Working at a tech company in 2023 can mean a lot of different things. Coding and product management will always be core to any successful tech business, of course.
But the range of jobs inside tech companies has now become as broad and diverse as the product offerings and markets that those companies compete in. Deep knowledge of television or of a niche musical genre could make you the ideal candidate for a role at a streaming media tech company. Automotive industry experience is in demand as tech companies race to develop self-driving technology.
And then of course, there are the unique roles that could only exist inside tech companies as they push the boundaries of what's possible from the metaverse to generative A.I.
Even with hiring slowdowns and layoffs in recent months, tech companies have set priorities and are still hiring for certain teams. Here's a roundup of some of the more unusual, unexpected, or just plain weird roles that are currently available at tech companies:
Anduril Industries — Mission Operations Engineer, Counter Unmanned Aerial Systems team
Location: Costa Mesa, Calif.
Known for its defense tech along the U.S.-Mexico border, such as autonomous surveillance towers and tools like “the Interceptor” (a drone that’s designed to destroy other drones), Peter Thiel–backed Anduril Industries is trying to expand its products by hiring an engineering lead for emerging capabilities. The role is with the Counter Unmanned Aerial Systems (CUAS) team, a group whose self-described mission is to "build robots that find other robots and knock them out of the sky.”
Anduril is looking for someone with a background in defense or national security, and the ability to obtain "US DoD S/TS security clearance." Applicants should be able to handle unpredictability and frequent travel, as the job description notes that the ideal candidate is open to traveling up to 50% of the year and can “thrive in the unknown and create order out of the chaos.”
Microsoft — Gears of War Narrative Designer
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Gamers are anxiously awaiting the next version of Gears of War, the popular third-person shooter. But why wait for the game to launch when you could have a hand in creating it?
Microsoft’s Vancouver-based development studio, the Coalition, posted about a dozen jobs in March and April for various roles working on the Gears of War franchise. The studio needs animators, producers, and engineers, among others. A listing for a narrative designer seeks someone to help "achieve the project's storytelling goals" in campaign and multiplayer modes.
Microsoft has carried on the Gears of War storyline since acquiring rights from developer Epic Games in 2014. With more than 40 million copies of the game sold, it will reach even more audiences when the studio and Netflix adapt it into a live-action feature film and an animated series.
Netflix — Editorial Insights Strategist
Location: London
"Pure movie and television geekery" is not a characteristic that many employers are looking for. At Netflix however, binge-watching is the name of the game. The streaming video platform is looking for an editorial insights strategist, and only a "serious consumer of visual entertainment" need apply.
The London-based role is part of a team tasked with classifying Netflix's vast corpus of content, dissecting the disparate artistic elements that make a show or a movie interesting, and translating it into tags, labels, and other written formats to power Netflix's personalization features. The right candidate should understand the tropes and themes that make viewers “laugh, think, escape, cry, and tell their friends, 'You have to watch this.'"
Spotify — Music and Culture Editor
Location: South India
Fans of world music may find their dream job at Spotify's offices in India, where the company is seeking a music and culture editor who will "identify and curate music for all moods, music genres, and varied user interests."
This job isn't for everybody, though. That's because the right candidate will be well-versed in Malayalam and Kannada, two Dravidian languages spoken by 35 million and 44 million people, respectively, in certain regions of South India, according to Wikipedia. The music editor will essentially "own" Spotify's curation and overall strategy for those particular languages and establish industry-wide leadership, the listing says.
Since launching in India in 2019, Spotify has been up against local streaming services like Gaana, Saavn, and Wynk. But the country is one of the fastest-growing markets for Spotify, with availability in 12 languages and an audience the company says has tripled over the last two years.
Snap — Residential Security Officer
Location: Los Angeles
If you have a passion for Snapchat and a valid firearms permit, you meet two of the criteria to be a residential security officer on the Snap payroll. According to the job listing, Snap is looking for a new member to join its executive protection team, working primarily at a "private family residence."
The listing does not specify which Snap executive you'll be tasked with guarding, but it notes that the gig involves daily interactions with the executive and family members in business and social environments. While the job calls for computer skills and monitoring a CCTV system, this is not a role for a desk-bound pencil pusher. The listing notes that the officer must be able to walk five miles during a shift as well as having the "ability to provide protective coverage during physically taxing activities (running, jumping, crawling, bending, lifting, etc.)."
Meta — Avatar Behaviors Engineering Manager
Location: London
Mark Zuckerberg's dream of creating a virtual world, or metaverse, will require a lot of work if it's going to be a place where any of us actually want to spend any time. Perhaps most importantly, the inhabitants of this virtual world will need to look more realistic and be more functional than the rudimentary characters of a cartoon or an old-school video game.
Earlier this month, Meta advertised a role for a research scientist focused on the "capture and reconstruction of digital humans." That job posting is no longer available, but Meta has another opening for an avatar behaviors engineering manager. The job, which is based in London, entails making avatars more expressive and capable of fostering a deeper social experience. What does it take to endow an avatar with such lifelike behavioral traits? According to the listing, it involves working on "animations, inverse kinematics, sensor loss mitigation, and other hard-to-solve problems."
