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The Ancilar Engineering Glossary

Plain-language definitions of the technologies, roles and hiring terms behind building and staffing engineering teams, from software, cloud and data to AI and Web3.

A

  • Account Abstraction

    Account abstraction turns a blockchain account into a programmable smart contract rather than a single private key. The account's own code then decides how transactions are signed, how access is recovered and who pays the fees.

  • Agent2Agent (A2A) Protocol

    The Agent2Agent protocol is an open standard for AI agents to discover each other and delegate tasks. Agents built by different teams or vendors can then exchange work through one common interface.

  • Agentic AI

    Agentic AI is a way of designing systems in which AI pursues a goal with some autonomy. It plans steps, calls tools and acts on results, often through several coordinated agents working inside limits people set.

  • Agentic AI vs Generative AI

    Generative AI produces content such as text, code or images from a prompt, while agentic AI plans steps and uses tools to reach a goal. One creates output; the other acts on it.

  • Agentic Framework

    An agentic framework is a software library for building AI agents, handling the loop of model calls, tool use, memory and control flow. It lets teams focus on the agent's task and usually adds tracing and evaluation hooks.

  • Agile

    Agile is an approach to software development that delivers work in small, frequent increments, gathers feedback early and adjusts plans as teams learn. It favours collaboration over rigid up-front specifications.

  • Agile vs Waterfall

    Waterfall fixes the plan upfront and moves through phases in order; Agile ships working software in short cycles and changes course on feedback. Stable, well-defined scope favours Waterfall, and shifting requirements favour Agile.

  • AI Agent

    An AI agent is software that wraps a language model in a loop with tools and memory so it can work toward a goal. It chooses an action, reads the result and continues until the task is done.

  • AI Engineer

    An AI engineer builds software products and features on top of AI models, especially large language models, using prompting, retrieval, tool use and evaluation. Companies hire one to turn a promising AI demo into a dependable product.

  • AI Engineer vs ML Engineer

    An AI engineer builds products on top of existing models, such as large language models, while an ML engineer trains, tunes and serves models from data. Which to hire depends on whether you need to apply models or create them.

  • AI Governance

    AI governance is the set of policies, roles and controls an organisation uses to decide how AI systems are built, approved, monitored and retired. It is how responsible AI principles get enforced.

  • AI Product Manager

    An AI product manager decides what AI-powered features to build and how to judge them, balancing user needs with model capabilities, data, evaluation and risk. They define success when outputs are probabilistic rather than fixed.

  • AI Security

    AI security is protecting AI systems, their models, data and connected tools from attack and misuse. It also covers the new risks that AI adoption brings to the rest of the business.

  • Apache Kafka

    Apache Kafka is an open-source distributed event streaming platform. It stores streams of records in durable, ordered logs that many applications can publish to and read from independently.

  • Apache Spark

    Apache Spark is an open-source engine for processing large datasets in parallel across a cluster of machines. Teams use it for batch jobs, streaming and machine learning.

  • API

    An API (application programming interface) is a defined contract that lets one piece of software request data or actions from another. It hides internal details behind agreed operations, inputs and responses.

  • API Gateway

    An API gateway is a service that sits in front of a set of APIs as a single entry point. It routes requests and handles shared concerns such as authentication, rate limiting, logging and transformation.

  • API Security

    API security is the practice of protecting application programming interfaces from misuse. It controls who can call them, what data they can reach and how much they can request.

  • Application Modernization

    Application modernization updates existing software so it is easier to change, scale, secure and run. It ranges from moving an app to new infrastructure unchanged, through restructuring, to rebuilding or replacing it.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    Artificial intelligence (AI) is the field of building computer systems that can perform tasks that normally require human intelligence. These include understanding language, recognising images, making predictions and deciding what to do next.

  • Attack Surface

    An attack surface is the total set of points where an attacker could try to enter or extract data from a system. It spans exposed services, code, identities, devices and people.

  • Audit Trail

    An audit trail is a chronological, tamper-resistant record of who did what, when and to which data or system. It lets organisations reconstruct events, prove compliance and investigate errors, fraud or security incidents.

  • Automated Market Maker (AMM)

    An automated market maker (AMM) is a type of decentralized exchange that prices trades with a formula over a pool of tokens. It replaces order matching, so anyone can trade against the pool at any time.

