The global skills and competency framework for the digital world

SFIA 8 - illustrative skills profiles

Generic mappings of SFIA 8 skills to recognised role families or career families. By looking across the industry, across different countries and users we can provide a useful starting point for creating a SFIA-based skills profile for common roles.

Download interactive pdf version of the skills profiles on this page.

pdf of SFIA illustrative skills profilespdf of SFIA illustrative skills profiles extract

The SFIA framework is flexible by design...

  • it does not prescribe or define jobs, roles, organisation structures or career paths
  • instead - SFIA describes the skills that roles, jobs or career steps require
  • this enables organisations of different shapes and sizes to create their own – built on a robust and proven framework

However – and based on significant demand from SFIA’s users - we have collated a set of generic mappings of SFIA skills for the industry's most common role families...

  • These provide a quick-start list of the most relevant SFIA skills for a selection of common roles.
  • Your own skill mappings will be specific to your context. You should tailor the mappings on this page to reflect your needs.
  • The mapping does not include SFIA levels. You will need to determine the level of responsibility of your own roles in order to assign SFIA skills and skill levels.  
  • This work has been ongoing for some time - and there is more to do – we are releasing this now to support SFIA 8 and to illustrate how the skills in SFIA 8 can be deployed in the workplace. 

If you want to use these for your own organisation – here are some guidelines to help you...

  • Do not use these off-the-shelf - they need to be tailored for your own use
  • Take some time to learn about the SFIA framework and clarify what you are trying to achieve and the outcomes you want from skills profiles 
  • Your organisation's priorities and context will drive the skills and competency levels required
  • You will need to look at the SFIA levels to determine the relevant competency levels for your own jobs/roles
  • If you can't find what you are looking for try the SFIA views, the full framework view or the A to Z list
  • Do not include too many SFIA skills per role - 5 to 7 skills is a pragmatic number to provide focus. Many roles need fewer.
  • These generic roles do not imply an organisation or team design. SFIA is a great framework to support organisation design - but  be aware  that organisation design is a specialised activity. 
  • For example - larger organisations may have specialised jobs/roles - where smaller organisations may combine several roles into one job.

There is some basic guidance available on the website - see SFIA and skills management.
SFIA Partners and SFIA Consultants are available for advice and implementation support. Full details are available here.
We also recommend SFIA Accredited Training which can teach you how to map SFIA skills to your own roles.
The SFIA User Forum page is here and includes guidance on job architectures and skills-based job analysis.

What's in the table...

  1. Name and a brief description of the grouping, e.g. the Information and cyber security role family
    • this may be sub-divided e.g. Security operations, Information security audit and compliance, Information security strategy and management
  2. Example job titles - this is illustrative only.
    • Job titles vary considerably between industries, employers, countries
    • Prefixes for career steps/job grades also vary (e.g. lead, senior, junior, principal, vice president, head of, director of) 
    • For these reasons - the SFIA framework does not specify job titles but does describe competency levels
  3. Look at these SFIA skills first group - these are skills that are frequently associated with the role or career family
  4. Other SFIA skills to consider - these skills that may be relevant for selected instances of the role

Data and analytics role family

Data science practitioners

Roles responsible for using scientific methods, processes, algorithms and systems to extract knowledge and insights from structured and unstructured data.

Example job titles...

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Data scientist
  • Lead data scientist
  • Quantitative analyst
  • Data analyst

Data engineering practitioners

Roles responsible for designing, building, testing and operationalising software and infrastructure components for data pipelines and data stores.

Example job titles...

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Data engineer
  • Cloud Data engineer
  • Cloud Data Architect

Data operations practitioners

Roles responsible for data and machine learning models in production. Automation of data extraction and data quality. Managing production performance and resolving production issues.

Example job titles...

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Data operations engineer
  • ML operations engineer
  • Data production engineer
  • Database Administrator
  • Cloud Database Administrator

Software engineering role family

Software engineering practitioners

Roles responsible for the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software (i.e. the application of engineering to software).

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Software Engineer
  • Principal Software Engineer
  • Senior Software Engineer
  • Software Development Engineer
  • Cloud Software Engineer

Software engineering practice management

Roles responsible for leading, managing, developing and deploying software engineers and software engineering capabilities.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Engineering Manager
  • Senior Engineering Manager
  • Director of Engineering
  • Senior Director of Engineering
  • VP of Engineering
  • Senior VP of Engineering

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

DevOps role family

DevOps practitioners

Roles responsible for building reliable and secure systems including application build, package,
and deployment.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • DevOps Engineer
  • Senior DevOps Engineer
  • Site Reliability Engineer
  • Cloud Platform Engineer
  • Cloud Site Reliability Engineer

DevOps practice management

Roles responsible for leading, managing, developing and deploying DevOps practitioners and DevOps capabilities.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • DevOps Manager
  • DevOps Director
  • DevOps VP

Business analysis role family

Business analysis practitioners

Roles responsible for investigating operational issues, problems and new opportunities. Finding effective business solutions through improvements in aspects of business operations and business systems.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Business Analyst
  • Junior Business Analyst
  • Lead Business Analyst
  • Principal Business Analyst
  • Business Systems Analyst
  • Requirements analyst

