The Top 5 High-Demand Tech Jobs in 2022

January 21, 2022

As the new year begins, let's take a glance at the most in-demand and best-paying tech jobs that will be especially relevant in 2022.

If one of your 2022 resolutions is to change careers, this post is for you.

Information Security Specialist

The number of cybercrimes increased seven-fold in 2021. There has been a loss of $20,000 billion this year due to mistakes in security systems for large companies. Losses are expected to reach $265 billion annually by 2031, according to experts. There is no doubt that companies are trying to do something and are investing heavily in security systems and their developers.

Analyst and security engineer positions are expected to grow by 33% in 2021. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the field will continue to grow for at least 10 years. But that's not the most interesting part. Herjavec Group's founder, who conducts surveys on cybersecurity employment, predicts that in 2021, the global skilled labor market will have no unemployment. At the same time, the shortage of competent tech jobs specialists is only increasing.

According to Dice analysts, cybersecurity salaries increased by 16.3% on average in 2021.

Market demand exceeds supply. There is a high entry threshold because there is a shortage of qualified personnel, and salaries are rising to attract experienced workers. Personnel shortages, which were revealed a year ago, are massive.

Ziprecruiter states that junior specialists earn more than $86,000 a year.

Seniors earn $116,748 per year or $9729 per month.

Systems Analyst

There is always a need for systems analysts, both during and after crises. This year is no exception as businesses continue to face challenges.

In the USA, the average age of SA and BA is 43 years, and the average age of IT specialists is 28 years.

In these fields of systems and business analytics, there aren’t enough qualified leads: the threshold for entering this profession is high, and a specialist needs to understand all the nuances of business and markets. In most cases, people with experience in management or data analytics leave for BA, and the demand is growing much faster than supply.

System analysts are in demand in medium and large businesses – 71% work in companies with more than 1000 employees. But it was in 2021 that the number of analysts hired by small businesses (from 50 to 100 people) increased sharply. In the United States, the average salary per year is $93,730.

Mobile App Developer

The mobile application development market is growing at a tremendous pace. Three years ago, Statista estimated the global capitalization of mobile development at $1.3 trillion, while today it has grown to almost five times that amount ($6.3 trillion). According to SensorTower, users spent more than $130 billion on mobile apps and games in 2021, up 19.7% from last year.

In 2022, mobile development will remain one of the most in-demand areas within tech jobs. Both iOS and Android developer salaries will grow.

The threshold for entering the profession of a mobile application developer is much lower than that of systems analytics or information security. Due to this, there is a wide variation in salaries. Payscale estimates the median salary for a specialist at $69,000 per year, and Indeed, at $120,000.

DevOps

According to IT recruiters and developers at CodinGame, DevOps was the most in-demand specialty at the beginning of the year: 43% of recruiters were looking for DevOps in 2021. And according to DevOps Institute analysts, the numbers are even higher: 53% of companies hired DevOps in 2021.

Indeed, DevOps job opportunities have increased by 75% over the last year, and on LinkedIn by 50%. BusinessWire notes that DevOps is growing at 21% per year. This pace will remain for the next 5 years, at least.

On average, DevOps engineers make $105,017 per year, according to Glassdoor.

AI / ML Specialists, Data Scientists

Here it is worth showing the growth rate of this specialty with a comparison chart according to Career Carma:

According to McKinsey analysis, 57% of medium and large businesses have already implemented or are about to implement artificial intelligence and neural networks in their workflows. For comparison, in 2020, this number was 45%.

Big businesses need AI/ML engineers, and Indeed has tons of great tech jobs from Google, Facebook, Deloitte, Nissan, BBC, Amazon, and other market leaders in a wide variety of industries. The AI applications in 2021 range from human resources management to genetic engineering, and there are so many of them that a separate article is needed to list them.

If you want to dive into these specialties, here is a list of books to help you start with! You can buy individual chapters and mix and match them together.