Emerging technologies are known to be the ultimate drivers of change. They reform not only the IT landscape but the global labor market as well. Many argue that the more tech evolves, the fewer jobs will be left for people since automation will take over manual labor. However, this isn’t entirely true as there is another side to this worrisome assumption. While looking at current trends, examining ground-breaking developments and taking into account where the IT market and software landscape are going all together, it isn’t difficult to foresee that new specialists, more unconventional IT jobs and alternative opportunities will soon be bred. Even now there are some quite intriguing job titles which have been underpinned as a result of the technological progress and the ongoing demand for innovation by various industries.
When having cloud computing as a driving force, AI as yet another game-changer, IoT, additive manufacturing, 3D printing and Big Data as mechanisms deeply integrated in businesses and day-to-day routines, the need for new roles becomes even more critical. Especially if business executives, employees and people in general want to manage the technical revolution effectively. In the age of automation, cognitive tech, mobile-first experience and so on, we become extremely engaged in a real race with machines. That urges us to raise standards and come up with upgraded occupations and job positions in order to indulge the modern-day market.
Born out of the digital advancements and transitions, what exactly are the IT jobs of the future?
- Security Analyst
There is something that goes hand-in-hand with technologies and all the progressive transitions that come along. And that thing, inevitably, is security issues and concerns. The more gadgets, computerized systems, devices and other software developments evolve, the more cyber-attacks grow in their complexity, variety and frequency. In this regard, to tackle such challenges, the demand for experienced security analysts will continue to increase over the years, thus, establishing it as one of the jobs of the future.
Some of the general skills required: experience with IPS/IDS and SIEM technologies; ability to conduct IT compliance assessments; understanding security policies; data management; knowledge of network infrastructures
- Cognitive Computing Engineer
One of the job titles that will surely dominate the years to come is cognitive computing engineer. Examples of supercomputers like IBM’s Watson or Google’s AlphaGo indicate that the potential of technologies is so huge that the interest in developing AI and other cognitive apps escalates at tremendous rates. It is just a matter of time, then, to observe the IT labor market becoming preoccupied with vacancies for cognitive app developers and engineers.
Some of the general skills required: Java, C++; knowledge in machine learning; implementing machine learning algorithms; data modeling and data evaluation
- VR Engineer
Virtual Reality is undoubtedly bringing itself into the consumer space. It has been around for quite some time now, but the field of VR hasn’t quite occupied leading positions in the IT labor market. This is about to change as VR engineering promises serious consumer breakthroughs. This is one of the reasons why more innovative companies are starting to make some room for job positions like VR engineers and developers.
Some of the general skills required: C#; JavaScript; knowledge of 3D tools such as Unity and Unreal; device agnostic VR experiences
- Hadoop Developer
As the web grows, the amount of non-structured data that is being generated grows as well. Organizing and analyzing this data is a difficult task which requires Big Data experts. And more specifically, Hadoop developers. It may not yet be considered crucial to the labor market today, but in few years the role of these specialists will be essential. Especially when it comes to effective and quick collection, processing and management of data and information from one or more sources.
Some of the general skills required: Java, SQL or Unix; experience with data systems; database design; design and development on Hadoop; enterprise architecture or data warehousing
- IoT Experts
The Internet of Things has surely penetrated the software industry and is now penetrating manufacturing, administration and other fields. It will come as no surprise then, that IoT is reportedly said to move forward and creates new career opportunities that will help organizations advance their business faster than ever. IoT business designers and IoT architects are just some of the titles that will definitely overflood the market.
Some of the general skills required: network handling; security management; data and analytical processing; ability deliver solutions which involve M2M (machine to machine) services SaaS and others
- GPU Cluster Engineer
Even though they are still relatively new technologies, such GPU-driven systems are seen to progressively find the perfect niche. Even websites such as Baidu and Facebook which work with voluminous data rely heavily on such clusters for their machine learning servers. For now, experts in the field are difficult to find. Nevertheless, given that the software landscape is constantly shifting, the demand for GPU cluster engineers and experts will continue to grow as time goes by.
Some of the general skills required: C/C++; Python; understanding of multi-thread programming and 3D graphics pipeline; Linux development skills; understanding of CPU/GPU SW architecture
Such positions may still be on the periphery for right now, but with the IT industry being in constant flux, they quickly reaffirm themselves as the IT jobs of the future.