  • Autoscaling

    Autoscaling automatically adds or removes computing capacity, such as servers, containers or function instances, in response to demand. Applications keep up with traffic peaks without paying for idle resources during quiet periods.

B

  • Backend

    The backend is the server-side part of an application that users do not see. It holds business logic, data storage, integrations and security, and serves the front end and other systems through APIs.

  • Backend Developer

    A backend developer builds the server-side systems that store data, apply business rules and serve applications through APIs. Hiring one is how a team secures correctness, security and room to grow in the layer users never see.

  • Background Check

    A background check verifies facts about a job candidate, such as identity, work history, education and references, before or during hiring. Criminal or credit checks are included only where local law allows, and with the candidate's knowledge.

  • Batch Processing

    Batch processing is handling data in scheduled groups, such as hourly or nightly runs, rather than processing each record the moment it arrives. Payroll runs, overnight warehouse loads and monthly billing are common examples, where completeness matters more than instant results.

  • Big Data

    Big data refers to datasets too large, fast-moving or varied to store and process efficiently on a single traditional database or server. A retailer analysing clickstream events from millions of visitors to tune product recommendations is a typical case, using tools that spread the work across many machines.

  • Blockchain

    A blockchain is a shared, append-only digital ledger that many computers keep in sync without a central owner. Records are grouped into blocks linked by cryptography, which makes past entries very hard to alter.

  • Blockchain Developer

    A blockchain developer builds applications, smart contracts or core infrastructure on blockchain networks. The work ranges from protocol code to the services that connect users to chains, and hiring one makes sense when part of your product must run on a shared ledger.

  • Blockchain Interoperability

    Blockchain interoperability is the ability of separate blockchains to exchange data, assets and messages so applications can work across them. It relies on bridges, messaging protocols and shared standards.

  • Blue-Green Deployment

    Blue-green deployment is a release technique that keeps two identical production environments and moves traffic from the old version to the new one in one step. The old side stays ready for instant rollback.

C

  • Caching

    Caching stores copies of frequently used data in a faster location so future requests can be served without repeating slow work. That slow work might be a database query, a computation or a network call.

  • Canary Release

    A canary release ships a new version to a small share of users or servers first. The rollout widens only if error rates, latency and other health metrics stay within agreed limits.

  • Centralized Exchange (CEX)

    A centralized exchange (CEX) is a crypto trading platform run by a single company that holds customer funds and matches buy and sell orders on its own servers. It works much like a traditional brokerage.

  • Change Data Capture (CDC)

    Change data capture detects inserts, updates and deletes in a database and streams those changes to other systems. Targets stay in sync without repeated full reloads.

  • CI/CD

    CI/CD is the practice of building and testing every code change automatically, then releasing changes that pass through a repeatable pipeline. It shortens the gap between writing code and running it in production.

  • Clean Architecture

    Clean Architecture is a way of structuring software so core business rules stay independent of frameworks, databases and user interfaces. Dependencies always point inward, towards the domain.

  • Cloud Architect

    A cloud architect designs how an organisation's systems run on cloud platforms, choosing services, network layout, security controls and cost structures. Businesses bring one in before a migration or when cloud sprawl and spend become hard to control.

  • Cloud Architect vs Cloud Engineer

    Cloud architects design how systems run in the cloud; cloud engineers build and operate them. The architect owns the design decisions across the estate, and the engineer turns them into working environments.

  • Cloud Computing

    Cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of servers, storage, databases and software over the internet, paid for by usage. Teams rent capacity from a provider instead of buying and running their own hardware.

  • Cloud Engineer

    A cloud engineer builds, configures and runs an organisation's infrastructure on cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure or Google Cloud. They keep environments working, secure and cost-controlled, so teams usually hire one as their cloud estate grows.

  • Cloud Migration

    Cloud migration is the process of moving applications, data and infrastructure into a cloud environment. The source may be an on-premises data centre or another provider, and services must stay running and secure throughout.

  • Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)

    Cloud security posture management (CSPM) continuously checks cloud accounts for risky misconfigurations and drift from security policy. It then helps teams prioritise and fix what it finds.

  • Cloud-Native

    Cloud-native describes software designed from the start to run in the cloud. It is typically built from containers and microservices, managed declaratively and automated to scale, recover and update.

