It’s never a bad time to be an engineer—or to have people skills.
LinkedIn’s third annual US emerging jobs report has identified the 15 fastest-growing jobs, as well as the skills and cities most associated with them. This year the company found that the number of artificial intelligence and data science roles continue to expand across nearly every industry. For the first time, robotics has made an appearance on the list, and at least five roles in the ranking include the word “engineer” in the title.
But it’s not just high-tech roles that have seen a lot more hiring action in the past five years, which is how far back LinkedIn looks to measure the emergence of roles based on user profile data and hiring growth trends. Product owners, “customer success specialists,” and sales development representatives are also in high-demand, LinkedIn says.
Only one job on the list generally doesn’t require a four-year degree, which is that of behavioral health technicians. Since 2015, hiring for this role has grown 32% a year, due in part to the increased insurance coverage for mental health, according to the report.
LinkedIn also notes that Washington DC and the surrounding metros are attracting new tech talent, including cybersecurity, data science, and artificial intelligence experts, “nearly in line” with the major tech hubs of San Francisco and New York. And mid-size US metros such as Austin, Texas, Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, are continuing to attract tech talent thanks in part to lower costs of living and increased remote-work opportunities.
Here is LinkedIn’s list of emerging jobs of 2020:
Artificial intelligence specialist
Annual growth rate: 74%
Skills unique to the job: Machine learning, deep learning, TensorFlow, Python, natural language processing
Where the jobs are: San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Boston, Seattle, Los Angeles
Robotics engineer
Annual growth rate: 40%
Where the jobs are: San Francisco Bay Area, Atlanta, New York City, Washington DC, Boston
Top industries hiring this talent: Information technology and services, industrial automation, computer software, financial services, automotive
Data scientist
Annual growth rate: 37%
Skills unique to the job: Machine learning, data science, Python, R, Apache Spark
Where the jobs are: San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, Washington DC, Seattle, Boston
Full Stack engineer
Annual growth rate: 35%
Skills unique to the job: React.js, Node.js, JavaScript, AngularJS, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
Where the jobs are: San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, Washington DC
Site reliability engineer
Annual growth rate: 34%
Skills unique to the job: Amazon Web Services, Ansible, Kubernetes, Docker products, Terraform
Where the jobs are: San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Seattle, Boston, Washington DC
Customer success specialist
Annual growth rate: 34%
Skills unique to the job: Software as a Service, Salesforce, customer relationship management, account management, customer retention
Where the jobs are: San Francisco, New York, Boston, Chicago, Washington DC
Sales development representative
Annual growth rate: 34%
Skills unique to the job: Salesforce, Software as a Service (SaaS), lead generation, sales
Where the jobs are: San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Boston, Chicago, Austin
Data engineer
Annual growth rate: 33%
Skills unique to the job: Apache Spark, Hadoop, Python, Extract/Transform/Load (ETL), Amazon Web Services
Where the jobs are: San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Seattle, Boston, Chicago
Behavioral health technician
Annual growth rate: 33%
Skills unique to the job: Applied behavior analysis, Autism spectrum disorders, behavioral health, mental health
Where the jobs are: Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, San Francisco Bay Area, Phoenix, Seattle
Cyber security specialist
Annual growth rate: 30%
Skills unique to the job: Cybersecurity, information security, network security, vulnerability assessment, information assurance
Where the jobs are: Washington DC, New York, San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, Denver
Back end developer
Annual growth rate: 30%
Skills unique to the job: Node.js, JavaScript, Amazon Web Services, Git, MongoDB
Where the jobs are: San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Seattle
Chief revenue officer
Annual growth rate: 28%
Skills unique to the job: Strategic partnerships, startups, Software as a Service, go-to-market strategy, executive management
Where the jobs are: New York, San Francisco Bay Area, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago
Cloud engineer
Annual growth rate: 27%
Skills unique to the job: Amazon Web Services, cloud computing, Docker products, Ansible, Jenkins
Where the jobs are: San Francisco Bay Area, Washington DC, New York City, Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago
Javascript developer
Annual growth rate: 25%
Skills unique to the job: React.js, Node.js, AngularJS, JavaScript, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
Where the jobs are: New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Washington DC
Product Owner
Annual growth rate: 24%
Where the jobs are: New York City, Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta
Top industries hiring this talent: Information technology & services, financial services, computer software, insurance, hospital and healthcare