January 2012: The Top Spots!

Tech hiring managers are resolute in their staffing priorities for 2012 — they need innovative professionals who design, code, build and operate. Indeed, developers dominate the new year’s most pressing hiring needs for a second straight year, although ops professionals make their list debut.

According to data compiled from nearly 1,200 tech-focused hiring managers and recruiters, Java developers are the top priority. Demand for tech professionals with java know-how has grown year/year for more than two years as measured by job postings on Dice. If your company is looking to hire this talent, don’t dawdle — a seasoned Java developer clearly has options.

Software developers moved up one-spot on the list to claim the number two position this year. Employers want developers who have strong opinions on what makes for high quality code, and a passion to create excellent user experiences and business solutions. On Dice, there are software developer positions posted in 44 out of 50 states. Outside of the major metropolitan markets, we see good demand in Florida, Oregon, Colorado and Arizona.

Anecdotally, hiring managers have been telling us about the talent crunch for both mobile (#3) and .NET developers (#4) for different reasons. Mobile has become ubiquitous and the number of qualified, experience developers hasn’t caught up with the market. For .NET, the money gap and the concerns about .NET limiting careers has held back tech professionals from fully embracing the Microsoft framework.

New to this year’s list: systems (#7) and network (#8) engineers/administrators. Their appearance may demonstrate companies have pushed the backbone of their organizations too far. Doing more with less has limits as these professionals maintain, operate and optimize entire communication channels and platforms.

The tech recruiting market is active and hiring managers have defined the priorities to start 2012. The only certainty is that companies will find ways to build value within their business and tech professionals will have a headlining role.

Alice Hill
Managing Director, Dice.com

* A single job posting may reflect more than one skill, location or type of position; therefore total figures for those attributes may be greater than total jobs posted.