Just as cloud computing is a game-changer for many companies, it is also changing the nature of jobs – not only within the information technology department, but in other parts of the enterprise as well.

For senior-level executives, especially chief information officers, the changes reflect the more strategic role IT plays in the direction of businesses. For the business, it introduces more reliable and predictable supporting technology.

“For a long period of time, IT was in that Wild West mode,” Greg Shields, partner and principal technologist with Concentrated Technology, recently told Jason Helmick of Interface Technical Training. “We were making up the rules as we go.” But companies and their IT leaders recognize that the best and most cost-effective solutions are those that may have been built and tested elsewhere. “You don’t grow your own food. You don’t raise your own cows anymore for meat. You go to the grocery store because somebody’s figured out that I can create this experience that is the grocery store, and I can do it at a lower cost, both in time and in dollar cost.”

The ability to identify and leverage resources --whether they come from the cloud or the company's own data center -- is becoming a key part of IT leaders' responsibilities. The ability to introduce and develop valuable cloud computing engagements or infrastructure may even be the ticket to the corner office, as recently discussed in a study from CA Technologies. A majority of 685 CIOs surveyed, 54%, believe that cloud computing has enabled them to spend more time on business strategy and innovation. Approximately 71% who have adopted cloud computing see their position as a viable path to pursue other management roles, compared to only 44% of non-cloud adopting CIOs.

Part of the challenge, however, will still be being able to bring in the skills that will make it all work. As Chuck Hollis, VP of global marketing CTO for EMC Corporation, put it in his blog post late last year: “If you're an IT leader, you've got an interesting challenge on your hands. You most likely don't have the right portfolio of end-state roles, skills and processes. And you are probably lacking the people with skills who can lead the change from present state to future state.”

As a result of the shift to cloud, there is growing demand for professionals and managers that are more focused on business development than they are in application development. There will be greater opportunities for enterprise architects, and some offshoots will include cloud architects, cloud capacity planners, cloud service managers and business solutions consultants. Jobs being created may not always bear the term “cloud” in their titles, but cloud will form the core of their job descriptions.

Consider enterprise or business architects, for starters. This emerging discipline will help bridge the gap between IT and the business at a time when it could be extremely costly to have such a gap. “Business executive involvement will be especially helpful when outsourcing IT processes, such as cloud computing,” says Steve Nunn, COO of The Open Group and CEO of the Association of Enterprise Architects. Adding to Nunn's thoughts, Kevin Daley of IBM and vice-chair of The Open Group Business Forum, says the enterprise architect will play a key role in bringing cloud into the business. “Cloud will help increase the speed of development and change. The business architect will be called upon to ensure the strategic relevancy of transformation in a repeatable fashion as cycle times and rollouts happen faster.”

EMC's Hollis also pointed out that in many cases, managers and professionals working with cloud will be the "infrastructure enablers" – they will be charged with creating “the cloud-like environment that can support the next-gen processes and workflows that will be needed in this new environment. Implied in this work is re-orienting traditional and specific technology-oriented disciplines (e.g. storage, server, etc.) to the newworkflows and processes coming from the other side of the equation.”

Software engineers appear to be in a good spot as a result of the growth of cloud. Consider the fact that earlier in 2011, CareerCast determined software engineers to be the best job to have in today's economy, thanks in no small part to the rise of cloud computing: “A proliferation of companies making applications for smartphones and tablets, along with the push to develop ‘cloud’ software hosted entirely online, has made the job market for software engineers broader and more diverse.”

A perusal through recent job openings provides a glimpse of the new emerging class of professionals and managers who will make IT happen in the years ahead. Here are just a few job titles and descriptions culled from recent help-wanted sites -- note how much engagement there is with the business: