Software Developer Tops UK Tech Job Volume

According to data published by the UK government’s Digital Economy Council, software developer was the single most common tech job advertised in the UK, with more than 130,000 job listings in the year covered by the report. The median salary for the role stood at £39,430 nationally, rising to £55,000 in London.

Front end developer ranked second by volume, appearing in more than 30,000 job advertisements. Median pay came in at just over £35,000 across the UK and £50,000 in London.

Highest-Paid UK Tech Roles

While software developer dominated by sheer volume, it was not the best-compensated role on the list. The report identified the following as the top earners:

• IT Systems Architect — £63,000 median UK salary; £77,500 in London (highest on the list)
• DevOps Engineer — £67,500 in London (second-highest London salary reported)
• Data Scientist — featured prominently in cost-of-living-adjusted comparisons (see below)

The gap between London and national median salaries is significant across all roles, but the report also highlighted that London’s higher cost of living can erode the real-world advantage of a higher nominal salary.

Tech Jobs Are Spreading Beyond London

A notable finding in the report is that digital tech employment is no longer concentrated solely in the capital. Cities across the UK are developing their own tech clusters, with meaningful salary premiums over the national average:

• Edinburgh — 48,118 people employed in digital tech; salaries approximately 15% above the national average
• Reading — 100,507 digital tech workers; salaries around 8.11% above the national average
• Belfast — 60,000 people in the digital tech sector; salaries 17% above the national average

Other cities mentioned as growing tech hubs include Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester and Cardiff.

Best Cities by Role (Cost of Living Adjusted)

When cost of living is factored in, the picture changes considerably. The report made the following city-by-role recommendations:

Scale of the UK Digital Tech Sector

The report estimates that approximately 2.1 million people work in the UK’s digital tech sector. In five cities — Oxford, Cambridge, Reading, Belfast and Newcastle — more than 10% of the total population is now employed in the sector. Cambridge is an outlier even within that group: the report states that around half of Cambridge’s working population is employed in digital tech.

High Demand Doesn’t Always Mean Fast Hiring

Volume of job ads does not automatically translate into vacancies being filled quickly. Separate data cited alongside the report suggests that software engineers, senior programmers and back-end developers are among the hardest tech professionals to recruit in the UK — meaning strong candidate leverage for those with the right skills.

For DevOps engineers and IT systems architects, the combination of relatively high advertised salaries and known recruitment difficulty suggests a candidate-friendly market, particularly for professionals who can demonstrate hands-on experience with infrastructure automation, CI/CD pipelines and cloud platforms.

Key Takeaways for Tech Professionals

• DevOps engineer and IT systems architect roles command the highest London salaries in the report.
• London’s nominal salary advantage is partly or fully offset by cost of living for many roles.
• Belfast, Leeds, Edinburgh and Glasgow offer competitive real-world pay for specific specialisms.
• Recruitment difficulty in software engineering and back-end development gives experienced candidates strong negotiating power.
• The UK digital tech sector is geographically diversifying, creating opportunities outside traditional hubs.

Salary data originates from the UK government’s Digital Economy Council report as summarised by ZDNet in 2019. Figures should be treated as a historical baseline; consult current industry salary surveys for up-to-date benchmarks.

The Cloud Hiring Boom in India

As of late 2018, cloud computing was reshaping hiring priorities across Indian IT. A report by executive ed-tech platform Great Learning projected that more than one million new cloud computing jobs would be created in India by 2022, driven by accelerating enterprise adoption across both large and small organisations.

The same report noted that at that time approximately 1.7 million cloud roles worldwide remained unfilled, as technical recruiters struggled to find qualified candidates—a structural skills gap that made cloud expertise particularly valuable.

India’s Cloud Market Size and Growth

The Indian cloud computing market was valued at approximately $2.2 billion in 2018, with projections targeting $4 billion by 2020—an annual growth rate exceeding 30 percent. This growth was attributed to several converging factors:

• Rapid expansion of cloud-native services and managed offerings
• Growing enterprise confidence in the security of public and hybrid cloud environments
• Cost pressures pushing organisations away from on-premises data centres
• Demand for greater flexibility, scalability, and deployment speed

IT companies in India were increasingly building new solutions on cloud infrastructure rather than physical hardware, reflecting a broader global shift in how IT capacity is provisioned and consumed.

