Mean Income: $116,920 Top 10%: $162,568
What? An architect who doesn’t deal with buildings? What’s the point of words anyway? But never mind that for now. A system architect would be in charge of a company’s software, databases, and system coding.
This kind of architect would have to have learned engineering or computer science for a bachelor’s or master’s degree. Sure, that kind of degree costs quite a bit, but the payout, once you get a job in the field, seems to be worth it.
Engagement Manager
Mean Income: $120,000 Top 10%: $178,580
Believe it or not, engagement managers have nothing to do with couples getting married. What they actually do is come up with new ways to keep clients involved with the company they work for. After all, if your client relationships are less than optimal, your company's days are numbered.
Engagement managers will need to study both marketing and project management, but really good ones will also have some software or technical skills.
Applications Development Manager
Mean Income: $120,000 Top 10%: $154,448
Your system or software is old, cumbersome, and outdated? Your business probably needs an application development manager. Those people are in charge of improving internal systems and software, and could probably save you from constantly having to restart your computer whenever your office chatroom crashes (which is about twice an hour).
Good application development managers will have a bachelor’s degree under their belt, as well as a few years of experience in the field.
Finance Manager
Mean Income: $127,990 Top 10%: $140,626
Finance managers are the ones who make sure a company stays financially healthy. Money doctors, if you will. Finance managers do the research and advise top executives about how to generate better income and spend less money.
Financial managers can't just be anyone. They need an undergraduate degree or even Master of Business Administration degrees in some cases. That kind of degree would cost $9,000-$70,000 a year, depending on the institution.
Data Scientist
Mean Income: $115,000 Top 10%: $190,500
When you hear the word 'scientist' you usually get a mental image of a person wearing a white lab coat, some protective goggles, and holding a test tube or a petri dish. But data scientists do nothing of the above. Well, they are free to come to work in a white lab coat but that's just as a fashion statement.
Data scientists would solve computing problems for the company they work for, plus do the necessary data research. Demand for this line of work has only been increasing in the last few years, and it will probably keep growing in the following years.