Different Types of Software Engineers & Developers

• Website Developer
• Web Application Engineer
• Application Developer
• Embedded Engineer
• Hardware Engineer

A not 100% inclusive but mostly inclusive list.

Website Developer

• Responsible for creating the front end and back end of websites
• Likely uses/used Wordpress or other CMS
  • 28.9% of  ​the internet uses Wordpress
• Technologies you may use: Javascript, PHP, Java, Node.JS, MySQL

Source: https://www.codeinwp.com/blog/wordpress-statistics/

Web and Mobile Engineer

• Work on a website or app that is custom built and dynamic
• Requires more knowledge of networking and systems
• Technologies you may use: Java, PHP, React, Javascript, Apache

• Typically larger teams than a website development team
• Requires more interaction with different roles to drive direction, requirements, and acceptance
• Maybe partially or entirely mobile
• Examples: Facebook, Amazon, Snapchat

Application Developer

• Work on developing systems that run within an OS
• Need an understanding of the OS developed on and the functionality available
• A new deployment requires upgrades on the user's computers

• Runs outside of the scope of the internet though might be used for upgrades
• Game Development falls mostly in this realm (some mobile)
• Example Applications: Microsoft Word, Photoshop, Minesweeper
• Example languages: C, C++, Java

Embedded Engineer

• Work on devices that require hardware level programming
• The type of device could be a smart fridge, a farming device, or a cell phone
• Team size is usually large but broken down by feature or product
• Technologies you may use: C, C++, Javascript, Java

• There are frameworks and languages built to support embedded development
• May hear devices called an IoT device (Internet of Things)

Hardware Engineer

• Responsible for developing the components that run all other developer's work
• Lowest level you can get and still be programming
• Awareness of how operating systems work a must
• Technologies you may use: C, C++, Assembly Language, HDL

• Companies may work for: Intel, AMD, HP, IBM
• Examples: Writing CPUs, RAM drivers, GPUs, etc.

Other options

• Database Engineer / Administrator
  • Create databases and care for them
  • Manage new features that need database support
• Network Engineer / Administrator
  • Enforce network security and new changes
  • May write little code
• Server Engineer / Administrator
  • Set up servers that will be used for development
  • Keep servers secure and clean
• Security Engineer / Administrator
  • Concerned with the security of the whole of the organization
  • May write little code

Average Median National Salary

• Website Developer
  • $68,228/yr
• Web Application Engineer
  • $88,488/yr
• Application Developer
  • $76,195/yr

Source: Glassdoor.com

• Embedded Engineer
  • $83,732/yr
• Hardware Engineer
  • $98,001/yr

Woah! A lot of options!

Who you may work with

• Business Analyst
• Project Manager
• System Engineer
• Product Manager / Product Owner
• Subject Matter Expert (SME)
• Other IT

A less than 100% inclusive list but some key ones.

Business Analyst

• Work alongside the developers as a bridge between developers and stakeholders
• Refine the requirements and needs of the customer/end-user to work understandable to the engineers
• When not done well, easy for engineers to develop features that are not needed or incorrectly understood

Project Manager

• Responsible for dictating the direction of the project
• Takes input from both Business Analyst and Engineers to determine timelines and work to do
• Strive to balance time, resources, and work (not easy)

System Engineer

• Designing and managing the systems you will be developing
• Have a technical background but not likely to be a developer or write much code
• Focused at the level of the whole, much like the project manager, but with how to achieve it technically

Product Manager/Owner

• Product Manager/Owner is the person who drives the vision for the team
• They are the customer or work with customers to define the roadmap of features 
• Their focus is the business and/or organization's success
• These people likely will not be very technical and will not understand the jargon of an engineer

Subject Matter Expert (SME)

• This is a title that can be applied to many people at different levels
• Used to indicate that the person is, according to the company, the foremost expert in a particular thing
• That thing is usually a skill, a knowledge, a product, or even a technology
• You typically work with these people either prior to a new project to get understanding or when you run into an issue and need to debug the problem

Other Information Technology

• Database Administrators (DBA)
  • You'll work alongside these people when you need to interact with the database
  • New tables, new databases, even new database technology will be within the DBA's domain
• System Administrator (SA)
  • You'll work alongside these people when you need new servers for new or existing applications
  • They maintain the servers and will be the people to ask about new technology on the servers within the SA's domain

Other Information Technology Cont.

• Helpdesk
  • Frontline for support and dealing with customers
  • Typically the people who know your product best
  • These people are your allies, treat them well
• Application Support
  • The users who work within the application to help maintain other users
  • Power users
  • Another great resource for insight into application

What I'm doing now: Sanford Imagenetics

• Lead Software Engineer (Web Application Engineer)
• Working on bringing genetic understanding to preventive healthcare to better treat the populations in the Sanford footprint
• Complex web systems that interact with both patients and lab equipment
• Work with: Lab Directors, Genetic Counselors, Bioinformaticians, & other engineering staff
• Technologies: Ruby, AWS, Microservices

What I did before: Raven Industries - ADT

• Software Engineer (Web Application Engineer)
• Developed communication tools to interface between IoT devices and website
• Used by farmers for spraying fields with detailed precision
• Only a portion of what Raven does
• Technologies: PHP, AWS, MySQL

What I did before that:

USGS EROS

• Software Engineer (Web Site Developer) and Database Administrator
• Worked with satellite data and processing, data websites serving data
• Landsat data is used by Google for large-scale images 
• Technologies: PHP, PostgreSQL, Drupal

Other people doing cool stuff.

• DocuTap
  • Building software for healthcare clinics (much smaller than Sanford)
• SDN
  • Bringing internet and networking solutions to the greater area
• Avera
  • Another huge Healthcare organization on our doorstep
• BANKS!

Disclaimer: This is not a full list of cool companies in Sioux Falls!

Sanford Tech Summit Oct. 5-6th

Win CASH and build on your experience

• Collaborative Hackathon style event
• Teams of 4 
• Focused on the Following problem types
  • Frictionless Patient Experience
  • Treatment Transparency
  • Seamless and Secure Data Transitions

bit.ly/sanfordtechsummit

South Dakota Code Camp

• Hosted by Sioux Falls Developer Group
• Saturday, November 9th, 2019
• Free event with local speakers! (Including me)
• For more information find their webpage:
  • https://2019.southdakotacodecamp.com/

Thank you!

• Take a business card. Networking is important!
• Find these slides at: https://slides.com/danitornow/computer-science/
• I hope these ramblings have been helpful
• Find me at:
  • LinkedIn:
  • www.linkedin.com/in/dani-tornow/
  • Twitter: @danitornow
  • GitHub: danitornow

Questions?

Learn More Programming

• Hacker Rank
• Udemy
• Tutorial's Point
• Code School
• Code Wars
• Stack Overflow
• Code Academy
• Coursera
• Edx
• Project Euler

Pick a couple of skills and learn them. Don't try to learn everything at the same time.

Shapes of Learning