Cloud Spending Versus Traditional IT

According to the Great Learning report, companies in 2018 were investing at 4.5 times the rate of traditional IT spending when it came to cloud infrastructure, with that gap expected to widen further toward 2020. The report also noted a structural shift on the horizon: virtually all future IT expenditure was expected to target private, public, or hybrid cloud environments—making cloud literacy a baseline requirement for most IT roles, not just specialist ones.

Global Cloud Job Market

Globally, the report cited approximately 18 million cloud computing jobs at the time of publication, with the global median salary for cloud professionals exceeding $100,000 per year. Experienced specialists at the top of the market—cloud architects and senior engineers—commanded salaries as high as $280,000 per year in some markets.

More than two-thirds of global enterprises were reported to be planning, actively implementing, or already using cloud computing, and over half of businesses identified cloud as a high strategic priority.

Cloud Salaries in India (2018 Benchmarks)

The report provided a salary breakdown for cloud professionals in India at the time, illustrating the premium that cloud skills commanded over traditional IT roles:

For context, a traditional IT engineer with comparable entry-level experience was earning approximately ₹3–5 lakh per year at the same time—making cloud-specialised roles noticeably more lucrative from the start of a career.

The Cloud Skills Gap

One of the report’s key findings was that the skills gap in cloud is qualitatively different from historical IT talent shortages. Cloud computing demands a combination of skills that had not previously existed as a coherent discipline: distributed systems design, infrastructure-as-code, identity and access management, cost optimisation, and cloud-native security—capabilities that traditional IT training pipelines were not producing at scale.

This mismatch between enterprise demand and available talent was creating significant recruiting friction, with 1.7 million roles unfilled globally at the time of the report.

Context and Takeaways for DevOps Professionals

While this report was published in 2018 and its specific projections now refer to a period that has passed, the underlying dynamics it described have continued to play out. Cloud adoption has accelerated further, particularly following the 2020 shift to remote work, and the demand for engineers who understand cloud platforms, DevOps tooling, and infrastructure automation remains strong.

For engineers looking to position themselves for this market, the priorities identified in the report remain relevant: develop platform-specific expertise (AWS, Azure, GCP), invest in infrastructure-as-code skills (Terraform, Pulumi), and understand cloud-native security and cost governance.

Source: The Hindu BusinessLine, reporting on a Great Learning industry report, November 2018.

DevOps and Machine Learning Lead Salary Rankings

Stack Overflow’s eighth Annual Developer Survey, completed by more than 100,000 developers worldwide, found that DevOps specialists and machine learning engineers sit at the top of the tech salary ladder. The survey noted that languages, frameworks, and disciplines associated with these two fields are growing rapidly — and that the professionals who work in them are rewarded accordingly.

“DevOps and machine learning are important trends in the software industry today. Languages and frameworks associated with these kinds of work are on the rise, and developers working in these areas command the highest salaries.”

Stack Overflow Annual Developer Survey (2018)

Salary Breakdown by Developer Role

The table below shows median salaries as reported in the Stack Overflow survey, converted to U.S. dollars. Global figures represent worldwide medians; U.S. figures represent U.S.-only respondents.

• Engineering manager — $89,000 globally / $137,000 U.S.
• DevOps specialist — $72,000 globally / $110,000 U.S.
• Data scientist or machine learning specialist — $60,000 globally / $102,000 U.S.
• Data or business analyst — $59,000 globally / $90,000 U.S.
• Embedded applications or devices developer — $59,000 globally / $98,000 U.S.
• Full-stack developer — $59,000 globally / $100,000 U.S.
• Desktop or enterprise applications developer — $57,000 globally / $100,000 U.S.
• Back-end developer — $56,000 globally / $102,000 U.S.
• System administrator — $56,000 globally / $93,000 U.S.
• QA or test developer — $55,000 globally / $83,000 U.S.
• Database administrator — $51,000 globally / $90,000 U.S.
• Front-end developer — $51,000 globally / $93,000 U.S.
• Designer — $46,000 globally / $85,000 U.S.
• Educator or academic researcher — $44,000 globally / $88,000 U.S.
• Mobile developer — $43,000 globally / $101,000 U.S.
• Game or graphics developer — $40,000 globally / $90,000 U.S.

