Indian tech firms expand upskilling, talent hunt for Rust programming

Currently, almost 2.8 million coders are writing in the Rust programming language

Technology companies in India – from large IT services firms to Web3 startups – have all geared up to inch ahead in the talent hunt for Rust, a relatively new but perhaps the most popular programming language of the current time. Rust's rise is also related to the advancement in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Rust is preferred for AI and ML tasks as it provides developers with safe and efficient language.

What started as a side project of Graydon Hoare in 2006, a computer programmer at web browser company Mozilla at that time, Rust has turned up as the most likely contender for solving the problems of widely used coding languages like C and C++. First introduced in 2015, the open-source language quickly spread across the developers’ communities bringing in performance, concurrency, reliability, and a supportive community.

Currently, some 2.8 million coders are writing in Rust, and companies including the tech giants like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta have adopted the language. The language is helping in advanced applications like browsers, operating systems, and gaming engines that demand scalability. What works in the case of Rust is that its compiled language codes are directly translated to machine code.

Data from tech hiring platforms show a big uptick in demand for techies skilled in Rust programming in India in the last year.  Employment platform Foundit (previously Monster APAC & ME) has seen 59 per cent growth in the number of available jobs for Rust developers over the last year.

“The adoption of Rust by companies and open-source projects has been on the rise, which has led to an expansion in job opportunities for Rust developers. Rust's design and performance characteristics make it well-suited for specific use cases such as systems programming, embedded systems, networking, Blockchain, and game development. Employers in these domains are attracted to Rust due to its ability to provide low-level control, high performance, and memory safety,” said Sekhar Garisa, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Foundit.

The average annual compensation for developers with more than 2 years of experience stands at around Rs 8 lakh, while developers with an experience of more than five years could get Rs 18 lakh per annum.

As per a survey by the Rust community, server-side (backend) projects are the primary technology domain for the language. Cloud computing infrastructure and applications are other big areas for Rust-based applications, while distributed applications are also a popular choice among the Rust community. It also seamlessly integrates with other programming languages in codebases, making it an excellent choice for mixed-language projects, experts say.

“We have tested it in-house and started moving a lot of our C code to Rust. I am sure that in future we will see Rust being used by a lot of companies, especially when it comes to security because that makes programs safer and as efficient as C. We have seen its benefits both in efficiency and memory management. It has got a very different concept on memory management,” said Sonit Jain, the CEO of GajShield Infotech, the provider of Data Security Firewall solutions.

Jain emphasises that Rust was easy to learn, efficient and also manages to remove loopholes in C programming language in terms of software vulnerabilities. As per Microsoft’s estimates, 70 per cent of the vulnerabilities in its code are due to memory errors from code written in these languages.

However, experts stress on greater focus on skilling for Rust programming to address the growing demand in the new domain.

“Engineering colleges and universities should pick up such languages at a very early stage and introduce them to the students. They seem to be lagging. Including it in academics will not only teach a new programming language, but it’s the new programming concepts that need to be taught to the engineers,” Jain said.

Krishna Vij, Business Head, of IT staffing, at Teamlease Digital said, “There is a shortage of skilled Rust developers in India. To meet the demand, companies are upskilling C/C++ developers for Rust. However, the fast-growing Rust community in India provides support and expertise, especially in embedded systems and IoT applications.”

The tech staffing firm has witnessed the demand for Rust developers going up 22 per cent since 2022.

“Recognising the talent shortage in this area, companies are actively implementing strategies to bridge the gap. These strategies include investing in upskilling and training programs, both internally and externally, as well as collaborating with Rust communities to foster knowledge exchange and engagement. Such strategies help companies to acquire and develop the necessary Rust expertise within their workforce to meet the demand and effectively execute Rust-related projects,” Vij said.