If you’re trying to hire tech leadership for an energy company in Dallas-Fort Worth right now, you already know the problem. Everyone wants the same people. And those people? They have options. Lots of them.
The DFW tech scene has exploded. What used to be “oh, there’s some tech stuff happening in Texas” has become a full-blown talent war. And energy companies—the ones trying to figure out digital transformation while keeping the lights on—are caught right in the middle of it.
“Energy companies in North Texas are facing a perfect storm when it comes to tech leadership recruitment,” says Jim Hickey, President Managing Partner at Perpetual Talent Solutions, a Dallas-Fort Worth executive search firm. “They need executives who understand both the legacy infrastructure of traditional energy operations and the cutting-edge technologies driving the sector’s future. Finding that combination of skills in a single leader is extraordinarily difficult.”
He’s not exaggerating. These unicorn candidates—people who can speak fluent “oil and gas” while also architecting AI strategies—they’re rare. And everyone’s chasing them.
The Numbers Are Kind of Staggering
Here’s what we’re dealing with. According to a 2025 State of the Tech Workforce report, Dallas is projected to add nearly 14,000 new tech jobs in 2025 alone. That leads every major metro in the country. Texas overall? Over 40,000 new tech positions expected this year. Compare that to the roughly 8,000 estimated for 2024, and you start to see the trajectory.
They’re calling it the “Silicon Prairie” now. AT&T, Texas Instruments, IBM—they’ve been here for years. But now you’ve got hundreds of startups in AI, cloud computing, cybersecurity. Site Selection Magazine reports that DFW has actually overtaken Washington D.C. in the North American Tech Hub Index, adding more than 47,000 tech jobs between 2022 and 2024. More than any other metro in the nation.
“The growth is remarkable, but it creates intense competition for senior technology talent,” Hickey explains. “When you have 21 Fortune 500 companies headquartered in DFW, plus a surge of relocating corporations and fast-growing startups, everyone is fishing from the same talent pool. Energy companies need to differentiate their value proposition to attract top-tier candidates.”
Translation: you can’t just post a job and wait anymore. That ship has sailed.
Why Energy Companies Have It Harder
Here’s the thing about digital transformation in energy: it’s not like digital transformation anywhere else. You’re not just building apps or optimizing e-commerce funnels. You’re dealing with grid modernization. Operational technology that’s been running for decades. Systems where failure isn’t “the website went down”—it’s “people don’t have power.”
McKinsey’s 2025 Technology Trends Outlook points to AI as a foundational amplifier across industries, accelerating progress in energy systems optimization, sustainability tech, and grid management. But finding leaders who can actually implement this stuff? While managing legacy systems? While navigating an industry that’s fundamentally changing?
Good luck.
And candidates know their worth. A National CIO Review analysis found that tech executives increasingly want to be strategic business partners, not just IT managers. They want board-level influence. They want companies that treat cybersecurity as a business priority, not a line item to minimize.
“The old playbook of recruiting tech executives no longer works,” Hickey notes. “Today’s candidates are evaluating employers just as critically as employers are evaluating them. They want to know about innovation culture, the technology roadmap, and whether they’ll have a genuine seat at the strategic table. Energy companies that can’t articulate a compelling vision for digital transformation will lose candidates to other industries.”
That last part stings a little. But it’s true.
The AI Leadership Scramble
If you thought the general tech leadership market was competitive, the AI space is something else entirely.
CIO Magazine reports that executive search firms are seeing record growth in 2025, with AI expertise becoming the number one thing organizations look for in technology leaders. But here’s the catch: many companies know they need AI leadership, but they haven’t done the foundational work—data quality, governance, infrastructure—that makes AI actually work.
So you end up with this weird chicken-and-egg situation. Companies need experienced leaders to build the foundation. But experienced leaders often want to join places where the foundation already exists. Why start from scratch when you could walk into something ready to scale?
Making matters worse, the SignalFire State of Talent Report shows that over 65% of AI engineers are still concentrated in San Francisco and New York. So if you’re recruiting from Texas… you’re fishing in a smaller pond to begin with.
“Energy companies have a unique advantage they often fail to leverage,” Hickey observes. “The intersection of energy and AI is one of the most consequential technological frontiers of our time. From grid optimization to predictive maintenance to carbon reduction, the opportunities for meaningful impact are enormous. Leaders who want to make a difference at scale should find that compelling. Our job is helping companies tell that story effectively.”
That’s the key insight, honestly. The opportunity is there. The problem is that most energy companies aren’t selling it well.
What Actually Works
So what are the companies that are winning doing differently?
First, they’re restructuring compensation to reflect reality. Performance bonuses, equity, long-term retention packages—these aren’t nice-to-haves anymore. They’re table stakes. If your offer looks like it was designed in 2015, candidates will notice.
Second, they’re investing in employer branding that actually means something. Not generic “we’re innovative” messaging, but specific stories about culture and growth. The Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services industry in Texas has hit an all-time high of over one million jobs, with 55 consecutive months of growth. Companies positioning themselves within that momentum attract candidates who want to ride the wave, not paddle against it.
Third—and this one matters more than people realize—they’re working with specialized search firms that understand both tech and energy. Generalist recruiters often struggle to identify candidates with the hybrid skillsets this work demands. They don’t know what questions to ask. They don’t know what good looks like.
“The organizations winning the talent war are those willing to think differently about the CIO and CTO roles,” Hickey says. “They’re creating positions that combine technology leadership with genuine strategic influence. They’re offering compelling visions of impact that go beyond operational efficiency to include sustainability, innovation, and industry transformation. And they’re moving quickly—the best candidates don’t stay on the market long.”
That last point deserves emphasis. Speed matters. If your hiring process takes four months, you’ve already lost.
Where This Is All Heading
North Texas isn’t slowing down. Texas added roughly 192,000 jobs from March 2024 to March 2025, outpacing national growth. DFW alone contributed over 59,000 of those. The state’s nearly $1.4 billion commitment to semiconductors, plus major investments from tech giants, signals this is just getting started.
For energy companies, the message is pretty clear: you can’t treat executive recruitment as something you do occasionally, when someone leaves. It needs to be a core competency. An ongoing effort. Something you’re always working on, not scrambling to figure out.
The companies that get this right will be the ones leading the industry in five years. The ones that don’t… well, they’ll still be wondering why all their best candidates took offers elsewhere.
In a market where top talent has abundant options, the organizations telling the most compelling story about impact, innovation, and opportunity are the ones that win. And right now, in North Texas, there’s never been a better story to tell. You just have to know how to tell it.
