The top 5 tech skills in demand now

Australia will continue to grapple with a massive tech talent shortage this year with a growing talent mismatch between the skills employers need and those jobseekers possess, according to the latest Hays Jobs Report.

Hays said the top 5 skills employers are looking for in the first six month of this year are: cloud engineers and architects, project managers, network engineers, security GRC specialists, and end user support specialists.

Project managers are in great demand across the financial services sector and across various sub sectors there is continuous demand for people with a strategic and business management mindset and a hybrid background in change management.

“While most organisations strive towards agile delivery, there has been constant demand for project professionals with hands-on experience on Agile frameworks. As a response to the Royal Commission [into banking], demand for candidates with exposure to risk, compliance and regulatory change will continue to rise,” the report said.

On the cloud front, there is demand for candidates with experience across ServiceNow and Salesforce from development through to project management and implementation.

Network engineers are also in high demand, as are candidates with experience with the three main cloud providers (Google, Microsoft and Amazon), software-defined networking, or NFVi skills. Network engineers who can demonstrate DevOps, continuous integration and continuous delivery, and Agile expertise are also required.

On the digital front, the top five skills in demand are for full stack software engineers, cloud engineers, data engineers, data scientists, and React.js/react native engineers, Hays said.

Meanwhile, organisations in recent months have shifted their preference from contract to permanent employment contracts to retain IP and build a strong team culture.

“However, candidates are resisting this change as they prefer the higher hourly rates and greater level of flexibility associated with contract roles and therefore do not want to be converted to a permanent role,” the report said.

“While projects and business change, vacancy activity will remain high. This is a dynamic and progressive area with most private sector organisations investing in digitisation, process automation and technology upgrades. The banking, finance and insurance sectors will add vacancy activity because of reforms and growth.”

Agile maturity is also improving with organisations taking a more strategic approach with phased implementations of new delivery styles. This brings employees on the journey rather than requiring immediate adoption without notice to a new way of working, Hays said.

Finally, local and state governments will maintain their high volume of vacancy activity in response to legacy upgrades and transformation works. Public sector staff continue to transform the way they deliver services to their internal and external customers.

“Microsoft Office 365 has been a major trend and is an increasingly in-demand skill set for project managers, business analysts and change managers. These transformations are being accompanied by a transition to Agile working, with a variety of Agile methodologies adopted across the public sector. Experienced transformation specialists are sought to lead teams on these significant journeys.”