The people who design the specifications for the servers in a data center, and design and manage the layout of the physical and logical network are essential somewhere along the way, whether at your company or your host’s. Typically, these roles require networking and operating systems knowledge that is usually covered in other computing courses outside of web development.

Once the system is built and wired to the network, system administrators are the next people required to get things up and running. Often they choose and install the network operating system, then manage the shared operating system environments for other users. This position is often combined with the hardware architect in smaller firms, and is on call, since a broken hard drive on Saturday morning cannot wait two days to be fixed.

The database administrator (sometimes abbreviated as DBA) is a role found in larger companies. In these companies, there are many databases, often from many divisions, all of which need to be managed, secured, and backed up. Database administrators will perform maintenance on the databases as well as manage access for user and software accounts. They sometimes write triggers and advanced queries for users upon request as well as manage database indexes.

A data architect has some overlap with database administrator, but the role is more focused on the design and integration of data. In recent years, managing and making use of large sets of often unrelated data has become increasingly important for web companies. In smaller companies, these different data roles are often combined with the system administrator and/or developer ones.

A good system administrator and network architect will certainly have insights into security as they perform their duties. However, because security is so vital to web development in general, and because the knowledge necessary to do security work is complicated and ever changing, it is not uncommon for companies to outsource their security needs to security specialists. These specialists will test for vulnerabilities, implement security best practices, and make updates and changes to programming code or hardware infrastructure to protect a site against well-known or newly emerging (called zero-hour) threats.

Programmers can be assigned a wide range of tasks aside from simple coding. Writing good documentation, using version control software, engaging in code reviews, running test cases, and more might be typical tasks, depending on company practices. Programmer positions often begin at the entry level, with higher-level design decisions left to software engineers and senior developers. In terms of the web development world, the terms programmer and developer are quite broad; typically, however, this term is used to indicate a job focused more on server-side development using languages like PHP.

Increasingly complex front-end development requires software developers with an aptitude for graphical user interface design (nowadays more typically referred to as user-experience or UX design) and an understanding of human–computer interaction (HCI) principals. This typically requires in-depth JavaScript expertise along with good CSS skills. Another increasingly commonly used synonym for front-end developer is UX developer. The main difference between a UX developer and a UX/UI designer (described below), is that the UX developer is involved mainly in the implementation of the user experience and less in the actual design of it.

A software engineer is a programmer who is adept at the language of analysis and design, and uses established best practices in the development of software. Sometimes the role of a programmer and software engineer are used interchangeably, but a software engineer has more knowledge of the software development life cycle and can effectively gather requirements and speak with clients about technical and business matters.

These are names used somewhat interchangeably for jobs that focus on the structure, design, and usability of a website. Once referred to as the user interface, the term UX has become the preferred term because improving how a website is used is just as important (or even more important) nowadays as improving how a website appears. While coding skills can be helpful, this type of work more often involves the development of prototypes, making mockup designs, and analyzing user experience data. In larger web development firms, this type of work also commonly involves working in conjunction with creatives in the art department.

Testers are the people who try to identify flaws in software before it gets released. This type of work is often called quality assurance (QA). Although some test roles are for nonexperts, many testers know how to program and might write automated tests as well as develop testing plans from requirements. Although these duties are often integrated with developers, they can form a job all their own.

Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to the process of improving the discoverability of web content by search engines. Chapter 23 covers both the above board (as well as the under-handed) techniques used to improve SEO results. An SEO specialist needs to be familiar with these techniques as well as analytics, testing approaches, social networking APIs, and even content creation strategies.

Regardless of technological features, websites ultimately succeed due to the quality of their content. A content strategist (sometimes also called a marketing technologist) is someone who uses his or her experience with existing and emerging web technologies in conjunction with knowledge about the audience to craft engaging web content. This type of work might also be done by an SEO specialist or an information architect. Writing and marketing skills as well as knowledge of content management systems, email services, and social networking interfaces are important for this job.

Websites are complicated projects often involving the work of many different people with different skill sets and personalities. Getting all these people to work together in a timely and effective manner typically requires the committed effort and knowledge of project managers (also called product managers). Knowledge of planning and estimation methodologies is helpful, as are more general people management skills.

Although a software engineer in an analysis role might speak to clients and get requirements, that role is often given a different name and assigned to someone with especially good communication skills. A business analyst is the interface between the various divisions of the company and the website (and IT in general). These people can easily speak to the HR, marketing, and legal divisions, and then translate those requirements into tasks that software engineers can take on.

Aside from all the technical roles above, there are additional important roles that require expertise outside of technology. These roles include traditional ones found in almost every company: accountants, writers, designers, editors, lawyers, salespeople, and managers. There are also a wide variety of new roles that are unique to the web space,⁷ such as analytics manager, motion designer, social media analyst, cloud architect, and the intriguingly named growth hacker. Getting people from different backgrounds with different expertise to work together is how companies balance the business, technology, and art of website development.

Back in section 1.3.4, we learned that there are companies that will manage servers on your behalf. These hosting companies or data centers offer many employment opportunities, especially related to hardware, networking, and system administration roles.

Design companies are at the opposite end of the spectrum, with few technical positions available. These firms will provide professional artistic and design services that might go beyond the web and include logos and branding in general. Some companies produce mockups in Photoshop, for example, which a web developer (at another company) can then turn into a website.

Website solution companies focus on the programming and deployment of websites for their clients. There are technical positions to help manage the existing sites (working in conjunction with hosting companies) as well as development jobs to build the latest custom site.

Vertically integrated companies are increasingly becoming the one-stop shop for web development. They are called vertically integrated because these companies combine hosting, design, and application solutions into one company. This allows these companies to achieve economies of scale and appeal to nontechnical clients who can go there for all their web-related needs, large or small.

Start-up ventures in web development have been some of the biggest success stories in the business world. Start-ups are often attractive places for new graduates to work, with less competition from experienced candidates and potentially lots of jobs available from developers to designers and system administrators. The smaller start-ups companies often require full-stack developers, who can take on any role from system administrator through to lead developer.

Although many companies outsource their web presence, others assign the work to an internal division, normally under the umbrella of IT or marketing. Although many of these roles are simple caretaker positions, others can be quite engaging, requiring real programming expertise. Many companies have lots of internal data they would not share with outsiders and thus prefer in-house expertise for the development of web interfaces and systems to manage and display that confidential data. Often these websites exist only with an organization’s Intranet rather than as public websites on the Internet.