Alternative data jobs
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5 alternative data jobs if you don’t want to be a data scientist

16 Feb 2017

When you think of jobs in data, you probably think of data scientists and analysts. But there are a myriad of alternative data jobs you can pursue.

As we’ve discovered this week, data takes up a massive part of our world. In fact, 90pc of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone.

With all that data, there are plenty of jobs to manage, analyse, and mine the information we’ve gathered. We are all familiar with the roles of data scientists and data analysts but there are so many more opportunities if you want a career in this field.

Check out some of the alternative data jobs that you might not be as familiar with.

Data centre managers

A data centre manager is typically responsible for organising and maintaining the digital information management operations of a company. They oversee the equipment in data centres as well as the employees who work there.

This is normally an experienced hire, with some form of computer science degree and also some managerial experience required.

Cloud engineers/architects

As a cloud engineer, you need to understand the ins and outs of building and running software in the cloud. You must have the capacity to deal with customer and business requirements as well as the technological experience to implement cloud-based solutions.

Someone who wants to be a cloud engineer or architect would need DevOps skills, programming proficiency and a computer science degree, or one in a related field.

Data security

Security is a major sector within the world of data. Hackers are getting more sophisticated all the time and the skills gap in the cybersecurity industry is leaving companies desperate for more talent to protect their sensitive data.

On top of programming skills and some form of computer science or information security qualification, someone pursuing a career in data security will need to have a strong understanding of data protection legislative developments.

Big data engineer

Big data engineers are in charge of building and maintaining the structures that handle large data sets. They’re also in charge of maintaining backup and recovery systems for the data along with designing big data solutions.

A big data engineer will specifically need experience in technologies such as Hadoop. They will also need to know common programming languages and cloud technologies.

BI developer

While data engineers manage the structures to hold the data, business intelligence (BI) developers look after the process of delivering the data from the warehouse to the end users.

BI developers need in-depth knowledge of databases, data mining and data warehouses. As well as their technical experience, a BI developer would also need strong commercial abilities, most likely previous experience working as part of a business development team.

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Jenny Darmody
By Jenny Darmody

Jenny Darmody became the editor of Silicon Republic in 2023, having worked as the deputy editor since February 2020. When she’s not writing about the science and tech industry, she’s writing short stories and attempting novels. She continuously buys more books than she can read in a lifetime and pretty stationery is her kryptonite. She also believes seagulls to be the root of all evil and her baking is the stuff of legends.

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