The retail industry relies on a vast number of technologists to operate at peak efficiency. Data scientists and analysts crunch through massive amounts of sales data for insights; software developers and engineers build retail companies’ apps and virtual storefronts; and armies of cybersecurity experts and network engineers keep internal tech stacks safe from attack.

Over the past several years, technologists have also helped drive broader shifts within the retail space. More companies are turning to the cloud and mobile to sell goods; even the smallest mom-and-pop shops need e-commerce tools and web-based stores, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic and its immediate aftermath. With that in mind, let’s look at which retail companies are hiring technologists; for the purposes of this exercise, we turn to Burning Glass, which collects and analyzes job posting data from across the country: 

You may take issue with some of the companies on this list. For example, Amazon is certainly a retail company—but it also employs technologists to work on non-retail projects, such as AWS. Apple also has a huge retail presence, but it’s primarily a tech company. Those nuances aside, this chart should emphasize that retailers of all sizes and types need technologists, from grocery stores to shoe companies. That’s good news if retail is an industry that interests you.

And which tech skills are those retailers looking for? Burning Glass can provide us with an answer on that front, too:

As with other industries, many jobs request specialized knowledge (in retail’s case, customer service, merchandising, and retail-industry knowledge pop up frequently in job postings), but many of the most-demanded tech skills are also pretty common, including Java, SQL, and Python. That’s also good news for any technologist looking to break into the retail industry—chances are high you won’t need to learn anything specialized and obscure to at least get your foot in the proverbial door.