Tareq Amin, Rakuten Mobile’s technology leader who was recently named CEO of the newly formed Rakuten Symphony platform, appears to be looking for a needle in a haystack. 

The outspoken executive and perhaps the most prominent proponent of open radio access network (RAN) architecture earlier this week claimed he’s been searching for a head of global operations since he joined the Japanese juggernaut in the summer of 2018.

“In Rakuten Mobile, the network has moved to full software components. Finding the right, highly technical, hands-on leader that can build a scalable organization whose foundation is built on software skills has been one of my biggest personal challenges in the last four years,” he lamented in a LinkedIn post. 

“Not giving up. Still in the hunt for the right mindset to come join my team and lead the revolution toward an autonomous network,” he concluded.

Four years is a long time to be looking for a person to fill a single, albeit important role. Too long, most would argue. That’s the entire term of a U.S. presidency. 

Although Amin’s tenure at Rakuten is closer to three years than four, the public plea and recognition of his seeming frustration with the ongoing fruitless search begets more questions than answers and underlines a nagging problem for technology at large.

Multiple industry analysts commented on Amin’s post, noting the limited pool of talent available and technically equipped to run an operation that few have done globally. The Japanese operator deployed the first greenfield, fully virtualized open RAN network at scale to support 4G LTE in April 2020, and added 5G support in September 2020.

Amin might be excessively picky in his search, but the broader challenge remains. IT executives are confronting a talent shortage crisis. Indeed, this talent shortage is the most significant adoption barrier to 64% of emerging technologies, according to a new report from Gartner.

Even more striking — that figure was just 4% in 2020. What’s changed? Well, a global unrelenting pandemic and all of the havoc its wreaked for starters. 

“The ongoing push toward remote work and the acceleration of hiring plans in 2021 has exacerbated IT talent scarcity, especially for sourcing skills that enable cloud and edge, automation, and continuous delivery, Yinuo Geng, research VP at Gartner, wrote in a statement. 

“Of all the IT automation technologies profiled in the survey, only 20% of them have moved ahead in the adoption cycle since 2020. The issue of talent is to blame here,” she explained.

The problem is pervasive. Telecom isn’t unique in this regard.

A lack of talent was cited as a leading factor hindering adoption of compute infrastructure and platform services, network, security, digital workplace, IT automation, and storage and database, Gartner concluded from the survey. 

Lack of want and money doesn’t appear to be a problem either. More than half, 58%, of respondents reported an increase or plans to increase investment in emerging technology this year, compared with 29% last year, according to Gartner.

Amin’s personal challenge, while at least partially self imposed, also spotlights an industry-wide problem. Technically adept talent is increasingly hard to find.