Big Data Predictions For 2015TimesJobs data shows the IT industry is now moving away from the generic data scientist role to specific big data-related roles to build their analytics solution portfolios.

Big data is the IT industry’s new buzzword. Industries have been talking about how insights from big data analytics can give them a competitive edge. Some front-runners have been implementing big data while others are running PoCs (Proof of Concepts) to understand the business impact.

This possibility of how analytics can transform a business has been driving IT companies to build a strong big data analytics portfolio that has something for every business user. This in turn has led to the creation of specific big data analytics roles within IT product companies and IT consulting firms.

TimesJobs data shows that companies such as Wipro, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, HP, Fractal Analytics, Symphony Teleca and Honeywell seem to be moving away from the loose term of data scientist -billed as the hottest tech job role of the 21st century – and breaking it down into specific job roles.

Following are four big data-linked tech job roles that are most in demand in the Indian IT industry, based on TimesJobs.com data:

1) Big Data Test Engineers

Role: Involves working closely with the design team todevelop test cases and perform manual testing for big data technologies.

Skills required

Knowledge of automation of test suite using Python/Java to ensure faster and efficient test cycles for every release

Strong working knowledge of distributed systems technologies, web-based technologies, app servers, application and database performance tuning approaches and tools

Working knowledge on Hadoop, Hive, Flume, Java/J2EE, XML, SOAP and web services. Prior development experience would be a plus

2) Big Data Developers

Role: A programmer with proven skills in writing high-quality, highly optimised, high performance and maintainable codes for big data solutions.

Skills required

Knowledge of Hadoop apps and skilled in MapReduce programming

Knowledge of how to effectively integrate apps with concepts such as data base technologies, data warehousing, data analytics, business intelligence and warehouse development

Nimbleness in scheduling and monitoring jobs and taking decisive actions to mitigate process errors during software development

3) Big Data Technology Leads

Role: Requires understanding of different industries, the kind of data generated, their big data analytics requirements, types of algorithms that need to be run and the ability to recommend optimal solutions.

Skills required

Industry experience coupled with tech know-how that equips the person to build the big data vision of the IT solution provider

Hands-on experience with building quick prototypes/proof of concepts for big data solutions

Out-of-the-box thinking to conceptualise never-thought-of analytics solutions for specific business needs of different industries

4) Predictive Analytics Consultants

Role: It is an in-demand role in IT consulting companies. The role demands big data specialists whose core strength is leveraging analytics tools for specific business decision-making contexts where he/she will be preparing, analysing and culling out insights in an efficient and errorless manner using statistical, machine learning and optimisation techniques.

 Skills required

Business acumen coupled with technology know-how that enables him/her to execute the required analytics programming with minimal supervision for different clients

Knowledge of complex querying, data mining and model algorithms

Ability to manage data audit steps in order to ensure data quality, data extraction methodology, logic and design of data cleaning, exploratory data analysis and statistical methods source