Software engineering entails creating experiences that are feature-rich, consumer-grade, secure, and resilient. The cloud-native era has increased accidental complexity, putting software engineering departments at odds with talent management teams that want to hire cost-effectively. Hence, it is a critical talent management measure to upskill existing talent.

1. 1
Reskilling: Building Cost-
effective Software Engineering
Talent
(Focus on the US)
Copyright @2023 Draup. All rights reserved
Conceptualised and Developed: May – 2023
This document aims to showcase the evolving complexity of software engineering
and the growing demand for New age skills and further provides an overview of
cost-effective reskilling strategies to navigate the hiring budget challenge

2. 2
Growing Complexity of Software Engineering (SE) due to:
• Advancements in Generative AI and Automation
• Constant Upgradation of tech stacks
Hiring challenges:
• Scarcity of Talent with emerging skills
• Inflated talent cost due to hiring competition
Cost-effective strategies to fill talent gap:
• Upskill Software Talent: Save 10%-50% on the cost
• Reskill Adjacent Tech/IT Roles: Boosts employee retention
• Recruit to Reskill: Save $40K - $70K/ FTE
Executive
Summary

3. 3
Source: Draup
3
CONTENTS
This section covers:
• Key trends impacting Software
Engineering job function
• Impact of trends on the skillset of
Software Engineering job roles
• L&D strategies becoming critical for
building Software Engineering teams
• Emergence of New Age skillsets in ‘Software
Engineering’ Job family
4-6
Pages
• Actionable L&D strategies to build Software
Engineering workforce with emerging skillsets
8-14

4. 4
Software
Engineering
DevOps &
DBMS
Cybersecurity
Blockchain
Low-Code/
No-Code
Crucial technologies with base as Software Engineering
Tech. & Methodologies
supporting SE
Building resilient systems to strengthen Cyber
Security
Building decentralized and secure software
ecosystem through application decentralization
Generative AI automating code building,
supporting Software Engineering
Cloud integration with Microservice to enable agile,
scalable, and flexible applications
Automated CI/CD with AI-based monitoring for
detecting issues, speeding up deployment
Internet of Things
Software Engineering
is central to multiple
technologies as it
enables the creation
of sophisticated,
powerful, and user-
friendly systems
Critical role of Software Engineering Currents Trends in Technologies leading to major changes
in Software Engineering
AI/ML
(Generative AI)
& Other
Technologies
Cyber-security to
Cyber-Immunity
Blockchain
Oriented Software
(BOS)
Generative AI
Based Software
Dev. Assistant
such as ChatGPT
Note: Insights have been extracted from Draup’s ML model which analyses 2 M+ publications, Industry reports, and news articles on a weekly basis. Data has been collected from publicly available sources such as Government portals, news articles, and
recent reports on the Global Market
Growing complexity in Software Engineering (SE): Evolving trends in technologies such as Cybersecurity, Blockchain, and
AI are increasing the complexity of Software Engineering
Server/Cloud
Operating
System
Industry - Cloud
Integration
AI based
Automation in
DevOps
Metaverse

