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Ask HN: Programmers who aren't front/back end/web developers, what is your job?

I feel like reading HN sometimes you'd get the impression that all software development now days is just building web apps or working on web services. I'm curious for people who are programmers but don't work on the usual web stuff, what is your job/domain?

aavci 2y ago
There's a fair bit of developers out there who are dedicated to native mobile app development.
- tshaddox 2y ago
  Also: - video games and related computer graphics development - data scientist/data engineer - desktop enterprise apps (granted, these are increasing going web-based)
drdirk 2y ago
I am a GPU compiler engineer working on the OpenXLA compiler.
rubenvanwyk 2y ago
Data Engineers
jzzskijj 2y ago
Games? Embedded? FPGA? UI frameworks? DSP or Signal processing?
lytedev 2y ago
I work on tools for other developers!
sshine 2y ago
My previous 7 positions: Firmware (bare-metal) Firmware (Linux-embedded) Blockchain (mixture of cryptography and network programming) Platform (DevOps / Kubernetes) DeFi R&D (Smart contract compiler / smart contracts) Full-stack web (Perl, Vue) Fintech backend (algos, full-stack web)
asoplata 2y ago
There's a small but growing amount of "research software engineers", people who attempt to bring professional-level software development to scientific research, and help scientists achieve their goals (example org: https://us-rse.org/ https://us-rse.org/ ). That's what I do as of recently (see https://hnn.brown.edu/ https://hnn.brown.edu/ ): left my last post-doc, and switched to full-time development on a scientific computing package in my old domain (computational neuroscience).
blastonico 2y ago
C Compiler (GCC) - Bug fixes, performance improvements, etc.
milianw 2y ago
C++/Qt GUI applications (embedded, desktop), mostly for a large customer in the medical sector, i.e. microscopy/imaging/cancer research.
invalidname 2y ago
At the moment I'm working for an observability company building an observability agent. That includes aspects of backend but it's a bit like writing a computer virus. It's a bit like hacking.
marssaxman 2y ago
I am currently working for RISC Zero on a ZK circuit compiler. Prior to that: - tensor compiler for inference acceleration (plaidml) - static analysis tools (coverity) - photo manager app, specifically an ML-based self-organization system which never shipped (mylio) - scripting language for internal streaming computation pipeline (google) - various embedded firmware projects at a product development contractor Before that, I spent many years working on compilers and related tools.
on_the_train 2y ago
Working on software for zeiss semiconductor. Scientific stuff, all inhouse
l0rn 2y ago
I find it oddly hard to switch fields. I guess I did web stuff for too long and filled my CV with it. Although i regularily do other stuff (embedded eng, systems eng) and find my existing skills applicable to a large extend employers seem to be put off by my history in web.
JTyQZSnP3cQGa8B 2y ago
Desktop applications, and sometimes servers unrelated to the web. Actually all the technologies that existed for 40 years before the web. The fact that I hate JS and think it’s the worst language ever created explains why I’m not doing web stuff on purpose unless I’m ordered to.
whobre 2y ago
Making tools for data engineering. Most of my previous career was text processing.
baseballdork 2y ago
Hardware-in-the-loop realtime dev for missile systems.
kennethrc 2y ago
Essentially an embedded SW Dev, working on either bare-metal or something using Linux as an OS. I tell non-SW people (and a few who are) that I "do the stuff that happens from the time you press the power button to the time your 'thing' is ready to use", then they get it.
davesmylie 2y ago
system operations/admin. moved over from dev about 10 years ago, but for various reasons still do a bit of programming, mostly for one-off adhoc analysis or config tasks. Gotta say not having to worry about end users, future proofing or historic technical debt is wonderful.
kaz-inc 2y ago
Working on ML Compilers for different accelerators.
AndrewDucker 2y ago
C# Desktop apps.
hikarudo 2y ago
Computer vision. C++ and Python.
p_m_c 2y ago
I have worked on bond pricing and inventory systems, systems for options and credit default swaps, security agents for runtimes like java, python, industrial control software (SCADA).
moltar 2y ago
Infrastructure engineer (write TypeScript code)
mamcx 2y ago
There is a big cohort of people working in ERP-like software (that granted, covers what you say), and is a big niche with A LOT of things that you need to do. I work on this, for small companies. Also, working as database engineer, that is certainly a unexpected turn of events for me :)
masteruvpuppetz 2y ago
The jobs/roles I search for (finance guy), seems like everyone's working on quant development

aavci 2y ago

There's a fair bit of developers out there who are dedicated to native mobile app development.

