(Yicai) April 14 -- More than 35,000 positions were up for grabs at a spring job fair held in Shanghai by Guangdong province-based companies, including BYD, Huawei Technologies, and Tencent Holdings.

A total of 751 employers from Guangdong attended the two-day job fair that kicked off at the Shanghai National Exhibition and Convention Center yesterday. The event is part of a joint recruitment initiative that will also reach Beijing, Hangzhou, Chengdu, and four other Chinese cities.

One of the highlights of the job fair was the strong presence of science and technology companies, with many of the offered positions being related to artificial intelligence, Yicai learned. More than 4,000 openings were for jobs with annual salaries of CNY500,000 to CNY1 million (USD68,420 to USD136,840), and over 800 had salaries of over CNY1 million.

"The rise of the new energy vehicle industry has put forward new requirements for BYD's talent structure," Xu Yunlong, recruitment director at the Shenzhen-based NEV giant, told Yicai at the job fair.

In the past, the automotive industry placed more emphasis on recruiting talents in traditional fields, such as machinery, engineering, and quality control, but now the carmaker prefer to hire composite and interdisciplinary talents with expertise in AI algorithms, computer science, big data, and other areas, Xu explained.

BYD is offering nearly 1,000 positions covering departments like research and development, production, and operation at this job fair, with annual salaries ranging from CNY500,000 to CNY1 million, Xu said, adding that fresh university graduates are welcome to apply.

Zhongqing Robotics Technology has a huge demand for AI talents, Zhang Shan, the human resources manager at the Shenzhen-based robotics startup, told Yicai at the job fair yesterday.

"We are offering more than 30 R&D positions at this event, including embodied intelligence algorithm engineers, simulation algorithm engineers, joint mechanical design engineers, and machine testing engineers," Zhang noted.

The annual salaries of such jobs range from CNY400,000 to CNY 1 million, with the company also offering incentives such as employee stock options for outstanding talents, Zhang added.

This joint recruitment initiative aims to attract talents with different backgrounds and thinking, hoping that they will generate unique synergies in future business collaborations, Zhang said.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione