Weird and Offbeat Job Titles, 7 Weird and Offbeat Job Titles in Tech

Weird and Offbeat Job Titles

Weird and Offbeat Job Titles

Weird and Offbeat Job Titles, 7 Weird and Offbeat Job Titles in Tech

To help dispel the mystery and intimidation, here are ten offbeat tech job titles that make sense.

If you’re new to tech, there’s a lot of unfamiliar vocabulary to contend with. Whether it’s programming languages, technical terms, or a litany of tech-world acronyms, it can quickly feel overwhelming.

And it’s not just the terms you need to know to work in tech: Things can get weird when you look at the job titles. From overlord to ninja to rockstar to growth hacker, scanning through tech job listings can make you feel like you’ve stumbled into a bad sci-fi movie.

Fear not! Most of these weird-sounding jobs are either attempts at fun and creativity go a little haywire, or they make more sense when you know the context. To help dispel the mystery and intimidation, here’s a list of offbeat tech job titles explained.

Digital Overlord

Despite conjuring up images of evil characters controlled by cybernetic minions, digital overlord is generally a term for a website manager. Website managers are responsible for ensuring that a website is functioning properly, updating software when necessary, monitoring and reporting on site performance, keeping a site’s hosting and registration current, developing and updating website content, and overseeing online marketing projects (things like search engine optimization and social media management).

And, while the smoke and mirrors that “digital overlord” connotes don’t involve lording it over a client’s online presence, web management is an in-demand opportunity for people with front-end developer skills. Even companies outside of tech (opens in a new tab) are looking for overlords…I mean website managers.

Technical and Developer Evangelists

Weird and Offbeat Job Titles, The descriptions “technical evangelist” and “developer evangelist” may sound strange, but they are established titles that actually appear in job listings (opens in a new tab).

Technical evangelists are responsible for building support and enthusiasm for a particular technology. For example, a technical evangelist working for a company like Apple spends their time building excitement for Apple’s products. 

Forbes magazine suggests (opens in a new tab) that Silicon Valley venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki coined the term while at Apple. As Kawasaki describes it, his role at Apple was “to protect and preserve the Macintosh cult by doing whatever I had to do.”

Developer evangelists have a similar role, although in their case they focus on spreading the word about a data platform (say Microsoft) to the developer community (web developers who the evangelist wants to convert to their company’s platform).

Both of these positions rely heavily on sales, marketing, and communications, but they also require passion and knowledge of the technology they’re promoting.

Guru, Ninja, and Rockstar

There are times when scanning through tech job listings can make you feel like you just showed up at a cosplay convention. But whether it’s marketing operations guru, developer ninja, or social media rockstar, 

the jobs behind these fancy titles are typically the day-to-day work of a marketing operations manager (a manager who oversees a company’s marketing staff), web developer (who codes the website), or social media director (a manager in charge of a company’s social media presence). Guru, ninja, and rockstar are a theatrical touch that makes the jobs feel fun and special.

That said, Seshu Kiran, founder and CEO of XAir, warns that these titles can be counterintuitive and can confuse the hiring process. Kiran recalls a self-proclaimed ninja applicant whose resume listed his ability to crack complex hardware problems. In reality, however, the applicant was unable to crack the basic electronics required for the job.

“He was good in his own experimental world,” Kiran says, but he was ill-equipped for the practicalities of what the job required. While gurus, ninjas, and rockstars may sound exciting, at the end of the day, “the application of principles and [the] discipline to build products with reliability and the right architecture” are more important than fancy job descriptions.

Innovation Sherpa

Weird and Offbeat Job Titles, For some people, the word “sherpa” conjures up images of an expedition to an exotic peak. Sherpas help guide you, right? And perhaps that’s why the title “Innovation Sherpa” has entered the tech vernacular.

These executives help lead their companies to the pinnacle of innovation and may be responsible for things like mapping and improving a company’s processes, overseeing user interviews, or bringing in outside perspectives, which are essential to ensuring a company’s continued growth and development. .

There’s a clear problem with the title, though. Far from just being a mountaineering trope, the Sherpas are actually a Nepalese ethnic group, and using their name in a branding effort is an unfortunate case of cultural appropriation. It’s an example of accidentally going tech crazy. It’s certainly better to keep it boring and call yourself an innovation manager.

Scrum Master

No, this position has nothing to do with the office rugby team. In this case, Scrum refers to a framework of principles for managing product development. Scrum emerged as a product development technique in the 1990s, inspired by an academic article written in 1986. In the article (opens in a new tab), Professors Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka describe a “Scrum” management style in which a team progresses as a unit, passing the ball back and forth.

A Scrum Master is a member of a Scrum development team who is responsible for removing obstacles to meeting product goals. Scrum Masters are not team leads or product managers, but they act as a buffer between the team and potential distractions. Scrum Masters typically have a background in software development and hold a Scrum Master certification.

Growth Hacker

Much like the term “hacking” is used to refer to tips and tricks for cooking, making personal accessories, home improvement, etc., “growth hacks” are techniques to help a company grow. They typically involve aspects of marketing, engineering, and data analysis.

Growth Hackers (opens in a new tab) are professionals with a background in marketing and development who help design and implement growth hacking techniques. They test ad copy, use email marketing, oversee social media outreach, launch viral campaigns, and manage search engine optimization.

Digital Prophet - Weird and Offbeat Job Titles

Once you reach the executive level at some companies, it seems like you can call yourself whatever you want. “Digital Prophet” is one such example. It’s a title that doesn’t become clear with context.

The title “digital prophet” in tech seems to belong to David Shing, or “Shingi,” an executive at the venerable media company AOL. A quick scan of Shingi’s homepage (opens in a new tab) says only that he “[works] around the world to identify new opportunities for businesses.” It also mentions that he speaks at conferences about trends and the future of the web (which is where all the predictions theoretically come from).

Digital Prophet is a good reminder that you can sometimes see strange, one-off titles like this in tech. It’s okay to shrug your shoulders and move on.

Whether you’re a lord or a missionary, a ninja or a rockstar, a guru, a prophet, or a plain old web developer, one thing all of these jobs have in common is that they require technical skills. 

If you’re ready to land a job in tech—adventurous title or not—you can start by checking out our definitive guide to becoming a full-stack developer. It’ll show you exactly what skills you need, the kinds of projects you can build with this brand-new skill set, and even some less crazy job titles you can use to fuel your job search.