The best jobs in IT and engineering this year

With more companies embracing the digital landscape, it's no wonder that related jobs such as data scientist, information security analyst, software engineer and computer systems analyst are among the best jobs in the IT and engineering industry this year.

According to a new CareerCast report, this is due to their competitive wages, high growth outlooks, and sheer importance to the evolving job landscape.

With recent advancements in data analysis technology, the projected growth outlook for data scientists is a whopping 16% by 2024. The field's projected boom is also partly contributed by the variety of industries using data analytics, such as finance, marketing, education, healthcare, and retail.

"Data Scientist and Information Security Analyst are burgeoning fields with a future that offers many exciting and still unknown possibilities for those breaking into these professions," says Kyle Kensing, online content editor, CareerCast.

"Hiring growth outlook in the upper-teens to over 20% through the year 2024 unifies our best IT jobs."

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The explosion of cloud solutions drives the 18% growth outlook for information security analysts. Banks, medical centers, retailers -- all store invaluable customer and client information that requires dedicated information security analysts to manage and protect. Professionals in this field are expected to stay up-to-date on the latest intelligence, including hackers' methodologies, in order to anticipate security breaches.

These a list of the 10 best jobs in IT and engineering, their annual median salary (USD), and growth outlook through 2024:

• #1 Data scientist, $128,240, 16%
• #2 Information security analyst, $90,120, 18%
• #3 Software engineer, $100,690, 17%
• #4 Computer systems analyst, $85,800, 21%
• #5 Network and computer systems admin., $77,810, 8%
• #6 Petroleum engineer, $129,990, 10%
• #7 Web developer, $64,970, 27%
• #8 Environmental engineer, $84,560, 12%
• #9 Civil engineer, $82,220, 8%
• #10 Mechanical engineer, $83,590, 5%