Analytics talent squeeze
Companies report a shortage of marketing analytics talent, pushing analytics roles from back‑office reporting into strategic partnership with procurement and creative teams. Hiring trends emphasize AI review cadences, fairness/privacy skills, and portfolio proof of cross‑disciplinary workflows. (forbes.com) (prnewswire.com)
MarketsandMarkets projects the global Big Data market will grow from USD 324.59 billion in 2026 to USD 516.29 billion by 2031 at a 9.7% CAGR, signaling expanding enterprise spend on analytics platforms and tooling. (prnewswire.co.uk) The 2026 ManpowerGroup Talent Shortage Survey found 72% of employers reporting hiring difficulty, with AI-related skills rising to the top of shortage lists, underscoring tight supply for analytics roles. (manpowergroup.com) Procurement is being recast as a strategic, cross‑functional orchestrator rather than a transactional "PO factory," a trend flagged by Procurement Magazine and industry commentators as procurement gains influence over supplier-driven analytics and technology sourcing in 2026. (procurementmag.com) Enterprise AI governance programs are formalizing review cadences and oversight councils, with EY reporting that organizations using real‑time monitoring and RAI committees see measurably better outcomes and vendors like OneTrust and Microsoft offering governance tooling in 2026. (ey.com) Technical privacy and fairness skills are in active demand: ISACA documents a widening privacy skills gap in technical roles, while current job listings on platforms such as ZipRecruiter show privacy/compliance positions paying into six figures for senior roles. (isaca.org) Hiring managers now expect portfolio evidence of end‑to‑end work—campaign attribution dashboards, A/B test analyses and Tableau/SQL projects—advice reflected in Maven Analytics and CareerFoundry guides and mirrored in 2026 marketing‑analytics job descriptions that list dashboarding, experimental design and SQL as core duties. (mavenanalytics.io)
