Hardest HIT Roles to Fill Right Now

Tony Catalano August 18, 2025 Reading Time: < 3 minutes

Healthcare staffing shortages are common knowledge nowadays, having hogged the headlines since the darkest days of the pandemic. But what’s often overlooked is how talent shortfalls extend beyond clinical and bedside roles to healthcare information technology (HIT). As AI, dramatic tech breakthroughs, and fluid regulatory demands reshape HIT even quicker than the pandemic, healthcare tech leaders face one of the most challenging hiring environments ever — especially when it comes to the hardest HIT roles to fill.

Across the board, specialized roles that require technical skills plus healthcare experience are harder and harder to fill. That won’t change anytime soon as the global healthcare IT market size grows 15.8%¹ each year through 2030, dramatically increasing the competition for HIT talent. What are the hardest HIT roles to fill now? Here’s what the data says.

Cybersecurity Analysts and Engineers

Hackers are getting smarter and compliance mandates are getting tougher. That’s why demand for cybersecurity professionals is off the charts. Unfortunately for healthcare leaders, competing industries typically can offer higher salaries to cybersecurity talent, enabling them to secure the top candidates.

Job outlook (2023-2033): Projected to grow 33%, much faster than the average for all occupations, with approximately 17,300 openings annually.²
Number of jobs (2023): 180,700²
Median salary (May 2024): $124,910 per year²
Time to fill: A significant challenge, with 48%³ of companies reporting it takes over six months to fill cybersecurity positions, according to a Kaspersky survey.
Risk: Without these experts, healthcare systems and sensitive patient data remain exposed to breaches, leading to severe financial penalties, reputational damage, and compromised patient trust.

EHR/Clinical Application Analysts and Trainers

Electronic health records (EHR) systems are ubiquitous in modern healthcare — more than 96% of non-federal acute care hospitals and more than 78% of office-based physicians use them.⁴ Those numbers are still climbing as the EHR market grows at an expected 2.5% clip through 2030.⁵ That makes the professionals who implement, optimize, and train staff on these systems indispensable — and among the hardest HIT roles to fill. They require a unique blend of deep technical knowledge, especially in EHR platforms like Epic, and critical clinical workflow insight.

Job outlook (related health information technologists, 2023-2033): Projected to grow 16%, much faster than average.⁶ The broader EHR market is expected to grow from $29.68 billion in 2023 to $46.63 billion by 2032, fueling demand.
Number of jobs (2023, health information technologists): 39,1006
Median salary (July 2025, EHR clinical analyst): $82,791 per year⁷
Time to fill: The complexity of EHR systems and the need for specialized certifications and clinical experience often lead to extended recruitment cycles. Anecdotal evidence suggests it can take 1 to 2 years for an analyst to become truly proficient and comfortable in the role, indicating a long ramp-up period for new hires.
Risk: Without proficient analysts and trainers, user frustration mounts, EHR adoption rates decline, and clinical inefficiencies linger, negatively impacting patient care and staff morale.

Data Warehouse/Business Intelligence (BI) Developers

Healthcare organizations are overflowing with data, but only the right talent with the specialized skills can transform that raw info into actionable insights. Say hello to data warehouse and BI developers. They’re whom you need to consolidate disparate clinical and financial systems into intuitive, actionable dashboards that drive informed decision-making.

Job outlook (healthcare analytics market): The sky’s the limit here as the global healthcare analytics market, which encompasses data warehousing and BI, is projected to reach $167 billion by the end of 2030, growing at an annual rate of 21.1%.⁸
Salary (healthcare BI analyst): Between $91,000 to $128,000 annually, with top earners reaching $150,000.⁹
Time to fill: While hard to pin down, the unique blend of Extract, Transform, Load tools, data modeling, and healthcare data standards (HL7, FHIR) knowledge make these roles highly specialized and competitive, likely resulting in much longer recruitment periods.
Risk: Without these experts, decision-making slows, valuable insights from patient data are missed, and the ability to leverage data for value-based care initiatives stalls.

Integration and Interoperability Specialists

Healthcare is increasingly becoming one interconnected ecosystem with many species of software, clinical applications, and other systems occupying the same space. Integration and interoperability specialists are the digital caretakers that ensure these diverse systems can “talk” to one another effectively. With the rise of telehealth, remote monitoring, and connected devices, they are hot commodities since they have expertise in standards like HL7 and FHIR and various interface engines.

Demand: An ever-increasing need for seamless patient data sharing is pushing demand for these roles higher and higher. Today, 75% of healthcare executives view data interoperability as a top priority, with over 50% of health systems planning to increase spending on interoperability solutions by 5% to 20%, according to SovDoc.10
Salary (specialist, interoperability): Typical offers range from $95,000 to $161,000,¹¹ with a median salary of $123,000.¹¹
Time to fill: The specialized nature of these roles, combined with the urgent need for seamless data exchange driven by new regulations and care models, produces stiff competition and extended hiring timelines.
Risk: Persistent data silos compromise patient care coordination, hinder efficient information exchange between providers, and ultimately impact patient safety and outcomes.

HIT Project/Program Managers

Large-scale HIT initiatives — from EHR implementations and data migrations to system consolidations — require meticulous planning and execution. HIT project/program managers are the architects, needing not only standard project management certifications, like PMP, but also a deep understanding of healthcare’s unique regulatory environment and intricate clinical workflow nuances.

Job outlook (related field: medical and health services managers, 2023-2033): Projected to grow 29% each year¹², much faster than average, driven by the increasing volume of health information and the need to integrate EHRs.
Number of jobs: 562,700¹²
Salary (HIT project manager): Around $110,000 to $130,000, with some roles and locations reaching as high as $188,000.¹³
Time to fill: While the median time to hire for general healthcare provider roles is around 59.5 days, the specialized requirements for HIT project managers — combining technical acumen with healthcare-specific regulatory and workflow knowledge — can extend this significantly.¹⁴
Risk: Without experienced HIT project/program managers, critical projects risk missing timelines, exceeding budgets, and failing to deliver intended value, impacting strategic organizational goals.

Cloud/Infrastructure Architects

As more and more health systems migrate their operations and data to the cloud, the need for cloud and infrastructure architects has hit the stratosphere. These specialists are highly skilled in a rare combination of cloud expertise, robust security knowledge, and an understanding of legacy healthcare systems.

Job outlook (healthcare cloud infrastructure): The soaring global healthcare cloud infrastructure market is expected to expand 16.66%¹⁵ each year from 2025 to 2030, indicating a strong underlying demand for these skills.
Salary (cloud architect in healthcare): $178,000 to $253,000¹⁶
Time to fill: The high demand for healthcare cloud migration expertise, combined with the need for hybrid security and legacy system knowledge, makes these roles highly competitive and difficult to fill quickly.
Risk: Without the right architects, cloud migration projects can stall indefinitely or, worse, create critical compliance gaps and security vulnerabilities, leading to massive operational disruption and potential data breaches.

Hire Hard-to-Find Talent With Ease — Partner With Medix Technology

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