Recruiting trends in cybersecurity for sales, marketing and other go-to-market (GTM) jobs are showing signs of the slowdowns in other industry-specific tech markets, but taken to a more extreme level. Information and network security sectors are still rapidly growing by all accounts, but the rate of this growth in 2024 has decelerated relative to recent years. This has left talent acquisition priorities in cybersecurity somewhat lopsided, and hiring managers will have to wade through a sea of competition and not-quite-the-right-fit candidates to source the technical unicorns most startups are seeking.
Here are the top cybersecurity recruiting trends we are seeing for sales, marketing and other GTM jobs in 2024:
Cybersecurity vs Other Tech Industry Recruiting Trends
A breakdown of where the security technology market stands with hiring would not be complete without taking a big picture look at the whole tech industry, and seeing how they compare. Across multiple subsectors of SaaS, vendors have scaled back their talent acquisition as they adapt to the economic slowdowns and more cautious buying behaviors. This has led to a more focused approach to recruiting with a priority placed on finding unicorn sellers that have more experience with the company’s industry market and aligns with their current sales motion. However, the trends with cybersecurity sales and marketing jobs specifically are most closely following those seen in newer sectors like Generative AI, where hiring is hyper-focused on technical experts.
Deceleration in Security Industry Growth
The security technology space is part of an industry expected to grow by billions in the 2030’s. Despite this, current growth is decelerating from peaks seen during the immediate pandemic years. In 2024, the cybersecurity sector is beset by challenges like high turnover rates and constant cyberattacks throughout nearly every digital channel as hackers keep finding new gaps to take advantage. These trends feed into each other, with security professionals having to bear the brunt of the responsibility, effort and consequences when another company is hacked, especially for C-level executives like the CIO (Chief Information Officer).
Gap Between Technical & Sales Jobs
The inevitable and pervasive attrition in the cybersecurity workforce exacerbates the talent pool issues the industry already faces, where the demand for technical roles to be filled far outweighs the available number of qualified candidates. This leaves hiring managers in security technology firms having to constantly prioritize recruiting for these jobs over other teams, potentially at the detriment of being able to devote any real focus on sourcing other titles if gaps appear.
Rise of the Technical Seller in Tech Sales
Throughout the whole SaaS space, GTM talent acquisition has progressively moved towards finding the technical seller – someone with experience in both the sales and solution sides. The software market is oversaturated with new products and startups appearing almost every day, and with most buyers being much more cautious about investing in expanding their application stack, deals need to be won on effectively communicating functionality. This is where a Sales Engineer (SE) or Technical Account Executive (Tech AE) will shine and contribute best to scaling up your go-to-market strategy.
The Weight of Experience in Tech Recruiting
Experience has become an even hotter commodity for talent acquisition in the technology industry, and cybersecurity recruiting in particular personifies the long-running joke about even entry-level roles requiring years upon years of relevant work experience. Across tech, candidates with skills and knowledge that are tougher, more time-consuming and more costly to train are being prioritized for hiring as most companies are preferring those who can hit the ground running with minimal onboarding. This is seen with the increasing search for each organization’s unicorn seller, or a tech sales pro who aligns perfectly with the level of experience the org needs and with their current sales motion.
Cybersecurity Regulations & Certifications
Yet another challenge with recruiting for cybersecurity jobs is the highly-regulated nature of the industry, with many professionals requiring several certifications to be able to qualify for even entry-level work. Data security and access have increasingly come under legal scrutiny for privacy and protection concerns, which means that anyone handling sensitive files of a customer enters a complex chain of information security laws. This also means that a standout technical seller candidate should be someone who knows these regulations as they apply to their company’s target market intimately.
Skill Gaps & Coaching
The skills and specialization gap among the talent pool is a prevalent issue for the entire technology startup space, exacerbating the challenge hiring managers face trying to source right-fit candidates in specific industries like cybersecurity. A true tech sales unicorn will take time to find in this current market; however, firms that invest in providing upskilling opportunities to employees will be able to bridge at least some of these gaps in the interim.
Rise of Generative AI & its Impact on Cybersecurity
Generative AI has exploded into both the consumer and business worlds, introducing an abundance of new potential uses along with more opportunities, threats and challenges for industries like cybersecurity to face. While there are many of all of these on the technical side, there are also many use cases emerging among the go-to-market workforce and for many companies there is a growing expectation for top candidates to have familiarity and experience with new artificial intelligence tools.
Hiring Pace Remains Slow for Security Startups
Between all of the factors we have already discussed in this blog, it will probably come as no surprise that cybersecurity startups are recruiting for sales and marketing jobs at a fairly slow pace. We have seen an average interview to placement rate of around 5%, however, hiring is fairly lopsided between each firm in terms of volume, with only a handful of growing companies recruiting in greater numbers.
Cloud Security Sees Slight Recruiting Jump
One area where we are seeing a slight uptick in talent acquisition is in cloud security solutions, particularly those that help with digital access and privacy concerns. As businesses continue to migrate to more cloud-based infrastructures, this also creates a need for specialized cybersecurity solutions to manage all of the interconnected SaaS platforms and data being exchanged between them. This is also creating more opportunity for technical sellers with an understanding of cloud-native infrastructure and security requirements with these types of startups.
Refine Your Recruiting for Cybersecurity Sales & Marketing Unicorns
Navigating the intricacies of cybersecurity sales hiring in 2024 means understanding the evolving landscape and identifying the ideal fit for your unique sales strategy. With Betts Recruiting, you gain access to not only our toolsets like our modern hiring platform, Betts Connect, and its extensive network of pre-qualified candidates but a partner that knows the market inside out and has a proven track record of helping security firms scale efficiently and effectively.
Connect with Betts here and let us help you assemble a sales team that drives your cybersecurity solutions forward.