A few years ago ICT jobs were mostly limited to software developer, programmer, and networking specialist. These days, however, with new technologies emerging at almost lightning speed, new speciality areas keep popping up, leaving hiring managers struggling to define the positions and create titles. Advances in hardware are also resulting in demands for skills that aren’t yet being met.

Some of the new and emerging roles are cognitive computing engineer/machine learning specialist, blockchain engineer, GPU cluster engineer, virtual reality engineer, Internet of things architect, computer security incident responder/cyber incidence responder, end-user designer/developer, user experience researcher, augmented reality designer, and container developer.

Cognitive computing engineer/machine learning specialist

This role applies the quantitative modelling of human behaviour to IT infrastructure. It focuses on adding language, speech, decision services, reinforcement learning, and machine vision to computers.

Must have good knowledge of machine learning techniques like support vector machines, neural networks, decision tree learning, clustering, genetic algorithms etc.       Because this is a relatively new field, exact qualifications are dependent on the exact needs of the company. Typical candidates, however, will have: at least a bachelor’s degree in computer programming, at least one year of experience with cognitive computing software development, and the ability to work as part of a large programming team. Also, because it is a relatively new field, comparative salary data for these positions are difficult to find. Nonetheless, the average salary range for a cognitive computing engineer starts around US$90,000, with significant bonuses given for performance.

Blockchain engineer

Thanks to digital currency bitcoin, consensus appears to have formed that the distributed ledger system used to authenticate cryptocurrency payments can be adapted to a much wider range of processes. Enter the blockchain engineer who is responsible for building, maintaining, and upgrading infrastructure that supports blockchain nodes. Blockchain engineers will have at least a bachelor’s degree in computer science, computer design, mathematics, or a similar field, but a master’s degree is preferable. The average salary for is US$80,000, depending on the location, the size of the company, and the level of experience the individual has.

GPU cluster engineer

A GPU cluster is a computer cluster in which each node is equipped with a graphics processing unit (GPU). By harnessing the computational power of modern GPUs via General-Purpose Computing on Graphics Processing Units, very fast calculations can be performed with a GPU cluster. The GPU-accelerated cluster provides an alternative to CPU-based HPC systems. GPU engineers work with large network and storage centres, often consisting of tens of thousands of terabytes worth of data. They also troubleshoot problems within a network and free up data space.

The average salary for GPU cluster engineers is around US$125,000 annually. This depends on the size of the company, the location, and the experience of the GPU cluster engineer applicant.

Virtual reality engineer

Virtual engineering is defined as integrating geometric models and related engineering tools such as analysis, simulation, optimisation, and decision-making tools, etc, within a computer-generated environment that facilitates multidisciplinary collaborative product development. Virtual engineering shares many characteristics with software engineering, such as the ability to obtain many different results through different implementations.

Internet of things architect

The Internet of things (IoT) is the internetworking of physical devices, vehicles (also referred to as “connected devices” and “smart devices”), buildings, and other items that are embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity, which enable them to collect and exchange data via the Internet. An IoT architect’s job, therefore, “is to do whatever it takes to build end to end IoT solutions that solve real business problems”. That means establishing a standard IoT platform that can be used to quickly iterate and deliver connected products and solutions to the marketplace.

 Computer security incident responder

There exists a cyber security skills gap globally. The increasingly sophisticated nature of cyber attacks and the ability to use new technologies such as machine learning algorithms to analyse, 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, .

The job will require “analysing alerts from various sources within the enterprise and determining possible causes of such alerts; providing timely detection and identification; and distinguishing these incidents and events from benign activities, and identifying false positives.

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. You’ll also need information security certifications such as CISSP, SANS, CEH, or related certifications.