15 Weird Tech Jobs You Never Knew Existed (But Wish You Had)

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It’s one thing to talk about the great things a company is doing via social media; it’s another thing to keep track of what others are saying about the company, both via sites like Twitter and Facebook and in actual voice-to-voice conversations (remember those?). In 2011, Beth LaPierre became the first person to officially hold this title when she began scouring the Web—including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, and user forums—for any mentions of Eastman Kodak on the Web, then shared that customer feedback with the appropriate departments. Since then, many other large companies have followed suit.

Lil Bub. PSY. Grumpy Cat. The Internet has become a breeding ground for overnight sensations. Many of whom have gone on to score major endorsement deals, television specials, book series and beyond (yes, even the four-legged ones). Like any major stars, these rags-to-riches celebrities need a knowledgeable business manager to help parlay their instantaneous success into something that lasts well beyond 15 minutes.

An ethical hacker is like the superhero version of a regular hacker: he or she uses his computational super powers for good, not evil. They’re employed within a variety of industries in a cyber-security capacity, where they (lawfully) attempt to hack into a company’s server in order to pinpoint any areas of vulnerability.

Ethical hackers and privacy engineers’ jobs go hand-in-hand: once the hacker identifies potential vulnerabilities in a company or organization’s system, it’s up to the privacy engineer to develop solutions to prevent these issues from becoming realities.

Think the same kid who ripped your ticket or popped your tub of popcorn at this weekend’s IMAX screening is the same person tasked with cleaning the enormous screen? Think again! It takes a lot more than a bottle of Windex and a roll of paper towels to maintain the clarity of these state-of-the-art screens. To do it correctly, you need a trained professional who knows how to handle what is something more akin to a large vacuum.

At their most basic level, any product—be it an iPhone or Website—can be categorized in one of two ways: user-friendly or not so much. It’s the job of the user experience designer to make sure that any product on his or her roster always falls into that former category. This means making sure that a customer’s interaction with a product or technology is always a pleasant—both from an aesthetic and technological standpoint.

We all know that one early adopter who camps out every time a new iPhone is released, then spends the next month raving about each and every improvement from the previous version. But did you know that there are people who actually get paid to do that? Mike Boich is Microsoft’s most famous evangelist; at Apple, that would be Guy Kawasaki.

Not to be outdone, AOL employs a “Digital Prophet.” His name is David Shing, though he’s better known as Shingy. And while he may be one of the only tech execs to boast such a title, what he actually does in that capacity—which is part evangelist, part creative director—is a regular gig within the marketing teams of several high-tech companies.

In 2013, three million regular Joes and Janes funded $481,788,567 on Kickstarter alone. For many of them, it was a bit of a lark. But that sum was large enough to get a lot of well-known companies and individuals to pay more attention to crowdfunding as a real way to raise money. But for every Zach Braff, who managed to raise $3 million to make a follow-up to his indie hit Garden State, there were plenty of crowdfunding failures. James Franco failed to reach his fundraising goal on two projects at Indiegogo, which only goes to prove that there’s a method behind this fundraising madness. For crowdfunding newcomers, enlisting the services of an expert in the field—who can help prep an individual or company for success from the get-go—is becoming even more essential.

Big data is a big buzzword in technology circles. And it brings a relatively new job title with it: data scientist. Their job? To make sense of the various sets of numerical data and analytics that any Web-based company has and help translate them into an action plan to grow, grow, grow.

Yes, this job is exactly what it sounds like: a video game tester. Software companies are always on the lookout for serious gamers who are willing to put their joystick to good use by testing new products before they hit the market and make note of any problems—from typos to coding errors.

A professional video gamer is essentially the rock star version of a video game tester. Except they’re not testing out new products, they’re honing their skills for hours on end to be the best of the best at a particular game. And for many enthusiasts, it’s a spectator sport; concert-like events are set up throughout the year where fans come to watch their favorite gaming “celebrities” work that joystick. In 2013, Business Insider ran a story on the industry’s 15 highest-paid professionals; American Johnathan Wendel topped it with $454,544.98 in earnings.

Though it’s still a relatively new invention, it’s easy to take cloud computing for granted. But it’s important to never forget the forward-thinking technical whizzes who made it easy for you to open a Google Doc or make sure that whatever songs you download on your iPhone are available on your iMac and iPad, too. The good news for those individuals with cloud computing skills is that they are one of the most in-demand skills in the IT sector at the moment (and one of the rare occupations where the demand outweighs the current supply of qualified professionals).

There’s no denying that the world’s greatest race car drivers have an innate ability that helps them to become one with their machines. But there’s also a gaggle of tech types behind the scenes—better known as control system engineers—who ensure that these high-tech rides are operating at maximum capacity. As the drivers race, these engineers are stationed nearby and analyzing all of the car’s data at a fast and furious speed (looking at everything from fuel level to ride height) to help their drivers be the first to cross the line.

We’re pretty sure that Scarlett Johansson isn’t living inside your favorite operating system, but there is a group of highly skilled computer programmers who specialize in the space where human intelligence and artificial intelligence combine. Known as computational linguists, these are the folks who build the programs that allow Siri to occasionally crack wise when you ask her a rather nonsensical question.