2021 has brought a welcome change for Automation Engineers and SDET’s, highlighting the value they bring to an organisation and the impact good quality testing can have on Information Technology. The talent pool has seen a significant shift over the last number of years with candidates upskilling to developer level across a range of programming languages which is continuing to grow.
In Dublin and Ireland, Java still sits at the forefront of the market for automation testing, closely followed by Python, JavaScript, C# and more recently Golang. QA software testers are eager to upskill and develop their technical ability in object-orientated programming and more recently DevOps Engineering. There is a gap being bridged between Software Developers in Test (SDET’s) and DevOps Engineers, taking on the role of moving code from development and testing phases to staging and production utilising CI/CD pipelines for troubleshooting. With an increased demand for this profile, we are seeing many candidates taking this opportunity to upskill in a new area with a modern tech stack including Jenkins, Docker, Kubernetes, TeamCity, Git and more.
Contract recruitment has seen a surge for Automation Engineers/ Software Testers for both organisations and candidates within the Irish and Dublin job market in 2021. Following on from above, many candidates are keen to opt for day rate contracts as it allows them to develop their technical skillset in a project-based environment and advance in their field. Due to the increased uptake from candidates, many organisations are taking advantage of this and placing high calibre Automation contract professionals to complete complex and high priority projects. I would expect this to continue into 2022.
Manual testing will always remain at the core of Software testing focusing on the fundamentals of quality assurance. This has remained a steady market this year with an increased demand for test Leads and Test Managers which has been a welcome change. Often opportunities at the Lead or Management level can be significantly less compared to the number of other vacancies in the software testing industry. It is encouraging to see an increase for positions at this leave as it is showing growth for many organisations and also an opportunity for high calibre candidates to move forward in their career and not become stagnant.
Overall, it is a very exciting time for Software Testers/ Automation Engineers across all levels, with different opportunities available and new positions evolving as the market expands. Candidates are keen to take advantage of this time and upskill, creating a high calibre, competitive pool of candidates.