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Top Six Career Specializations That Will Drive Future Businesses

Business growth is both exponential and specific. It requires expansion, yes, but to truly succeed, efficiency and innovation must be the driving force. Those with a general understanding of many tech tools and strategies are being phased out in favor of multiple specialists that can provide innovation, efficiency, and a brighter future to businesses than a jack-of-all-trades ever could.

All businesses are tech companies in today’s world because society dictates so. Customer service is at the forefront of any sales team, and the customer wants and requires the latest tech and strategies to give you a second glance. Even if your product is simple, physical, and its design is ancient, business practices should not be, which is why these top seven career specializations are great areas to invest in.

As an employer, you should look to hire them. As an employee, you should work to become them. Technology and data science is the future, but the future is already here and these careers are taking off in a big way:

1.Data Scientist

Data scientists are growing in need. They are essential to improve efficiency at every stage of a business and are a key component to successfully extracting trends from large data sets.

Benefits to Business

Data scientists help make sense of data. Yes, programs are being created to automatically generate reports, but for the most customized approach a data scientist's expertise is still the preferred model for businesses. Their work improves the efficiency throughout the business, and benefits both front end and back end processes.

Average Salaries

Average salaries are very lucrative, with those with zero to three years of experience earning a median of $95,000, and those with nine or more years of experience earning a median of $165,000, and managers with more than ten years of experience seeing a median salary of $250,000. Not only are the salaries lucrative, data scientists also have one of the most fulfilling and satisfying jobs in the sector.

The need for data scientists is also growing, with an average of 56% growth every year, and great career advancement opportunities to be had.

How to Specialize

You will need experience in data science, mining, analysis, python, and machine learning, though thankfully there are specialized degrees that will give you the skills you require.

2.Specialized Statistician

Statisticians, regardless of whether they are theoretical or applied, offer big benefits in the private and public sectors. They work to ensure that the method of operations adopted by their employer is the best possible course of action. They do this by using several mathematical models to analyze data sets very similar to a Data Scientist. In fact, undergoing an MS Statistics online degree can help you specialize your math and computing background further.

Benefits to Business

In the private industry, analysts work to improve supply chain efficiency and work to reach a new level of optimized operational standards. In the public sector these tasks, as well as development strategies, are used to help improve the civic infrastructure of your community.

Average Salaries

Statisticians make an average of $84,000, though those with a greater specialization can expect greater salaries depending on demand. Certain cities and states also provide higher salary averages, all totally over $110,000, and these are:

  1. Newark New Jersey
  2. San Francisco California
  3. Silver Spring Maryland
  4. Raleigh North Carolina
  5. Bridgeport, Connecticut

How to Specialize

To truly succeed and be invaluable to businesses, however, it is recommended to specialize beyond just statistics. Either by specializing via a Ph.D. or through your career you will want to gain experience in a specific sub-set. You can become a data scientist, specialize in bio-statistics, in business statistics, in economics, agriculture, or in many other fields.

Focussing on one field will give you an edge and the ability to negotiate higher pay.

3.Site Reliability Engineer

A Site Reliability Engineer, or SRE, was a position created by Google back in 2003 but has since been adopted by many top tech companies like Amazon and Netflix. Their job is to improve the reliability, efficiency, and scalability of a website by creating new automation protocols and self-service tools for their companies.

Benefits to Business

Automation improves efficiency, especially on a large-scale. Site Reliability Engineers are the brains behind the great sites and apps we all use, and their jobs are critical to these companies’ success.

Average Salaries


It is no wonder then, due to their importance, that their median salary is $200,000, and that job opening growth year after year sits around 72%, with more than 1400 job listings being advertised in the last year alone.

How to Specialize

You will need to be experienced with a variety of programming languages and know how to develop software on all systems including Linux and the Cloud.

4.Solutions Architect

Big businesses have unique problems; it is the job of the solutions architect to design applications and services that the company will use in a bid to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

A solution architect is responsible for the design of one or more applications or services within an organization and is typically part of a solution development team. He or she must have a balanced mix of technical and business skills, and will often work with an enterprise architect for strategic direction.

Benefits to Business

Businesses all need unique solutions to help them improve their business from within. Only the biggest businesses can afford to have a team available to create, troubleshoot, and update these solutions.

Average Salaries

The median base salary for a solutions architect is $139,000, and with over 5,800 job openings last year, it is one of the biggest growing positions out there.

How to Specialize

You need a mixture of tech and business background to become a solutions architect. This means having a background in business operations and understanding how to create software and troubleshoot on computers and the Cloud.

5.Cloud Architect

The Cloud is being rapidly adopted by businesses of all sizes all around the world and for good reason. The potential of the Cloud, however, has only just been brushed upon. That is why Cloud architects are growing rapidly, and job listing increase was more than 88% last year.

The job of a Cloud architect is to take the technical requirements outlined for a project and convert it for the Cloud. They also find and create solutions for problems within the Cloud.

Benefits to Business

As businesses migrate to the Cloud, the possibilities are going to become apparent, as well as the limitations. A Cloud architect is there to create solutions and to translate projects and designs to the Cloud.

Average Salaries

Cloud Architects earn a median salary of $115,000, and career advancement is positive. With such a healthy median base salary (one that is even more lucrative in tech-first cities like San Francisco), Cloud architects have a healthy future ahead of them.

How to Specialize

To become a Cloud Architect, you will need cloud computing experience, software development skills, know how to use and develop for Cloud services like Amazon Web Services, and of course be able to use Linux.

6.Machine Learning Engineer

Machine Learning is one of the biggest drivers of personalization and automation, and therefore it only stands to reason that specializing as a machine learning engineer will fetch you the big bucks. It also happens to be one of the most rewarding positions in the industry and gives you great control and career advancement opportunities.

Machine learning engineering works to create deep learning systems and machine learning programs. They will consistently run tests and experiments and work to design or improve existing machine learning algorithms. To do this you will need exceptional skills in statistics and programming.

Benefits to Business

With a machine learning engineer on their side customer service, expansion projects, and automation will all improve.

Average Salaries

Machine Learning Engineers see a base median salary of $182,000 per year. The role is also relatively new, and though there were only 709 listings last year, according to LinkedIn, that 709 is also a 96% increase from the year before.

How to Specialize


You need to have truly exceptional skills and experience in both statistics and programming. Having a background in machine learning, programming languages, Big Data and Data Mining, understanding of the theoretical basis of Artificial Intelligence, and more. Considering the high salary and growing interest in this role, specialization as an ML engineer is a great career move.

The tech world is certainly where the money is for employees because it is where businesses currently struggle. The biggest companies have already shown us the power of having specialists on hand working to do the impossible. Google’s investment in quantum computing has just made a huge leap, for example, and the future of tech and specialization looks bright.

Big firms, rather than tech giants, are not scrambling to catch up, and by investing your time and effort to return to higher education and specialize with a Masters of Science or even a Ph.D. will pay off and provide you with a secure, lucrative, and rewarding position in your chosen field.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes.

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