![Additive Manufacturing job roles available at companies exhibiting at RAPID + TCT 2019 [Source: i-AMdigital]](https://fabbaloo.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/image-asset_img_5eb097b16d0b9.jpg)
A new report suggests there are an incredible number of additive manufacturing jobs available at companies exhibiting at next week’s RAPID + TCT event.
The annual event, this year held in Detroit, is North America’s largest exhibition of 3D print technologies. There are somewhere north of 430 companies exhibiting at this year’s show, representing all areas of 3D printing, including printers, materials, services, accessories, and more.
An interesting analysis of these exhibitors has been done by i-AMdigital, a career platform specializing in the additive manufacturing industry. Unlike the more general job platforms such as Indeed, i-AMdigital publishes only in 3D printing and additive manufacturing roles. They also provide training courses, informative articles and links to prominent additive manufacturing organizations.
But what we’re specifically interested in today is a report they’ve recently published about the vendors of RAPID + TCT 2019. They apparently took the exhibitor list and reviewed all their online data to determine what kind of and how many jobs were posted for these companies. The results are quite interesting.
It’s our understanding that the event includes something more than 430 exhibitors, so keep that in mind when reviewing these statistics.
i-AMdigital identified that 2,088 positions have been posted by 163 of these companies. That’s very significant. The largest number of them relate to production & operation roles, and another 21% for engineering:
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Production & Operation 28.6%
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R&D & Engineering 21.2%
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Sales & Marketing 20.4%
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Software 11.7%
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Service 8.5%
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Design 2.8%
There seems to be a heavy emphasis on hardware-type skills for some reason. Perhaps this represents the competitive factor, where companies are continually attempting to outdo each other in product development.
The report digs into the top companies recruiting in each of these areas. There are some very interesting findings:
HP, Materialise and Formlabs are hiring the most sales & marketing roles, suggesting they are into serious expansion mode. This makes much sense for HP, as they are likely leveraging their global network and beefing it up with skilled staff.
Stratasys is recruiting more than twice the number of production & operations staff of any other company with vacancies in this area. This could suggest they are expecting rapid growth in their services operation.
GE Additive is hiring a very significant number of roles related to design and engineering, far more than all other companies. I take this to mean they are likely attempting to discover radically new 3D designs for use in aerospace and other industries. Aerospace in particular has been “turned on” to 3D printing, but likely has a staggering number of parts that could potentially be transformed into more efficient 3D printed versions.
Formlabs is also hiring a significant portion of the R&D roles, and I’m not quite sure why. It could be they need more assistance to help finish off their upcoming SLS line of 3D printers, or it might indicate they have something entirely new cooking in the labs.
A surprise appearance in many of the categories is Xerox, who currently do not offer 3D printing. They have announced a roadmap to enter the space, but here it seems they are recruiting a large number of roles in different categories to flesh out their team. This suggests they may have some significant announcements to come in future months.
It’s an interesting report that helps us gauge the 3D printing market, but also very useful for those wishing to enter the space. There are plenty of jobs!
Via i-AMdigital
