Over the past few years, skilled developers and tech professionals have been in high demand for startups and corporations alike. And 2016 will be no exception. What will be different, however, is the sheer quantity of specialties companies are seeking in order to fill highly specific gaps, from data engineers to machine learning experts with deep knowledge of their fields.
Given that many companies are already hiring — or will be shortly — I asked 15 startup founders from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) which categories of technical talent they are looking for this year and why these roles will be so impactful. Their best answers are below.
1. Cloud-based IT managers
Everything has moved to the cloud, from HR functions (Zenefits, etc.) to customer relationship management (Saleforce, etc.) and web hosting (Amazon Web Services, etc.). As a result, I’ve noticed that it’s critical to find a super competent generalist who can manage and make recommendations on the best possible cloud-based solutions to my business. The trend is for cloud-based IT functions to drive significant cost savings into a business. For instance, in 2014 Amazon Web Services reduced the cost of computing by an average of 30%, storage by an average of 51% and relational databases by an average of 28%. The bottom line is that all of the cost savings add up and are more than justified by hiring a cloud-based IT management expert.
2. Motion graphic designers
eLearning and mLearning thrive when you have modern, well-executed animation that brings stale content to life. With attention spans dwindling and information overload, animation is a way to keep users engaged throughout a training. A great motion graphic designer can adapt to multiple design and animation styles and understand storytelling to influence and teach others through their animation.
— Andrew Fayad, eLearning Mind
3. Creative instructional designers
This tech role depends on the ability to listen and understand a client’s needs to turn them into measurable objectives. The role helps us create content that can be used and applied by our clients in their daily work. This type of individual is a rare find because they need to be able to choose the right instructional methodology and multimedia, develop the best instructional strategy and implement a structure while being an effective project manager.
— Simon Casuto, eLearning Mind
4. Growth hackers
We are desperately in need of getting our numbers in control: our analytics, conversation data and cost per clicks. While we have team members who specialize in social media, content creation and launching, we need someone to help us tie in all of our funnels. Hopefully the right individual will help us on everything from organic search engine traffic to articles and newsletter opt-ins to course purchases.
— Vanessa Van Edwards, Science of People
5. Front-end web developers
There’s a shortage in front-end web development talent but high demand for their skill set. We’re almost looking for a “unicorn”: someone who codes but also possesses an eye for design. Due to the digital and mobile shift, more clients require updated sites and apps. In order to meet this demand, we’ll need to recruit an experienced front-end web developer.
6. JavaScript developers
JavaScript has long been a vital part of web and app development, but with the coming of Node.js, it now has an important role to play in server-side development too. The huge number of Node tools that have been created over the last couple of years — from Gulp to PostCSS and many more — means that JavaScript on the server now has a great toolchain, in addition to its already extensive collection of libraries.
A great JavaScript developer is more valued than ever and can solve problems across a wider range of domains. I doubt JavaScript will squeeze out other server-side languages like PHP or Python anytime soon, but Node.js can certainly fill some of the roles these languages have traditionally excelled in.
7. AI and machine learning enthusiasts
Artificial Intelligence will take off in the next few years. We are actively looking for AI geeks and enthusiasts to work with us on a variety of tool development projects. Machine learning is not the same thing as just coding. There are many key differences and intricacies to pay attention to. The information on machine learning is still limited, therefore, we are seeking very specific talent who is extremely passionate about the futuristic aspects of AI and the possibilities that it might bring. We need fresh ideas and great execution from a team of AI geeks.
8. Data architects and engineers
Five to ten years from now we will be amazed by how uninformed our business decisions are by available data. Internal and third party data sources are more accessible than ever and smart IT leaders are being proactive in how to take advantage of opportunities to gain visibility, predict insight and provide greater client value. But the challenge is that a clean data architecture has to be built into the system to get the benefits. Trying to clean data going backwards is onerous, expensive and often fails to answers the questions you really want to ask.
9. Data scientists
As a company focused on organizing public data, any person with a heavy data science background will continuously rank high on our list of potential hires. It’s extremely rare to find both the right skill set and hands-on experience in this area. We will continue to hire the rare examples we find who meet these criteria and can make a material impact on our business.
10. UX/UI designers
What I’ve realized is that I need user interface/user experience (UX/UI) design on every aspect of the business. I want them to think about the user experience the first time they come to our site, as well as what happens when a client signs and starts engaging with the team. Every single touch point in the customer journey merits deep thought about what the UX should be. It’s a critical component of everything we do. It’s key to creating an incredible, lasting experience with everyone who interacts with a brand.
For us, everything we create, work on and build has to focus on the “why.” The more you ask that question, the more clarity you get about what should happen. It seems simple, but you see companies skip that step so often. If you don’t spend a lot of time on the “why,” you’ll get it wrong every time.
— Simon Berg, Ceros
11. Inbound growth marketers
A technical generalist that knows enough code to launch some snippets on a website, but also enough about data science to draw analytic conclusions is invaluable. Marketers who have a multitude of different skills and can work between different teams also stand out. The more someone can teach themselves a variety of skills, the more they will be useful to a number of different departments — be that product, marketing or sales.
— Peter Sena, Digital Surgeons
12. Technically savvy QA specialists
Although not traditionally considered a technical hire, we’ve found quality assurance (QA) experts with a background in both project management and application development have a stronger understanding of the process and development requirements. It’s unbelievably satisfying to see a QA expert send a bug report back to our developers, pointing out not just the user-side failure point, but suggesting what might be causing the problem — strong development prowess means they are right a majority of the time, reducing some of the development workload, and creating less churn between departments.
— Blair Thomas, EMerchantBroker
13. Special web and tactics developers
We are looking for someone who can do just about everything and enjoys jumping into a situation with limited time to debug, fix or code. In our company, the person would need to know PHP, JS, CSS, MySQL, and be able to debug things instantly or create a quick code base for a client in need of something that same day.
— Peter Boyd, PaperStreet Web Design
14. HTML5 web developers
In an increasingly mobile world, it is imperative that your business presence is responsive on all types of devices, from TV to web to mobile. HTML5 ensures that the web presence of your business is optimized, agnostic of device. Looking into 2016 and beyond I intend to hire HTML5 developers. From a marketing perspective, “responsive design” is particularly critical in light of Google’s recent announcement around “mobile-friendliness.” In fact, if your web presence is not mobile-friendly (you can check here) you are likely to be penalized and not appear favorably in Google’s search results. In addition, Apple and others have announced plans to further advance the web experience via television. How your business responds from a technical point of view will be critical to your success long term.
15. Visual data scientists
As an education technology company, we are always on the lookout for people who have a mutual respect and skill set for technology and visual data. We know the importance of gaining insights about our operations by analyzing and responding to the data we collect. Because of this, one key hire for us will be a visual data scientist: someone who can turn complex data sets into actionable insights for educators to help improve student learning.
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