IT Search’s Rebecca Lavery discusses the software ecosystem in Ireland and offers advice to professionals considering their next career move.

For Rebecca Lavery, a principal recruitment consultant at IT Search, which is a member of the Vertical Markets Group, Ireland’s software development market has experienced significant change since the global pandemic.

She explained to SiliconRepublic.com that an initial boom in 2021 and 2022 resulted in a surge of software roles and movement across the sector, before decreasing significantly across the market in 2023. 

She said, “Today, role volumes sit at roughly 40pc of pre-pandemic levels. What makes the current picture particularly striking is where the demand is concentrated. Hiring is happening predominantly at senior level and above.”

As a result, she finds that more junior roles – that is, jobs typically undertaken by graduates, early-career starters or less experienced professionals, as a means of beginning their career journeys – are less common in the current ecosystem.

“Junior and mid-level roles have largely dried up, widely attributed to the growing adoption of AI, which is automating tasks that would previously have been entry-level work,” Lavery said. “Employers now want people who can oversee, review and critique what AI produces, rather than those learning the fundamentals themselves.

“This creates a problem that the industry hasn’t seen the full effects of just yet. Several of our clients have raised the same concern – if companies aren’t hiring and training juniors today, where will tomorrow’s senior engineers come from?”

Mixed market demand

As a direct result of widespread redundancies experienced by professionals in the space over the course of the last few years, Lavery finds that the issue of reduced opportunities is compounded significantly by a rise in the number of people seeking employment. 

Last December, workplace social media platform LinkedIn published data highlighting the growing competition professionals are facing as they attempt to secure new employment, leading to a rise in ‘job hugging’, which is a commitment to staying in one’s current role.

This is typically due to wider issues, fears and concerns regarding the broader employment environment. 

Lavery said, “The result is a tricky mix – fewer roles, more candidates and one of the most competitive hiring markets we’ve seen. Salary growth has stalled as a result, as companies no longer need to pay a premium for in-demand skillsets when they have an abundance of options.”

This was also evident in a recently published report from the Employment and Recruitment Federation and Icon Accounting, the Irish Labour Market Annual Survey. The research suggested that we are seeing a landscape in which organisations are still actively recruiting, but with a far more defensive mindset as they navigate the pressures of rising costs, uncertainty and talent constraints. 

Previously commenting on the annual report, David Shanahan, a director at IT Search, explained that there are some “important nuances” to make note of. He said that in certain areas, such as data and cybersecurity, hiring is heavily contract-focused. However, across AI, software engineering and DevOps, hiring is more evenly split than it might appear.

Shanahan said, “Contract roles are largely tied to project and programme delivery, while permanent hiring is driven by product-led and commercial software companies, where the focus is on building and scaling their own technology platforms.”

Future needs

Ultimately, according to Lavery, it is “very tricky for juniors to break into the industry” at the moment, adding that the “the only advice I would have is to keep trying and keep your skills up along the way, through courses and personal projects that you could showcase in an interview”.

With education and upskilling in mind, today (4 June), the Irish Universities Association (IUA), the Higher Education Authority and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science confirmed the return of the Microcredential Learner Fee Subsidy. 

Designed to support lifelong learning and create opportunities for students, the subsidy will support participation in 57 microcredential courses offered by IUA universities in 2026, spanning areas of national importance such as digital transformation, artificial intelligence, sustainability, leadership, innovation, healthcare, engineering and business development. 

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