Professional Documents
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Descriptions
posted by John Spacey, Simplicable, January 10, 2013
Have you noticed how many IT job titles have hit the market in the past 5 years?
IT job titles proliferate at an astounding rate. In the 1990s, you could sum up 90%
of IT professionals with a few dozen job titles. Today, there are thousands of job
titles to describe IT executives, managers, architects, developers and specialists.
The following brief job descriptions serve as a reference for IT, recruitment and
business professionals. They may help clear up the age old question what is
it exactly that you do?
Technology Executives
Technology Directors
IT Director
In some cases, an IT Director is responsible for information systems. In other
cases, a Director may be responsible for a program (e.g. ERP) or a functional
area (e.g. IT Risk and Compliance).
Director of Operations
Variants: Director of IT Infrastructure and Operations
Management
IT Manager
IT managers may be responsible for teams, services, applications, infrastructure
or IT functions. In other words, responsibilities vary greatly role to role.
Application Manager
An IT manager who's responsible for an application (e.g. CRM). This includes
development and implementation of strategy and new features. An application
manager is also responsible for service levels and maintenance.
Software Development Managers
An IT manager who's responsible for development for a set of applications or a
functional area.
Build Manager
Responsible for the build and release of software across development, test and
production environments.
Change Manager
Responsible for change management processes such as administering change
requests, approvals and scheduling.
Configuration Manager
Responsible for configuration management processes such as tracking and
controlling changes to software.
Contracts Manager
Administers contracts including negotiation, risk management, compliance,
reporting and financial management.
Data Center Manager
Manages the operation of a data center. Since data centers are usually 24x7 this
is often shift work.
Quality Assurance Manager
Owns end-to-end software quality. This including tools for testing, automated test
creation, test execution and quality reporting (including metrics).
Service Delivery Manager
Responsible for service delivery processes such as service level, capacity,
availability and service continuity management.
Business Relationship Manager
Establishes a trusted advisor relationship between IT and business clients.
Infrastructure Manager
Responsible for managing an infrastructure budget and team. Builds, configures
and manages infrastructure.
Outsourcing Manager
Manages relationships with outsourcing partners including procurement and
contract management processes.
Project Management
Project Manager
A Project Manager plans, directs and coordinates projects.
Agile Project Manager
Agile development methodologies don't speak of project managers. Instead they
speak of coaches and facilitators. Nevertheless, Agile Project Manager is a fairly
common job title.
Agile project managers generally act as Scrum Master for a project. Scrum
masters don't lead a project but act as a buffer between the team and distracting
influences.
Agile Coach
Lead teams in adopting and achieving business value from agile principles and
methodologies.
Program Manager
A Program Manager is responsible for managing a portfolio of projects and
initiatives. In many cases, a program manager leads a team of project managers
(e.g. a project management office).
Architects
Chief Architect
A Chief Architect is responsible for IT architecture. It's common for the Chief
Architect to run an IT governance program. The Chief Architect sets
architectural direction including principles, strategy and roadmaps.
Chief Architect is often an executive level position with responsibilities for aligning
Develops architectural solutions for infrastructure such as networks. This was the
first IT architecture role the profession goes back 40 years or more. In the
past, the role was most common titled Technology Architect. However,
Infrastructure Architect or Cloud Architect is becoming just as common.
Business Architect
Translates business needs into deliverable, architecturally aligned solutions.
Data Architect
Designs the data assets of an organization to support business objectives. Data
architects often work with solution architects to deliver project architecture.
Information Architect
Analysts
Business Analyst
Business Analyst roles vary greatly (even within the same organization). At a high
level, a Business Analyst translates business goals and objectives into
deliverables. In practice, they often deliver business cases and requirements for
projects.
Agile Business Analyst
Plays the role of Scrum Master to ensure that impediments are removed for a
Scrum Team.
Test Analyst
Variants: Tester
Designs, develops, and executes test plans and test cases to verify conformance
to acceptance criteria.
Test Automation Engineer
Variants: QA Engineer
Supports and customizes automated testing tools and utilities for quality
assurance.
Operations Analyst
An Operations Analyst manages daily software and infrastructure maintenance to
ensure service health.
Database Analyst
Responsible for the setup, configuration, administration and maintenance of
databases.
Billing Analyst
Responsible for the setup, configuration, administration and maintenance of
billing systems.
ERP Analyst
Responsible for the setup, configuration, administration and maintenance of ERP
systems.
Network Analyst
Responsible for the setup, configuration, administration and maintenance of
network infrastructure.
Process Analyst
Applies quality methods to improve business process performance. Often an
expert in a quality methodology such as Six Sigma.
Data Analyst
Performs quantitative analysis to generate reports from data sources such as
databases.
Analytics Specialist
Develops, deploys and customizes analytics tools. Applies analytical techniques
and processes to support reporting and decision support systems.
Business Intelligence Engineer
Develops, deploys and customizes business intelligence (BI) tools. Applies
analytical techniques and processes to support reporting and decision support
systems.
Data Scientist
Designs, develops and implements predictive statistical models (usually on big
data sets).
Specialists
Network Engineer
Designs, develops and implements network infrastructure.
Storage Engineer
Designs, develops and implements storage infrastructure.
Disaster Recovery Specialist
Specializes in the the tools and processes for disaster recovery. Develops and
implements infrastructure strategies for disaster recovery processes. Designs
and implements server, storage and network infrastructure.
Build Engineer
Specializes in the the tools and processes for build and configuration
management. This role usually involves scripting, coding and support of various
tools such as source control and life cycle management software.
Development
Developer
Variants: Software Engineer, Programmer, Systems Developer, Mobile Developer, Java
Developer, PHP Developer
documentation activities.
Game Developer
Requires enthusiasm for gaming and deep programing skills. Develops game
software working with a team of creative professionals to improve game play and
game quality.
SQL Developer
Variants: Oracle PL/SQL Developer
Administration
Designs, develops and implements new content and web functionality. Maintains
website and related server and network infrastructure.
Data Center System Administrator
Maintains physical security, information security and audit compliance. Builds,
installs, configures, maintains and troubleshoots systems and infrastructure.
Support
Provides level-1 and level-2 support for a set of applications. May be involved in
build processes and maintenance activities.
Sales Support
Designers
Web Designer
Designs web user interfaces to deliver graphics, content, markup and scripts.
Graphic Designer
An artistic role that delivers visual communications.
Game Designer
Creates game narratives and designs.
UI Designer
Designs user experiences and interactions to maximize usability and achieve
business objectives.
IT Risk Manager
Manages IT security risk assessments and implements security tools, controls
and standards.
Security Testing Engineer
Performs application security testing including penetration testing. Conducts
vulnerability assessments.
IT Auditor
Leads and executes IT audits of systems & infrastructure. Develops audit plans
and IT risk assessments.
Information Assurance Engineer
Performs health checks, vulnerability assessments and hardening activities on
infrastructure and software.
Security Engineer
Conducts security assessments of IT environments to identify vulnerabilities and
non-compliance with information security standards