The gap between global and U.S.-only figures is significant across all roles, reflecting both purchasing-power differences and the concentration of high-paying tech employers in the United States.

Experience Levels: DevOps Practitioners Are Seasoned Professionals

The survey found that DevOps specialists and desktop/enterprise application developers reported the most professional coding experience, averaging approximately eight years. This is notable given that DevOps as a formal discipline and job title is relatively recent.

“DevOps as a discipline and professional identity is relatively new, but the people working in this field are highly experienced.”

Stack Overflow Annual Developer Survey (2018)

At the other end of the spectrum, game/graphics developers and mobile developers reported the fewest years of professional experience, suggesting those communities attract more early-career entrants.

Most-Used Programming Languages and Frameworks

The survey also captured the languages and frameworks developers rely on most:

• JavaScript was the most commonly used programming language overall, used by approximately 70% of respondents.
• Python topped the list of fastest-growing languages for the sixth consecutive year and is widely used across data science, automation, and scripting workloads.
• Node.js (approximately 50% of respondents) and AngularJS (approximately 37%) were the most widely adopted frameworks.
• React (approximately 28%) and .NET Core (approximately 27%) were also significant.

For DevOps and ML practitioners specifically, Python’s growth is particularly relevant: it underpins major ML frameworks (such as TensorFlow and scikit-learn) and is commonly used in infrastructure automation and scripting tasks.

Developer Sentiment on Artificial Intelligence

When asked about the future of AI, developer sentiment skewed positive. Roughly three-quarters of respondents said they were more excited than worried about AI’s potential, while approximately one-quarter expressed more concern about its risks. This cautiously optimistic outlook aligns with the broader industry momentum around machine learning investment at the time of the survey.

Key Takeaways for Engineers and Hiring Managers

• DevOps and machine learning skills consistently command a salary premium over other developer specializations, both globally and in the U.S.
• DevOps practitioners tend to be experienced professionals, making the role competitive for those entering the field without a strong systems or software background.
• Python proficiency is increasingly a cross-cutting requirement — useful for ML pipelines, infrastructure-as-code, and automation scripts alike.
• Despite being a relatively young formal discipline, DevOps engineering attracts some of the most experienced people in the industry, suggesting that practitioners often transition from adjacent roles such as system administration, software engineering, or release engineering.

Source: Stack Overflow Annual Developer Survey 2018, as summarized by ZDNet and techworm.net.

Layoffs are painful for everyone involved — not only for the people who lose their jobs, but also for the colleagues left behind. Survivors often experience a mix of guilt, anxiety, and uncertainty about their own futures. Without deliberate action from leadership, this “survivor syndrome” can quietly erode morale, accelerate voluntary attrition among top performers, and reduce overall productivity at exactly the moment a company needs it most.

Below are five practical strategies that HR leaders and managers can deploy to keep remaining employees motivated, focused, and committed after a round of layoffs.

1. Be Honest and Transparent with Your Team

When layoffs happen, rumors fill every vacuum that leadership leaves open. The antidote is direct, honest communication — even when the truth is uncomfortable.

Randeep Singh Sisodia, Vice President of HR at Laureate Education India, recommends communicating the clear rationale behind the layoffs and articulating what positive outcomes are expected as a result. Employees need to understand that a reduction in force is typically a last resort — a measure taken to protect the organization’s long-term viability and, by extension, the jobs of those who remain.

Key communication principles to follow:

• Explain why the layoffs happened, in plain language.
• Describe what changes are being made to prevent future cuts.
• Be available for follow-up questions — town halls, small-group sessions, and one-on-ones all help.
• Avoid corporate jargon that obscures accountability.

2. Actively Re-Engage Remaining Employees

Once the immediate shock of a layoff subsides, the biggest risk to a business is the quiet exodus of its best people. High performers have options, and uncertainty makes those options look attractive.

Sisodia advises leaders to immediately and visibly reaffirm the organization’s commitment to the growth and development of remaining staff. This means more than words — it means launching tangible initiatives: new career development programs, mentorship opportunities, or accelerated project ownership for high performers.

Vikalp Jain, President of technical and business training provider Acadgild, adds that focusing employees’ attention on what the future holds — new products, new markets, new capabilities — gives them something positive and concrete to work toward rather than dwelling on the disruption behind them.

