CBA tech jobs to soar on massive public cloud overhaul: Comyn

Australian tech recruiters and IT contractors – the coalition of the billing – can rejoice.

Despite anaemic economic and salary growth, a push to cull 25 percent of applications and move the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s to almost ubiquitous use of public will create rather than kill IT jobs, says the CEO of Australia’s largest institution Matt Comyn.

It’s a sure sign of a bullish IT jobs market from arguably the nation’s biggest tech employer.

Former ANZ CEO Mike Smith used to jibe his bank was a tech company masquerading as a bank; Comyn has dispensed with that artifice, and he's at the top of the stack.

The CBA on Wednesday revealed a major revamp of its tech stack, saying it will move to 95 percent public cloud off a current base of 25 percent.

“Some of the steps that I outlined, as part of what we consider to be critical to a broader tech transformation – reducing the number of applications but importantly just simplifying the technology landscape [is] a big migration to public cloud,” Comyn told iTnews.

“We'd like to re-engineer some of the applications [and make them] more modular, make sure they're accessible by API's etc.

“I mean if anything that's going to obviously require investment, they're not simple undertakings so it's more likely to be a growth in IT jobs rather than a reduction”

That’s great news for IT folk seeking pay rises, but even better for recruiters, but less so for hirers who need to shell out.

“Obviously a contribution to our investments … IT is a significant proportion of both investment as well as operating costs. Today, and some elements of that, like run costs compute costs we'd like to come down over time but if anything, IT costs [will be] a lot to be more significant proportion of our total costs going forward,” Comyn said.

But there are headwinds for the Australia's biggest bank.

Its three nearest peers are also in the throes of major tech transformations, with the federal and state governments also in the middle of big overhauls.

Despite a manifest IT skills shortage, the once popular 457 skilled temporary migrant program has been axed, exacerbating an already chronic shortfall.