tshaddox 2y ago
Also: - video games and related computer graphics development - data scientist/data engineer - desktop enterprise apps (granted, these are increasing going web-based)

drdirk 2y ago

I am a GPU compiler engineer working on the OpenXLA compiler.

rubenvanwyk 2y ago

Data Engineers

jzzskijj 2y ago

Games? Embedded? FPGA? UI frameworks? DSP or Signal processing?

lytedev 2y ago

I work on tools for other developers!

sshine 2y ago

My previous 7 positions: Firmware (bare-metal) Firmware (Linux-embedded) Blockchain (mixture of cryptography and network programming) Platform (DevOps / Kubernetes) DeFi R&D (Smart contract compiler / smart contracts) Full-stack web (Perl, Vue) Fintech backend (algos, full-stack web)

asoplata 2y ago

There's a small but growing amount of "research software engineers", people who attempt to bring professional-level software development to scientific research, and help scientists achieve their goals (example org: https://us-rse.org/ https://us-rse.org/ ). That's what I do as of recently (see https://hnn.brown.edu/ https://hnn.brown.edu/ ): left my last post-doc, and switched to full-time development on a scientific computing package in my old domain (computational neuroscience).

blastonico 2y ago

C Compiler (GCC) - Bug fixes, performance improvements, etc.

milianw 2y ago

C++/Qt GUI applications (embedded, desktop), mostly for a large customer in the medical sector, i.e. microscopy/imaging/cancer research.

invalidname 2y ago

At the moment I'm working for an observability company building an observability agent. That includes aspects of backend but it's a bit like writing a computer virus. It's a bit like hacking.

marssaxman 2y ago

I am currently working for RISC Zero on a ZK circuit compiler. Prior to that: - tensor compiler for inference acceleration (plaidml) - static analysis tools (coverity) - photo manager app, specifically an ML-based self-organization system which never shipped (mylio) - scripting language for internal streaming computation pipeline (google) - various embedded firmware projects at a product development contractor Before that, I spent many years working on compilers and related tools.

on_the_train 2y ago

Working on software for zeiss semiconductor. Scientific stuff, all inhouse

l0rn 2y ago

I find it oddly hard to switch fields. I guess I did web stuff for too long and filled my CV with it. Although i regularily do other stuff (embedded eng, systems eng) and find my existing skills applicable to a large extend employers seem to be put off by my history in web.

JTyQZSnP3cQGa8B 2y ago

Desktop applications, and sometimes servers unrelated to the web. Actually all the technologies that existed for 40 years before the web. The fact that I hate JS and think it’s the worst language ever created explains why I’m not doing web stuff on purpose unless I’m ordered to.

whobre 2y ago

Making tools for data engineering. Most of my previous career was text processing.

baseballdork 2y ago

Hardware-in-the-loop realtime dev for missile systems.

kennethrc 2y ago

Essentially an embedded SW Dev, working on either bare-metal or something using Linux as an OS. I tell non-SW people (and a few who are) that I "do the stuff that happens from the time you press the power button to the time your 'thing' is ready to use", then they get it.

davesmylie 2y ago

system operations/admin. moved over from dev about 10 years ago, but for various reasons still do a bit of programming, mostly for one-off adhoc analysis or config tasks. Gotta say not having to worry about end users, future proofing or historic technical debt is wonderful.

kaz-inc 2y ago

Working on ML Compilers for different accelerators.

AndrewDucker 2y ago

C# Desktop apps.

hikarudo 2y ago

Computer vision. C++ and Python.

p_m_c 2y ago

I have worked on bond pricing and inventory systems, systems for options and credit default swaps, security agents for runtimes like java, python, industrial control software (SCADA).

moltar 2y ago

Infrastructure engineer (write TypeScript code)

mamcx 2y ago

There is a big cohort of people working in ERP-like software (that granted, covers what you say), and is a big niche with A LOT of things that you need to do. I work on this, for small companies. Also, working as database engineer, that is certainly a unexpected turn of events for me :)

masteruvpuppetz 2y ago

The jobs/roles I search for (finance guy), seems like everyone's working on quant development