Job search site Indeed has collated job posting data from 2020 onwards, and following a record surge in demand for software engineers in 2022, reflected in the tech industry's wider hiring spree, it has found that the number of job postings for software roles has tapered off.
This is part of a wider trend, with all job postings declining 12.3% year-over-year. Bucking the trend is a rising demand for AI-related jobs. In the six months to March of this year, there was a 15.7% increase in the number of AI-related postings.
That presents an opportunity for talented workers – along with a challenge for companies with AI skills gaps, with 43% of HR managers saying in 2023 that their companies would face a skills gap.
While a study from Amazon Web Services identified that 52% of workers identify as having basic or nascent AI fluency, 14% consider themselves to have '"advanced" fluency in AI.
High demand, higher salaries
What this means is that tech workers with the right AI skillsets are in high demand for the best jobs – as well as highly-inflated salaries. This is a hyper-competitive environment where companies such as Meta, OpenAI and Google's DeepMind vie for top talent.
Reports indicate that Meta pays AI researchers up to $2 million, and OpenAI has even deeper pockets, offering salaries in the $5 million to $10 million range.
Given the extreme talent crunch these companies are experiencing, some are resorting to non-traditional tactics. One source reports that Mark Zuckerberg has personally contacted top-tier AI candidates at DeepMind, in order to poach them for his company.
Further reflecting this super-tight hiring environment, Meta is also looking at bypassing traditional interviews and extending job offers directly to promising candidates.
If you're looking to flex your AI skills at a new company this year then the TechSpot Job Board is the perfect place to begin. It contains a host of artificial intelligence-led roles all across the country. You can discover three of those below.
AI Security Researcher - Security Flow, ByteDance, San Jose
The Security Engineering team at ByteDance is a research and development (R&D) team with an objective to serve and safeguard TikTok products and infrastructures on a global scale.
As an AI Security Researcher - Security Flow, you will conduct in-depth research on AI-specific security threats, including adversarial attacks, model tampering, and data privacy issues. Plus, you'll develop and implement strategies to detect and mitigate AI security vulnerabilities in various domains.
You will also collaborate with cross-functional teams to integrate AI security measures into existing and new products, and stay abreast of the latest trends and advancements in AI security, attending conferences, and engaging with the broader research community.
The salary range for this role is $210,000 - $358,000 and you will need five years' of experience in AI/machine learning, with a strong focus on security aspects, along with a Ph.D. degree, hands-on experience and prior experience in industry or academic settings, working on large-scale AI projects and research. Get the full details here.
Enterprise AI Architect, Oracle, Broomfield
As an Enterprise AI Architect at Oracle, you will craft and steer the adoption and integration of AI, ML, and DevOps practices within complex business domains. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams, including data scientists, data engineers, developers, operations, IT, and business leadership, to align AI strategies with enterprise goals and aspirations.
From providing strategic leadership in designing and implementing scalable and secure AI architectures to collaborating with executive leadership to develop and refine the AI strategy, ensuring alignment with business goals and industry best practices, you'll also establish governance frameworks for AI initiatives, ensuring compliance with regulatory standards and industry guidelines.
Requirements include a Bachelor's, Master's, or Ph.D. in computer science, AI or a related field, along with 10 or more years' proven experience as an enterprise architect, solution architect, or a similar role, focusing on AI/ML and generative AI in the last five years. Apply for this job now.
AI Engineer, Cohere, San Francisco
Cohere is focused on building and deploying large language model (LLM) AI into enterprises in a safe and responsible way that drives human productivity.
As an AI Engineer, you will work directly with customers to quickly understand their greatest problems and design and implement solutions using Large Language Models.
You'll apply your problem-solving ability, creativity, and technical skills to close the last-mile gap in enterprise AI adoption, with an ability to deliver products like early startup CTOs/CEOs do and disrupt some of the most important industries and institutions globally.
This job may be a fit for you if you have three years' of model training, deployment, and maintenance in a production environment, strong skills in NLP, and deep learning and experience scaling products at hyper-growth startups. Find out more about the job.