Top tech skills in 2018

The beiginning of the year is a great chance to identify some of the most in demand skills expected to play a crucial role in digital services, products and transformations over the next 12 months. If you’re looking to upskill this year and improve your employability, read on to find out the top tech skills employers will be seeking in 2018.

AI & Data Science & Robotics skills

Chris Rosebert - AI Robotics recruitment specialist

Over the next 12 months we are anticipating huge demand for machine learning, deep learning and reinforcement learning specialists to support new and innovative IoT products and services. Within Deep Learning there will be a particular need for skills such as tensorflow, theano and caffe.

Whilst In Big Data Engineering many organisations now not only need skills such as Hadoop and Spark but also infrastructure skills such as Docker, Ansible or Jenkins with knowledge of AWS, Azure or Google Cloud.

On the development side we will see a need for traditional skills such as C++ and Python as many firms bring their development back onshore.

View our AI & Robotics jobs

Cloud skills 

Andy Slater - Cloud Infrastructure recruitment specialist

Due to the significant growth in the adoption of Cloud services in AWS, Azure and Google Cloud there will be a demand for professionals with a working knowledge of these platforms.

Chef & Puppet will continue to be important Cloud skills that organisations need because of the drive for automation in their common infrastructure and application platforms. As a result, demand for scripting skills such as Bash, PowerShell, Ruby & Python will also increase.

DevOps CI (Continuous Integration) & CD (Continuous Deployment) tools such as Jenkins and Ansible will be in higher demand due to the shift in software development and agile processes and a push for more collaboration between development and operations teams.

Finally, containerisation skills such as Docker and Kubernetes will be important for companies to start to deploy more micro-services and develop applications independent of platforms with an ability to deploy across a multi-cloud estate.

View our Cloud Infrastructure jobs

Cyber Security skills 

Jonathan Martin - Cyber Security recruitment specialist

The impending GDPR legislation that’s due to be enforced in May 2018 will intensify the race for employers to sign up cyber security talent, particularly in the area of Governance, Risk and Infosec analysis.

Two of the jobs growing quickly in demand are DevSecOps engineers and Cloud Security experts as traditional security processes become roadblocks towards being able to solve security problems effectively and in a cost effective manner.

Another area in high demand of cyber security skills is that of Automation and Industrial Security, as businesses use machines to automate processes that have become vulnerable to cyber attacks. There will be a high demand for Security Architects & Engineers to protect these systems and products. In many cases security is an area which has not been considered at the design phase and requires additional focus to ensure adequate threat protection.

View our Cyber Security jobs.

5G skills

Nick Bailey - R&D Wireless/5G/IoT recruitment specialist

With 5G trials due to commence there is demand for Wireless R&D Engineers with PHY Layer 1 and MAC Layer 2 algorithm development skills, standardization experts with knowledge of 3GPP RAN1/RAN2 and RF Researchers with knowledge of Basestations, Antennas and Radio Units (RU).

View our R&D Wireless jobs

So whatever 2018 brings, be sure to add these skills to your armoury to make sure you’re at the front of the queue for your next tech job.