3. Invest in Reskilling and Upskilling

A layoff is often a signal that the business needs to evolve — and so does its workforce. Creating a structured environment for skill development accomplishes two things simultaneously: it equips the company with the capabilities it needs to move forward, and it signals to employees that the company is investing in them rather than viewing them as expendable.

Jain recommends empowering employees to build skills aligned with current industry demand. In a DevOps and technology context, relevant areas commonly include:

• Cloud infrastructure and platform engineering
• DevOps practices and tooling (CI/CD, infrastructure as code, observability)
• Data engineering and analytics
• Machine learning and AI fundamentals
• Security engineering (DevSecOps)
• Modern front-end and full-stack development

Structured learning pathways — whether through internal programs, third-party platforms, or sponsored certifications — demonstrate that leadership sees employees as long-term partners in the company’s recovery and growth.

4. Help Teams Work Effectively with Fewer People

After a layoff, the same amount of work frequently falls on fewer shoulders. Left unmanaged, this quickly leads to burnout — and burnout accelerates the very attrition the company is trying to prevent.

Jain recommends that managers sit down with their teams to honestly audit the workload. This means:

• Identifying low-priority tasks that can be paused, deprioritized, or eliminated entirely.
• Redistributing responsibilities equitably across the remaining team.
• Setting realistic expectations with stakeholders about delivery timelines.
• Using automation and tooling (especially relevant in engineering teams) to absorb repetitive work.

Employees who feel their workload is manageable and fairly distributed are significantly less likely to disengage or seek employment elsewhere. The goal is not to squeeze more out of fewer people, but to work smarter about what actually matters.

5. Treat Departing Employees with Fairness and Dignity

How a company treats the people it lays off sends a loud and lasting message to everyone who stays. Remaining employees watch closely — and they draw conclusions about how they would be treated if circumstances changed.

Sisodia emphasizes that treating exiting employees fairly and compassionately sends a “positive and reassuring message” to the workforce that remains. Concretely, this can include:

• Providing generous and clearly explained severance packages.
• Offering outplacement services (resume coaching, interview preparation, job placement assistance).
• Giving honest, constructive references.
• Allowing adequate transition time where operationally feasible.
• Acknowledging the departing employees’ contributions publicly and with genuine gratitude.

A company that handles exits with professionalism and empathy preserves its employer brand, maintains trust with the retained workforce, and makes future recruiting easier — candidates pay attention to how organizations behave under pressure.

The Bottom Line

Layoffs are never just a headcount event. They are a test of organizational culture and leadership integrity. Companies that communicate honestly, invest in their remaining people, manage workloads thoughtfully, and treat departing employees with dignity come through the experience stronger. Those that don’t risk a second, self-inflicted wave of attrition as their best talent quietly walks out the door.

The period immediately following a layoff is a critical window — the actions leadership takes in the first days and weeks shape employee sentiment for months to come.

If you are working in enterprise IT and want to move into cloud-focused roles, the following three steps can help you take advantage of the current demand without waiting for a formal job posting to appear.

Step 1: Invest Serious Time in Learning

Cloud technology moves quickly, and employers can tell the difference between someone who has surface-level awareness and someone who has put in real hours. To build genuine depth:

• Attend local meetups. Most major cities have active AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and cloud security meetup groups. Attending regularly exposes you to practitioners, real-world use cases, and the people hiring for cloud roles.
• Pursue relevant certifications. Vendor certifications from AWS, Microsoft (Azure), and Google Cloud are widely recognized and actively sought by employers. Most exam prep courses are available on-demand, so you can study on your own schedule without taking time away from your current job.
• Build hands-on experience. Free and low-cost cloud tiers let you spin up real infrastructure. Working through labs and personal projects is far more convincing on a résumé than certification alone.

The investment is primarily one of personal time, which is a realistic ask for anyone who is serious about a career change.

Step 2: Make Your Skills Visible Inside Your Organization

Skills that no one knows about will not advance your career. Once you have built a solid foundation, make sure the right people in your company are aware of it. There are several low-pressure ways to do this:

• Run internal workshops or lunch-and-learns. Offering to explain cloud concepts to colleagues positions you as a subject-matter expert and creates goodwill. Even a short session on cloud cost management or container basics can have a lasting impression on managers who attend.
• Write and publish. Contribute to internal wikis, newsletters, or engineering blogs. If your organization does not have these, look for external publications, community forums, or platforms like Medium or Dev.to. A published article with your name on it is a durable signal of expertise.
• Be helpful, not boastful. The goal is for decision-makers to associate your name with cloud competency. Answer questions in internal Slack channels, review architecture proposals, and offer opinions when cloud topics come up in meetings. Consistency matters more than any single gesture.

