As the government of Newfoundland and Labrador reflects on what the province’s murky economic future holds, there’s a sector that believes it can do a lot of good in the years ahead, simply by reaching out to markets beyond its shores.
“Our companies here are born global,” explained Paul Preston, CEO of the newly rebranded TechNL, an organization dedicated to advancing the provincial technology sector. “From the time they’re born, they are thinking about selling to the world ... We have a group of companies that have been successful and that can operate as mentors to younger companies.
"It’s almost like 20-30 years of focused effort to support early-stage companies, some have grown and now you’re getting that second cycle through. That support and born-global attitude, creativity and culture we have here is starting to return to us in spades.”
“The challenge here is we have a lot of growth, and a lot of companies are doing extremely well and we have a limited population here. It's putting a real squeeze on availability of talent to our companies. Verafin is hiring almost full groups that come out of Memorial University. Other tech companies that are growing quickly are hiring students out of the College of the North Atlantic and private colleges.” — Paul Preston
As a result, companies in the provincial tech sector are growing, expanding and expecting that growth to continue in the years ahead.
Verafin, a software company specializing in fraud detection for banks, existed as a small operation based out of Memorial University’s Genesis Centre less than 20 years ago. It now employs 500 staff and has a new office building in the east end of St. John’s.
Genoa Design in Mount Pearl, a subcontractor for the National Shipbuilding Strategy, has grown from 20 employees to 220 in eight years.
There are now 6,500 jobs in the provincial tech sector, with the average salary falling just shy of $72,000 and starting salaries hovering around $48,000. TechNL recently surveyed its members about their future plans and found 92 per cent plan on expanding, with 75 per cent of those companies expecting to hire more people in new positions. TechNL itself predicts there’ll be 2,000 new jobs created through the sector within the next three-to-five years.
Talent gap
The only trouble with so much interest out there in hiring more people, according to Preston, is that a noticeable talent gap exists. And it’s not just an issue in Newfoundland and Labrador.
“With the kinds of languages you use to do programming, everything is continuing to change. There’s a talent gap worldwide,” he said. “The challenge here is we have a lot of growth, and a lot of companies are doing extremely well and we have a limited population here. What’s happening is it’s putting a real squeeze on availability of talent to our companies. Verafin is hiring almost full groups that come out of Memorial University. Other tech companies that are growing quickly are hiring students out of the College of the North Atlantic and private colleges.”
Technical skills tied to coding, software development and data analytics are in demand, as are non-technical skills associated with the business side of operations — business analysts and marketing and sales knowledge.
Demand for technical skills is considerable elsewhere in Atlantic Canada. A search of the term “software developer” on the website indeed.com produces over 160 job postings specific to Nova Scotia and 27 for Prince Edward Island.
Mysa’s growth
Mysa, a green-tech company specializing in smart thermostats, is among the younger group of growing companies in St. John’s.
Since 2016, it has grown from a two-person operation to a business that’s been able to consistently attract capital investment. It initially occupied a single floor in the Paramount Building on Harvey Road but eventually grew enough to require three floors. Mysa now employs 76 people, with one-third of those positions new in 2020. Company co-founder and CEO Josh Green expects Mysa will breach the 100-employee mark by the end of 2021. Those new positions will split pretty evenly between software and product development and the business side of Mysa’s operations.
“That’s kind of a slow growth, scaled back, to be honest,” Green said. “Beyond that, we see further growth. The growth in this industry is going to be tremendous in the next couple of years.”
While Mysa does consistently attract high-quality candidates for about 80 per cent of the roles it looks to fill, Green has noticed there are some software development specialties that have been harder to address. To deal with this, the company has targeted go-getters who can then be matched with competent and experienced mentors across Canada and the United States in order to learn from them.
“That’s a model we’ve applied over the last two years and had a lot of great success with to fill skills gaps,” he said, adding it’s a model other companies should consider mirroring.
Sequence bio
Maddie Coombes is a human resource manager for Sequence Bio, a data-driven biotechnology company in St. John’s using the province’s unique genetic makeup as a resource to produce better and safer medicines for disease treatment. Founded in 2013, it currently employs 30 staff. When she started working for the company four years ago, there were only about 10 employees.
“When we think about data analytics, bioinformatics — we don’t see a lot of that in the province,” she said when asked about the talent gap in the tech sector. “We actually are the first company of our nature in Newfoundland and Labrador as well, so getting people in critical roles as we develop our needs or gaps analysis I think is going to be quite interesting.”
Coombes reckons there are a handful of companies in the province who really hone in on local tech talent and find themselves in competition with each other when it comes to providing the right incentives to attract the best and brightest. Sequence Bio does work to make inroads in that regard through work-term experiences.
“We want to ensure we’re developing a co-op opportunity for someone that actually gives them the ability to learn and get a good experience,” she said. “Mentorship is a big part of that. We’re a small and nimble team, but when we create these positions and bring people on, we understand the importance of them and what that looks like for giving them the experience, but also how they take that back to their university … how they build upon their career.”
Educational awareness
A surefire way to address the talent gap is through the K-12 school system. Preston admits there could be more awareness there of the huge opportunities existing in the technology sector.
“They think they’re going to graduate and there’s going to be no jobs and they’ll have to leave the province,” Preston said. “We have amazing companies here that are hiring, that are looking for people.”
Brilliant Labs, a not-for-profit based in all four Atlantic provinces, has exposed thousands of students in Newfoundland and Labrador to robotics and coding. TechNL is developing its own awareness campaign to reach high school students, and Preston said there’s also a strong desire within the industry to address the gender gap. According to TechNL’s numbers, only 23 per cent of the sector’s workforce is female.
At the next level of education, Preston credits Keyin College, a private college, for “punching above its weight.” The college has a new software development program attracting recent high school grads and even people in their 40s looking to retrain. The College of the North Atlantic also has its own new software development program. Preston added there are ongoing discussions happening with Memorial University about getting more graduates who can help their sector grow.
Progressive industry
Green, too, sees a need for greater awareness to promote the sector. Beyond its position as a growing sector, he considers tech a good fit for people who are interested in progressive work cultures.
“One thing that’s probably strange to a lot of people is the level of flexibility that you can get from a job and career in the tech sphere,” Green said. “Having to deal with children, having to deal with family issues, I think the flexibility is so important and I think the tech sector really embraces that.
“The second thing I think the tech sector is all about is we’re really trying to solve meaningful social issues, whether it be climate change, whether it be large health advances. There’s just so many large social causes that I think people are yearning to put their talents towards something meaningful.”
Coombes agrees.
“Having the ability to have meaningful impact in a job I think is super important for people, and something I’ve noticed throughout interviews lately and specifically with new grads,” she said. “They’re all looking to give something back.”
Economic future
Looking more to the immediate future, the sector is also making sure its voice is heard within the new Economic Recovery Task Force Premier Andrew Furey recently established. Preston met with the task force earlier this month.
“They are engaging and they want to understand our sector, because we have a lot of growth and we have a lot of jobs,” he said, noting the export dollars the sector brings to the province is noteworthy given the current economic climate. “There’s an opportunity to really grow our sector.”
Likewise, Coombes sees big potential for the sector when it comes to helping the province’s economy.
“The tech sector is going to be a big part of our economic growth,” she said. “I just think there’s so much opportunity here. Not just within building organizations and getting the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) industry more diverse, but just the opportunities that are there as well. There’s some great companies locally that are doing great things, and really, they’re all tech startups.”
Andrew Robinson is a business reporter in St. John’s.
