During 2023, we witnessed many adjustments and cutbacks in the technology industry. January was very scary, especially with the big companies (Zoom, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Meta, etc.) and all types of fintech businesses (PayPal, Impossible Food, Alphabet, Spotify, Fandom, etc.) announcing massive employee layoffs. With around 90,000 lost jobs in a single month, difficult market conditions, and economists globally warning about the upcoming recession, it was hard to make optimistic forecasts.
The trend has continued all year; however, we haven’t registered cutoffs as aggressive as January’s. There has been a significant reduction every month with the number of layoffs totallling around 7,300 in October. The reason? Easy, the economic uncertainty of recent years and the budget strains on many companies demand human talent to successfully navigate through the storm. But what type of positions are the most demanded? Stay with us and find out the top 10 hottest IT jobs for 2024.
Help Desk Technician
Are you good at communicating with people? Do you have experience in customer service? Help desk technicians are the first contact with end-users when they experience problems with hardware, software, an application, or an online service. These situations happen daily globally. The digitization of businesses and the rise of remote work keep these professionals very busy and in high demand. Considering the average salary offered in 2021, it has grown 7%, meaning you could get 55,000 USD per year.
To be eligible for this position, customer service and troubleshooting skills, and solid IT knowledge of software and hardware maintenance are required. Configuration of computer systems, software installation, updates, and bug fixes will be among your common tasks. This role is a good entrance to the IT world. There is a lot to learn, opportunities to grow, and good money to earn the whole of 2024!
Cybersecurity Expert
With the scary and non-stop growth of cybercrimes, cybersecurity experts are an essential need for every organization relying on technology across all industries. Both, cybersecurity engineers and architects are key in every IT security team, and one of the hottest IT jobs in 2024. The salary for this role, compared with 2021, has increased close to 8%, meaning you could earn around 145,000 USD yearly!
This is quite a good salary in exchange for fighting back plenty of cyber threats and criminals, whilst protecting the security (data, intellectual property, IT infrastructure, etc.) of organizations and their users.
Security involves experts in different matters; therefore, tasks could involve the design and implementation of security solutions to protect networks, systems, and data. Security architecture design, assessment and management of risks, testing, threat modeling, security infrastructure implementation, regulations and compliance, response in case of malicious events, etc.
Project Manager
Do you like technology? Are you a master of organization and planning? Are you looking for a great salary? This could be your next move! A project manager oversees planning, executing, and following up on IT projects until they’re completed, within time and of course, in budget.
IT projects are a priority in many industries, therefore the demand for such professionals has risen, just like their salary! In comparison with 2021, the average salary has increased by 15.6%, reaching 120,000 USD yearly.
It is a challenging job that demands a good combination of soft and hard skills. Communication and leadership are key, as well as solid management knowledge to identify project needs and risks, create timelines, allocate resources efficiently, track deliverables, assure quality, and accomplish deadlines.
Systems Engineer
This position continues to gain value each year. Systems engineers have become an indispensable staple for organizations in all industries. They plan, design, and create strategies for the complete technical architecture of an organization, and solutions to optimize productivity, security, quality, etc., based on the current organization’s needs and its future expectations.
The value of their solid IT knowledge and expertise has increased close to 8% since 2021. That translates into an average salary of 120,000 USD yearly!
In small businesses, frequently a system engineer is also in charge of the system administration. It makes sense because nobody else knows the technical backbone of the company better than the person who created it! However, in big companies, a system engineer is busy enough with plenty of responsibilities: planning and designing new projects, identifying requirements, and potential limits, communicating with stakeholders, testing new systems to guarantee their functionality and security, collaborating with hardware engineers, software developers, etc.
AI/Machine Learning Engineer
AI is not new, but this year everybody has been talking about it! AI/ML engineers are in high demand in many important industries like finance, cybersecurity, healthcare, transportation, retail, agriculture, etc. These professionals oversee researching, designing, and developing artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms on data science teams. Through these algorithms, they can power product recommendations on a music platform or e-shop, make real-time stock predictions, etc.