Step 3: Target Emerging Cloud Projects, Not Just Open Roles

Job postings are a lagging indicator of where a company is actually heading. By the time a cloud role is formally advertised, a project is often already underway and the preferred candidates may already be identified. Getting ahead of that process is the key to converting your skills into a better role or salary.

• Map out where cloud is heading in your organization. Talk to colleagues in architecture, finance, and DevOps to understand which teams have cloud budget and which projects are on the roadmap. Quarterly business reviews, internal all-hands meetings, and budget announcements often contain this information if you listen carefully.
• Offer to help before you are asked. Reach out to project owners and let them know you have relevant skills. Many cloud initiatives struggle with staffing, and a capable internal resource is often preferable to an expensive external consultant.
• Negotiate from a position of demonstrated value. If you are already contributing to a cloud project when headcount decisions are made, you are in a far stronger negotiating position than an external candidate. Use that moment to discuss a formal title change, pay adjustment, or expanded scope.

The Bigger Picture

The pattern described here is not unique to cloud computing—it applies any time a new technology creates skill gaps faster than the job market can fill them. The combination of deliberate learning, internal visibility, and proactive project involvement is a repeatable strategy for anyone willing to put in the effort.

Cloud adoption is still accelerating across industries. Professionals who build credible cloud skills now, and make those skills visible to decision-makers, are well positioned to move significantly faster than the standard enterprise promotion cycle would otherwise allow.

Originally inspired by a piece published on InfoWorld (2017). The advice has been updated and expanded for a current DevOps engineering audience.

Tech Jobs Dominate Glassdoor’s 2017 Best Jobs in America List

For the second consecutive year, Data Scientist topped Glassdoor’s Best Jobs in America list, followed closely by DevOps Engineer and Data Engineer. Glassdoor expanded the 2017 edition of the list to 50 roles — up from 25 in 2016 — and technology continued to dominate, with 14 IT roles represented across the full ranking.

“In particular for tech jobs, companies across all industries are hiring workers for these needed positions, including employers in healthcare, finance, manufacturing, retail and more. Any organization today with a mobile app, web presence or digitized data are struggling to fill jobs like data scientists, software engineers and mobile developers.”

Andrew Chamberlain, Chief Economist at Glassdoor

How Glassdoor Calculated the Job Score

Each role on the list was assigned a Glassdoor Job Score on a 5-point scale (5.0 = best job, 1.0 = bad job). The score is a composite of three equally weighted factors:

• Earning potential — median annual base salary
• Job satisfaction rating — based on employee reviews
• Number of open job listings — active postings on Glassdoor as of January 1, 2017

To qualify for consideration, a job title had to receive at least 100 salary reports and at least 100 job satisfaction ratings from U.S.-based employees between January 2, 2016 and January 1, 2017.

The 14 Best IT Jobs in America (2017)

1. Data Scientist

Data scientists create value from raw organizational data using machine learning tools, statistical analysis, and data modelling techniques. Demand for this role spans virtually every industry.

• Job Score: 4.8
• Job Satisfaction Rating: 4.4 / 5
• Open Job Listings: 4,184
• Median Base Salary: $110,000

2. DevOps Engineer

A DevOps engineer works closely with software development and operations teams to automate and streamline systems, build and maintain CI/CD pipelines and deployment tooling, and troubleshoot issues across development, testing, and production environments.

• Job Score: 4.7
• Job Satisfaction Rating: 4.2 / 5
• Open Job Listings: 2,725
• Median Base Salary: $110,000

3. Data Engineer

Data engineers design, build, maintain, test, and evaluate big data infrastructure and pipelines that allow organizations to make sense of data from disparate sources.

• Job Score: 4.7
• Job Satisfaction Rating: 4.3 / 5
• Open Job Listings: 2,599
• Median Base Salary: $106,000

4. Analytics Manager

Analytics managers lead teams that apply business data and statistical methods to improve organizational processes. The role is particularly prevalent in the healthcare sector.

