Most mid-sized employers looking for data, AI or software people start in the same place: the biggest coastal cities. That is also where they compete with the best-funded employers in the market. If you are a 200-person manufacturer, distributor or services firm, that is a hard fight to win on salary alone.
There is a better question than "which city has the most tech workers?" It is "where can we hire, retain and support the people we need?"
Start with what the role actually needs
Before picking a location, sort the work into three groups.
- Roles that must be on site. Plant systems, automation support, ERP rollouts on the shop floor, anything tied to equipment.
- Roles that can be hybrid. Analysts, BI developers and finance systems people who need regular contact with the business.
- Roles that can be fully remote. Data engineering, software development, model work and much of cybersecurity.
Most employers treat all three the same and then wonder why the search drags. The location question only matters for the first two groups. For the third, the real question is time zone and pay band.
What makes a secondary city worth hiring in
A strong tech market is not only about size. These are the factors we see matter when an employer is deciding where to look:
- A university or college pipeline. Waterloo, Ottawa, Halifax, Raleigh and Pittsburgh all produce graduates in engineering and computing that larger markets absorb quickly.
- Cost of living. A salary that looks thin in Toronto or San Francisco can be a strong offer in Winnipeg, Kitchener, Columbus or Charlotte.
- Competing employers. If three large employers hire the same skill set in one city, your offer is compared against theirs. In a quieter market, you may be the best option.
- Industry fit. An analyst who has worked in logistics or food production will ramp faster for you than a generalist from a software company.
- Commuting and relocation reality. Candidates will move for a clear role. They rarely move for a vague one.
Look at both sides of the border
Canadian employers often overlook US-based remote talent, and US employers overlook Canadian talent. Both have reasons to look.
For US employers, Canadian candidates in the same time zones can be strong value, and the Canadian dollar helps on cost. Payroll, tax and benefits still need to be set up properly, so a contract arrangement is often the first step.
For Canadian employers, the US has a deeper pool in some specialties, particularly machine learning and cloud infrastructure. But US pay expectations can run well above Canadian bands. Decide in advance whether you will hold to a Canadian pay structure or pay to a US benchmark for that role.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects steady annual openings in computer and information technology occupations over the decade, which tells you the competition for these people is not easing. Plan on that basis.
Do not build the search around a city list
City rankings are a poor guide for a specific hire. A city can lead the country in AI jobs and still have nobody with the narrow skill you need, or have so many employers chasing them that the price is out of reach.
Work from the role. Define the skills, set the pay band, then test it against a few markets:
- How many people with this skill live within commuting distance?
- Who else is hiring for it there?
- What does it cost to hire in that market versus remote?
- Can we keep them once they are here?
The fourth question gets skipped most often. A hire from a hot market who is unhappy with growth or pay is gone within two years, and you start again.
Support the hire after the offer
Smaller markets have fewer meetups and fewer peers. A lone data analyst in a plant town can feel isolated. Build in what the city will not provide: a clear senior contact, a training budget, conference attendance, and a path to a larger role.
Contract-to-hire is also useful here. It lets you test a remote or relocated hire before you commit, and it lets the candidate test you.
What to do next
Take your two or three hardest technical openings and write down, for each, whether it needs to be on site, hybrid or remote. Then set a pay band that holds up in at least two markets outside the largest city nearest you. That exercise alone usually widens the pool.
If you want a second opinion on where to look for a data, AI or operations technology hire, a Traverse recruiter can help.