Only 5,000 (0.25%) of the 2 million software developers in India currently have the right blockchain skills.
With a limited talent pool, blockchain techies are in huge demand, primarily at banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), global inhouse centres and other public sector firms. Blockchain skills will get you double, or even triple, the salary of a software engineer. Three years of experience in blockchain translates into remuneration of Rs 45 lakh or more, more than double of what even a techie (with no experience in blockchain or emerging technology) with five years of experience would get. “Salaries for ready-to-bedeployed techies with blockchain experience are twice that of a techie without blockchain expertise,” said Paul Dupuis, managing director, Randstad India. “We believe the number of blockchain practitioners has increased by a factor of 100% over last year, with demand increasing equally.”
“Salary offered to a blockchain techie with just five years of experience is almost at a par with that of a general manager in a bank with three decades of experience,” said Lohit Bhatia, chief executive, staffing, IKYA Human Capital Solutions, an HR solutions provider. IKYA currently has 20 blockchain search mandates from banks and NBFCs.
At the senior level, the salary for technology roles without blockchain expertise was Rs 1.5-2.5 crore till a year ago. But with the increased need for more layers of security — especially in the financial sector — to protect data from fraud, salaries have touched Rs 4 crore per annum (without ESOPs) in a few cases, said Monica Agrawal, senior client partner, Korn Ferry. The executive search firm is currently running four searches for top tech talent with expertise in blockchain.
ICICI Bank uses blockchain for both domestic trade and remittances transactions, which are both being scaled up. “Since blockchain is an emerging area both in terms of practice and availability of skill, capability and skilling are largely being developed inhouse through continuous training and global exposure in this space,” said TK Srirang, head, human resources, ICICI Bank. Joshua Kroeker, blockchain lead, global commercial banking, HSBC, said, “We see blockchain as a network technology that allows us to collaborate more effectively to build industry infrastructure. We want to create an environment that encourages wide scale participation on platforms such as Voltron, hence building in ease of use.” Demand for blockchain developers is led by public sector banks, with about 4,000 specialists in 2018, compared with 2,300 experts in 2017, a rise of 75%. “Demand for blockchain techies has risen 66% and 42% among NBFCs and public sector companies onyear, respectively, in 2018,” said Rituparna Chakraborty, cofounder, TeamLease.
There are currently 2,000 blockchain techies in NBFCs and 2,400 in public sector companies, according to TeamLease research. Only 5,000 (0.25%) of the 2 million software developers in India currently have the right blockchain skills.
“Non-availability of blockchain tech talent is for real and is going to get worse,” said KS Viswanathan, vice-president, industry initiatives, Nasscom. “With concerted programmes to define job roles in blockchain technology, the industry will figure out the new equilibrium but as a stop gap, it is leveraging startups in this area big time.”
