By Chandler Harris

As Hulu, Apple, Microsoft, Netflix and network websites like ABC.com help to shift viewing habits from traditional cable television to Internet viewing platforms, the online video industry is rapidly evolving, growing - and looking for technology help.

New content-viewing habits and platforms are creating strong demand for professionals skilled in the various aspects of online or streaming video. Plus, businesses are using online video more than ever for internal and external applications.  

"Every year consumers consume more video content on more devices for longer periods of time and at a higher quality, which is fueling the market," says Dan Rayburn, executive vice president of StreamingMedia.com and principal analyst at Frost and Sullivan. 

The worldwide video delivery network has a compound annual growth rate of more than 30 percent, with revenue expected to grow from $800 million this year to more than $1.4 billion by 2012, according to Frost and Sullivan.

Where the Jobs Are

Although there were "almost no jobs" in online video in 2008, numerous companies in the sector are now hiring, Rayburn says. At his StreamingMediaBlog.com, he compiled a list of more than 300 jobs at 22 different companies during August alone. The companies include Adobe, Netflix, Lockheed Martin, Hulu and Akami. Many of these positions are for developers, engineers and project management specialists.

Rayburn sees a strong need for project managers and network engineers experienced with content delivery networks, and who know how to build scalable infrastructure for software downloads, applications and video. Other in-demand technical positions include encoding technicians and database programmers with experience in SQL and C++.

At Blip.tv, which provides original Web content, shows and series with 50,000 videos and a running total of 94 million views, 40 percent of the staff are in IT. Currently the company is looking for IT professionals skilled in Java, Flash, Perl and QA.

The Flip Side

On the other side of the equation is the increasing demand by companies to use video at the for business, training, marketing and e-commerce applications. Currently, every Fortune 500 company uses IP-based video in its internal and external communications, Rayburn says. That's where the geatest opportunity lies for online video experts: to provide solutions for businesses' video ecosystem. Platforms for content management, transcoding, syndication, video advertising, and monetization - along with hardware and software products - are seeing the biggest signs of growth.

At Limelight, a company that provides online and mobile video services to organizations, software and network engineers are always in demand, especially those that understand programming at Internet scale. The company needs software engineers experienced with C/C++, Java web applications and HTML 5. Limelight also is looking for data engineers experienced with big database programs like Apache Hadoop and Gluster.

"We're a growing business and we need folks that understand how to operate in a rapidly growing environment, people that are self-starters and can take on challenges and run with them," says Paul Alfieri, the company's vice president of marketing and communications.

A combination of video and Internet professionals make up Zeitbyte, a start-up that offers online and traditional video services. Zeitbyte likes professionals experienced with digital media issues like aspect ratios, tape formats, conversion, video production and encoding, as well as Internet developers who know how to work with online media, project managers and developers experienced with Flash, Java, Python, HTML 5 and ActionScript.

The only hitch in working this sector: Many companies want previous experience in what's a relatively new field. Becoming a specialist in an element, such as building networks or databases for online videos or being a specialist in Flash, can help. 

Says Rayburn: "Most companies don't look at you and say, "you didn't complete college," but "what work can you do for us today?"

Chandler Harris writes about business and technology from the Bay Area of California.