5. 5
Leadership Business Acumen Negotiation Skills
Time
Management
Cognitive
Flexibility
Presentation
Skills
Empathy
Strategic
Thinking
Customer-
Centricity
Decision-Making
Organizational
Skills
Emotional
Intelligence
Analytical Skills Problem Solving
Collaborative
Skills
Critical Thinking
Communication
Skills
Detail-Oriented
Software Design,
Development &
Documentation
Programming Languages
(JavaScript, Java, C++, PHP,
Python, Go)
Software Systems
& Frameworks
(AnglularJS, Git, .NET)
Computer Ar., OS, And
Data Structures
Front-end
Technology Stack
(ReactJS)
Software
Development Life
Cycle (SDLC) Ruby on Rails
GO language
Containerization
(Docker, Kubernetes)
Systems Design
Interfaces
Source Code Management
& Revision Control System
Databases And Object-
relational Mapping
(ORM) Frameworks
IoT & Wearable
Devices Mobile App
Development
(WebRTC, RTSP)
Build Automation Tools
(Gradle, Maven)
Version Control Software
Tools
(IBM Rational Clearcase,
Git)
ORM Frameworks
(Hibernate, Apache
OpenJPA)
Development Frameworks
(ReactJS, AngularJS, Node
JS, Next.js)
Emerging functional skillsets and tools in Software Engineering job family
Tools addition due to
emerging skillset
Source: Draup’s AI-Driven Talent Intelligence Platform
Note: Above mentioned skillsets are not exhaustive. Draup analyses 30K skills for 4,500 job roles from 350 Mn Job description Databases and 750 Mn+ Talent profiles.
Soft skills required at each level of Software
Engineering job family
Traditional
Functional
Skills
Emerging
Functional Skills
Software
Engineering
Emerging Skillsets in Software Engineering: Increasing complexity is expanding the Software Technology stack, leading
to demand for emerging and New Age skillsets
Job
Role
Maturity
Soft skills
SDE or ‘Software Development Engineer’ is one
of the critical role (analyzed further in detail)

6. 6
Internal Upskilling
• Identify emerging skillsets required in firm
• Assess the current gap by mapping skills
• Develop custom L&D programs
Internal Reskilling
• Identify adjacent talent within the firm
• Simulate the feasibility of reskilling transitions
• Reskill with targeted L&D modules
Actionable & Cost-effective Reskilling strategies to
overcome lateral hiring challenges
Recruit to Reskill
• Identify low-cost locations with high availability of
adjacent talent
• Recruit talent with high skills overlap
• Reskill with emerging skillsets
Challenges in building a Software Engineering team by hiring
Note: Draup has a dedicated ‘Reskilling Navigator’ module that tracks 4 Million career paths to understand the Reskilling feasibility between job roles. Using Machine Learning models, Draup analyses the skills gap and suggests targeted learning modules
from a corpus of 300K+ courses. Sample Visual representation of decreasing talent availability, actual data may vary
Inflated software talent salaries and budget cuts are prompting enterprises to adopt ‘Reskilling’ as a sustainable and
cost-effective alternative to ‘Lateral hiring’
Low High Low
Moderate Moderate Moderate
High Moderate High
Time required Cost effectiveness Scalability
Emerging/New Age
..Skillsets requirement
by companies
Highly inflated Talent
cost for the existing
talent pool
Limited talent
availability in hiring
location
A B C
Narrowing hiring pipeline
Total Tech
talent
Note: Illustrative representation
Number of Bubbles indicates talent availability

7. 7
Source: Draup
7
CONTENTS
This section covers:
• Internal upskilling for SDE or ‘Software
Development Engineer’ talent with New
Age skillsets
• Internal Reskilling:
• Job role assessment
• Transition analysis
• Recruit to Reskill:
• MSA assessment across the
United States
• Deep-dive analysis for adjacent
talent in Atlanta
• Cost analysis of Reskilling vs Hiring
• Emergence of New Age skillsets in ‘Software
Engineering’ Job family
4-6
Pages
• Actionable L&D strategies to build Software
Engineering workforce with emerging skillsets
8-14

