Java developers, data scientists have the best-rated jobs, according to Glassdoor analysis

Java — which first came to fruition in the mid 1990s — may have taken its place among the legacy languages of the industry, but its developers are enjoying the highest levels of job satisfaction in the United States. A recent analysis of top jobs by Glassdoor, which gathers employee ratings of workplaces along with job openings, finds Java developer is currently the number-one top-ranked job in the country. 

Of course, Java encompasses many things — it’s a highly versatile, cross-platform and cross-device programming language, an ecosystem. as well as a set of frameworks that power the core of enterprise infrastructures. Every major enterprise has Java somewhere under the covers. The category published in Glassdoor encompasses Java frameworks along with the language itself: Java Spring Frameworks, NoSQL, Restful APIS, Spring BOOT, Agile Software Development, Full Stack Java, and Spring MVC. 

Data scientists and product managers rank second and third, respectively. Also topping out the top 10 are enterprise architects, DevOps engineers, information security engineers, mobile engineers, and software engineers. 

The conclusion you can draw from these ratings is those IT professionals engaged with delivering digital capabilities for enterprises are seeing the greatest levels of job satisfaction. It’s notable that enterprise architects and DevOps engineers appear in the top five in the list — these are cutting-edge roles that are directly involved in building the enterprise as we’d like to see it in the very near future, with technology that effortlessly maps to the business requirement of the moment. And data scientists — we all know AI and data analytics are what will sit on top of business priorities. 

It’s possible that corporate leadership has been acknowledging the vital roles these professionals played over the past year in not only keeping their businesses going, but also opening up new channels of growth. Of course, the past 12 months was also an extremely stressful time for IT professionals, but perhaps they were feeling the appreciation as well. 

Glassdoor’s analysis is based on specific jobs with the highest overall Glassdoor job score. “The Glassdoor job score is determined by weighing three factors equally: earning potential (median annual base salary), overall job satisfaction rating and number of job openings,” according to the site. “Results represent job titles that rate highly among all three categories.” The final score is based on ratings received during the time period between December 2019 and December 2020.

The top 25 jobs in America include the following. Note that 15 of the top 25 were IT-related roles. Also note that higher salary level doesn’t necessarily correlate to job satisfaction:

1. Java Developer (Salary: $90,830; Job satisfaction rating [out of 5]:  4.2)
2. Data Scientist (Salary: $113,736; Job satisfaction:  4.1)
3. Product Manager (Salary: $121,107; Job satisfaction:  3.9)
4. Enterprise Architect (Salary: $131,361; Job satisfaction:  4.0)
5. DevOps Engineer (Salary: $110,003; Job satisfaction:  4.0)
6. Information Security Engineer (Salary $110,000; Job satisfaction: 4.0)
7. Business Development Manager (Salary: $82,182; Job satisfaction: 4.1)
8. Mobile Engineer (Salary: $94,301; Job satisfaction: 4.1)
9. Software Engineer (Salary: $110,245; Job satisfaction:  3.8)
10. Dentist (Salary: $134,122; Job satisfaction:  4.0)
11. Front End Engineer (Salary: $81,360; Job satisfaction: 4.0)
12. HR Manager (Salary: $87,852; Job satisfaction: 4.2)
13. Strategy Manager  (Salary:  $123,207; Job satisfaction:  4.2)
14. Salesforce Developer  (Salary:  $89,098; Job satisfaction:  4.2)
15. Automation Engineer (Salary: $86,445; Job satisfaction:   4.1)
16. Back End Engineer  (Salary: $90,757; Job satisfaction: 4.3)
17. Machine Learning Engineer  (Salary:  $104,837; Job satisfaction:    4.1)
18. Product Marketing Manager  (Salary:  $120,267; Job satisfaction:    4.1)
19. Tax Manager  (Salary: $111,046; Job satisfaction:   4.0)
20. Program Manager  (Salary: $80,066; Job satisfaction: 3.9)
21. Consultant  (Salary:  $83,069; Job satisfaction:    3.9)
22. Solutions Engineer (Salary:  $90,942; Job satisfaction:    4.2)
23. Cloud Engineer  (Salary: $105,565  3.9
24. UX Designer  (Salary: $90,881   4.0
25. Product Designer  (Salary:  $104,120; Job satisfaction:    4.1)