By Lucian Balea, Governing Board Chair, LF Energy
By the end of the decade the US Department of Labor estimates the global shortage of software developers will exceed 85 million. The Linux Foundation’s 10th Annual Open Source Jobs Report recently found that 93% of hiring managers struggle to find sufficient open source talent. With digital transformation activities in full swing across nearly every industry and not enough individuals pursuing education and training in technical fields, this trend is only going to continue.
For energy stakeholders including utilities, vendors to power generators and distributors, as well as companies developing new energy solutions for end users including individual consumers and businesses, this means a continued shortage of qualified talent to meet their goals and drive the energy transition and decarbonization. This is a particular challenge for regulated utilities that must leverage digital technologies to meet carbon reduction goals and avoid regulatory penalties and reputational damage.
These reasons are why now is the time to hire. In anticipation of a potential recession and falling demand, many of the world’s largest technology companies have recently engaged in workforce reductions. This has put some incredibly skilled and experienced developers on the market. While competition for these individuals remains high, there is more opportunity to secure talent now than in recent years. These developers are also younger on average, and driven by a desire for their work to have a meaningful impact, which the energy sector can offer them. Additionally, many energy companies are seeing record profits, providing them with the resources to invest in technology now.
Expanding the pool of developer talent working in the energy sector is essential to speeding development of innovative technologies needed to complete the energy transition. These developers will not only help build new technologies now, but they will build expertise in the energy industry that will pay dividends into the future as those technologies lead to newer and better ones. Getting these individuals into the energy community now will ensure a strong ongoing pipeline of talent into the future.
There are several things to remember about recruiting developer talent. The first and most important is that technology is moving extremely quickly, particularly in the energy sector. This is still catching up to many other industries that are further along in their digital transformations. This means that employers cannot rely on traditional qualifications such as X years of experience working with a particular technology, since in many cases the most advanced technologies are extremely new and no one has years of experience working with them.
Energy industry employers should look at candidates’ success potential, based on education, credentials (including certifications), and experience. They should remember that experience does not simply mean paid employment; it could be anything from internships to personal hobby projects to volunteer contributions to open source projects. In particular, familiarity with open source should be a consideration as 70-90% of all software components today are open source, and the most innovative technologies are being built as open source from the start. Countless vendors to the energy sector have realized that building technologies collaboratively under an open source model is the only way to innovate in a rapid and cost-effective manner, so this trend is only likely to accelerate. This is not even taking into account that much energy and climate legislation – particularly in the US and Europe – mandates use of open source standards, methods, and technologies.
If a prospective hire can demonstrate they have solid technical skills and knowledge, it may be necessary to train them. There simply are not enough individuals with existing skills to close the talent gap, so it is incumbent upon all stakeholder organizations to grow the talent pool and ensure skills growth continues. The benefit here is that when individuals are given the opportunity to learn and then prove themselves, they will be more loyal to the organization. This will reduce turnover and future recruitment costs.
Other considerations when recruiting developer talent are what developers want in a job. The previously referenced Open Source Jobs Report provides a great summary of what motivates these individuals to stay in or leave a job, including salary, opportunity to work on exciting or interesting projects, paid training and certification opportunities, flexible work arrangements including flex time and work from home options, paid time to contribute to open source projects, and the chance to attend industry conferences. Employers should take these into account and ensure job postings and benefits packages are aligned appropriately to stay competitive in a tight market.
If the energy industry hopes to meet its decarbonization targets, a major transition has to occur in both information and operational technologies, and this transition will require more talent. Time is already short and the talent pool is shallow, which makes now the time to increase hiring and developing the skills of technical team members. Failure to take advantage of this moment when talent is more in reach will only make the challenge greater in the years to come.
About the Author
Lucian Balea is R&D Program Director and open source manager at RTE. He leads the open source strategy of RTE which aims at moving the digitalization of the power grid into a new era. In early 2018 he started a collaboration with The Linux Foundation to launch LF Energy, an open source coalition to speed technological innovation and support the energy transition across the world. Lucian has been with RTE since 2003 where he held several management positions in the fields of R&D, markets and finance.
