10 most difficult IT jobs for employers to fill

The breakneck pace of technological innovation in an era of digital transformation has made it difficult for companies to find and land talent with the right mix of cutting-edge skills and experience. But even harder to find are candidates with the soft skills and leadership potential to match their technical savvy, says Matt Sigelman, CEO of labor market analytics firm Burning Glass.

“In IT, most mid- to senior-level folks currently in the market have advanced to where they are because of their technical skills, not based on their management and soft skills. What that means is that certain roles are incredibly hard to fill, as they need both the technical savvy, as well as domain- and industry-specific expertise and leadership skills. Whenever you’re asking a candidate to wear two different hats — in this case, technical and management — you’re inherently making these roles harder to fill as the pool of qualified candidates becomes smaller,” Sigelman says.

Here, based on Burning Glass’s research into more than 40,000 job posting websites from August 2015 to September 2016, and ranked by the number of days it takes to fill these roles, are the ten hardest-to-fill IT jobs.

Time to fill: 107 days

A technical manager is charged with both managing all the technical processes within an IT department, but also with management of personnel, as well and interviewing and screening new candidates.

Time to fill: 64 days

An SAP manager is, as the name suggests, tasked with overseeing the implementation and integration of SAP solutions across an organization. They also must have experience with SAP Solution Manager software to help ensure SAP solutions work efficiently and effectively within their organization.

Time to fill: 63 days

A systems analyst specializes in analyzing, designing and implementing information systems and IT solutions for business users. Systems analysts set up new computer systems, including both hardware and software, and may also implement new applications to increase productivity.

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Time to fill: 63 days

A Java architect defines, integrates, upgrades and maintains infrastructure and applications across a company to support Java-based applications. This can involve everything from ecommerce solutions to financial management applications to web applications.

Time to fill: 54 days

The Salesforce CRM platform is becoming a staple of today’s digital businesses, Sigelman says, and positions require extensive knowledge of the business drivers behind the platform and experience with integrating and using it. “We see a big demand for Salesforce skills across many industries, which speaks to the ubiquity of the platform,” Sigelman says.

Time to fill: 54 days

A database architect is tasked with designing, creating, deploying and managing an organization’s data architecture. That means being able to assess an organization’s data sources — both internal and external — and design, build and manage data infrastructure to store and analyze that data.

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Time to fill: 53 days

A cybersecurity consultant analyzes an organization’s security profile and attack vectors and then advises and guides executives on how best to protect themselves against threats. This can include hardware, software, network and application security.

Time to fill: 52 days

With the rise of the internet of things, engineers who can develop embedded solutions are in high demand and short supply, Sigelman says. “Whether in manufacturing, healthcare or even consumer spaces, embedded software engineers are critical to help modify existing systems for new applications or to create entirely new applications,” he says.

Time to fill: 51 days

Data managers help companies organize, store and analyze data with a focus on security and privacy. Data managers must have extensive knowledge of the complexity of data management and some working knowledge of data architecture and best practices for data security and compliance.

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Time to fill: 51 days

A systems integration engineer is a specialist in bringing different computing systems or software applications together so that they work together seamlessly, as one system. A systems integration engineer must know the fundamentals of software, networking, security and business process management.