These specialists also must work with very large datasets, train and fine-tune models, deploy them into production, etc., possibilities for this position are vast. The knowledge and ability of these collaborators have a big value because they can directly drive profits. Therefore, they can expect an average salary of 118,000 USD per year.
DevOps Engineer
Yes, DevOps Engineer is within the top 10 hottest IT jobs for 2024. This position is a key piece to efficiently connect software development collaborators and operations. The profile of a desirable DevOps engineer unites good software programming and system administration skills. The demand for this position has increased due to the companies’ need to implement innovative technologies, programs, and tools to manage more efficiently the day-to-day operations. Since 2021, the average salary for these professionals grew 14%, reaching 136,000 USD per year. Not bad at all!
If you have this profile or if you are looking to grow, it’s a good time to hone your skills in software development, automation, cloud computing, and system administration. A DevOps engineer has to automate processes, interact with the IT, test, and development teams, ensure constant integration and deployment, manage infrastructure, and support the maintenance of efficient workflows.
Full Stack Developer
This professional is an engineer or developer with solid knowledge to develop and maintain the back end (code, data processing, and storage) and the front end (page layouts, menus, fonts, and all the elements a user can see and interact with) of an application, computer program or website. Besides, he or she develops new product features or APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), fixes bugs, troubleshoots software, executes tests, etc.
Having the back and the front end in the hands of one professional has made this position attractive and highly demanded. The average salary a full-stack developer could receive is 115,000 USD yearly!
Cloud Architect/Engineer
Every year, the demand for cloud services grows globally, mostly due to organizations’ increasing automation and their need for digital agility. In this context, cloud architects/engineers have become in high demand, one of the hottest IT jobs for 2024!
These professionals have the knowledge and necessary skills for creating, optimizing, and maintaining cloud computing solutions for cloud computing businesses, tech research organizations, IT departments or providers, and many more clients. They also design cloud strategies, monitor, troubleshoot, optimize the cloud environment, and ensure the security and scalability of cloud infrastructure.
The average salary for this position has grown 3.4% since 2021, reaching 145,400 USD yearly.
IT manager
Over time, the IT department has grown both in relevance and number of collaborators. The organogram now includes different levels of managers, but a leader is always very much needed and not easy to find, due to the number of skills that are required. That has increased the average salary by 8.4%, reaching 164,000 USD yearly for this position!
You must understand machines and people, have a wide and deep knowledge of networking, software, and hardware. Additionally, the position requires management skills, leadership, and communication skills.
Responsibilities are many and key: planning and supervision of the installation and maintenance of the whole digital infrastructure, development and implementation of security, general IT infrastructure and disaster recovery policies, optimization of the general performance, analysis of the resource usage, definition and measurement of goals, evaluation and integration of new technologies etc. If you are ready for the major leagues, go for it!
MIS manager
MIS stands for management information systems. The technical background and profile required to get this top position are very similar to the IT manager’s. The big difference is that the MIS manager has also business skills. This professional reviews and analyzes the data collected daily by the IT department, and communicates it to other essential departments and executives of supply chain, marketing, finance, etc. This is to facilitate data-based decision-making.
In other words, an MIS manager delivers the business intelligence that allows companies to make decisions faster and more accurately.
If you are looking for big challenges and paychecks in 2024, this can be your choice! This is one of the hottest IT jobs for 2024, the average salary has grown 11% since 2021, so 170,000 USD per year!
Conclusion
The skills of technology professionals are in high demand and will remain that way during 2024. The digital transformation for companies to stay alive and compete requires collaboration between data security and general operations. The average salary for technology professionals continues to rise. Of course, factors like years of experience, location, and size of the company can make the figures bigger or smaller. But for sure, 2024 can be a great year for you! Don’t hesitate! Neterra is hiring! Check our job offers. Be strategic, plan your moves, and apply right now!
Data sources:
U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, (bls.gov)
TechCrunch (techcrunch.com)
Dice (dice.com)