  • Co-Employment

    Co-employment is when two organisations share employer rights and duties for the same workers. It typically involves a client company and a staffing firm or PEO, and raises questions about liability and benefits.

  • Code Review

    Code review is the practice of having other engineers examine a change before it is merged. Reviewers check correctness, design, security and readability, and share knowledge along the way.

  • Coding Assessment

    A coding assessment is a practical exercise in which a candidate writes, debugs or reviews code so a hiring team can judge their skill on realistic work. It may be a timed online test, a take-home task or a live paired session.

  • Computer Vision

    Computer vision is the field of AI that lets software interpret images and video. Typical tasks are classifying objects, detecting defects, reading text and tracking movement.

  • Configuration Management

    Configuration management is the practice of defining and enforcing the settings and software on servers through automated, version-controlled tooling. It keeps environments consistent instead of hand-configured.

  • Consensus Mechanism

    A consensus mechanism is the set of rules that lets a blockchain's independent nodes agree on one shared history. It decides which transactions are valid and in what order they are recorded.

  • Containerization

    Containerization packages an application with its libraries, runtime and configuration into a lightweight, isolated unit called a container. It then runs the same way on any machine that supports containers.

  • Content Delivery Network (CDN)

    A content delivery network (CDN) is a distributed set of servers that caches and serves content from locations close to users. Pages, images, video and API responses load faster and origin servers carry less load.

  • Context Window

    A context window is the maximum amount of text, counted in tokens, that a language model can take into account in one request. It covers the instructions, the conversation, any retrieved documents and the reply.

  • Contingent Workforce

    A contingent workforce is the people who work for an organisation without being its permanent employees. It includes contractors, freelancers, consultants, temporary staff and workers supplied by agencies or service providers.

  • Contract-to-Hire

    Contract-to-hire is a hiring model where a person starts as a contractor for a trial period, after which the client can offer them a permanent role. Both sides test the fit in real work before committing to employment.

  • Contract-to-Hire vs Direct Hire

    Unlike direct hire, which employs a person from day one, contract-to-hire starts them on a temporary contract that can later become permanent. It trades early flexibility and a working trial against candidate appeal and commitment.

  • Contractor Agreement

    A contractor agreement is the contract under which an independent contractor provides services to a client. It sets scope, payment, intellectual property, confidentiality and how either side can end the arrangement.

  • Contractor Misclassification

    Contractor misclassification is treating a worker as an independent contractor when, under the relevant law, the relationship is really employment. It can expose the business to back taxes, unpaid benefits, penalties and claims from the worker.

  • Contractor vs Employee

    Contractor or employee status turns on independence: a contractor runs a business selling services, an employee works under your direction in yours. The status decides who pays tax and contributions and which legal protections apply.

  • Contractor-to-Employee Conversion

    Contractor-to-employee conversion is moving an independent contractor onto an employment contract, either directly or through an employer of record. It changes their legal status, pay, benefits and protections, and ends the old contractor agreement.

  • Conversational AI

    Conversational AI is technology that lets people interact with software through natural dialogue, in text or voice. Chatbots, voice assistants and AI support agents are common examples.

  • Cross-Chain Bridge

    A cross-chain bridge is a protocol that moves tokens or messages from one blockchain to another. It usually locks an asset on the source chain and issues a matching representation on the destination.

  • Culture Fit

    Culture fit is how well a candidate's working style and values match the way a team actually communicates, decides and handles feedback. Many teams now assess culture add instead, to avoid hiring for sameness.

  • Custodial vs Non-Custodial Wallet

    A custodial wallet leaves the private keys with a third party such as an exchange, while a non-custodial wallet puts them in the user's hands. That choice decides who can move funds, who carries the risk and who must meet regulatory duties.

  • Custom Software Development

    Custom software development is building software for one organisation's own processes, users or products instead of buying a packaged or SaaS tool. The organisation owns the roadmap and usually the code, and pays for design, build and ongoing maintenance.

  • Cybersecurity

    Cybersecurity is the practice of protecting systems, networks, applications and data from unauthorised access, attack and damage. It combines technology, processes and people to prevent incidents, detect them early and recover when they happen.

D

  • Data Anonymization

    Data anonymization is transforming data so that individuals cannot reasonably be identified from it, even when it is combined with other available information. Teams use it to share health or customer records with researchers, or to build realistic test datasets, without exposing personal details.

