Linux Foundation: Open Source Programming and DevOps Jobs Plentiful

Open source can help you make money, especially if you have skills in programming or DevOps, which is emerging as one of the hottest areas of interest for hiring managers seeking open source admins and developers. That’s according to the latest Open Source Jobs Report from the Linux Foundation, which is out this week.

The 2016 report, which appeared May 5, is the most recent of a series of reports about trends in the open source job market, which the Linux Foundation has released on an annual basis for the last several years.

Demand for professionals with open source software skills was already clear from previous reports. But key figures reached new heights this year, with 59 percent of hiring managers reporting plans to add more open source professionals to their organizations within the coming six months. That’s an increase from 50 percent in last year’s report.

Another notable change this year was increased interest in DevOps. Fifty nine percent of hiring managers say they are looking for professionals with skills in DevOps, a new realm of software development and administration, which relies heavily on open source technology like containers and continuous integration platforms. This is another sign that DevOps is now mainstream.

Yet programmers familiar with open source code remain the most sought-after professionals. Seventy four percent of hiring managers are now looking to hire open source developers, according to the report.

The Cloud Dominates

Which types of open source skills are most in demand? Cloud technologies, such as OpenStack, strongly dominate the list, with 51 percent of hiring managers identifying the cloud as the most important open source skillset. What’s surprising here is that other open source areas, like networking and containers, were much less popular.

Notable, too, is an inverse relationship between how hiring managers and open source professionals view the relative importance of containers and networking skills. Twenty one percent of hiring managers identified networking as the most important open source skill, compared with only 9 percent of open source professionals. But the figures were reversed when it came to containers, with 8 percent of hiring managers but 19 percent of open source professionals ranked as the most important open source skill.

These nuances suggest that there may be some disconnect between what hiring managers want most and what open source developers and admins think is most important. Hiring managers’ lack of strong interest in containers also seems at odds with their newfound emphasis on DevOps professionals, and perhaps means that HR does not yet fully understand what DevOps actually entails.

Still, the broad takeaway from the survey is clear. Open source skills remain in high demand across the channel. By extension, the report is a good indicator of sustained interest in open source software in general — which is today’s “preeminent architecture,” as another recent survey from Black Duck and North Bridge showed.

The full 2016 Open Source Jobs Report is available from the Linux Foundation here.