Information technology (IT) has been one of the most active and evolving fields. Working in this industry does not only give you a chance to earn high-quality income but also shows strong evidence for an increase in demand for highly skilled professionals. In other words, if you are an IT personnel, you’ll have a fulfilling career with great paychecks that won’t disappear any time soon. So if you’re looking for a profession with a myriad of growth opportunities, this domain is the way to go!
Below are the top 10 highest paying IT jobs in the first half of 2019. Read on to see which position fits you most and the skill sets you will need to transition into one of these roles.
#10. Data Security Analyst
Average yearly salary: $125,000
Roles and responsibilities:
- Protecting information on systems
- Ensuring networks security
- Imparting information about security policies and protocols
Required skills and knowledge:
- Knowledge of operating systems and networks
- Analytical and problem-solving skills
- Communicating with all levels of the organization
- Risk management
#9. Data Architect
Average yearly salary: $133,500
Roles and responsibilities:
- Defining control elements from a technical perspective
- Providing guidance to data stewards on control element technical and architectural impacts
- Ensuring enterprise and card services data standards are defined, published and enforced
Required skills and knowledge:
- Foundation in system development
- Depth in data modeling and database design
- Breadth in established and emerging data technologies
- Ability to conceive and portray the big data picture
- Ability to astutely operate in the organization
#8. DevOps Engineer
Average yearly salary: 137,400
Roles and responsibilities:
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Required skills and knowledge:
- Linux fundamentals
- Scripting skill
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
- Cloud experience and DevOps key concepts
- Communication and collaboration with others
- Continuous integration and continuous delivery
- Knowledge of various DevOps tools and technologies
#7. IoT Solutions Architect
Average yearly salary: $139,000
Roles and responsibilities:
- Build digital solutions using the best available technologies
- IT modernization with Agile strategies to digitally transform businesses
Required skills and knowledge:
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#6. Data Scientist
Average yearly salary: $139,840
Roles and responsibilities: Data scientists research, analyze, execute and present statistical methods to gain insights.
- Hands-on experience in data mining
- Develop operational models
- Data conditioning
Required skills and knowledge:
- Statistical and analytical skills
- Machine learning and deep learning principles
- In-depth programming knowledge (SAS/R/Python coding)
#5. Applications Architect
Average yearly salary: $149,000
Roles and responsibilities:
- Designing major aspects of an application’s architecture, including components such as user interface, middleware, and infrastructure
- Providing technical leadership to the application development team.
- Performing design and code review
- Ensuring that uniform enterprise-wide application design standards are maintained
- Collaborating with other stakeholders to ensure the architecture is aligned with business requirements
Required skills and knowledge:
- Solid knowledge of programming, software development, and architectural solutions
- Comprehensive understanding of computer architecture and fundamentals
- Knowledge of the front end, backend, middleware, interfaces, and every other application elements.
- Ability to measure the drawbacks of each design and trade-off accordingly.
- Problem-solving skills
- Analytical skills
- Communication skills
#4. Enterprise Architect
Average yearly salary: $151,819
Roles and Responsibilities:
- Deriving function design
- Identifying the risks associated with designs
- Ensuring customers/stakeholders’ requirements are met
Required skills and knowledge:
- Understanding of system architecture and IT
- Project management
- Solid knowledge of all enterprise software and service-oriented architecture.
#3. Data Warehouse Architect
Average yearly salary: $154,800
Roles and responsibilities:
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Required skills and knowledge:
- Knowledge of extract, transform, load (ETL), data modeling, analysis, etc.
- In-depth system and application development knowledge.
- A clear plan vision strong communication skills
#2. Big Data Engineer
Average yearly salary: $155,500
Roles and Responsibilities
- Discovering various opportunities for data acquisition and exploring new ways of using existing data
- Proposing ways to improve data quality, reliability, and efficiency of the whole system
- Creating a complete solution by integrating a variety of programming languages and tools together
- Creating data models to reduce system complexity to increase efficiency and reduce cost
- Deploying disaster recovery techniques.
- Introducing new data management tools and technologies into the existing system to make it more efficient.
- Data ingestion: Acquiring data from various sources and then ingesting it into the data lake
- Data transformation: Converting data from one format to another, or from one structure to another based on the use-case
- Performance optimization: Building a system that is scalable and efficient
Required skills and knowledge:
- Understanding of Hadoop, Spark, and NoSQL, as well as data warehousing technologies
- Programming skills
- Data visualization skills
- Excellent communication skills
#1. Software Engineering Manager
Average yearly salary: $163,500
Roles and responsibilities:
- Building, developing and engaging teams and team members
- Creating new computer software or improving existing computer programs
- Determining the feasibility of a software’s operations
- Finding solutions to any software issues
Requirements for this position:
- Strong technical and analytical skills
- Expert knowledge of computer software languages, platforms, and current methodologies
- Strong budgeting, leadership, and managerial abilities, including the ability to hire, train, and evaluate staff through performance reviews
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Learn more: Software Test Automation Engineer Salary and Career Overview in 2019