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As the largest city in the U.S. Southeast, Jacksonville’s economy is boosted from many different directions. Its natural deepwater port fosters a busy trade of imports and exports, making it ideal for naval activity and home to three naval facilities. Additionally, Jacksonville’s location at the Northerneastern part of Florida’s coast makes it the gateway to the rest of the state and also a popular tourist destination for beach-bound northerners. Golf tourism is also prominent in Jacksonville, with 22 golf courses spread throughout the city. With so many large-scale industries in the city, Jacksonville has a significant need for professionals who can facilitate technical logistics, quick communication, and data management.
A recent development highlighting the city of Jacksonville’s commitment to pushing tech boundaries is the establishment of The BayJax Innovation Corridor. The Innovation Corridor will cover three miles of downtown Jacksonville and will be a test-bed for new smart technologies that, one day, can be used throughout Florida cities to improve transportation, visitor experience, and safety. The initiative combines multiple projects like autonomous transit shuttles, ‘smart’ signals – street lights that use AI and sensor technologies, roadside touchscreen kiosks that can provide information to downtown visitors, and even ‘smart’ trash cans. You can read more about BayJax Innovation projects on the online hub.
Any large organization – whether it be a golf tournament organization, a naval base, or a shipping company – needs to fill tech roles like systems administrators, programmers, network architects, and data scientists. Organizations that especially lean into innovation may also be scouting for artificial intelligence specialists, UX designers, and app developers. Glassdoor listed 29,000 job openings in and near Jacksonville!
The Bureau of Labor Statistics collects data on jobs that are particularly popular in Jacksonville compared with other U.S. cities. These include information security analysts, computer support specialists, data entry keyers, hardware engineers, technical writers, and graphic designers.
Major employers in the area include CSX Transportation, FIS – a fintech firm, TIAA Bank, Fidelity National, Availity – a healthtech firm, Black Knight – an analytics firm, and LocatorX – a tech company that uses smart labels and Bluetooth tags to track physical items.
Looking to make your own way in the tech industry of Jacksonville? There are a number of startup incubators and accelerator programs designed to foster new business development. These include Elev8 Ventures, PS27 Ventures, and Think it Thru. The city has a great track-record for startups. A few major startup successes include Think One Thing – a digital marketing startup, ProfileGorilla – a vendor-management platform, and OnPay Solutions.
Salaries for tech employees are almost higher than local averages for other work. This advantage is part of what makes gaining new tech skills a good investment in yourself. Below, we’ve broken down the average salary for workers in Jacksonville in popular tech fields.
| Occupation | Average Salary |
|---|---|
| Information Security Analyst | $91,850 |
| Computer Support Specialist | $51,650 |
| Data Entry Keyer | $30,940 |
| Hardware Engineer | $81,950 |
| Technical Writer | $83,190 |
| Graphic Designer | $53,510 |
| Web Developer | $72,060 |
| Data Scientist | $79,550 |