  • Data Engineer

    A data engineer builds and maintains the pipelines, storage and tooling that move data from source systems into places where it can be trusted and used. Companies usually need one before analytics or AI work can scale.

  • Data Engineer vs Data Scientist

    A data engineer builds the pipelines and storage that move and prepare data, while a data scientist analyses that data and builds models to answer questions. Most teams need the first before the second can be productive.

  • Data Engineering

    Data engineering is the discipline of building and running the systems that collect, store, move and prepare data. Its output is reliable data that analysts, data scientists and product features can use.

  • Data Integration

    Data integration is combining data from different sources into a consistent, unified view. Sources include applications, databases, files and partners, and the result serves people and systems alike.

  • Data Labeling

    Data labeling is adding correct answers, such as categories, tags, boxes or ratings, to raw examples. The labelled data is then used to train or evaluate a machine learning model.

  • Data Lake

    A data lake is a large, low-cost store that holds raw data in its original format, structured or not, until someone needs to process or analyse it.

  • Data Lake vs Data Warehouse

    A data lake keeps raw data of any format cheaply for later use; a data warehouse holds cleaned, structured data modelled for fast queries and reporting. Many teams run both, or a lakehouse that combines them.

  • Data Lakehouse

    A data lakehouse combines the cheap, flexible storage of a data lake with warehouse features such as tables, transactions and fast SQL. Both kinds of work run on the same copy of the data.

  • Data Migration

    Data migration is moving data from one system, format or location to another while keeping it complete and correct. Typical cases are legacy database replacements and moves to the cloud.

  • Data Modeling

    Data modeling is designing how data is structured, named and related, so it can be stored efficiently and queried correctly. It applies to both application databases and analytics platforms.

  • Data Observability

    Data observability is continuous monitoring of data pipelines and datasets so that problems are caught before users notice. It watches freshness, volume, schema, distribution and lineage.

  • Data Pipeline

    A data pipeline is an automated series of steps that moves data from where it is created to where it is stored, analysed or used. Steps along the way may extract, clean, reshape or enrich it.

  • Data Poisoning

    Data poisoning is an attack that corrupts the data used to train, fine-tune or ground an AI model. The model then learns hidden flaws, biases or backdoors chosen by the attacker.

  • Data Privacy

    Data privacy is the set of practices and controls governing how personal data is collected, used, shared, stored and deleted. It follows the law and what people were told.

  • Data Processing Agreement (DPA)

    A data processing agreement (DPA) is a contract with a supplier that handles personal data on your behalf. It sets out what the supplier may do with that data and how it must be protected.

  • Data Quality

    Data quality is how well data fits its intended use, judged on qualities such as accuracy, completeness, consistency, timeliness, validity and uniqueness. Teams track it with automated checks, for example flagging duplicate customer records or missing order dates before they reach a finance report.

  • Data Residency

    Data residency is the requirement or decision to store and process data in a specific country or region. It is driven by law, regulation, contracts or customer expectations, and shapes how cloud and AI systems are deployed.

  • Data Science

    Data science is the discipline of extracting insight and predictions from data by combining statistics, programming and domain knowledge. It turns raw records into answers, forecasts and models that guide decisions.

  • Data Scientist

    A data scientist uses statistics, programming and domain knowledge to find patterns in data, test ideas and build predictive models. Hiring one pays off when a team has reliable data and decisions that better evidence can improve.

  • Data Warehouse

    A data warehouse is a central database built for analysis, holding cleaned, structured data from many systems. Analysts and BI tools query it for reports, dashboards and planning.

  • Database Indexing

    Database indexing is the practice of creating data structures that let a database find rows quickly without scanning a whole table. It speeds up reads at the cost of extra storage and slower writes.

  • DataOps

    DataOps is a set of practices that applies DevOps and agile ideas to data work. Automation, testing, version control and monitoring help teams deliver data products quickly and reliably.

  • dbt

    dbt is an open-source tool for transforming data inside a warehouse with version-controlled SQL models, tests and documentation. It covers the transform step of ELT.

  • Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO)

    A decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) is a group coordinated through smart contracts rather than a management hierarchy. Members propose and vote on decisions such as spending or protocol upgrades.

