It only makes sense that as technology and social norms change — so do the job opportunities available.

Some roles may become hybrids of two or three positions. 

Some roles are brand new to the job market where on-the-job training is essential. 

Some roles require soft skills that cannot be taught in a traditional training setting.

So, when all of Australia’s top 5 emerging jobs featured automation or Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the LinkedIn 2020 Emerging Job Report Australia, it wasn’t a surprise that these technologies had revolutionised the existing job market.

Automation and AI are being used to better understand data, generate insights, automate reporting and ensure that a company’s customers are coming first in terms of response times and solutions.

They’re also becoming more prevalent across a number of industries — not just within the Technology sector — which means that the Technology roles required also need to understand the unique industries automation and AI are entering, as well as implement safeguards to ensure that the possibility of cyberattacks and ransomware through automation and AI are mitigated.

LinkedIn’s top 5 emerging jobs of 2020:

1. Artificial Intelligence Specialist 

Instead of machines retaining information and automating processes, AI is now being programmed to take autonomous action to achieve goals across all organisational areas — from IT to finance and marketing. 

With only 14 Artificial Intelligence Specialists in Sydney and 2 in Brisbane, they’re currently one of the most difficult roles to hire for in Australia.

2. Cybersecurity Specialist 

Phishing, denial-of-service attacks, malware, viruses and hacking are going nowhere any time soon. So, it’s imperative that your business has a Cybersecurity team at the ready to fight off these attacks.

Currently, there are 186 Cybersecurity Specialists in Sydney, 182 in Melbourne and 47 in Brisbane. This is anticipated to grow significantly in the next year thanks to private money flowing into the industry, as well as the 2017 Australian government investment of $230M into the cybersecurity market.

3. Marketing Automation Specialist

Marketing automation is disrupting how marketing departments are able to identify potential customers and provide them with relevant information to convert leads into sales. While this may be more relevant to marketing agencies, it’s important to keep an eye on the market for some of these tools when they become more readily available or to check in with your existing external marketing agency to ensure they’re able to provide your business with the best service.

Marketing Automation Specialists are more readily available in Melbourne, with 79 professionals in the market. Sydney has 68 specialists and Brisbane area has 21.

4. Robotics Engineer (Software)

The automation of rules-based business processes, such as expense reporting, is quickly becoming a reality through robotics engineering software, known as Robotics Process Automation (RPA). This reduces cost, whilst bolstering customer experience, revenue growth and risk mitigation.

Currently, Robotics Engineers in Australia are concentrated in the telecommunication and banking industries, with Sydney being home to 88 engineers, 56 in Melbourne and 33 in Brisbane.

5. Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)

SRE’s are responsible for finding a software automation approach to system administration. As industries shift to digital-first, networks need to be reliable. SREs keeps apps and websites up and running smoothly to ensure great user experience.

While SREs are mostly found at major tech, banking and telecommunication organisations, the majority are found in Sydney (239 SREs). Melbourne and Brisbane have very slow SRE marketings, sitting at 79 and 30, respectively.

To read the full report, download a copy of LinkedIn’s report here.

What are we learning from these emerging jobs?

We’re also starting to see a shift from the idea that a job in Technology automatically equates to a “hard skill” job.

In a market where technology is evolving so quickly, there is often more demand for the skill set than professionals who have the skill set.

There are a few reasons for this.

Traditional qualifications, such as work experience, and degrees or diplomas, cannot keep up with this rapid growth. 

This means that many skills have to be learned on the job and require someone who can learn quickly and on-the-go.

It also means that these technologies need to be communicated well to key stakeholders and leadership team members to get the buy-in required to progress with these new technologies and projects.

So, with these evolving requirements, how do you hire for roles that didn’t exist until recently?

According to leading psychologists and recruitment experts, one of the best ways to hire these newly emerging roles is through competency-based hiring.

What is competency-based hiring?

In a nutshell, your leadership team can see what drives high performance for that particular role in your unique company culture, as they are gathering insights from compiling results from existing employees’ psychometric testing and using it to create a job profile.

You’re then able to test candidates against this job profile.

We’ve partnered with AbilityMap, a competency-based recruitment tool that uses the next generation of HR strategies to match Job Profiles with candidates based on the competencies required for an individual to be successful in a role.

Core candidate competencies fall under eight categories: Communication, learning, teamwork, problem-solving, planning and organisation, managing people, initiative and enterprise, and self-management.

To learn more about how to hire for newly emerging roles using competency-based hiring, check out our blog post all about why successful companies are switching to competency-based hiring.