8. 8
Source: Draup
8
Draup analyzed 100+ companies to understand the emerging and in-demand cloud skillsets of a sample role - ‘Software Development Engineer’
Source: The represented data has been derived using Draup’s Proprietary Talent Database which tracks 30,000 skills.
Note: The research is based on internal analysis. The list of skills is not exhaustive.
Software Systems And
Frameworks
Debugging
Database
Management
Systems
Data Engineering & Infrastructure
Management
Application and Web
development
Cloud
Computing
DevOps
GPT Prompt
Engineering for
Developers
(AutoGPT ,
OpenAI etc)
Front-end or
Client-side
Technology Stack
(Reactjs)
Performance
Tuning
(Profiling Tools,
Code Optimization
& Load Testing)
Non-relational
Database Mgmt.:
MongoDB,
Cassandra, Redis,
Elasticsearch)
Data
Warehousing:
(Amazon Redshift,
Google Big Query,
Snowflake etc.)
Natural Language
Processing Tools
(NLTK, spaCy)
IoT Protocols and
Frameworks
(MQTT, CoAP,
AMQP,
LoRaWAN,etc )
Low-code or No-
code Platforms
(Appian,Mendix,
Kisslfow etc)
Serverless &
Hybrid Cloud
Computing
Programs-
(Lambda , EC2 etc)
Debugging
Serverless
Applications
(AWS Lambda &
Azure Functions)
Ruby on Rails
GO Language (and
other in-demand
languages )
Understanding of
Data Structures
And Algorithms
(Leetcode, Etc. )
Cloud Debugging
(CloudWatch Logs,
Azure Application
Insights, & Google
Stackdriver)
NoSQL Databases
(Cassandra,
Aerospike,
DynamoDB)
Big Data
Processing and
Analysis Tools
(Hadoop, Spark)
Machine Learning
Algorithms:
(Decision trees,
Linear & Logistic
Regression, etc.
Cross-platform
Development:
(React Native,
Flutter, Xamarin)
Wearable Devices
& Mobile App
Development
(WebRTC, RTSP)
Containerization
& Orchestration
(Docker,
Kubernetes, etc.)
Continuous
Integration/Conti
nuous Delivery
(CI/CD)(Jenkins,
GitLab,CircleCI,etc)
Software Systems & Frameworks
(Anglularjs, Git, Github, and . NET
Security
Debugging
(penetration
testing, static code
analysis, etc.)
Database-
Processing
Engines
(Presto.etc)
Machine Learning Frameworks
(TensorFlow, PyTorch)
Advanced Code Editors
(IntelliJ, Eclipse)
Serverless
Architecture &
Platform
(AWS Lambda,
Azure Functions)
Infrastructure as
Code Tools
(Terraform,
CloudFormation, &
ARM templates)
Programming
Languages
(JavaScript, Java,
C++, PHP, Python)
Familiarity with
Software Dev.
Methodologies
(e.g., Agile, Scrum)
Profiling
(Visual Studio
Profiler, JetBrains
dotTrace, and
Apache Jmeter)
Databases and
Object-relational
Mapping (ORM)
Frameworks
Source Control
Mgmt. Tools
(GitHub,
Bitbucket)
Microservices
Architecture Tools
(Spring Boot,
Apache Kafka)
Basic Web
Development
Tools
(HTML/CSS,
JavaScript)
API Development:
(REST, GraphQL,
OpenAPI, Swagger
etc.)
Platform &
Infrastructure as-
a-Service tools
(Heroku)
Configuration
Management
Tools
(Chef, Puppet)
Computer
Architecture,
Operating Systems
& OOPs
Operating
Systems
Knowledge
(Linux & Windows
&other OS-tech)
Debugging Tools
and Techniques
(Visual Studio
Debugger, GDB,
and LLDB, etc.)
Basic Relational
Database Mgmt.
Systems
(MySQL,
PostgreSQL)
Big Data Querying
and Analysis Tools
(SQL, Hive, and
Presto, etc.)
Data Integration
and ETL
(Apache NiFi,
Talend, and
Informatica)
Front-end
Development:
(HTML, CSS,
JavaScript, React,
Angular, Vue.js)
Back-end
Development:
(Node.js, Ruby on
Rails, ASP.NET,
Django, Flask, etc.)
Cloud Platforms
(AWS, Azure,
Google Cloud,
Platform, etc.)
Emerging Skillsets: Roles such as SDE are evolving rapidly. New-Age SDE skills such as Containerization, NLP tools and
Microservices architecture are in high demand
A. Internal Upskilling(1/2) B. Internal Reskilling C. Recruit to Reskill
Emerging skills Existing skills