  • Decentralized Exchange (DEX)

    A decentralized exchange (DEX) is a trading venue built from smart contracts, where users swap tokens directly from their own wallets. No company takes custody of funds, and trades settle on chain.

  • Dedicated Development Team

    A dedicated team is an engagement model where a provider assembles a group of engineers who work full time on one client's product for an extended period. The client sets direction and priorities; the provider handles hiring, employment and retention.

  • Deep Learning

    Deep learning is a type of machine learning that uses neural networks with many layers to learn complex patterns. It excels with large amounts of unstructured data such as images, audio and text.

  • Definition of Done

    The definition of done is a shared checklist of conditions every piece of work must meet before a team calls it complete. It makes "finished" mean the same thing for everyone.

  • Design System

    A design system is a shared library of reusable interface components, design tokens and usage guidelines. Teams use it to build consistent, accessible products faster across screens and platforms.

  • Developer Experience (DevEx)

    Developer experience (DevEx) is how smoothly engineers can build, test and ship code, shaped by their tools, processes, documentation and feedback loops. Good DevEx removes friction and waiting so teams spend more of their time on product work.

  • Developer Onboarding

    Developer onboarding is the process of giving a new engineer the access, context and support they need to contribute to a codebase and team. Done well, it shortens the time from start date to useful, independent work.

  • Developer Vetting

    Developer vetting is the process of checking that a software engineer is capable, reliable and genuine before they join a team. It covers technical skill, real experience, communication, references, identity and, where needed, background and right-to-work checks.

  • DevOps

    DevOps is a way of building and running software in which development and operations work as one team. Automation, shared ownership and fast feedback let that team ship changes often and safely.

  • DevOps Engineer

    A DevOps engineer builds and maintains the pipelines, infrastructure and automation that let software teams ship to production quickly and safely. Companies usually hire one when releases have become slow, manual or risky.

  • DevOps vs SRE

    DevOps is a broad way of working that joins development and operations; SRE is one concrete way to run production, using SLOs and error budgets. Many teams use both, with SRE practices sitting inside a wider DevOps culture.

  • DevSecOps

    DevSecOps is the practice of building security checks into everyday software delivery. Code, dependencies and infrastructure are tested automatically on every change instead of being reviewed only before release.

  • Direct Hire

    Direct hire is a recruiting arrangement where a staffing partner finds a candidate who joins the client as a permanent employee from day one. Often called permanent placement, it leaves the client as employer and payer, while the partner earns a one-off fee.

  • Disaster Recovery

    Disaster recovery is the set of plans, tools and procedures for restoring systems and data after a major outage, data loss or regional failure. It aims to resume service within agreed time and data-loss limits.

  • Discovery Workshop

    A discovery workshop is a structured session held at the start of a project to align stakeholders and the delivery team. It covers goals, users, scope, risks and next steps before building begins.

  • Docker

    Docker is a widely used platform for building, sharing and running applications in containers. Each container packages an application with everything it needs so it behaves the same on any host.

  • Docker vs Kubernetes

    Docker builds and runs individual containers, while Kubernetes schedules and manages many containers across a cluster of machines. They are complementary: teams usually package applications with Docker tooling and run them in production on Kubernetes.

  • Domain-Driven Design (DDD)

    Domain-driven design (DDD) is an approach to building complex software that models code closely on the business domain. Engineers and domain experts share one language and split large systems into clear bounded contexts.

  • Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)

    Dynamic application security testing (DAST) probes a running application from the outside with crafted requests. It watches how the application responds for signs of security weaknesses an attacker could use.

E

  • Edge AI

    Edge AI is running machine learning models directly on devices or local hardware instead of a cloud server. Phones, cameras, vehicles and factory gateways are typical hosts.

  • Edge Computing

    Edge computing is the practice of processing data close to where it is created or used, such as devices, local gateways or regional points of presence. It avoids sending everything to a central data centre or cloud region.

  • Embeddings

    Embeddings are lists of numbers that represent the meaning of text, images or other data, arranged so that similar items sit close together. They let software search, group and compare by meaning instead of exact words.

  • Employee Benefits

    Employee benefits are the non-salary parts of a job package, such as health cover, retirement contributions, paid leave, insurance and allowances. Some are required by law in each country; others are offered by choice.

