This document provides an overview of non-technical roles in the tech industry. It begins by noting that tech companies employ 3 times as many non-technical workers as technical workers. It then lists and describes common non-technical roles including business operations, human resources, corporate development, research, product management, project management, operations, marketing, sales, business development, customer service, and finance/accounting. For each role, it provides an example project, typical daily responsibilities, common roles within that function, and the types of skills and experience sought for those roles. It concludes by noting that many people transition between different non-technical roles over their careers in tech.

1. T H E U LT I M AT E G U I D E T O
N O N - T E C H N I C A L T E C H J O B S
B R E A K I N T O T E C H

2. S O Y O U WA N T T O
W O R K I N T E C H ?

3. B U T Y O U D O N ’ T H AV E
T E C H N I C A L S K I L L S ?

4. N O P R O B L E M .

5. T E C H C O M PA N I E S H AV E 3 X A S M A N Y
N O N - T E C H N I C A L W O R K E R S A S T E C H I E S
I T T U R N S O U T T H A T
T E C H N I C A L
R O L E S
#
I N F O R M AT I O N
T E C H N O L O G Y
6 4 , 2 6 4
E N G I N E E R I N G 3 9 , 3 7 8
A R T S A N D
D E S I G N
2 6 , 4 8 7
Q U A L I T Y
A S S U R A N C E
5 , 2 0 5
T O TA L 1 3 5 , 3 3 4
N O N - T E C H N I C A L R O L E S #
E N T R E P R E N E U R S H I P 9 0 , 3 3 7
S A L E S 4 4 , 3 1 2
M A R K E T I N G 3 7 , 9 7 8
O P E R AT I O N S 3 3 , 7 6 6
M E D I A A N D C O M M U N I C AT I O N 2 6 , 0 8 7
S U P P O R T 2 2 , 9 2 9
C O N S U LT I N G 2 0 , 4 8 3
B U S I N E S S D E V E L O P M E N T 1 4 , 4 4 7
P R O D U C T M A N A G E M E N T 1 4 , 1 4 1
P R O G R A M A N D P R O J E C T
M A N A G E M E N T
1 2 , 1 7 2
A D M I N I S T R AT I V E 1 1 , 4 8 1
F I N A N C E 1 0 , 4 6 4
E D U C AT I O N 9 , 3 6 1
R E S E A R C H 8 , 9 9 4
H U M A N R E S O U R C E S 8 , 3 5 3
C O M M U N I T Y A N D S O C I A L
S E R V I C E S
7 , 2 7 2
H E A LT H C A R E S E R V I C E S 5 , 2 0 4
A C C O U N T I N G 4 , 7 6 5
L E G A L 3 , 6 0 0
R E A L E S TAT E 2 , 2 0 4
M I L I TA RY A N D P R O T E C T I V E
S E R V I C E S
1 , 3 7 6
P U R C H A S I N G 1 , 2 0 8
T O TA L 3 9 0 , 9 3 4
Source: LinkedIn, US Internet Workers

6. B U T W H E R E D O Y O U
F I T I N ?

7. N O N - T E C H N I C A L T E C H R O L E S
W E L C O M E T O A T O U R O F

8. B E F O R E W E B E G I N ,
3 K E Y P O I N T S
1. What’s covered?
2. Who reports to whom?
3. How do the roles work together?

9. W H AT ’ S C O V E R E D ?
• Because this report is designed for people without
formal technical experience, we’ll only cover roles that
don’t require:
• A specific degree (e.g., computer science, law)
• Or specialized computer skills (e.g., SQL,
Photoshop)

10. W H O R E P O R T S T O W H O M ?
• Most tech companies are organized around product teams (e.g., Apple’s iPhone or LinkedIn’s tablet
app), comprised of many different functional roles (e.g., product manager, marketer). This means that a
hypothetical marketer on these teams will typically spend more time with her product teammates than
her fellow marketers.
• But because these organizations are “matrixed,” the individual functions still report up to their own
functional teams. Thus, the marketer reports to the VP of Marketing, not the leadership of the product
team.
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VP$of$
Product$
Product$
Manager$
VP$of$
Marke4ng$
Marke4ng$
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VP$of$
Opera4ons$
Opera4ons$
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P R O D U C T T E A M
FUNCTIONALTEAM

