Career Round Table: A Growing Trillion Dollar Software Market Desperately Needs Engineers. What You Need to Know, Part One

As the software industry accelerates at breakneck speed, the global market is poised to reach one trillion dollars by 2030, analysts say. A lot is riding on the next eleven years as the industry seeks to fill a wealth of new jobs. Software engineers who want the inside track on this fast-moving market can learn from seasoned professionals the most lucrative areas to pursue. We asked several software engineering experts which software tech advances will see the most growth in the next several years.

Here’s what they had to say. Job-hunting? Subscribe to our Build Your Career newsletter.

How Algorithms, Neural Networks, and Testing Are Career Opportunities

John Favaro: Perhaps the development and testing of large machine learning systems, so this would mean the algorithms, the neural networks, and the challenge of testing. Another area that could see a lot of growth involves simulation because the testing of these large machine learning systems will only be possible in part by simulation. Favaro is a senior consultant at Intecs Solutions in Pisa, Italy, where he carries principal responsibility for training in automotive functional safety and cybersecurity. He was technical coordinator of the European Integrated project SESAMO on the integration of safety and security in mission-critical systems.

Annie Combelles: I foresee machine learning and blockchain as new technologies for the future. But, as far as software engineering/development is concerned, I do believe agile methodologies will last for a long time. Combelles is the president and founder of the advisory company inspearit. Her research covers software quality, agile methods, value-added agile management, and customer experience. She has also served as associate editor on the IEEE Software Advisory Board. You never know what opportunities await. Upload your resume to our Jobs Board.

Blockchain and AI Will Fuel Job Growth

Xabier Larrucea: I agree that machine learning or new advanced artificial intelligence techniques, as well as blockchain-related technologies, will have an impact in the field of software engineering. Nowadays, we are building software systems with increasing complexity. This situation entails a series of consequences for traditional software engineering areas such as software quality, maintainability, testability, and so forth. In fact, software engineers are not starting from scratch when they are facing a new development. We are using a broad set of existing technologies for which the reliability is in doubt, but we believe in them. This was the case for OpenSSL, the more recent WPA2 protocol and Struts. Larrucea is a senior project leader (PMP) and research scientist at Tecnalia and a part-time lecturer in information systems and quality assurance at the University of the Basque Country. Xabier Larrucea, Annie Combelles, and John Favaro, along with Kunal Taneja, co-authored the article “Software Engineering for the Internet of Things."

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About Lori Cameron Lori Cameron is Senior Writer for IEEE Computer Society publications and digital media platforms with over 20 years extensive technical writing experience. She is a part-time English professor and winner of two 2018 LA Press Club Awards. Contact her at l.cameron@computer.org. Follow her on LinkedIn.