At the time it was aired, who would have thought that the flying cars once mooted on Tomorrow’s World would be a highlight of CES 2019? In fact, many of the series’ predictions – a transport tunnel underneath the Channel, touchscreens, chip and PIN – seemed incredibly far-fetched and never likely to happen.
But that’s the evolution of technology for you. And with that in mind, we believe that there are jobs around today that will be virtually non-existent in 2024 – and similarly, there will be jobs that don’t exist now that will be crucial down the line. Here are five roles to keep an eye out for – while they might seem unlikely now, have another read of this piece in a decade or two’s time and see if you still think the same…
Biotech Security Officer
Gene therapy for cancer, the use of AR in surgery, the development of 3D printed organs…biotechnology has come a long way in the last decade or so. It’s unsurprising, therefore, that the global biotech sector is set to be worth US $727.1bn by 2025 as industry developments continue.
But if biotech research – or information about individual patients – falls into the wrong hands, the consequences could be devastating: individual records could be manipulated, and research could even be engineered to develop bioweapons.
Data clearly needs to be kept secure. We’re already seeing candidates enter the cybersecurity field from other sectors – and we expect to see established bioscientists looking for a career change focus on the security aspect of their sector, too.
Nanotechnology Software Scientist
Biotech isn’t the only cross-discipline field where we’re expecting IT jobs to emerge over the next few years. “The study and application of extremely small things”, nanotechnology is growing by a five-year CAGR of 18.2%, with a predicted market value of $90.5bn by 2021.
Nanotech spans a range of industries, with many current workers in the field coming from a science or engineering background. It’s generally the scientists who come up with the research requirements and objectives, but more often than not, these will need to be converted into software to achieve scientific goals. And that’s where skilled IT professionals will come in.
Avatar Developer
AI is already being used to power avatars that are increasingly life-like: AR startup Magic Leap’s Mica even smiles, yawns and makes eye contact.
“AIs will be able to create avatars that will seem very close to a human who actually lived”.
But things may be about to get even more complex. Inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil predicts that in around a decade’s time, “the AIs will be able to create avatars that will seem very close to a human who actually lived”. By sending nanobots into the brains of the living, we’ll be able to extract memories of loved ones who have passed away, using these memories to create incredibly realistic representations of those people in either AR or a virtual environment.
In order for that to happen, we’ll need developers who can sift through those memories and create avatars to bring people closer to their deceased loved ones.
Flying Autonomous Vehicle Programmer
Last year brought us the news that Uber has launched a new Paris research centre for flying taxis – while already this year, we’ve seen airborne automobiles take centre stage at the Consumer Electronics Show. Guy Kaplinsky, co-founder of NFT Inc., expects to have such a vehicle to demonstrate in 2020, using smartphone mapping paired with a cloud-based navigation centre, which will both direct drivers to take-off points and communicate with the in-car autopilot.
“We are spending our time on the technology side and will partner with companies on assembly”, says Kaplinsky, with NFT Inc. devising both hardware and software to make these dreams a reality. We predict that more and more startups will look to launch around a similar time, meaning plenty of opportunities for IT experts to get involved.
Smart Dust Support Engineer
“Smart dust” may sound like a concept from a sci-fi film, but microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) – or motes – are already very much real. These tiny wireless devices are smaller than a grain of salt and pack computing, sensing, wireless comms and their own power supply into a tiny device just millimetres in size.
Potential applications include security monitoring of people, diagnostic procedures in healthcare, monitoring of crops and monitoring equipment to establish maintenance requirements, to name but a few. Essentially the world’s tiniest computers, their newness and their broad array of applications means the demand for IT support will be high.
From smaller technological devices than we’ve ever known before to self-driving flying cars, there’s potential for a huge array of new IT roles to emerge in the future. There’s a bright, bold and innovative future ahead for those in the IT industry – and we’re excited to be a part of it.
Some of these roles may be a few years from becoming reality – so in the meantime, take a look at our jobs page to find your next IT role.
