If you’re looking for one word to sum up the hottest jobs in tech, here it is: data. Dice recently examined data from Burning Glass’s Nova platform, which analyzes millions of active job postings, and found that many of the fastest-growing tech jobs in the country had something to do with the creation, storage, and analysis of data. Here’s our handy visualization, along with the percentage increases over the past twelve months: Obviously, data engineer, data scientist, data-mining analyst, database architect, and data warehousing specialist all fall in this “data intensive” category. But the other ranking jobs—including security management specialist, GIS specialist, and IT project manager—also involve heavy data analytics. If you’re a geographer/GIS specialist, for example, you’re wrestling with geographical datasets all day; if you’re a game designer, you’re studying everything from user surveys to telemetry data to figure out features for your next update. For years, periodic analysis of the Dice database has shown that integrating data analytics and related skills into your repertoire can translate into significant salary gains. That assessment is backed up by other sources, as well, including the Department of Commerce’s Economics & Statistics Administration, which has traced the steady rise in salaries for data-related positions. In other words, being a data engineer pays off, especially at top-tier tech firms. Despite that added money, however, the number of people working in data-related roles isn’t accelerating fast enough to meet demand. In 2017, for example, a report from consulting firm McKinsey & Co. suggested a national shortage of as many as 190,000 people with “deep analytical skills” by the end of the current year. If you’re interested in augmenting your skillset with some data-related abilities, ask if your employer will foot the bill for additional education and certification. The worst they can say is “no.” But if they approve that request, it may ultimately prove beneficial for both you and them. Start off the new year with some new learning courses!