Main image of article 28 Hardest-to-Fill Technology Jobs Include Software Developer, Engineer

Which technology jobs are hardest to fill? For employers across the country, the need to find technologists with the right combination of skills and experience is more pressing than ever. For technologists, increasing demand for certain roles can translate into higher salaries and more opportunities.

For this analysis, we turn to Burning Glass, which collects and analyzes data from millions of job postings around the country. To gauge whether a position is truly “hard to fill,” Burning Glass relies on four metrics: time to fill a position, number of job postings, salary, and “location quotient,” which is a measure of “concentrated” demand for a role within a particular geography. 

We also decided to narrow our query to a selection of well-established and up-and-coming tech hubs, including New York City (which includes New Jersey), Seattle, Austin, Atlanta, Washington, DC (including Virginia and Maryland), Raleigh, and Silicon Valley.

Here are the results:

If you’re a technologist in any of these tech hubs, and your skills and experience align with these roles, you potentially have a lot of leverage in any kind of compensation discussion with a potential employer. Even if a higher salary or more stock options aren’t on the proverbial table, the company could still prove amenable to giving you added benefits, including PTO or a flexible schedule. It’s good to be wanted!

As you can see from the above list, the most in-demand jobs aren’t very niche. While employers are interested in machine learning, artificial intelligence (A.I.) and other, highly specialized roles, they’re just as hungry (if not more so) for those technologists who can fulfill the technological needs of the business—everything from building apps to ensuring that the tech stack is secure. 

But that’s not to say that companies will hire just anyone. To land any role, you’ll need to demonstrate that you can actually do the job—which means not only answering interview questions to a recruiter or hiring manager’s satisfaction, but also acing coding and/or design tests. No matter what the job market, it’s always important to keep your skills updated.