The Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) market is bustling with opportunities for work in the most innovative areas of tech. CBRE’s Tech-30 2021 report reveals that DFW ranks in the top 10 tech markets in the United States experiencing considerable growth over the past decade. The demand for top tech talent in DFW is greatly due to new technologies being adapted across all industries. With a lower cost of living, tech professionals flock to this robust city to gain experience with the latest tech. Let's find out which tech skills you should be developing to gain a spot in the competitive DFW tech market.

TOP 5 TECHNOLOGIES hiring in dfw

1. CLOUD

Cloud computing professionals are in high demand in the DFW area and beyond as more and more companies reap the benefits of this growing technology. The increase of remote work creates an added desire for heavier security and better performance across wide networks. Cloud computing exists in all sectors, medium and small businesses alike, from real estate to healthcare and everything in between. As the state’s largest data center, DFW is home to top cloud provider, Google, leading the expansion of cloud capability tech to DFW and beyond.

2. .net 

.NET has been widely accepted as a platform for building apps and services for the web, mobile, gaming, IoT, and more. Its advanced capabilities allow it to run across Windows, Linux, and macOS, offering countless opportunities for developers in DFW to find the best role for them. Becoming more familiar with the languages running the .NET ecosystem (#C, F#, VB, etc.) allows job searchers to upscale their .NET skills and move up the ladder in roles to a higher pay grade. According to Indeed.com, Dallas is one of the top five cities in the United States with the highest-paying .NET developer salaries.

3. product manager

Product Managers (PMs) are essential to the development of new tech software or hardware products. Agile PMs have been making headway in the DFW market, replacing those using the more incremental Waterfall approach. Agile is more team-focused, creating more jobs with more people working together in “sprint” phases to complete projects faster and more efficiently. From engaging with the client and project teams to delivering a successful product to go to market, PMs wear many hats making them more marketable. Most PMs in DFW are looking at an average salary of $125,000.

4. Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET)

SDETs are skilled in quality engineering and software development. This powerful combination gives SDETs a leg up from manual testers, making them even more marketable with more competitive salaries. SDETs work to provide more automation to repetitive testing processes in order to focus on more complex scenarios to use their abilities best. This is a great field for software engineers and application developers to rescale their skills. Becoming more familiar with test automation tools, such as Selenium or Cyprus, will make you a more marketable SDET. In DFW alone, a manual tester makes an average salary of $71,867 compared to an SDET making an average salary of $117, 329. Not a bad reason to consider a career change!

5. front-end development

Front-end developers are essential to creating a seamless customer experience on a webpage or app. Angular, Vue.js, and React are the top frameworks and libraries being utilized by front-end developers in the DFW market. Getting acquainted with the CSS, JavaScript, and HTML languages are key to being a well-rounded front-end developer and achieving career growth.

The U.S. Department of Labor Statistics shows that the employment of web developers and digital interface designers is projected to grow by 13% percent from 2020-2030, faster than the average for all occupations. Community colleges in DFW offer competitive tuition costs for a degree in web development, bringing an influx of recent grads into the job market to compensate for the growing job openings in DFW.

The DFW tech market has seen exponential growth thanks to these five technologies. As more advancements are made, even more tech experts will be flocking to DFW to gain an added edge. In the coming years, we might even be looking at DFW as the next Silicon Valley!