Every angel investor has an industrial sack full of portfolio companies all of which are desperately hiring. More interestingly, most of these companies are at that very cool stage of being early (meaning you get decent equity) yet funded (meaning you get a livable salary).

Here's what I would do if I was looking for work right now:

1. Find some angel investors.
2. Pick some, stalk them on Crunchbase, find their contact information via search engine or intros.
3. Email them: "Hey, I'm an engineer interested in x, y, and z. I noticed you invested in blah blah and some other cool companies. I was wondering if they could use someone like me?"

This approach could also work for non-engineers (hi, designers).

Caveat: Investors are probably most accessible and prolific in Silicon Valley, but this approach could potentially be replicated anywhere.

P.S. Contagion is hiring, too. Come work with me: http://bit.ly/contagion-hiring-engineers