• Job Score: 4.6
• Job Satisfaction Rating: 4.1 / 5
• Open Job Listings: 1,958
• Median Base Salary: $112,000

5. Database Administrator

Database administrators (DBAs) are responsible for the performance, integrity, and security of an organization’s databases. They may also be involved in designing, building, and deploying new data storage systems.

• Job Score: 4.5
• Job Satisfaction Rating: 3.8 / 5
• Open Job Listings: 2,877
• Median Base Salary: $93,000

6. UX Designer

User experience (UX) designers research and understand users’ needs, emotions, and pain points, then translate those insights into product designs that are intuitive and satisfying to use.

• Job Score: 4.4
• Job Satisfaction Rating: 4.0 / 5
• Open Job Listings: 1,691
• Median Base Salary: $92,500

7. Solutions Architect

Solutions architects translate product and business requirements into technical architectures and system designs. They are responsible for defining the structure and behaviour of complete systems and products.

• Job Score: 4.4
• Job Satisfaction Rating: 3.7 / 5
• Open Job Listings: 2,232
• Median Base Salary: $125,000

8. Software Engineer

Software engineers manage the full development lifecycle of software products — from initial research and design through to implementation, testing, maintenance, and support.

• Job Score: 4.3
• Job Satisfaction Rating: 3.5 / 5
• Open Job Listings: 17,085
• Median Base Salary: $101,000

9. QA Manager

Quality assurance (QA) managers develop, implement, and enforce quality standards and testing processes across an organization’s software or product development efforts.

• Job Score: 4.3
• Job Satisfaction Rating: 3.7 / 5
• Open Job Listings: 2,531
• Median Base Salary: $92,000

10. Mobile Developer

Mobile developers handle the complete lifecycle of mobile applications — from design and development through to deployment, maintenance, and ongoing support across iOS and Android platforms.

• Job Score: 4.3
• Job Satisfaction Rating: 3.7 / 5
• Open Job Listings: 2,130
• Median Base Salary: $85,000

11. Systems Administrator

Systems administrators (sysadmins) are responsible for provisioning, configuring, operating, securing, and maintaining an organization’s server and network infrastructure — both hardware and software.

• Job Score: 4.2
• Job Satisfaction Rating: 3.7 / 5
• Open Job Listings: 4,046
• Median Base Salary: $68,000

12. Hardware Engineer

Hardware engineers research, design, develop, and test physical computer components — including processors, circuit boards, memory modules, networking hardware, and routers.

• Job Score: 4.2
• Job Satisfaction Rating: 3.9 / 5
• Open Job Listings: 954
• Median Base Salary: $108,000

13. Information Security Engineer

Information security engineers plan, develop, and deploy hardware and software security controls to protect an organization’s systems, networks, and data from cyberattacks and unauthorized access.

• Job Score: 4.1
• Job Satisfaction Rating: 3.7 / 5
• Open Job Listings: 1,247
• Median Base Salary: $100,000

14. UI Designer

User interface (UI) designers collaborate with visual designers, UX designers, and software developers to create aesthetically refined and functionally clear interfaces for software applications and systems.

• Job Score: 4.1
• Job Satisfaction Rating: 4.0 / 5
• Open Job Listings: 950
• Median Base Salary: $80,000

Key Takeaways for Tech Professionals

Several patterns stand out across these 14 roles:

• Data and DevOps skills command top salaries and satisfaction. The top three roles — Data Scientist, DevOps Engineer, and Data Engineer — share the highest job scores and salaries between $106,000 and $110,000.
• Software Engineer has by far the most openings (17,085 listings), reflecting the broad, cross-industry demand for general software development skills.
• Solutions Architect offers the highest median salary at $125,000, reflecting the strategic and cross-functional nature of the role.
• Systems Administrator has the lowest median salary on this list at $68,000, though the role still carries a respectable job score of 4.2.
• Security and design roles are well represented, signalling growing demand beyond purely backend engineering functions.

All data in this article is sourced from Glassdoor’s 2017 Best Jobs in America report, as reported by CIO.com. Figures reflect the U.S. job market as of January 2017 and should not be used as current salary benchmarks.