9. 9
Source: Draup
9
Saving in talent cost
Improved efficiency for organization
Competitive advantage
Traditional
Software
Development
Engineer
Software
Development
Engineer with
emerging skills
SDEs with emerging skillsets can leverage
new tools to build better products faster
and with fewer resources.
Talent cost with
emerging skillsets
Companies with emerging skillsets can
gain competitive advantage by offering
cutting-edge products and services
Draup’s analysis of SDE that can be upskilled into In-demand Software Development
Engineer (SDE) job role with emerging skillsets
Benefits of Upskilling
A. Internal Upskilling(2/2) B. Internal Reskilling C. Recruit to Reskill
Generative Deep Learning
with TensorFlow
AWS Fundamentals:
Building Serverless Apps
Event Monitoring and
Alerting with Prometheus
MQTT Masterclass
Smart Contracts
Natural Language Pro. with
Attention Models
Upskilling analysis: Upskilling Internal SDE talent can meet the requirements of emerging skill sets; Saving up to 50%
cost on Lateral hiring and boosting employee satisfaction
Introduction to ZigBee
Decentralized Applications
(Dapps)
Note: *Sample Learning modules mentioned. Source: Draup’s dedicated Reskilling module ‘Reskilling Navigator’ intelligently prompts targeted courses for 4,500+ job roles from a corpus of 300K courses
Coursera 16 hours 10 hours
Coursera
Pluralsight Udemy
Udemy Coursera
5 Hours 35 hours
Coursera 17 hours 17 hours
4 hours
9 hours
Standard SDE talent
cost (base pay)
95th percentile Median salary
Employees with new-age skill have high talent
cost which can be saved by upskilling the
current talent with emerging skills
Cost savings
~$134,000
~$150K-$200K
Learning modules* required to acquire missing skills

10. 10
Source: Draup
10
Identifying and Reskilling low-demand and low-cost adjacent talent (with high skills overlap) Key Insights
Top reasons to choose Database
Administrator, IT Service
Manager, and System Engineer:-
• Moderate talent cost
• Moderate to high talent
availability
• Low to moderate talent
demand
• High-Cost ROI compared to
hiring
• Provides viable and
disruption-proof career path
Top reskilling areas include:
• Programming Language &
Algorithms
• Agile/Scrum Methodologies
• Software & Web
Development
Notes: Above analysis is done using Draup’s ‘Reskilling Simulator’ and ‘Reskilling Navigator’ features. Existing Skills and Core skill gaps for Reskilling propensity have been identified for 4,500+ job roles through the analysis of relevant JDs from a dataset
of over 350 Million+ Job Descriptions.
Identifying adjacent talent: Reskilling adjacent (disrupted) talent to SDE can also help meet future demand if the hiring
challenges persist
Reskilling
Propensity
A. Internal Upskilling B. Internal Reskilling(1/2) C. Recruit to Reskill
Talent Size in United States K = 1,000
Low
High
Desktop Engineer
Maintenance Engineer
Server Engineer Network Engineer
Database Administrator
Firmware Engineer
System Support Engineer
Mainframe Developer
Technical Support Specialist
System Engineer
IT Service Manager
.NET Developer​
Network Administrator​
Linux Administrator​
Technical Support Engineer​
Middleware Engineer
K 50K 100K 150K 200K 250K 300K 350K
Bubble Size denotes ‘Job Role’
Talent Demand in United
States

11. 11
HTML, CSS, and
JavaScript for
Web Developers
Coursera
Software
Development
Engineer
(Basic
Proficiency)
Troubleshooting & Debugging
Techniques
Coursera
Programming for
beginners with
C++ | C# | Java |
Python Udemy
Software Design and Architecture
Udacity
Continuous
Integration and
Continuous
Delivery (CI/CD)
Coursera
Software Development Lifecycle
Coursera
Software Development Processes and
Methodologies
Coursera
FS Web Development with React,
React Native, Bootstrap
Udemy
Developing Cloud
Native
Applications
edX
The Complete Full
stack Web
Developer Course
Udemy
Advanced MySQL
Topics
Coursera
Note: Draup performs complex assessment around various other critical Reskilling parameters between existing and desired roles to understand skill gap and match it with relevant learning modules. The path showcased are not exhasutive
Source: Draup’s dedicated Reskilling module ‘Reskilling Navigator’ intelligently prompts targeted courses for 4,500+ job roles from a corpus of 300K courses
Advanced SQL
Queries in Oracle
and SQL Server
Pluralsight
Reskilling transition: Identifying skills gaps and Reskilling with targeted modules can reduce the transition time drastically.
Reskilling can future-proof job roles which are prone to disruption
Database
Administrator
System Engineer
IT Service Manager
Database Skills Software Development
Programming
Language
Agile/Scrum
methodologies
Web
Development
Sample suggested courses for each skillset
Sample Job roles
Desired Job role
Database skills training
not required
Flow of learning to bridge the gap for missing skills
A. Internal Upskilling B. Internal Reskilling(2/2) C. Recruit to Reskill
Software
Development
Engineer with
emerging
skills
Transition analysed
in slide-9 in detail

