Job openings for data workers increasing in Brazil – survey

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Companies’ digitalization and the adaptation of businesses during the pandemic led to an increase in the demand for professionals in the data area (specialists, analysts, engineers and scientists), which will persist in 2021.

A survey by HRTech Intera, with 34 Brazilian companies, shows 485% growth in data-focused job openings in the first 5 months of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020.

“Businesses that were traditionally ‘face-to-face’ needed to reinvent themselves and expedite digital product and service offer, which has increased demand. But this also involves a maturing of companies’ digital transformation, notably those in the ‘traditional economy’, which are starting to accumulate more data to make more effective decisions and anticipate trends or improve customer experience,” assesses Juliano Tebinka, CTO and co-founder of Intera.

The survey, which interviewed 4,000 professionals in the area, also indicates the average salary offered by companies and startups for positions related to business data use – and that do not necessarily involve management positions. Data analytics professionals, who typically diagnose a situation or context that involves the business, earns from R$7,333 (US$1,469) to R$9,333 (employee), R$8,666 to R$12,000 (middle mangement) and R$15,000 to R$19,200 (leader or specialist).

For the data engineering position, tasked with designing, building and sustaining data solutions, the average salary offered by companies ranges from R$7,625 and R$11,125 (employee), R$8,914 and 12,007 (middle management) and R$15,166 and R$17,166 (specialist). In data science, a function that tries to predict how the business will behave in the future and what actions can be taken, the average salary offered stands between R$7,416 and R$9,750 (employee), R$9,875 and R$13,375 (senior) and R$18,000 and R$22,000 (leader or specialist).

Among the motivations for these professionals to change jobs, 44% of respondents said they were attracted by the challenge of working for a new company, 24% by the lack of growth opportunities in their current job, 15% by the desire to change sector or area of activity, and 9% by the desire to work in a larger company than their current one.

For companies, Tebinka evaluates that the surge in remote work and the possibility to hire professionals in any location because of global work digitalization, has increased competition. “If before companies competed for professionals with other companies in the same city or state, now the competition covers the whole country and transcends national borders,” he says.