Cybersecurity Hiring in AU-NZ Jumps 43% as the AI Economy Splits Tech

Technology hiring across Australia and New Zealand is not shrinking. It is splitting — and the data from the last quarter shows exactly where each half lands.

New figures from recruiter-tech firm Pointer Strategy, reported by IT Brief New Zealand on 5 October, show cybersecurity vendors increased hiring across both countries even as much of enterprise software pulled back. Seven security vendors among the top 100 technology employers posted 180 unique job advertisements in the 90 days to 22 September, up 43% from the previous quarter. Check Point led with 42 roles, up 133%. Netskope rose 96%, Palo Alto Networks 61% and UpGuard 48%.

🔍 THE BOTTOM LINE: The AI economy is splitting the AU-NZ tech job market: security vendor hiring up 43%, the four big hyperscalers’ ads up 38%, and distributors like Dicker Data up 192% on AI-infrastructure demand — while enterprise software ads fell from 530 to 438, with SAP down 69% and Salesforce down 26%. Median disclosed tech pay sits at $120,000, about 15% above non-tech roles.

The split, in one dataset

Pointer’s index covered 10,346 unique go-to-market job advertisements from 2,650 technology companies. On one side: the markets tied to security, cloud infrastructure and AI. Cloud hyperscalers kept building commercial teams — Amazon and AWS posted 334 unique ads, up 45%, more than Microsoft, Google and CoStar combined, and the big four (AWS, Microsoft, Google, Oracle) advertised 571 roles, up 38%. On the other side, the 18 mainly US application-software companies in the top 100 saw ads fall from 530 to 438. SAP dropped 69%, Snowflake 53%, Databricks 44%, Salesforce 26%.

The interesting twist is that the losers are not obviously failing. Pointer’s founder and CEO Ricky Pearl pointed out SAP still reported higher cloud revenue and a bigger backlog in its latest results. His interpretation deserves a close read from anyone planning a tech career: enterprise software companies are “changing what skills they need rather than simply expanding headcount across traditional GTM functions.” Fewer ads does not have to mean fewer companies — it can mean the same companies now hiring for a different shape of role.

That distinction matters if you read hiring data as a career signal. A fall in a sector’s job ads reflects what companies are buying this quarter, not the sector’s health; a rise driven by AI budgets reflects where companies think the growth is. Both are true at once here.

The NZ column

New Zealand names appear on both sides of the ledger. Xero increased hiring by 21%, while Datacom advertised 57% fewer roles — IBM and NCS fell further, with services firms dragging the segment down 6% overall. Among Australia’s biggest advertisers, Airwallex fell 41%, Canva 27% and Atlassian 16%.

Two NZ-relevant details stand out. First, the strongest growth in the entire dataset came from distributors — Dicker Data up 192% and TechData 167% — which Pearl links directly to AI infrastructure projects: complex server, networking and storage deployments that increasingly involve multiple vendors. AI’s physical buildout is now creating channel and services jobs in this region, not just data-centre construction jobs in the northern hemisphere.

Second, pay. The median base midpoint for disclosed tech roles was $120,000, against $104,000 for comparable non-tech go-to-market roles. That 15% premium is local evidence of the global pattern in Indeed’s AI pay-premium data — skills adjacent to the AI and security buildout are commanding more, not less.

Why security is the durable edge case

Cybersecurity has been the tech job market’s counter-cyclical corner through most of the AI transition, and this quarter is no exception. Threat volume keeps rising — our coverage of the AI cybersecurity arms race has tracked AI-powered attacks forcing defensive hiring — and vendors are hiring sellers and engineers to meet demand that AI itself partly generates. For career-switchers, that loop is worth noticing: an industry whose growth is accelerated by the same technology that is disrupting everyone else’s headcount is a relatively sensible place to bring existing skills. Entry-level tech hiring is the contested ground right now, but the security and infrastructure side of the market is where demand keeps printing positive numbers.

None of this is a guarantee — hiring data is quarterly, vendor-driven and goes-to-market weighted — but the direction is consistent with global surveys showing security roles among the hardest gaps to fill. If you are choosing what to reskill into this summer, the AU-NZ numbers say security-adjacent and cloud/AI-adjacent are where the ads are growing.

❓ FAQ

Is cybersecurity hiring growing in Australia and New Zealand? Yes — 7 security vendors in Pointer Strategy’s top-100 tech employers posted 180 unique job ads in the 90 days to 22 September 2026, up 43% from the previous quarter, with Check Point up 133%, Netskope up 96% and Palo Alto Networks up 61%.

Which parts of tech are losing jobs in AU-NZ? Enterprise software go-to-market hiring fell: the 18 mainly US application-software companies’ ads dropped from 530 to 438 in the quarter, with SAP down 69%, Snowflake 53%, Databricks 44% and Salesforce 26%. Telco hiring also fell.

What do tech jobs pay in AU-NZ right now? The median base midpoint for disclosed technology-sector roles was $120,000, compared with $104,000 for non-technology go-to-market roles — roughly a 15% premium, per Pointer Strategy’s data.

Is Xero still hiring in New Zealand? Yes. Xero increased hiring by 21% in the quarter per the Pointer Strategy data, making it one of the few large AU-NZ-headquartered tech companies with positive hiring growth alongside distributor firms like Dicker Data.

🔍 THE BOTTOM LINE

One dataset, two tech economies: the AI-and-security side is hiring at a double-digit clip across Australia and New Zealand while traditional enterprise software catches its breath — and the skills you carry, not the sector you came from, decide which side of the split you land on. The $120,000 median on the growing side is the market posting its own opinion about where careers should aim.