The map
38 roles across 7 fields. Every role page tells you what the work genuinely involves — including the part nobody advertises.
Or let the scenarios narrow it down for you →Networking
13 rolesBuild and operate the infrastructure that moves information.
Cybersecurity
17 rolesProtect systems, identities, networks, applications, and data.
Systems & Infrastructure
8 rolesOperate the servers, platforms, and identities applications depend on.
Cloud
11 rolesBuild and operate computing environments across modern cloud platforms.
Software & Automation
9 rolesBuild applications, and automate the infrastructure everything runs on.
Data
5 rolesMove, store, and make sense of information at scale.
Support & Operations
7 rolesKeep people working and live systems healthy — the real front door to IT.
Roles you can actually start in
Most IT roles are second or third jobs, and pretending otherwise wastes people’s time. These are the ones that are genuinely reachable without prior professional experience.
Network Administrator
Keep an existing network healthy, and be the person who fixes it when it is not.
Reachable as a first job
SOC Analyst
Decide, quickly, which of today’s thousand alerts is the one that matters.
Reachable as a first job
Vulnerability Management Analyst
Know what is broken across ten thousand machines, and what to fix first.
Reachable as a first job
GRC Analyst
Decide what risk is acceptable, and prove the controls actually work.
Reachable as a first job
Systems Administrator
Keep the servers, accounts and services running that everyone uses without thinking about them.
Reachable as a first job
Software Developer
Build the applications other people use to get their work done.
Reachable as a first job
Data Analyst
Turn a messy pile of information into an answer someone can act on.
Reachable as a first job
Help Desk Technician
Be the first person who hears about every problem — and the reason it gets solved.
Reachable as a first job
NOC Technician
Watch the whole network at once, and catch what is failing before anyone calls.
Reachable as a first job
Field / Infrastructure Engineer
Do the work that only happens with your hands on the actual equipment.
Reachable as a first job
Where the fields overlap
These roles belong to more than one world at once. They are usually where the interesting work and the better pay are, and they are invisible to any tool that makes you choose one column.
Detection Engineer
Write the rule that catches it next time — without crying wolf.
Usually a second role
Identity Engineer
Own the system that decides who everyone is and what they may reach.
Usually a second role
Zero Trust Engineer
Stop trusting anything for being "inside", and build what replaces that assumption.
A senior destination
DevSecOps Engineer
Put the security checks inside the pipeline, so nobody has to remember them.
A senior destination
Security Architect
Decide the shape of defence before anything is built — then defend the decision.
A senior destination
Platform Engineer
Build the internal platform other engineers deploy onto, so they stop reinventing it.
A senior destination
Site Reliability Engineer
Decide how reliable a system needs to be, and engineer it to stay there.
A senior destination
Network Administrator
Keep an existing network healthy, and be the person who fixes it when it is not.
Reachable as a first job
Network Security Engineer
Protect the pathways that information travels through.
Usually a second role
Network Automation Engineer
Configure a thousand network devices with code instead of a thousand logins.
Usually a second role
Cloud Network Engineer
Solve routing problems that exist only as API calls.
Usually a second role
Data Center Engineer
Run the physical place where thousands of machines live and talk to each other.
Usually a second role
Security Engineer
Build and run the controls that everyone else’s safety quietly depends on.
Usually a second role
SOC Analyst
Decide, quickly, which of today’s thousand alerts is the one that matters.
Reachable as a first job
Threat Hunter
Go looking for the intruder nobody has raised an alert about.
A senior destination
Application Security Engineer
Find and fix the flaws in software before it ships.
Usually a second role
Cloud Security Engineer
Secure infrastructure that can be created, changed and destroyed in seconds.
Usually a second role
Vulnerability Management Analyst
Know what is broken across ten thousand machines, and what to fix first.
Reachable as a first job
OT / ICS Security Engineer
Secure the systems running factories, utilities and physical processes — where a reboot is not an option.
A senior destination
Systems Administrator
Keep the servers, accounts and services running that everyone uses without thinking about them.
Reachable as a first job
DevOps Engineer
Make shipping software boring — automated, repeatable and reversible.
Usually a second role
Database Administrator
Keep the system of record correct, fast, and recoverable.
Usually a second role
Data Engineer
Get data reliably from where it is created to where it can be used.
Usually a second role
NOC Technician
Watch the whole network at once, and catch what is failing before anyone calls.
Reachable as a first job
Field / Infrastructure Engineer
Do the work that only happens with your hands on the actual equipment.
Reachable as a first job