Blockchain Government Contracting (GovCon) Jobs and Employment

One way to put the test to a new and emerging technology wave is asking, “are there jobs and blockchain employment opportunities breaking onto the scene?”.  “Is the blockchain hype validated yet in the job market?”  Recruiters know to ask these questions intuitively.  They tend to see the trend actually appear in the job boards and requisitions before the general market notices it (unless you happen to be looking for a job at the time).

As of May 2017, I am seeing the FINTECH+blockchain market broaden and I am also seeing health insurance companies acquiring blockchain developers.  Additionally, I am noticing smaller, entrepreneurial firms, presumably to gain a competitive edge, are putting requisitions on the street.  Consider a couple of the latest INDEED opportunity job alerts for the keyword “blockchain”:

• Bank of America – blockchain developer needed (no surprise here)
• IBM – blockchain developer needed (no surprise here)
• Publisher – blockchain writer/reporter needed (ouch… reporters are worth more than $15/hr., aren’t they?)
• Small consulting firms (QTY = 2) – blockchain consultant/engineer needed
• Mid-sized tech firms (QTY = 2) – blockchain architect (if you can walk on water, that would be great, too!)
• Health Insurance company – blockchain developer needed.
• Tier 1 OEM (routers, switches) – blockchain bizdev architect – (QTY = 1) needed

I am definitely seeing expansion and new roles that are beyond ‘developer’.   What I am not seeing-at least in the US market at this time is government contractors and systems integrators trying to create a bench of blockchain talent.  Either they are building this internally or waiting.  However, one Lockheed Martin division has made a major commitment to develop software using private and very secure implementation of blockchain—and they acquired this with the help of a mid-sized integrator specializing in blockchain integration (the blockchain OEM is from Estonia).     This is a hugely validating step and applies to the kind of software development that must be validated, traceable and explicitly verifiable, even long after the fact (think of the kinds of development performed with a top secret clearance).  Generally, this is interesting because a tier one integrator received substantial support from a tier two specialty integrator.   For details, see http://www.coindesk.com/defense-giant-lockheed-martin-integrates-blockchain/

So, let’s agree to keep our eyes peeled… the market is opening up with opportunity, albeit slowly.  What are you noticing?  Please comment below.