Korean IT firms prefer engineers with business capabilities

More South Korean information technology companies are seeking engineers with business capabilities as artificial intelligence is expected to take over development tasks.

Danggeun Market Inc., South Korea’s largest online flea market service provider, promoted a developer to lead its job-matching service, one of its core new growth businesses, according to industry sources on Sunday.

“We need someone who can prioritize business factors in a conflict between technical and business issues,” said an official at Danggeun, which operates its business under the Karrot app in overseas markets.

“Developers with entrepreneurial perspectives on products are a good fit for our company,” added the official of the SoftBank-backed unicorn.

Fast-growing AI technologies are predicted to eliminate jobs for engineers without business capabilities or unique development skills.

About 84% of developers expected generative AI to replace some of their tasks, according to a report by Wanted Lab Inc., a local referral-based recruiting platform.

PRACTICAL PERFORMANCE

IT companies, which had looked for engineers only with new technology capabilities, preferred developers who could make an impact on their businesses.

“Important factors in the development sector are different now given the harsh investment environment,” said a tech industry source. “Companies are searching for talent who can quickly solve problems and can perform practically.”

Viva Republica Inc., the operator of South Korea’s fintech platform Toss, appointed several developers as product owners, who are thus responsible for the outcomes of projects.

Those developers actively came up with service plan ideas and led their entire projects.

“Those engineers changed their roles, realizing new interests and feeling a sense of accomplishment while working on new projects,” said an official at the unicorn, which is backed by US-based venture capital firms Goodwater Capital and Altos Ventures Management Inc.

Ably Corp., the operator of the fashion shopping app Ably, sent its delivery service developers to its fulfillment center in Seoul several times.

The visits allowed those engineers to better understand the site and streamline product demand forecasting and inventory management systems.

Write to Eun-Yi Ko at koko@hankyung.com
 

Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.