  • Employer of Record (EOR)

    An employer of record (EOR) is a company that legally employs workers on another business's behalf in a country where that business has no entity. The EOR holds the employment contract, runs payroll and meets local employment duties, while the client directs the daily work.

  • Employment Contract

    An employment contract is the agreement between employer and employee that sets out the job, pay, hours, benefits, duties and how the relationship can end. It operates within the minimum rights set by local law.

  • Encryption at Rest and in Transit

    Encryption at rest and in transit means protecting data with encryption both while it is stored and while it moves across networks. Stolen or intercepted data then stays unreadable without the keys.

  • Engagement Model

    An engagement model is the commercial and working structure under which a company buys technical work from people or providers. Common examples include staff augmentation, dedicated teams, project outsourcing, managed services, fixed price and time and materials.

  • EOR vs Independent Contractor

    Through an employer of record a worker becomes a local employee with benefits; as an independent contractor they run their own business instead. EOR adds control and compliance cover, and contracting is lighter and faster but carries misclassification risk.

  • EOR vs PEO

    An EOR becomes your staff's legal employer where you have no entity, but a PEO only shares employer duties with a local entity you already have. So an EOR suits entering new countries and a PEO suits outsourcing HR where you operate.

  • ERC-20

    ERC-20 is the standard interface for fungible tokens on Ethereum and compatible chains. It defines how balances, transfers and spending approvals work so any wallet or app can support a token.

  • ETL and ELT

    ETL (extract, transform, load) cleans and reshapes data before loading it into a target system. ELT (extract, load, transform) loads raw data first and does the transformation inside the target, usually a warehouse.

  • Evaluation Set (Evals)

    An evaluation set is a fixed collection of inputs with expected outcomes, used to score an AI system the same way every time it changes. It plays the role a regression test suite plays for ordinary code.

  • Event-Driven Architecture

    Event-driven architecture is a design approach in which services communicate by publishing and reacting to events. Each event records that something happened, so services no longer call each other directly and wait for answers.

  • Explainable AI (XAI)

    Explainable AI is the set of methods that make a model's outputs understandable to people. It shows which inputs drove a prediction and how far that prediction can be trusted.

F

  • Feature Flags

    Feature flags are switches in code that turn features on or off at runtime without a new deployment. Teams use them to release gradually, test with selected users and disable problems instantly.

  • Feature Store

    A feature store is a system that stores, documents and serves the input features used by machine learning models. It keeps them consistent between training and live predictions.

  • Finality

    Finality is the point at which a blockchain transaction can no longer be reversed or reordered. Networks reach it through different mechanisms and at very different speeds.

  • Fine-Tuning

    Fine-tuning is further training of an existing model on a smaller, task-specific dataset so it adopts a particular style, format or skill. It changes how a model behaves without the cost of training a new one from scratch.

  • FinOps

    FinOps is an operating practice that brings engineering, finance and business teams together to manage cloud spending. Teams share visibility of costs and make trade-offs between speed, quality and spend.

  • Fixed Price vs Time and Materials

    Fixed price and time and materials split risk differently: one agreed price for a defined scope, or billing for the hours and costs actually spent. Under fixed price the provider absorbs overruns; under time and materials the client does.

  • Fixed-Price Contract

    A fixed-price contract sets one agreed price for a defined scope of work, so the provider carries the risk if the work takes longer than planned. It works best when requirements are clear, stable and testable before work begins.

  • Formal Verification

    Formal verification uses mathematical proof to show that a program meets stated properties for every possible input. It goes beyond testing, which only covers the cases someone tried, and is increasingly used on high-value contracts.

  • Freelance Developer

    A freelance developer is a self-employed software engineer who sells services to clients by project or by time rather than working as an employee. Clients gain flexibility but take on more management and compliance responsibility.

  • Freelancer vs Staffing Agency

    A freelancer is one self-employed professional you contract with directly; an agency is a firm that supplies vetted people or a managed team. The agency costs more but carries more delivery and employment risk and offers continuity.

  • Frontend Developer

    A frontend developer builds the parts of a website or web app that people see and use in the browser, turning designs into fast, accessible interfaces. Teams usually bring one in when the interface is how customers judge the product.

  • Frontend Framework

    A frontend framework is a library or toolkit for building the parts of an application users see and interact with. It gives structure to components, state, routing and rendering, so teams do not hand-roll them.

