Cybersecurity Tops the List of Hardest Roles to Fill in 2025, Survey Finds

After surveying 500 IT decision-makers in the US about IT industry staffing, I figured I would see the same results as years past: companies fighting over one limited pool of developers, remote work changing how we view staffing, and an overall talent shortage in the tech world.

Interestingly, though, it’s much more nuanced than that. The types of hard-to-find talent have changed, and our survey poses an institutional knowledge paradox.

Everyone needs quality software and web developers, right? That’s the response I would have given to this question five years ago, and even 10 years ago. Every company chased these golden geese with impressive benefits, high pay, and attractive bonus packages. Today, however, the landscape has shifted.

From our survey of tech professionals — VPs, directors, and C-suite execs — 41% of them stated that cybersecurity professionals are the hardest staffers to hire and retain. I’d argue that’s because very few brands are willing to skimp on their security in today’s environment of high-profile, high-cost cyber attacks.

Everyone is on edge about the advanced potential of AI cyber attacks. True cybersecurity professionals are in high demand, making them harder to come by than ever before.

“With AI, tools are now better able to handle junior-level coding tasks. Also, cybersecurity threats are much more complex,” said Ryan Frankel, CTO & President of HostingAdvice. “This has caused a big switch-up in hiring priorities over the past year. Hiring managers aren’t scrambling for generalist developers as much as before. We’re increasingly hunting for more specialized trades like cybersecurity pros who can prepare companies for the new level of defense required.”

Beyond cybersecurity professionals, the survey showed a new hierarchy of hard-to-find tech talent:

• Cybersecurity professionals: 41% of respondents said it was difficult to hire and/or retain these workers.
• AI and machine learning specialists: 37% of respondents.
• HostingOps architects and engineers: 35% of respondents.
• Data infrastructure specialists: 24% of respondents.
• Web and software developers: 8% of respondents.

Those results may appear rather shocking to anyone who’s followed IT and tech hiring over the past decade. The demand for software and web developers, the people every company needed so badly five years ago, has dropped incredibly.

Perhaps too many people got into that line of work, saturating the market. Or maybe there’s just more of a focus on things like cybersecurity and AI. Many will point to advancements in LLM chatbots, such as Windsurf and Cursor, that can code at a junior developer level.

Regardless, it should probably come as no surprise that AI and machine learning specialists are in high demand, all thanks to the gold rush of artificial intelligence. But these weren’t nearly as common just a few years ago.

Even HostingOps experts have become rare as cloud repatriation and hybrid hosting solutions become more in vogue. You need them to prepare for traffic spikes and to keep your digital infrastructure rolling.

I’ve seen it many times: a business transfers to the cloud, leaving its legacy systems behind, but eventually realizes that it either needs to keep some legacy systems or integrate those tools into the new infrastructure.

It’s a fast-moving tech world, so you’d think most staffing decisions would focus on fresh blood, bringing in people who know the new systems as opposed to seasoned veterans who specialize in legacy technology.

My assumption, however, was wrong. Or, at least, it failed to acknowledge that businesses need institutional knowledge to bridge the gaps. In fact, our survey showed what I would call an “institutional knowledge paradox,” where IT leaders want to bring in new tech badly, but they are so entrenched in legacy systems that they cannot afford to lose certain employees. Therefore, institutional knowledge still has significant value.

Here’s what our survey respondents said:

• Institutional knowledge is still “important but must be balanced with bringing in new expertise:” 61% of respondents.
• It’s “critical” to retain institutional knowledge and the staff with deep organizational understanding: 26% of respondents.
• Institutional knowledge and the staff who understand it are becoming less relevant and even a hindrance: 13% of respondents.

These results tell me that many older tech employees can breathe a little easier and perhaps use this data to prove their value.

I’ve also learned that, even as systems modernize, and the tech world ushers in AI and machine learning, some people are simply irreplaceable — those who may not know much about the latest JavaScript framework, but they have specific organizational knowledge, like why a database is structured in a certain way, or how specific systems interact and connect — that only years of experience can provide.

I used to think it was impossible for technical workers to work from home. That, however, has changed drastically. And because of the ability for many tech employees to work remotely, hiring managers have found it easier to locate skilled professionals. That’s mainly because they no longer have to compete with every company seeking similar talent in the same town.

Here’s what our survey showed:

• Remote work has improved access to good talent: 57% of respondents.
• There’s no impact on recruiting due to remote workers: 20% of respondents.
• Remote work has made recruiting top talent harder: 18% of respondents.

Overall, our IT leaders and hiring specialists seem to enjoy, or at least not have any issues with, remote work. To me, that makes sense because the pool has grown. Hiring managers can discover talent in other states and countries, as well as top-tier professionals who are unwilling to move.

It is worth mentioning, however, that the industry matters. The financial services industry presents strong resistance to the idea of remote work, with 36% of respondents saying it has made hiring more difficult. About 33% of tech leaders in the real estate industry said the same thing.

If you want to get people heated when talking about tech hiring, bring up immigration policies. The Trump administration has a strong stance on H-1B visas.

That stance? Well, it’s a little unclear sometimes, but we’ve experienced some leaders in his cabinet (and party) pushing against these visas, arguing they’re a way for tech companies to bring in cheap labor from abroad instead of paying US workers.

On the other hand, Trump and many of his cabinet members have shown glimpses of support for H-1B visas, considering they help tech companies pull from a larger talent pool. With such a tug-of-war in our political climate, we wanted to see how tech leaders felt about it all.

Here are our survey results:

• Reported no change in hiring practices, taking a wait-and-see approach: 54% of respondents.
• Hiring more people on H-1B visas: 26% of respondents.
• Hiring fewer people on H-1B visas: 21% of respondents.

As of now — partially thanks to how the administration and its party can’t seem to agree on how to approach H-1B visas — hiring managers in IT seem to be making no changes. They want to wait and see before committing to any aggressive decisions.

However, there’s a close split between those hiring more visa holders and those hiring fewer. This is a common response to uncertainty. Some companies want to “get them while you can,” just in case the administration blocks the hiring of H-1B visa workers. Other companies see no point in training those visa workers if there’s a chance of having to let them go in the future.

As I evaluate the results of our survey, I see the hiring landscape in the tech industry as more mature. It’s not as straightforward as it used to be, when talent shortages were the main issue. Now, more niche tech workers are hard to find, and remote work has shifted the way more than half of hiring managers find their talent.

I’ve also appreciated that institutional knowledge has remained relevant, even if it causes problems for those wanting to hire more newcomers. If anything, these survey results indicate to me that we must adapt to a changing world (even amid political shifts) and always focus on which skills matter most at the time.

But in the end, old wisdom still has its place. You just have to blend it with new capabilities.

This survey was conducted online in May 2025 among 500 senior U.S.-based IT employees. These respondents are employed at the Senior Manager level or higher. 41% of respondents are C-level, Vice Presidents, or Directors.

Respondents were selected from a third-party research panel. The researcher ensures high-quality data through multiple layers of protection. It monitors each respondent with a fraud score based on in-survey behavior, inconsistent demographics, and survey speeding — removing anyone who exceeds its threshold. It also uses fingerprinting to track IP, device, and cookies, ensuring only unique participants can enter a survey. Invisible ReCaptcha blocks bots, and all data is encrypted with TLS to keep responses secure.

To protect the privacy of panelists, there is never any personally identifiable profile data reported. The overall margin of error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. Margins of error increase for subgroups such as age or gender.

For media inquiries, please reach out to adam.blacker@hostingadvice.com.