12. 12
United States – SDE Talent Hotspots and skills overlap at top MSA
Relevant Talent Availability
Size of bubble represent
Talent with adjacent skillset
High
Medium
Low
Leveraging cost-effective locations in the US: Leading firms are evaluating emerging locations such as Atlanta (with
abundant adjacent talent) to hire and reskill them into SDE
Note: Above mentioned Hiring locations are not exhaustive. Source: Draup Talent Intelligence Platform which tracks 750M+ professional profiles, 30,000+ skillsets across 4,500+ job roles was leveraged to find talent skill breakdown
A. Internal Upskilling B. Internal Reskilling C. Recruit to Reskill(1/3)
Total Relevant Talent Availability > 120K 60K – 120K < 60K
H M L
Talent with Adjacent Skillsets H M L
Talent with Emerging Skillsets > 10K 5K – 10K < 5K
H M L
SDE Talent Hotspots with relevant, adjacent and emerging skillsets
MSAs
Total SDE Talent
Availability
Talent with
Adjacent Skillsets
Talent with
Emerging Skillsets
New York
San Francisco
Seattle
Washington D.C.
Los Angeles
Boston
Dallas/Fort Worth
Chicago
Atlanta
Austin
Tulsa
Detroit
Denver
Philadelphia
Deep Dive Location > 120K 60K – 120K < 60K
Talent with Emerging
Skillsets
Chicago
Los Angeles
Washington D.C.
Austin
Detroit
Denver
Philadelphia
New York
Atlanta
Dallas/Fort Worth
Tulsa
Seattle
San Francisco
Boston
Established location

13. 13
.NET Developer​
C, C# Developer
QA Engineer
QA Test Automation
Engineer
Database Administrator
System Engineer
IT Service Manager
Programmer Analyst
Network Engineer
System Analyst
Linux Administrator​
Middleware Engineer
80K
90K
100K
110K
120K
0 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 7,000 8,000
Atlanta – Assessing Talent landscape: Though the SDE talent pool is limited, The adjacent talent pool (with high skillsets
overlap) is relatively higher
Note: Above mentioned job roles are not exhaustive. Source: Draup Talent Intelligence Platform that tracks 700M+ professional profiles, 350M+ Job descriptions across 4,500+ job roles was leveraged to find talent with adjacent skillsets.
Draup’s dedicated Reskilling module ‘Reskilling Navigator’ intelligently prompts targeted courses for 4,500+ job roles from a corpus of 300K courses
A. Internal Upskilling B. Internal Reskilling C. Recruit to Reskill(2/3)
SDE with
Emerging skills
Software
Development
Engineer
Transitioning to SDE will
include acquiring
skillsets such as:
• SQl
• Java/ Python
• Full Stack dev.
• Software Design
• SDLC
(sample, not exhaustive)
Acquiring Skillsets in
• Ruby on rails/Go
• Virtualization(VMware),
• CI/CD Automation(CircleCI)
• Cybersecurity framework
(sample, not exhaustive)
10-12 weeks
Draup’s analysis of adjacent job roles available in Atlanta Case study of transition from QA Engineer to SDE
Low
Talent Demand Medium High
QA Engineer
Talent Size
Bubble Size denotes ‘Job Role’
Skills Overlap with Software
Development Engineer
K = 1,000
Limited transition possibility
as the basic SDE skillsets are
needed to learn the
emerging skillsets
Talent
Cost
(In
USD)