  • Full-Stack Developer

    A full-stack developer works across the frontend and backend of an application, from the user interface to server logic and the database. Small teams often hire one to take a feature from idea to production without hand-offs.

  • Function Calling

    Function calling is a language model feature that lets the model request a call to a defined tool or API with structured arguments. The application then runs the call and returns the result.

G

  • GameFi

    GameFi is the combination of video games and decentralised finance. In-game items and currencies become blockchain tokens that players own in their wallets, trade and sometimes earn.

  • Gas Fee

    A gas fee is the charge paid to a blockchain network to process a transaction or run smart contract code. It is priced per unit of computation and rises when the network is busy.

  • GDPR

    The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is the EU law governing how organisations collect, use, store and share personal data about people in the EU. It sets duties for businesses and gives individuals enforceable rights.

  • Generative AI

    Generative AI refers to models that create new content, such as text, images, code, audio or video, from patterns learned in large amounts of training data.

  • GitOps

    GitOps is an operating model in which the desired state of infrastructure and applications is stored in Git. Automated agents continuously reconcile live environments to match it.

  • Global Payroll

    Global payroll is the process of paying employees in several countries accurately and on time. It applies each country's tax, social contribution, benefit and reporting rules, usually in local currency through one central process.

  • Go-Live

    Go-live is the moment a new system, product or major release is made available to real users in production. It is the culmination of planning, testing, cut-over and readiness checks.

  • Golang Developer

    A Golang developer builds software in Go, a compiled language designed for simple, fast and concurrent programs. Most work is on backend services, cloud infrastructure and networking tools, and teams often hire one when services must be lean and easy to operate.

  • Golden Path

    A golden path is the recommended, well-supported route for doing a common engineering task, such as creating a new service or deploying it. Platform teams provide it as templates, automation and documentation that work out of the box.

  • GraphQL

    GraphQL is a query language and runtime for APIs that lets clients ask for exactly the fields they need from a typed schema. Requests usually go through a single endpoint instead of several fixed URLs.

  • gRPC

    gRPC is an open-source framework for fast communication between services. Strongly typed contracts are defined in Protocol Buffers and data travels in compact binary form over HTTP/2.

  • Guardrails

    Guardrails are checks placed around a language model that inspect what goes in and what comes out, blocking or correcting responses that break rules. They enforce policy in code rather than trusting the prompt.

H

  • Hallucination

    A hallucination is when a language model states something false or invented with the same confidence as a fact. It comes from how models generate text, so it can be reduced and managed but not patched out like a bug.

  • Headless CMS

    A headless CMS is a content management system that stores and edits content but has no built-in front end. It delivers content through an API to any website, app or device that requests it.

  • Helm

    Helm is a package manager for Kubernetes that bundles the manifests an application needs into reusable, versioned charts. Teams can then install, upgrade and roll back that application with one command.

  • HIPAA

    HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) is a US law protecting the privacy and security of health information. It applies to healthcare organisations and the businesses that handle that data for them.

  • Human-in-the-Loop

    Human-in-the-loop is a design approach where people review, correct or approve an AI system's outputs or actions at chosen points. It keeps human judgement in decisions that are risky, ambiguous or hard to reverse.

  • Hybrid Exchange

    A hybrid exchange is a trading platform that combines parts of centralised and decentralised exchanges. It typically matches orders off chain for speed while settling trades or holding funds on chain.

  • Hybrid Team

    A hybrid team mixes people who work on site with people who work remotely, or combines in-house staff with engineers supplied by an outside partner. Many technology teams are hybrid in both senses at once.

I

  • Identity and Access Management (IAM)

    Identity and access management (IAM) is the set of policies and systems that control who or what can access which resources. It spans login, roles, permission reviews and offboarding.

  • Immutable Infrastructure

    Immutable infrastructure is an approach where servers and containers are never changed after deployment. Any update is made by building a new image and replacing the old instances entirely.

  • In-House vs Outsourced Development

    In-house development is done by engineers you employ; outsourced development is delivered by an external provider under contract. The choice weighs control and long-term knowledge against speed to start and access to specialist skills.

  • Incident Postmortem

    An incident postmortem is a written review held after an outage or serious failure. It records what happened, why it happened and how the response went, then commits to specific changes that make a repeat less likely.

  • