Mexico Telecoms Recruitment Insight 2023

August 2023: Mexican Telecoms Market Poised for Robust Growth, with 5G and IoT at the Forefront

The Mexican Telecoms market is on the brink of an impressive growth. According to Mordor Intelligence, projections spotlight a growth trajectory of approximately 6.5% over the next 5 years. Compared to other countries across LATAM, Mexico is anticipated to be among the frontrunners in commercializing 5G networks, with the highest projected adoption rates by 2025. The nation isn't just placing its bets on 5G; it's also championing the Internet of Things (IoT) revolution. Mexico has taken the lead in deploying IoT networks and was the pioneering nation in Latin America to establish an AI strategy. Mexico is also experiencing rapid urbanization and a surge in internet penetration, further propelling the cybersecurity sector.

According to a report by Nearshore America, seven out of ten Mexicans utilize the Internet. Based on the most recent data provided by the regulatory body IFT and the statistics organization Inegi as of September 2021, there were 23.5 million fixed internet connections in Mexico, with 67% of households having access.

As confirmed by the President in August 2022, Mexico is considering an expenditure of around BBD 30 billion (USD 1.50 billion) to enhance internet access, particularly in rural areas, due to the high demand for internet penetration in the country. Given these factors, it's evident that various vendors, integrators, and service providers are eager to participate in this landscape. Consequently, key roles within the Telecom industry include: Network Security Engineer, Technical Sales, Solution Architecture, Account Management, Business Development and various roles around Cloud / IoT.

From speaking with my clients, here are the current three most in-demand jobs in Mexico and their responsibilities:

Business Developer Mexico / Account Manager

• Develop commercial plans and strategies for Telecom solutions Develop Sales activities in the relevant region to achieve annual growth
• Acquire new customers while maximizing the business potential of the Installed Based
• Extensive and proven sales and leadership experience in the LATAM region
• Strong experience in selling telecom solutions at the highest levels
• Provide proposals, quotations, and pricing to partners.
• Identify new customers, co-develop new segments

NW engineer / Network Security engineer

• Deploy network solutions into our production network which involves working with in country heads to agree on a change window slot, raising a change,
• Design system configurations and connectivity for Cisco and Fortinet hardware, direct system installation, document installation, and enforce system standards.
• Develop and implement network security policies and procedures
• Design and implement campus and datacenter segmentation policies, Design and implement network security standards and access controls
• Design, configure, deploy, monitor, and troubleshoot production network infrastructure and associated services
• Maintain a thorough understanding of current Wi-Fi technologies
• Design, engineer, and support all aspects of corporate and global firewalls, cloud security, and VPN configurations, both internal and customer-facing.

Cloud / IoT

• Leading Cloud and/or IoT platforms on cloud-native, distributed architectural solutions in complex environments.
• Software development, design, implementation, or consulting experience in industrial and/or manufacturing applications.
• Strong technical ability, willingness to learn and evolve your skills with advances in technology.
• Experience with DevOps and Agile methodologies.
• Cloud· AWS/Azure certifications
• CI/CD methodology, processes, and automation
• Cloud computing models and design patterns, including: Serverless concepts, platform as a service, Kubernetes (services and cluster management), Infrastructure as a service
• Understand and develop end-to-end solution architecture for IoT based business solutions spanning devices, gateways, connectivity, cloud, apps, integration, analytics, and security layers, addressing functional and non-functional aspects.

November 2022: Telecoms Recruitment in Mexico in 2023

The value of the telecoms market in Mexico

The Latin America (LATAM) telecommunications market is currently worth $81 billion USD (according to Statista), up from $78.82 billion in 2020. Of this, Mexico is the second largest telecoms market in LATAM at $26 billion USD, preceded by Brazil. And with companies such as America Movil making upwards of 855.5 billion pesos ($44.3 billion USD) and Grupo Televisa making 103 billion pesos ($5.3 billion USD), we think it’s safe to say that the Mexican telecommunications market in 2023 is going to be a great year for recruitment.

Telecoms Recruitment in Mexico in 2022

We recently attended Mexico Connect – an event that brought together business leaders to discuss emerging telecoms and tech advancements and the deployments of new systems and software. In addition to meeting familiar faces from his vast technology and telecoms network, Luz spoke with industry leaders to get their opinions and predictions on recruitment within tech and telecoms for 2023, and what impact this may have on the overall telecommunications market in Mexico. There was one standout topic of conversation at the event – an ambitious project that’s being developed to connect Miami and Veracruz via a cable under the sea that will also connect Queretaro to Mexico City. Luz commented: “This will help Mexico immensely and in the near future Central and South America will have the capacity for faster communication. Naturally, there will be a surge in recruitment to get telecom experts to bring this plan to life. Very exciting times!”

With speakers from Neutral Networks, Gold Data, AT&T Mexico and Oracle, one panel focussed on how Mexico is emerging as a digital & Wholesale hub. This discussion was essentially about how Mexico has evolved and overcome infrastructure challenges to have many Data Centres open in Queretaro, how this is helping the country to be attractive to foreign investment and what other cities could follow the same path and attract investors to have new Data Centre cities. Also, the necessity to keep growing the capacity of internet connectivity in many cities will benefit companies, the government and the entire population! Luz commented: “The current focus in Mexico is data centres and automations. This is a market that we can venture into a lot more. It’s exciting to see the investments being made into new and existing businesses in Mexico and how the investments allow us and other companies to grow.” It’s clear that the impact investments are having is going to benefit data centres, nearshoring and telecom infrastructures. This will allow room for growth and development in these areas and with Mexico’s geographic position being an advantage to companies wanting to expand into South America.