14. 14
Increased talent pool
Creativity and Innovation
Cost savings
Improved diversity and Inclusion
K
20K
40K
60K
80K
100K
120K
140K
160K
180K
Base Pay Non-Recurring cost Incentive Reskilling Cost
Updated
base pay
Cost of hiring new
SDE-1(<5 years
experience) with
emerging skillset
Cost of recruiting
adjacent talent and
reskilling to SDE
~$158K
~$128K
Benefits of ‘Recruit to Reskill’ strategy
$139K
~$118K
$102K
$9.8K
Base pay saved on
every FTE
$19K
$16K
One-time cost saved
on FTE
~$21K
~$9K
Overall cost saved by
company**
~34K
Talent
base
pay
Note: * Non-Recurring Cost: one-time expense during the hiring process, including advertising costs, background check fees, travel expenses for interviews, sign-on bonuses, relocation expenses, etc. Non-recurring cost is only indicative(might vary
depending on location, company, skills, etc). Source: Draup analyses 16+ Million data attributes for 4,500+ job roles daily to help global HR leaders in Planning, Hiring & Reskilling their Future-Ready Workforce. ** Indicative, for first year only.
Cost analysis of ‘Hiring SDE’ vs. ‘Recruiting QA Engineer and Reskilling to SDE’ in Atlanta
‘Recruit to Reskill’ vs. Hiring in Atlanta: Companies can save ~18% cost (per FTE) by recruiting an adjacent QA Engineer and
Reskilling to an SDE role
~$30K
A. Internal Upskilling B. Internal Reskilling C. Recruit to Reskill(3/3)
Adjacent talent can bring fresh
perspectives and ideas to the organization
~18% cost saving by reskilling adjacent
talent into SDE job role
~$5K higher
median salary
in Atlanta as
compared to
overall US
High availability of Talent with adjacent
skills in the ecosystem
Non-traditional hiring location can have
diverse talent landscape
Cost savings compared
to overall US
up to ~$70K

15. 15
About Draup

16. 16
Draup leverages Machine learning models to curate data provided in the report. Similar analysis can be performed
for 4,500+ job roles or any job family
Digital Transformation
University Relations
Peer Intelligence
Talent Acquisition
Strategic Workforce Planning
Reskilling & Upskilling
Diversity & Inclusion
Career Path Development
Draup Capabilities & Data Assets EMPOWERS DECISION MAKING IN
ROLES & SKILLS
TAXONOMY
DIGITAL IMPACT ON
TRADITIONAL ROLES
TALENT INTELLIGENCE
PEER
BENCHMARKING
UNIVERSITY
INTELLIGENCE
Explore Diverse
Job Roles,
Locations and
Ecosystem
Insights
DIVERSITY
ACQUISITION
CAREER JOURNEY
MAPPING
LOCATION
INTELLIGENCE
COURSES/
CERTIFICATIONS
and diverse other use cases…

17. 17
Draup for Talent: Draup analyses 16+ Million data attributes every day to help global HR leaders in Planning, Hiring
& Reskilling their Future-Ready Workforce
750M+
350M+
JOB DESCRIPTIONS
4M+
CAREER PATHS
ANALYZED
75+
MACHINE LEARNING
MODELS DEYELOPED
16M+
DAILY DATA
POINTS
ANALYZED
100+
LABOR STATISTIC
DATABASE
1,000+
CUSTOM TALENT
REPORTS
30,000
SKILLS
47,000+
DIGITAL TOOLS
& PLATFORMS
300,000+
COURSES
2,500+
LOCATIONS
14,000+
UNIVERSITIES
JOB ROLES
4,500+
PEER GROUP
COMPANIES
500,000+
INDUSTRIES
33
175,000+
UNIVERSITY
PROFESSORS
PROFESSIONALS

18. 18
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