Blockchain Protocol Job Market Report (Q3/2023)

Blockchain Jobs Europe presents you with the year’s third report of the Blockchain Protocol Job Market series covering the penultimate quarter of 2023. The edition offers insight into the changes occurring over the quarters in the blockchain (protocol) employment market as well as emerging trends shaping the industry.  

Recap of the Report Methodology:

The objective and methodology of the report have been consistent throughout the series which can be found in depth here. However, here’s a short recap: BlockchainJobsEurope researched and analyzed the Blockchain Protocol Job Market for Q3, 2023. Our research covered over 250 public job offerings by 40 leading blockchain development firms for the second quarter of 2023. Some of the noted Web3 firms analyzed under the research are; Ethereum Foundation, Parity Technologies, ConsenSys, IOHK, Dfinity, Ava Labs, Polygon, CasperLabs, and Gnosis. The report aims to update job seekers with the current outlook and trends of the blockchain protocol recruitment segment, as well as shed light on the changes happening within the employment arena.  

Findings of the Report:

The third quarter of the year recorded a considerable decrease in the number of jobs being offered by the top 40 blockchain protocol firms. The offerings have slashed to 257 in the current quarter compared to 380+ opportunities provided in the previous quarter, which was a further decrease from Q1, where the number was 420+. 

Though the number of offerings has changed, the percentage bifurcation between Technical and Non-technical jobs hasn’t shown any significant deviation, with technical jobs accounting for 60% of the total hiring needs while non-technical jobs comprising the rest. This is only a slight alteration from the past quarter where the non-technical offerings accounted for 35% of the hiring requirement. For detailed findings, please read further.

Most In-Demand Blockchain Technical Roles [Q3/2023]

[Note: All comparisons are based on the previous quarterly report]

Full-stack development continues to be the most requested profile even in the reported quarter with a share of 15.5% of the total technical hiring needs. Tying at the top with the Full-stack profile, the Core / Protocol Development role registered the most upside demand, accounting for 15.5% of the full demand, which is a sharp 5.5-percentage point increase over the previous Q2 figure. The next set of major requirements are observed in DevOps (11%), Frontend development (10%), and Backend development (9%), with Frontend showing an upside of one percentage point while DevOps and Backend showing downsides of 2 and 4 percentage points, respectively. The remaining 39% of technical role requirements comprise profiles including Data / Analytics, Security, Technical Project Management, Quality Assurance / Testing, Technical Research, Technical Support, and Cloud, among others.

The most sought-after technical skills remain somewhat unchanged even for the third quarter, with Rust, C++, Golang, Solidity, and TypeScript still leading the way. However, Haskell, marks a new entry in the list of most-desired programming languages in the Web3 industry, with it being highly preferred for smart contract development in certain blockchain environments.

Most In-demand Non-Technical Roles [Q3/2023]

Retaking its crown from DevRel / Ecosystem Development as the most desired non-technical blockchain skill is Marketing, accounting for 16% of the total business hiring needs, which is a 2-percentage point increase over Q2 demand. DevRel / Ecosystem Development takes the second place with a demand of 14% – a sharp decrease from the 20% documented in the previous quarter. The other profiles appearing in the list of top in-demand business Web3 roles are BizDev (12%), Finance (11%), and Product Management (11%). BizDev ousted Community Management from the Q2 list.

The remaining 36% of profiles are concentrated in Talent Acquisition, Legal / Compliance, Accounting, Writing / Research, Business Analytics, and others.

Key Blockchain Skill Trends [Q3/2023]

Zero Knowledge Research: For the third straight quarter, many blockchain protocol development firms remain focused on building protocols with zero knowledge features. Resultantly, the demand for Zero Knowledge researchers is showing no signs of slowing down. More and more protocols are coming forward in the race to bridge the gap between the promising privacy-preserving implications and real-time functionality of ZKP in Blockchain which explains the on-going demand for zero knowledge skills.

Finance: Slowly climbing into the list of the most requested business profiles since the previous quarter, Finance takes the hot spot in the list of non-tech skills for the third quarter of 2023. Investment Analysis, Capital Market Professionals, Investor Relations, Risk Management, Trading Analytics are some of the roles dominating this section.

Rust and Golang: Continuously dominating the list of highly-desired technical skills since the inception of our blockchain protocol job market report, Rust and Golang are the most sought-after programming languages for blockchain backend development and smart contract deployment. Rust and Golang professionals seem to be less impacted by the slowdown in the blockchain sector as opposed to most of the other profiles.

Product Marketing and Ecosystem: When the market gets too homogeneous, innovation becomes a necessity. To stand out and gain an edge in this relentless market, Web3 firms are increasingly betting on innovative products. Consequently, the need to market these products and develop a thriving ecosystem around them takes the center stage.

Concluding Thoughts:

Even though the number of opportunities has stagnated and eventually become less over the previous and into the last quarter(s), the blockchain space remains optimistic about picking up pace soon again. From a candidate’s perspective, now is the ideal time to position oneself to reap the benefits when the market improves. We hope this report helps job seekers in the blockchain protocol space to identify current trends, prepare accordingly and hopefully soon land (another) dream job in the space – fingers crossed!