What is a modern workplace engineer?

Many Job titles in IT are quite descriptive about what the person does that brandishes the title. For example, we are all familiar with job titles like Database Administrator, Infrastructure Engineer, and IT Manager and understand what they do. On the other hand, the Modern Workplace has snuck up on us like the "cloud" did several years ago and I have found myself wondering, “What does 'Modern Workplace' really mean?”

"Being a Modern Workplace Engineer is more than a trendy job title"

To me, being a Modern Workplace Engineer is more than a trendy job title… it is something to identify with, a way of thinking and looking at the world around me. It is to have a solid understanding of both technologies and business processes, to be curious and question how, and why things are done the way they are. It is to challenge when you think you see another way whilst also being respectful of other opinions and open to changing your own point of view. I know that was less of what we do and more the type of person I think it is, but it sets a good tone.

Let us clear up Modern Workplace and Modern Workspace. Modern Workplace is the place and physical environment you work in. Modern Workspace is the logical environment or tools you use to do your job. A Modern Workplace Engineer brings these two things together to enable businesses to operate most dynamically and efficiently as possible.

Modern Workplace engineering is the new generalist, the tech who has worked in networking, servers, client support, cloud technologies, architecting solutions and not just configuring solutions but how to use them as well. You must be able to grasp new concepts and technologies quickly and be able to research and apply them to real-world business requirements, then be prepared to rebuild it again when something better presents itself.

Now I am not saying that other IT professionals in different roles do not have to do the same or are not good at it, but I am saying that in Modern Workplace, it is fundamental to success. Modern Workplace engineering is to be disruptive to the norm by finding a better way if it exists, and hopefully, learn a bunch of new stuff while doing it.