The outlook of recruitment activity in 2023

2023 looks to be the year for new projects which will increase the demand for telecoms engineers with specific skills to lead and execute roles. It was clear from the discussions throughout the event that companies will be focused on recruiting candidates to help implement new projects in the industry. Luz commented: “Mexico is in a good position with the growth set to continue throughout 2023, and recruitment activity not slowing down. Mexico has a very good position which is to become a bridge for telecom companies to expand to Central and South America, meaning there are many plans to open an office in Mexico.”

Overall, it’s apparent that 2023 will be a growth year for Mexico with recruitment activity looking busy and investments continuing to come in. We look forward to seeing the development businesses will have when adjusting to all the new changes and how that will impact the telecoms industry in Mexico.

July 2022: LATAM Marketing Update Q3 2022: The Cloud market keeps increasing in size

In January, I wrote my predictions for the telecommunications recruitment market in LATAM along with three of the hottest telecommunications jobs. I followed this with an article highlighting how the grow of 5G deployment was dominate across LATAM (specifically in Chile). Alongside this, there has been a huge increase in the number of jobs in Cloud across all of Latin America. According to a recent market update, the Latin America Cloud Storage Services market will be worth $145bn by 2026. This is a huge increase in size given that it was valued at $2.4 billion in 2021.An increase in jobs in CloudAs per the above report, “the impact of global lockdowns, business continuity changes and growing trends at home, COVID-19 forced organizations to move to cloud environments”. With the increase in demand for Cloud, we have seen this translate into a more jobs in Cloud being recruited for across Latin America.

A report by Ken Research, produced a six-year forecast in 2018. In this report, it stated that within “Telecom & IT sector huge amount of data is generated, owing to this, the sector has emerged as the largest adopter of cloud computing and accounted for a major share in the region and is expected to maintain its dominance during the forecasted period.” That was before the pandemic expediated the need for Cloud astronomically.  Of all the Latin American countries, Brazil leads the way with the largest need for cloud solutions, followed by Argentine, Chile.

Three of the hottest jobs in Cloud in Latin America and their key responsibilities:

Network Engineer

• Deployment of Cloud Projects implementation and integration of the products
• Testing of laboratory environment for new solutions
• Provide internal support and preparation of documentation

Cloud Integration Engineer

• Implement, install, configure, integrate the elements of the solution to be deployed
• Preparation and updating of the documentation concerning the infrastructure of the project
• Survey requirements and interaction with businesses on issues of dependency and particular needs

Semi-Senior Cloud Product Developer

• Researching and integrating open-source software components
• Writing code to improve an open-source tools

April 2022: 5G continues to be the growth area for LATAM’s telco market

In January 2022, I wrote my predictions for the LATAM telecoms market for the year and what the three hottest telecommunication jobs in Mexico will be. Within this article, I’ve predicted 5G would be the biggest growth area within Mexico’s telecoms market, as well as the wider LATAM market. Now that we’re into Q2 of 2022, I wanted to briefly write about where else within LATAM we are seeing the 5G market grow. 

A recent report by Analysis Mason, states that “the Latin American telecoms sector performed well in 2020 and 2021 because the COVID-19 pandemic boosted demand for fixed and mobile services. Operator revenue will continue to grow in the next few years, driven by strong performances in the mobile, fixed broadband, and ICT sectors.” Right now, the biggest area of activity within LATAM’s telecommunication industry is the 5G rollout in Chile. According to a GSMA report, 5G will represent 12% of total connections across LATAM by 2025. In February 2022, Chile completed a tender to allocate 5G spectrum in Latin America and since then Chilean mobile operators Entel, Movistar, and Wow have started to activate 5G networks in the country. A recent article by America Digital News states that the deployment of 5G will require 9,000 new base stations! The article goes on to highlight that 67% will be in the provinces and the remaining 33% in the metropolitan area of ​​the capital Santiago. This is great news for those in the capital city, and what is even more positive is that 366 localities in Chile will benefit from high-speed mobile Internet for the first time ever! And all public hospitals in Chile will be covered by the new 5G network. 

So how will this increase in telecommunications activity affect recruitment? The Chilean government estimates that the deployment of 5G will generate around 68,000 new jobs in the first stage, while the deployment of base stations throughout Chile will generate between 2,500 and 3,000 additional jobs. With all this activity it’s great to read that “through the 5G Public Contests, the Ministry of Transport & Telecommunications (MTT) through the Undersecretary of Telecommunications (SUBTEL) demanded that the winning telecommunications companies provide coverage of at least 90% of the population's territory, bringing technology closer to different corners of the country.” 

For the foreseeable future, it looks like 5G will be the major factor in influencing the telecommunications market across LATAM, especially for the whole of this year and 2023. It’s great to see the telecommunications market in LATAM doing so well.