5G to drive hiring in India's telecom sector this year: NLB Services

The fifth-generation (5G) technology will drive hiring in the telecom sector this year, according to recruiters. A new report by staffing firm NLB Services said that there will be a 25%-30% rise in demand for technology talent in the telecom and allied sectors in the coming year as compared to 15%-20% last year, driven by the rollout of 5G services. 

India's top telecom operators, Reliance Jio Infocomm and Bharti Airtel, started rolling out their 5G networks based on the standalone (SA) and non-standalone (NSA) architecture, respectively, from October. The telcos are aiming to achieve pan-India coverage of 5G by 2023-24. 

The recruitment firm also said that compared to 2021, demand for specialised telecom technology talent grew by almost 20% in 2022. Cybersecurity, cloud computing, data science, and data analytics are some of the most sought-after job roles currently commanding almost 10-12% better pay packages, it said.   

“We are seeing a higher demand for candidates in the mid-level category (with 4-8 years of experience). there are a lot of emerging opportunities in video content, network upgradation & migration, private 5g for enterprises, iot/iiot, mobility, network infrastructure and network security,” said Sachin Alug, CEO, NLB Services.

“Specific profiles like technical content writers (Video-OTT), networking engineers, AI & ML professionals, user experience designers, Cloud computing experts, cybersecurity specialists, and data science & data analytics experts are in demand, remaining relevant in the next few years,” added Alug.  

Interestingly, the demand is not restricted to the telecom sector, even non-telecom sectors like healthcare, agriculture, financial services, energy and utilities, retail, manufacturing, and auto are expected to hire tech talent to scale up their service capabilities around 5G. Data Scientists and Cybersecurity professionals are some of the key profiles in non-telecom sectors, the report said, adding that it expects a 20% growth in demand for tech talent from these specific areas over the next few quarters.  

As per the report, the salary for an AI professional having 2-4 years of experience ranges between ₹5 lakh per annum (LPA) to ₹20 LPA, while professionals with 4-8 years of experience in AI can earn around ₹35 LPA to ₹50 LPA and those with more that 10 years of experience can make ₹1 crore per annum. Moreover, the salary of a UI/UX designer ranges between ₹2.1 LPA to ₹15 LPA with ₹5.5 LPA as an average annual salary. And as for cloud specialists, the salary can be anywhere between ₹6.5 LPA and ₹26.8 LPA with ₹15 LPA as the average annual salary. As for cybersecurity specialists, the pay ranges between ₹5 LPA and ₹19.9 LPA along with ₹10.5 LPA as an average annual salary.

Experts also believe that the demand for radio access network (RAN) engineers and radio frequency (RF) engineers is now rising steadily, with many of them likely to earn up to ₹50 lakh a year. “With additional certification, the salary scale of a 5G engineer with expertise in niche areas can grow by double digits and any mid-to-senior professional can expect a 35% to 45% hike,” said Munira Loliwala, business head, diversified engineering at staffing firm TeamLease Digital.

Organisations such as Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC) and Qualcomm Wireless Academy among others, are running programmes to upskill existing engineers for better job and career prospects, as Arvind Bali, CEO, TSSC told Mint in November 2022 that the Council is “working on setting up at least 10 new centres of excellence in the next two years to impart trainings to telecom professionals in 5G courses”.