11. H O W D O T H E R O L E S W O R K
T O G E T H E R ?
• While functions contribute throughout the product team experience (e.g., HR both hires new team
members and helps to retain them), each role shines at a different point.
• For example, if Apple wanted to build a new TV, here’s how they would approach it:
Team%Forma)on%
• Business'
Opera,ons%
explores%
opportunity%
• HR%%
hires%team%
• Corporate'
Development%
acquires%team%
Product%
Development%
• Research%%
analyzes%
customers%
• Product'
Management''
sets%vision%
• Project'
Management'
oversees%
development%
• Opera,ons%%
builds%systems/
supply%chain%
Distribu)on%
• Marke,ng%%
creates%awareness%
• Sales%%
closes%deals%
• Business'
Development''
inks%partnerships%
• Customer'Service'
handles%support%
• Finance/
Accoun,ng''
tracks%
performance%
C L I C K A
R O L E
F O R
M O R E
D E TA I L

12. O K , L E T ’ S D I G I N T O
E A C H R O L E

13. B U S I N E S S
O P E R AT I O N S
• AKA: BizOps
• Overview: Think of BizOps as a company’s
internal consulting agency. Whenever there are
big, meaty questions to unpack, BizOps folks
are brought in to crack the case.
• Example project: How profitable would a new
Apple TV be in the first five years after launch?
• What you do all day: Research questions,
gather data, analyze data, make
recommendations to stakeholders
• Roles: Business Operations Analyst (more
junior), Business Operations Manager (more
senior)
• What they look for: Former bankers and
consultants with strong spreadsheet and
presentation skills

14. H U M A N
R E S O U R C E S
• AKA: HR
• Overview: HR is responsible for hiring and retaining
talent, so they cover everything from recruiting to
managing benefits.
• Example project: Hire five hardware engineers with
experience in TV design.
• What you do all day: Find talent, develop great
programs/benefits for existing talent
• Roles: Sourcer (finds candidates), Recruiter (leads
candidates through hiring process), Learning and
Development/Training (trains existing hires), HR
Business Partner (liaises with specific teams to handle
all HR needs from recruiting to exit interviews),
Operations (handles all of the HR systems)
• What they look for: People with strong social skills
(to represent the company well) and organizational
abilities (to manage complex HR processes)

15. C O R P O R AT E
D E V E L O P M E N T
• AKA: CorpDev
• Overview: CorpDev is all about M&A. In other
words, the acquisition of smaller companies that
you’re constantly reading about in the
headlines: Facebook gobbles up Instagram,
Google buys Nest, Apple acquires Beats.
• Example project: Lead the acquisition of a
startup with a TV show recommendation app.
• What you do all day: Analyze opportunities,
build relationships, negotiate deals
• Roles: Corporate Development Analyst/
Associate (more junior), Corporate
Development Manager (more senior)
• What they look for: Former financial types with
M&A experience (investment banks, private
equity)

16. R E S E A R C H
• AKA: Market Research, UX Research
• Overview: Understanding users from both
a qualitative and quantitative perspective.
• Example project: Discover the three
biggest pain points TV users have today.
• What you do all day: Plan studies, conduct
research (both digitally and in-person),
analyze results, make recommendations
• Roles: UX Research (analyzing how
customers use products), Market Research
(analyzing how customers think and buy)
• What they look for: People with
psychology, design, or statistics
backgrounds

17. P R O D U C T
M A N A G E M E N T
• AKA: PM
• Overview: Product Management leads the
development of new products. Given that tech
companies are often organized around products (what
would Facebook be without, well, Facebook?), this is
often the most important role within the company.
• Example project: Lead the design and development
of the new Apple TV.
• What you do all day: Learn about your audience,
develop new concepts, create product blueprints,
manage a cross-functional team to bring the product to
life, review metrics
• Roles: Associate Product Manager (more junior),
Product Manager (more senior)
• What they look for: People with technical
backgrounds (since you’ll work so closely with
engineers) and leaderships skills (since you’ll be
responsible for coordinating a cross-functional team)

18. P R O J E C T
M A N A G E M E N T
• AKA: Program Management
• Overview: Oversee both short-term projects and
long-term programs, making sure they run on-time
and within budget.
• Example project: Manage the progress of the
Apple TV engineering team against launch
deadlines.
• What you do all day: Plan projects, set-up tracking
systems, hold regular check-ins with all stakeholders
to review progress, provide updates
• Roles: Project Manager (manages short-term
projects), Program Manager (manages a portfolio of
ongoing projects)
• What they look for: People with exceptional
organizational skills - including project management
technology (e.g., Gantt charts, Scrum)

19. O P E R AT I O N S
• AKA: Supply Chain
• Overview: Operations makes sure that critical
business processes can operate smoothly - in both
the digital and physical worlds.
• Example project: Secure sufficient factory capacity
to deliver 1MM Apple TVs at launch.
• What you do all day: Make forecasts, design
systems, troubleshoot problems, engage with
partners and suppliers
• Roles: Operations (setting-up and maintaining
systems - from ad servers to marketplaces), Supply
Chain (for hardware businesses, these folks make
sure that all of the physical parts come together to
form the finished product)
• What they look for: Candidates with experience
designing systems/dashboards and strong
negotiation skills

