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10 Hottest High Tech Jobs in 2020

10 Hottest High Tech Jobs in 2020

Wondering what's hot in the job market as we enter a new decade? The team at Jeff Christian Partners, a talent equity search firm and a first to offer the annual top 10 Hot High Tech Jobs list over 25 years ago, identifies which leading edge jobs will have an impact this year.

Beyond the typical method of tracking the demand of job postings, the list incorporates authentic requirements of scarcity and demand.

The Web Master and venture-backed CEO were two of the first hot high tech jobs to appear in the study when it was published over 20 years ago in USA Today.

“Because of the intense demand for women board members, CEOs, and promotable balanced leadership, as well as the scarcity of non-white male leadership, the number one Hot High Tech Job for 2020 is The Balanced Leader,” said Jeff Christian, Executive Chairman and author of "The Headhunters Edge."

“This year we have stayed true to the original requirements by querying CEOs, startup founders, venture capital and private equity firms, board members, and the top leadership of the emerging technologies including AI, cyber, robotics, digital transformation, space, digital health, and national security,” said Christian.

Here are the leading edge tech jobs at the top of this year’s list.

1. The Balanced Leader

2020 is becoming the Year of Balance Leadership given the overall trend towards diversity alongside California’s SB 826 law that requires companies to have one woman board member by the end of 2019 and most two or three by the end of 2021.

2. National Security Data Scientist

For the past few years, many hot job lists have claimed the data scientist as the hottest job of the year. That may be true if one were only measuring job postings. Add scarcity to the mix, and the data scientist with a security clearance trumps all individual contributor tech jobs.

”Because of the extraordinary funding to regain our technological superiority, space companies like Blue Origin, Space X, Aerospace Defense, and cyber/AI national security companies are all competing for this scarce talent,” according to Christian.

3. CEO Digital Health

As AI and analytics permeate most aspects of society, business, and advancing technologies, the CEO of digital health startups and fast-growth companies will be the most in-demand for 2020.

4. Backable CEO

With venture capital and private equity beginning the year with over $3 billion in dry powder to invest (NVCA, Bain & Company), and an embracement of talent-centric investing, CEOs that can deliver predictive, high-performance business outcomes can name their price.

5. Chief Data Officer

According to Jeff Christian Partners, the hottest and highest paying job in data science is the chief data officer. CDOs not only have to be experts in data science, but they must also understand how data drives their specific industry sector and company and know how to attract and retain the rarest talent in the world.

6. Chief Information/Security Officer

The chief information/security officer is one of the most sought after, highest-paying CXOs, demanding compensation packages between $2m - $3m. CIOs have had the overwhelming task of collecting multiple silos of data, acquiring the requisite hardware, software, networking, and the added task of cyber threat and data protection.

7. Chief Technology Officer

When Jeff Christian Partners first started doing CTO searches for tech companies like Adobe and HP, the CTO was responsible for overall tech strategy and R&D for new products and solutions. IT demands as well as advancing core technology continue to exist for every large company in every industry today.

8. Advisory/Governing Board Members

Ten years after the birth of Silicon Valley, the advisory board member was rare, and the role did not attract top leadership. Entering 2020, with PE Firms deploying operating partners as advisory board members and $1B unicorn startups looking for any way to add great talent, the advisory board member and governing board member are at a premium.

9. Executive Chairman

Leadership, leadership, leadership or talent, talent, talent – the three most important things for successful companies. Startups, fast-growth emerging tech companies, PE-backed to large global corporations with the strongest boards, all know the only differentiator is talent and great leadership. As a result, the ability to have two top CEO leaders is better than one, particularly when just acquiring and integrating acquisitions is a full-time job as well as organic growth.

10. PE Operating Partners

The operating partner used to be considered house cats at VC/PE firms waiting for a deal to be the CEO. The demand is so great for CEO talent that VC and PE firms are trying to find the very best CEOs any way they can even paying them huge compensation packages before there is a company for them to run.

According to Jeff Christian Partners, the hottest PE-backed consolidation plays attract the greatest number of extraordinary CEOs because they can monetize within three to seven years.

Article published by icrunchdata
Image credit by Getty Images, DigitalVision, Klaus Vedfelt
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