The US is going through their first brain-drain episode, ever, and that means two things for Australian companies.
Firstly, the quantity and quality of ex-patriots and new-patriots applying to our ads, reaching out on LI and sliding in to our DM’s is unlike anything we’ve seen in our 35 year history.
Thanks to a perfect storm of the obvious headlines (tariffs, Trump, DOGE, government slashing funding) and the less-obvious ones (rising specific demand for American software, design and data talent + Australia’s burgeoning technology scene) we are witnessing a talent migration.
One story from Prof. Scott Galloway’s recent article highlights that in a “March poll by the journal Nature, more than 1,200 American scientists — three-quarters of the respondents — said they were considering leaving America. The journal’s job-search platform saw 32% more applications for positions overseas from January through March 2025 vs. a year prior.”
Whilst you and I aren’t recruiting scientists, research is a leading indicator of innovation.
And Australia (along with many other countries) have quickly set up new talent programs to take advantage of the “urgent and unparalleled opportunity to attract the smartest minds leaving the United States” – Australian Lead Prof. Chennupati Jagadish.
Back to Tech.
Companies are hiring less, though more impactful employees, with Series A tech startups being 20% smaller than they were in 2020 – Carta.
Meaning instead of hiring a sales or engineering team of 5, they are hiring 1-2 superstars to take their business to the “next level.”
As friend Nic Hopkins, an American HR expert working in the Australian startup/scale-up scene frequently hears “You haven’t got a serious basketball team until you have an American on it.”
The US is where lots of the “next level” live.
Increasingly in our job briefs we’re being asked to specifically headhunt talent from the US, and to meet our ex-Meta, Google, TikTok candidates who have already adorned our shores.
Secondly and conversely, Australia is the perfect hunting ground for US Tech.
Our Australia’s population makes up 0.3% of the global population, 6 of our Universities are in the top 100. Not too shabby.
And with talent being 60% of the cost (see, ‘AUD/USD’) why wouldn’t US tech target AU?
We’re seeing a significant rise in top candidates, particularly in Software and Data, being directly targeted by American recruiters and companies. These organizations appear to be seeking either to replace departing talent (see above) or to access our exceptionally skilled market remotely.
Thanks to development tools like Cursor and Copilot becoming so powerful, Software Engineers for example don’t need a PhD in Machine Learning to build with AI anymore.
What Tech companies are really after are flexible, collaborative, high-EQ engineers. Those with the “ROCCs” (TL:DR, April’s article). And Australia is flush with them.
The American allure is so strong for top Australian candidates who want flexibility, career growth and to work on some of tech’s most cutting edge problems – all from the comfort of their home.
Bottom line? These movements show us that the ‘international talent war’ is going to get more intense, quickly.