Business analysis practice management

Roles responsible for leading, managing, developing and deploying business analysts and business analysis capabilities.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Business Analysis Practice Leader
  • Business Analysis Manager
  • Head of Business Analysis

Information and cyber security role family

Security operations

Roles responsible for day to day execution of security policies and procedures. Using monitoring tools to identify threats and incidents.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Cyber Security Technician
  • Information Security Technician
  • Security Operations Manager
  • Infrastructure Specialist
  • Operations Support Analyst
  • Security Operations Centre (SOC) Service Desk Analyst
  • Security Operations Centre (SOC) Analyst

Incident management practitioners

Roles responsible for analysing, designing, managing and delivering the services required to minimise the negative impact of security incidents and restoring normal service operation as quickly as possible.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Incident analyst

  • Incident Manager

  • Major Incident Manager

  • Lead Incident Manager
  • Cyber Incident Manager

Security risk management, audit and compliance

Roles responsible for assessing risk and ensuring security systems and operations comply with organisational and regulatory requirements.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • IT auditor
  • Info sec compliance consultant
  • Security assessment auditor
  • Audit manager

Security leadership, strategy and management

Roles responsible for leading the development and execution of security strategies and policies.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Chief Information Security Officer CISO
  • Information security manager
  • Security architect
  • Cloud security architect
  • Information security analyst
  • Cyber security manager
  • Cyber security governance manager
  • Cyber security analyst
  • Information Security Lead

Testing role family

Testing practitioners

Roles responsible for the analysis of software and systems to reduce risk and prevent issues.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Tester
  • Test Manager
  • Test Architect
  • Test Automation Analyst
  • Test Programme Manager
  • Test Analyst
  • Cloud Test Analyst
  • Junior Tester
  • Lead Test Analyst

Testing practice management

Roles responsible for leading, managing, developing and deploying testers and testing capabilities.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Testing Practice Leader
  • Head of Testing
  • Head of QA and Testing

Project delivery role family

Project delivery practitioners

Roles responsible for the delivery of projects, programmes and portfolios.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Programme Manager
  • Programme Director
  • Portfolio Manager
  • Project Manager
  • Project Analyst
  • Project Office Manager
  • Project Office Analyst

Project delivery practice management

Roles responsible for leading, managing, developing and deploying project delivery professionals and project delivery capabilities.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Project Delivery Practice Leader
  • Head of Project Delivery
  • Head of Project & Programme Management

Agile delivery role family

Agile change agents

Roles responsible for developing, implementing, supporting, guiding, nurturing and improving agile working practices.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Scrum Master
  • Agile Coach

Agile product management

Roles responsible for using an adaptive approach to product planning and implementation.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Product Manager
  • Product Owner
  • Release Train Engineer

Architecture role family

Enterprise architecture practitioners

Roles responsible for developing, maintaining, communicating and governing Enterprise Architectures and roadmaps, ensuring alignment with corporate strategies, business goals and technology strategies and plans.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Enterprise Architect
  • Lead Enterprise Architect
  • Chief Enterprise Architect
  • Data Architect
  • Infrastructure Architect
  • Innovation Architect
  • Business Architect
  • Strategy Architect
  • Security architect

Solution architecture practitioners

Roles responsible for developing, maintaining and ensuring the integrity of end to end technology solutions to address specific project / programme / product requirements and align to technology strategies, architectures and engineering standards.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Solutions Architect
  • Cloud Solutions Architect,
  • Cloud Solutions Designer
  • Cloud Services Architect
  • Solutions Designer
  • Lead Solutions Architect
  • Product Architect
  • Domain Architect

Architecture practice management

Roles responsible for leading, managing, developing and deploying architects and architecture capabilities.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Architecture Practice Leader
  • Head of Enterprise Architecture
  • Head of Solutions Architecture
  • Chief Architect

Experience design role family

User research practitioners

Roles responsible for Identifying users' behaviours, needs and motivations using observational research methods.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • User Researcher

  • Senior User researcher

Service design practitioners

Roles responsible for designing experiences that reach people through many different touch-points, and that happen over time. See also a list of SFIA skills with examples of service design activities and artefacts.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Service Designer

  • Senior Service Designer
  • Customer Experience Designer
  • Multi-channel Designer
  • Product Designer

User experience practitioners

Roles responsible for creating desirable experiences for users.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • UX designer

  • UX analyst
  • UX architect

Service management role family

Service strategy and architecture practitioners

Roles for architecting and designing the different elements that make up how and organisation manages and operates its services and ensuring alignment with corporate strategies, business goals and technology strategies and plans. See also a mapping of SFIA 8 skills to ITIL® 4 practice areas and service management roles.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Service Architect
  • Service Designer
  • Service Introduction Manager
  • Service Tooling Architect
  • Service Modeler
  • Service Process Manager

