Tech talent is in high demand these days. Across various industries, you’ll find companies are competing with one another for the top tech talent to help them grow their business.
Looking ahead to 2022, many companies have already begun planning and are hoping to recruit more employees in the new year. Below, 12 Fast Company Executive Board members share the No. 1 technical hire their company is looking to make in 2022.
1. DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION SPECIALIST
As more organizations look to embrace the benefits of digital transformation, we’re seeking talent that understands how to help customers make this transition possible. Helping them adopt digital services and the cloud is critical, and we need people who can provide support and guidance along this journey. In today’s business environment, digital transformation is a necessity, not an option. – Matthew Tengwall, Verint Systems
2. CHIEF TECHNICAL OFFICER
We plan to hire a CTO who is focused not on building a technology platform, but on how to best leverage and integrate a lot of existing platforms. Unless you are a software company, you really should not have to build much from scratch these days. Someone who knows how to integrate existing platforms is very valuable because they can really accelerate growth. – Alex Husted, HELPSY
3. TECHNICAL PROJECT MANAGER
Addressing technology concerns, a project manager can improve all aspects of project planning and resource management. Their technical prowess and inspiring leadership make them adept at working in a collaborative environment, driving strategy, and delivering desired results for scheduled projects. – Irfan Khan, CLOUDSUFI
4. DATA ENGINEER
A high-performing team should have 10 data engineers to everyone data scientist. Data engineers dig out the data, clean the data, and prepare the data for analysis. – Meagan Bowman, STOPWATCH
5. FULL-STACK DEVELOPER
Full-stack developers are always in high demand. Add in data science to the mix and it is a dangerous combination. In 2022 and beyond, it will be hard to run any company without either of them. – Joseph DeWoody, Valor Mineral Management
6. VP OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
We will hire a VP of research and development. We’re growing fast and need to start supporting dozens and dozens of enterprise and SaaS clients that are quickly turning into hundreds. – Yoav Vilner, Walnut
7. TEAM OF DEVELOPERS
My company will be building out our developer team to provide support for current applications and the development of new add-ons to continue company growth. This team most likely will be remote and could very well be spread out internationally. We are focused on talent and skills more than location. – Martin Rowinski, Boardsi
8. CYBERSECURITY ANALYST
This is not on an immediate basis but a cybersecurity analyst can be a candidate since hackers are becoming more and more sophisticated these days. I believe that all categories of data must be protected from damage. This includes any level of threats that are being used in unlawful situations. – Lane Kawaoka, SimplePassiveCashflow.com
9. TECH PROFESSIONALS WITH MARKETING EXPERIENCE
As my business grows, it becomes necessary to hire tech professionals who know their way around marketing. Today, it simply isn’t enough to know how to build a product. You also need to know who you’re building it for and how to make it easy for them to use. Data analysts, growth marketers, and others who have tech expertise are valuable assets to a growing business. – Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner
10. DATA SCIENTISTS AND MATHEMATICIANS
Data scientists and mathematicians will be a key focus for us in 2022 in order to expand our product offering within our industry. The blend of statistical analysis and mathematics is crucial in a data-tech organization. Additionally, privacy specialists will be a key focus as legislation continues to evolve surrounding the protection of personally identifiable information. – Amanda Dorenberg, COMMB
11. TECHNICAL PRODUCT MANAGER
We will continue to build security, data, and platform teams in 2022. A technical product manager is our No. 1 hire. This role would lead our aggressive focus on security (we recently received SOC2 Type 1 Certification) and expand our security team while broadening our capabilities. – Cody Barbo, Trust & Will
12. OUTSOURCED LOW-CODE PLATFORM
Unless you are a technology company, tech is best outsourced. A lot can be done by business users with “minimal-coding” platforms. Every non-tech company should make a decision on such a platform and empower its business users. When it comes to any specialization, I recommend leaders to retain ‘fractional experts’ who will supercharge the business. – Pawan Mehra, cKinetics Inc