Software development jobs are in a state of flux. Mobile computing is compressing Agile’s already weekslong-shortened development cycles into mere days. DevOps entwined app development with operations. No-code/low-code tools yanked app building from the ranks of professional programmers, empowering so-called citizen developers.

What does 2017 hold in store for application developers? We asked John Carione, who previously worked at EMC, RSA and Adobe, and is currently a product and corporate marketing leader at no-code/low-code vendor QuickBase Inc., based in Cambridge, Mass. Software development is changing, and that means changes for developers.
With the rise of microservices, containers, and no-code/low-code development tools, what is happening to software engineer and software development jobs?

John Carione: In 2017, we’ll see hiring managers redefine the term developers and developer job roles, and start thinking outside the box to help fill their organizations’ development needs. This will be fueled by the continuing shortage of skilled developers, an increase in popularity of tools that allow for the development of software with little to no code and greater familiarity with these tools among job candidates.

Does this trend mean pure coding skills are playing a diminished role in what it means to be an application developer?

Carione: Coding skills will continue to be important, but in many cases will no longer be the be-all, end-all for recruiters looking to fill development needs for the business. Managers are looking for a programmer or developer ‘mindset’ versus only relying on technical skills.

That brings us to the developer who lives outside of IT, what we used to call shadow IT and is now often referred to as citizen developers. Doesn’t that change the scope of software development jobs?

Carione: That’s right. While the definition of developer won’t change overnight, 2017 is likely to mark the onset. Even Gartner predicts that by 2020, 60% of all fast-mode application development projects will be done outside of formal IT teams. In the process, new challenges will emerge for technical hiring managers. How do you identify good developers? And what should their performance be measured by?

If we go on the premise that there will always be a need for professional developers within IT to handle complex or security-related software development jobs, just what is it that citizen developers are developing?

Carione: As citizen development becomes mainstream and companies get more comfortable using low-code tools internally, they’ll more frequently experiment with creating apps that are external-facing. Citizen developers will still be creating these apps, but the use case will more often focus on serving partners and customers for tasks like asset tracking or joint project management. In a recent survey we conducted of citizen developers, 35% create customer-facing apps, up from 27% in 2015.

What you’re alluding to is transactional apps, not just ones that extract read-only data for reporting or presentation purposes.

Carione: For partners and customers, this shift will mean they’re likely to receive greater access to information they need on the fly through app-based solutions that serve their needs specifically.

Is the decentralization of app development to departmental citizen developers the inevitable result of the Agile movement?

Carione: Agile methodologies changed how companies evaluate and implement technology. In 2017, we’ll see a new wave of Agile thinking enter the enterprise — this time with a focus on helping enterprises make strategic decisions more quickly. The days of lengthy research projects and teams of management consultants are numbered.

What, exactly, will become more Agile?

Carione: Employees — whether in IT, operations or a marketing department — will be able to use rapid application development and automated research tools to run quick tests and answer questions on their own. By more quickly understanding which processes and strategies are working and which are not, employees can be empowered to make intelligent decisions and adjust their business approaches on the fly.

This is all part of what we’ve come to know as digital transformation. What remains to be digitally transformed besides those doing software development jobs?

Carione: In the last decade, digital transformation has changed the way marketing and IT work, but there are still key areas of the business that remain relatively untransformed by digital. In 2017, digital transformation will finally hit a third critical department in the enterprise — operations.

Our survey showed that 23% of non-IT staff in operations business units are already developing the apps they need to make digital transformation in their departments a reality. We expect that figure to rise — in large part driven by a shift in budgets and a commitment to serving customers better. Forrester recently reported that compared with the amount they have traditionally spent to transform customer experiences, enterprises like The Home Depot and Unilever will spend four times more on digitizing their operations.

With software development jobs changing as citizen development becomes more commonplace, where does that trend continue through 2017 and beyond?

Carione: I believe that 2017 will lead to the rise of the ‘citizen employee’ — those who have not had formal training for specialized skills, but who can complete tasks with the aid of tech tools. We’ve seen that with citizen app development, citizen video marketing, citizen website construction and even citizen data science. As technology democratizes specialized skill sets, more citizen job opportunities are likely to emerge. This includes the citizen data integrator, whose emergence will be driven — like the citizen data scientist — by the growth of enterprise data and companies looking for more efficient ways to harness it.