the ones that don't follow the FAANG interview methodology.

Honestly, I strongly doubt a small startup is getting 10k applications a month. I advise a few startups & small businesses that are actively hiring multiple roles and I work at a startup that is actively hiring multiple roles. Yes, many people are active and applying, but it is not 10k applications a month even for multiple positions for a small startup.

One of the hardest tasks for a company, especially right now, to do is to create the resume funnel. So I know some startups try to hack it and create FOMO on their hiring funnel, which is what the claim you heard sounds like to me. Yes, certain brand names will get crazy number of applicants, but that isn't the case across the board.

General jobs/economy reality. The more positions open when there is low unemployment (relative to the position) the smaller number of applicants per position, and the pickier the applicants. The fewer jobs open with "high" unemployment the larger and less picky candidates become. After the dotcom bust, when I was hiring we would see 500-1000/month resumes per open position in some cases, just insane; yet, before the bust we would see < 100/month usually, even at highly known companies.

There are still a ton of remote jobs available - our company has permanently switched to remote/hybrid positions for the entire development staff. I haven't been reading the "Who is hiring" HN threads the last few months but many were still advertising remote positions then. It's also important to note that software developer are a sought-after resource at the moment so companies that wouldn't be inclined to offer remote positions are being forced into competing for top talent.

I should also note that you should avoid companies that consider you a resource ;)

If you're just applying for a job by filling out an application and sending in your resume, you're at an extreme disadvantage. Especially for high demand positions like that small start up. Networking is absolutely positively the key differentiator of success in getting hired. Do you now anyone at the companies you would like to work at? If so use them to perhaps fish your resume directly to hiring managers and also put in a good word.

Is there such a thing as 'red flags' on a linkedin profile that might be hurting me? I don't get any pings at all from linkedin, and I have a fairly complete profile.

The outreach from smaller companies seems to be accelerating. I've started getting regular inquiries on an AngelList profile that I filled out 4 years ago and forgot about.

Recruiters on LinkedIn spam you with remote jobs.

Do it. In this market, the hardest part is keeping up with all the interview requests.

Demand seems high. A lot of opportunity and for remote too.