Service operations practitioners

Roles responsible for managing, delivering and improving operational services. See also a mapping of SFIA 8 skills to ITIL® 4 practice areas and service management roles.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Service Desk Analyst
  • Service Desk Manager
  • Service Desk Lead
  • Problem Analyst
  • Problem Manager
  • Service Operations Manager
  • Identity & Access Management (IAM) Analyst
  • Customer Service Manager
  • Customer Engagement Manager
  • Service Data Analyst
  • Service Supplier Manager
  • Service Performance Manager

Incident management practitioners

Roles responsible for analysing, designing, managing and delivering the services required to minimise the negative impact of incidents and restoring normal service operation as quickly as possible. See also a mapping of SFIA 8 skills to ITIL® 4 practice areas and service management roles.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Incident Analyst

  • Incident Manager

  • Major Incident Manager

  • Lead Incident Manager
  • Cyber Incident Manager

Learning & development role family

Learning & development (L&D) practitioners

Roles responsible for analysing, designing, delivering and managing activities to develop people's skills, knowledge, behaviours and competencies - typically to improve individual performance, contribution, impact and employability. 

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • L&D Manager
  • Chief Learning Officer
  • Head of L&D
  • L&D Consultant
  • Learning and performance consultant
  • L&D administrator
  • Trainer

Teaching practitioners

Roles responsible for teaching others in a formal education context, such as at schools, colleges or universities. 

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Teacher
  • Lecturer
  • Department Head

  • Programme Director
  • Chair of Examiners
  • Subject Lead
  • Trainee Teacher

Technology infrastructure platform role family

Infrastructure platform management practitioners

Roles responsible for managing the provision of a reliable and secure technology infrastructure to support current and future organisational needs.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Infrastructure Platform Owner

  • Cloud Service Manager
  • ICT Operations Manager

Infrastructure engineers

Roles responsible for providing a reliable, flexible, scalable, secure and efficient IT infrastructure to meet current and future organisational needs.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Cloud Engineer

  • Cloud Network Architect
  • Network Specialist
  • Systems Administrator
  • EUC and Voice Analyst
  • IT Service Support Analyst
  • Infrastructure Technical SME

Application platform role family

Application platform management practitioners

Roles responsible for managing the provision of reliable secure software applications which support business capabilities and are easily re-used, maintained and updated to meet current and future organisational needs.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Platform Owner

  • Application Owner
  • Platform Manager
  • Head of Platform Engineering

Application development practitioners

Roles responsible for developing reliable, flexible, scalable and secure software applications to support organisational capabilities. 

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Web Developer
  • Front End developer
  • Full Stack Engineer
  • Back End Developer

Application support practitioners

Roles responsible for operational support for of software applications to support organisational capabilities. 

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Application Support Analyst

  • IT Analyst
  • Application Maintenance Analyst

Computational science role family

Computational science practitioners

Roles responsible for understanding and solving complex problems using advanced computing capabilities. These roles can be found in many scientific disciplines which require the development of models and simulations to understand natural systems.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Computational Chemist

  • Computational Biologist
  • Research Scientist
  • Computational Research Assistant

Digital product development, sales and marketing role family

Digital practitioners

Roles responsible for developing, marketing, selling and supporting digital products.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Digital Product Manager

  • Digital Marketer
  • Digital Sales Support Analysts
  • Business Development Manager
  • Sales Manager
  • Sales Support Manager

Human resource and workforce management role family

Resource management practitioners

Roles responsible for managing and delivering resource management and workforce planning.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Resource Manager

  • Resource Analyst
  • Workforce Planning Manager
  • Workforce Planner

Organisation design practitioners

Roles responsible for define and organise the structure of organisations and teams,  performing job analysis, designing jobs and allocating people in the right places to improve efficiency and increase productivity.

  • Organisation Design Consultant

  • Organisation Development Consultant

Change management

Change management practitioners

Roles responsible for designing, managing, and implementing organisational change initiatives. These roles ensure that changes align with organisational goals, minimise disruption, and support the smooth transition of people, processes, and systems.

Example job titles

Look at these SFIA skills first…

Other SFIA skills to consider....

  • Change Manager
  • Senior Change Manager
  • Change Lead
  • Change Consultant
  • Change Programme Manager
  • Organisational Change Manager
  • Business Change Manager
  • Transformation Manager
  • Change Analyst
  • Change Specialist
  • Organisational Development Manager
  • Change Implementation Manager
  • Change Delivery Lead

    Finance and Procurement 

    Technology finance  practitioners

    Roles responsible for managing and delivering financial leadership, management and operational support for technology organisations

    Example job titles

    Look at these SFIA skills first…

    Other SFIA skills to consider....

    • Finance Manager
    • Finance Business Partner
    • Finance Analyst
    • Technology Management Accountant
    • FinOps Analyst

    Technology procurement  practitioners

    Roles responsible for managing and delivering procurement leadership, management and operational support for technology organisations.

    Example job titles

    Look at these SFIA skills first…

    Other SFIA skills to consider....

    • Head of Procurement
    • Contract Manager
    • Contract Analyst
    • Vendor Manager
    • Commercial Manager
    • Supplier Analyst
    • Commercial Analyst