Hottest IT jobs 2016

hottest new jobs in IT

When CompTIA conducted an intensive examination of the IT employment market last year, it uncovered demand for jobs whose titles would have been meaningless only a year or two ago: augmented reality designer, Internet of things architect, container developers.

That’s no surprise, given that the IT job market is in constant flux, with new technologies emerging so quickly that hiring managers struggle to define those positions -- let alone give them a title. IBM, for example, has a director of blockchains, and Ford Motor is among many companies looking for GPU cluster engineers.

At the same time, traditional IT jobs are morphing, requiring new abilities, says Tim Herbert, senior vice president and researcher at CompTIA. Network admins, for example, must learn cloud skills, and security specialists are using machine learning to defend their networks.

Computer security incident responder

Cyber security specialist has long been on the hot jobs list, broad understanding of security information and event management (SIEM),

SIEM combines a number of functions into a single system and centralizes event logs and other security-related documentation for analysis. The information resides within the SIEM, but leveraging it means knowing what questions to ask, and few people have that skill,

Foote, agrees, saying “without a doubt, a cyber security skills gap has developed on a global basis.” The increasingly sophisticated nature of cyber attacks and the ability to use new technologies such as machine learning algorithms to analyze, understand, and counter those threats has fundamentally changed the nature of the job, which now requires the ability to cull evidence from a wide range of sources, not SIEM alone.

Skills you’ll need in order to be considered include a knowledge of networking fundamentals (all OSI layers), protocols and packet analysis, encryption and tokenization technologies, and experience writing PL/SQL or SQL scripts.

Since this job is built on a foundation of conventional skills, you’ll also need information security certifications such as CISSP, SANS, CEH, or related certifications.

Internet of things architect

One billion, 2 billion, who knows how many billions of devices will be connected to the red-hot Internet of things? Even if those estimates are wildly overstated, the IoT is top of mind for many innovative companies -- and not only startups.

Verizon, for instance, recently advertised for what it calls an “IoT solutions architect.” Among other skills, the applicant should have experience in “managing delivery of complex solutions involving IoT, M2M [machine to machine], cloud, security, professional services, and SaaS,” in addition to “strong technology marketing and analytical skills.”

It’s worth noting that Verizon wants its architect to have nontechnical business skills as well: “Must possess financial management skills needed for forecasting, pricing, and margin analysis. Professional presentation and [communication] skills to address all levels of the enterprise to include client senior executives.”

That requirement tracks with an important trend: Information technology departments are becoming less of a service organization and more of a line of business that can add revenue and business opportunities to the entire enterprise.

Virtual reality engineer

Virtual reality is no longer the sole province of game makers. That means someone with the right experience and skills can write a ticket to places as diverse as The New York Times, one of the first newspapers to begin using VR (and Google Cardboard) as a storytelling tool, or startups such as Lucid VR, a developer of 3D cameras.

Here’s a list of skills Lucid says you’ll need: Objective-C, C++, Computer Vision, C, computer graphics, mobile application development, OpenGL ES, C#, OpenGL, DirectX, WebGL, and digital image processing. There are more VR-related jobs posted on AngelList and you’ll find postings for a few VR engineers by CyberCoders, a staffing agency in Seattle.

Don’t overlook established companies working on mobile if you’re interested in VR. Samsung, for example, recently announced two new phones, but what drew more attention at the Mobile World Congress was its Gear 360, a camera for recording virtual reality videos for its Gear VR headset.

Although investment banks frequently overhype new technologies, it’s worth noting that Goldman Sachs predicts that virtual reality will generate $110 billion compared to television’s $99 billion in 10 years. Even if that estimate is too bullish, it is clear that serious money is pursuing virtual reality technology and there will be opportunities for skilled IT workers to exploit.

GPU cluster engineer

GPU computing improves application performance by offloading compute-intensive portions of the application to the GPU, while the remainder of the code still runs on the CPU. That advantage is key to companies like Facebook, China’s Baidu, and Experian that deal with enormous data sets.

Facebook’s Big Sur runs the social networking company’s machine learning servers and is heavily reliant on GPU clusters, which can be more efficient than conventional CPUs for machine learning and other tasks. Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer says the GPU-based system is twice as fast as conventional solutions.

Experian, with its massive data stores, also uses GPU clusters, but because it is a new technology, finding engineers with GPU experience is difficult, says Experian’s Haller. “Provisioning clusters is one thing, but writing code to run on it is another. You can download software that does it, but that’s inefficient,” he says.

In something of a new technology twofer, Ford Motor is looking for GPU engineers to work on its driverless car program. The list of necessary skills and duties fills an entire computer screen, and the minimum skills needed include: “1+ years [experience with] GPU, parallel programming tools and language extensions etc.,” as well as a broad array of programming skills, among them C/C++, Perl, Python, Java, OpenGL, OpenCV, CUDA, MATLAB, and more.

You can learn about recent developments in GPU computing by visiting the GPU Computing News group on Facebook.