Open Source Hiring to Increase in Next 6 Months, Says 2016 Jobs Report

Professionals skilled in open source tools and technologies are now in high demand as open source adoption in the enterprise continues to climb, according to the Open Source Jobs Report released today by The Linux Foundation and Dice.

Fifty-nine percent of hiring managers surveyed said their hiring of open source talent will increase over the next six months. And 65 percent said it will increase more than hiring in other parts of their business, according to the report.

“Demand for open source talent is growing and companies struggle to find experienced professionals to fill open roles,” said Bob Melk, President of Dice. “Rising salaries for open source professionals indicate companies recognize the need to attract, recruit and retain qualified open source professionals on a global scale.”

Benefiting the most from this demand are developers, with 74 percent of hiring managers seeking talent in this role, followed by DevOps practitioners and SysAdmins, with 58 percent and 48 percent (respectively).

A strong economy is driving more open source hiring, managers say, coupled with the continued rise in the strategic importance of open source in business.

Open source software use — largely for application development and production infrastructure — increased in 65 percent of companies included in the 2016 Future of Open Source Survey, released last month by Black Duck Software and North Bridge. Companies use open source for the software quality and competitive features, promise of no vendor lock-in, and customizable code. And they contribute back to open source projects to fix bugs, add features, gain competitive advantage, and cut costs, according to the survey.

The rapid evolution of new technologies, often based on open source, also drives demand for open source professionals. Cloud computing, networking, and security are three hot areas of technology experiencing rapid growth and hiring.

In The Linux Foundation’s Open Source Jobs Survey, 51 percent of hiring managers say experience with or knowledge of OpenStack and CloudStack are driving open source hiring decisions. While 21 percent of hiring managers cited networking and 14 percent cited security experience as having the biggest impact on their hiring decisions.

This year’s Linux Foundation and Dice jobs survey included more than 400 hiring managers at corporations, small and medium businesses (SMBs), government organizations, and staffing agencies worldwide—as well as more than 4,500 open source professionals worldwide.