The Business and System Analyst market has seen a significant uplift in demand in the last 6 months of 2021, after a reasonably slow first half of the year. The resulting effect is an upwards nudge in day rates and permanent salaries across the board.
The demand is being felt across most areas in the industry for several different reasons including; system integrations, regulatory projects and large-scale digital transformations. Ireland, and in particular Dublin, continues to be a particularly attractive location for day rate contractors as the number of companies basing their European operation out of the city continues to rise, combined with the impact of IR35 on the UK market and lingering concerns following “Brexit”.
Companies tend to be most interested in Business and System Analyst candidates who have demonstrated an ability to deliver complex projects in an Agile environment. As more and more companies continue the transition towards Agile, business analysts with the ability to step in as the Scrum Master have become more desirable.
The Product Management and Product Owner market continues to mature and swell in demand as more organisations adopt Agile approaches. This is also due to the greater number of software business building and growing technical hubs in Ireland – this is a combination of Irish and US businesses. The growth in demand is being met with a continued influx of European talent in this area as well as more home-grown talent gaining experience in these roles.
The adoption of remote working has been keenly embraced by the software sector in particular which has led to more and more Product Managers and Product Owners seeking either fully remote, remote-first or hybrid working models.
Salaries and rates have moved slightly north in the last 6 months but there has not been a major swing due to balance in the supply and demand, thus far. There is potential for this to swing more in 2022 as the demand continues to rise and more software businesses locate in Ireland as a cheaper alternative to North America while still being aligned with language and culture.