20. M A R K E T I N G
• AKA: Product Marketing Management (PMM)
• Overview: Marketing solves the Field of Dreams
problem: Wrongly assuming that if we just build it, they
will come. By bringing the product directly to the
market, marketers make sure that customers are
actually aware of the latest and greatest.
• Example project: Develop a go-to-market campaign
to launch the new Apple TV.
• What you do all day: Research your audience, plan
campaigns, execute campaigns, measure results
• Roles: Product Marketing Manager (manages how a
product is brought to market), Copywriter/Voice + Tone
(generates copy for marketing campaign), Marketing
Operations (executes marketing campaigns via email
and advertising), PR/Communications (engages press
to get the word out)
• What they look for: Candidates with a mix of creative
and analytical skills

21. S A L E S
• Overview: For complex, expensive products, a
Sales team can close deals that wouldn’t be feasible
online. This includes both B2B (e.g., Salesforce sells
a $10MM package to IBM) and B2C businesses
(e.g., Facebook sells a seven-figure ad deal to Ford).
• Example project: Sell $20MM of Apple TVs to
corporate clients by the end of Q4.
• What you do all day: Research opportunities, talk
with prospects or customers, give demos, and close
deals
• Roles: Sales Development/Inside Sales (generating
new opportunities by emailing and calling), Account
Executive/Field Sales (closing deals, often at the
customer’s site), Account Manager/Customer
Success (supporting and upselling existing clients)
• What they look for: Candidates with a track record
of results and incredible powers of persuasion

22. B U S I N E S S
D E V E L O P M E N T
• AKA: BD, BizDev
• Overview: BD is like sales without money. You work
with other companies to form partnerships - but
instead of closing a paid deal, the companies barter
something valuable to each of them. For instance, early
in Google’s existence, it did a BD deal with Yahoo! that
made it the default search engine. In exchange for
getting access to Yahoo’s millions of users, Google
made Yahoo more effective for its customers.
• Example project: Partner with HBO to make sure that
its original programming is available on the Apple TV
at launch.
• What you do all day: Explore opportunities, build
relationships, propose/close deals
• Roles: Business Development Manager/Representative
• What they look for: Candidates with strong
interpersonal and negotiation skills

23. C U S T O M E R
S E R V I C E
• AKA: CS, Customer Success
• Overview: Customer Service is sometimes maligned as
the least sexy part of an organization. However, as churn
rate has become a critical metric for judging tech firms
both large and small, it’s now also one of the most
essential parts. In fact, Customer Service is often
rebranded as Customer Success to point out that this
team is increasingly becoming critical to the success of
the whole organization.
• Example project: Develop user guides for the new
Apple TV.
• What you do all day: Create support content, respond
to support requests, reach out to current customers
• Roles: Customer Service Representative (providing front-
line support to incoming customer requests), Customer
Success Manager (responsible for the success of a
portfolio of customers - from onboarding to upgrading)
• What they look for: Candidates with deep empathy for
customers and who are also good at juggling many tasks

24. F I N A N C E /
A C C O U N T I N G
• Overview: Keep tabs on the current
functioning of the business and provide
forecasting
• Example project: Project expected sales
for Apple TV in 2017.
• What you do all day: Design financial
reporting systems, produce reports,
analyze results, provide recommendations
• Roles: Accounting (manage and analyze
the books), Financial Analyst (provide
reports and forecasts on key metrics)
• What they look for: Candidates with
strong spreadsheet and presentation skills

25. Y O U R F I R S T T E C H R O L E I S J U S T T H E
B E G I N N I N G
O N E L A S T P O I N T:

26. P L E N T Y O F P E O P L E
H O P F R O M O N E
R O L E T O A N O T H E R
• Salespeople go into
Business Development
• Marketers become
Product Managers
• And tons of people launch
their careers in Customer
Service before moving on

27. J U S T L E T M E K N O W
I F Y O U WA N T H E L P F I N D I N G T H E P E R F E C T F I T
I ’ V E D O N E O R W O R K E D
W I T H E V E RY R O L E H E R E - F R O M
A P P L E + L I N K E D I N T O S TA RT U P S
E M A I L M E AT
J E R E M Y @ B R E A K I N T O . T E C H

28. F R E E I N S I D E R S E C R E T S
A N D G E T M O R E
S U B S C R I B E T O T H E
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A L L I A S K I S T H A T Y O U
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