Beginner’s Guide to Careers in AI and Machine Learning

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The extensive development of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) forced the job market to adapt. The era of AI and ML generalists has ended, and we entered the era of specialists.

It can be difficult even for more experienced to find their way around it, let alone beginners.

That’s why I created this little guide to understanding different AI and ML jobs.

What Are AI & ML?

AI is a field of computer science that aims to create computer systems that show human-like intelligence.

ML is a subfield of AI that employs algorithms to build and deploy models that can learn from data and make decisions without explicit instructions being programmed.

Jobs in AI & ML

The complexity of AI & ML and their various purposes results in various jobs applying them differently.

Here are the ten jobs I’ll talk about.

Though they all require AI & ML, with skills and tools sometimes overlapping, each job requires some distinct aspect of AI & ML expertise.

Here’s an overview of these differences.

1. AI Engineer

This role specializes in developing, implementing, testing, and maintaining AI systems.

Technical Skills

The core AI engineer skills revolve around building AI models, so programming languages and ML techniques are essential.

Tools

The main tools used are Python libraries, tools for big data, and databases.

• TensorFlow, PyTorch – creating neural networks and ML applications using dynamic graphs and static graphs computations 
• Hadoop, Spark – processing and analyzing big data
• scikit-learn, Keras – implementing supervised and unsupervised ML algorithms and building models, including DL models
• SQL (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server, Oracle), NoSQL databases like MongoDB (for document-oriented data, e.g., JSON-like documents) and Cassandra (column-family data model excellent for time-series data) – storing and managing structured & unstructured data

Projects

The AI engineers work on automation projects and AI systems such as:

• Autonomous vehicles
• Virtual assistants 
• Healthcare robots
• Production line robots
• Smart home systems

Types of Interview Questions

The interview questions reflect the skills required, so expect the following topics:

2. ML Engineer

ML engineers develop, deploy, and maintain ML models. Their focus is deploying and tuning models in production.

Technical Skills

ML engineers’ main skills, apart from the usual suspect in machine learning, are software engineering and advanced mathematics.

Tools

The tools ML engineers’ tools are similar tools to AI engineers’. 

Projects

ML engineers’ knowledge is employed in these projects:

Types of Interview Questions

ML is the core aspect of every ML engineer job, so this is the focus of their interviews.

• ML concepts – ML fundamentals, e.g., types of machine learning, overfitting, and underfitting
• ML algorithms
• Coding questions
• Data handling – fundamentals of preparing data for modeling
• Model evaluation – model evaluation techniques and metrics, including accuracy, precision, recall, F1 score, and ROC curve 
• Problem-solving questions

3. Data Scientist

Data scientists collect and clean data and perform Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) to better understand it. They create statistical models, ML algorithms, and visualizations to understand patterns within data and make predictions.

Unlike ML engineers, data scientists are more involved in the initial stages of the ML model; they focus on discovering data patterns and extracting insights from them.

Technical Skills

The skills data scientists use are focused on providing actionable insights.

Tools

• Tableau, Power BI – data visualization
• TensorFlow, scikit-learn, Keras, PyTorch – developing, training, deploying ML & DL models
• Jupyter Notebooks – interactive coding, data visualization, documentation
• SQL and NoSQL databases – same as ML engineer
• Hadoop, Spark – same as ML engineer
• pandas, NumPy, SciPy – data manipulation and numerical computation

Projects

Data scientists work on the same projects as ML engineers, only in the pre-deployment stages.

Types of Interview Questions

4. Data Engineer

They develop and maintain data processing systems and build data pipelines to ensure data availability. Machine learning is not their core work. However, they collaborate with ML engineers and data scientists to ensure data availability for ML models, so they must understand the ML fundamentals. Also, they sometimes integrate ML algorithms into data pipelines, e.g., for data classification or anomaly detection.

Technical Skills

• Programming languages (Python, Scala, Java, Bash) – data manipulation, big data processing, scripting, automation, building data pipelines, managing system processes and files
• Data warehousing – integrated data storage
• ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) processes – building ETL pipelines
• Big data technologies – distributed storage, data streaming, advanced analytics
• Database management – data storage, security, and availability
• ML – for ML-driven data pipelines

Tools

Projects

Data engineers work on projects that make data available for other roles.

• Building ETL pipelines 
• Building systems for data streaming
• Assistance in deploying ML models 

Types of Interview Questions

Data engineers must demonstrate knowledge of data architecture and infrastructure.

5. AI Research Scientist

These scientists conduct research focusing on developing new algorithms and AI principles.

Technical Skills

• Programming languages (Python, R) – data analysis, prototyping & deploying AI models
• Research methodology – experiment design, hypothesis formulation and testing, result analysis
• Advanced ML – developing and perfecting algorithms
• NLP – improving capabilities of NLP systems
• DL – improving capabilities of DL systems

Tools

• TensorFlow, PyTorch – developing, training, and deploying ML & DL models
• Jupyter Notebooks – interactive coding, data visualization, and documenting research workflows
• LaTeX – scientific writing

Projects

They work on creating and advancing algorithms used in:

Types of Interview Questions

The AI research scientists must show practical and very strong theoretical AI & ML knowledge.

• Theoretical foundations of AI & ML
• Practical application of AI
• ML algorithms – theory and application of different ML algorithms
• Methodology foundations

6. Business Intelligence Analyst

BI analysts analyze data, unveil actionable insights, and present them to stakeholders via data visualizations, reports, and dashboards. AI in business intelligence is most commonly used to automate data processing, identify trends and patterns in data, and predictive analytics.

Technical Skills

• Programming languages (Python) – data querying, processing, analysis, reporting, visualization
• Data analysis – providing actionable insights for decision making
• Business analytics – identifying opportunities and optimizing business processes
• Data visualization – presenting insights visually
• Machine learning – predictive analytics, anomaly detection, enhanced data insights

Tools

Projects

The projects they work on are focused on analysis and reporting:

• Churn analysis
• Sales analysis
• Cost analysis
• Customer segmentation
• Process improvement, e.g., inventory management

Types of Interview Questions

BI analysts’ interview questions focus on coding and data analysis skills.

• Coding questions
• Data and database fundamentals
• Data analysis fundamentals
• Problem-solving questions

Conclusion

AI & ML are extensive and constantly evolving fields. As they evolve, the jobs that require AI & ML skills do, too. Almost every day, there are new job descriptions and specializations, reflecting the growing need for businesses to harness the possibilities of AI and ML.

I discussed six jobs I assessed you’ll be most interested in. However, these are not the only AI and ML jobs. There are many more, and they’ll keep coming, so try to stay up to date.

Nate Rosidi is a data scientist and in product strategy. He’s also an adjunct professor teaching analytics, and is the founder of StrataScratch, a platform helping data scientists prepare for their interviews with real interview questions from top companies. Nate writes on the latest trends in the career market, gives interview advice, shares data science projects, and covers everything SQL.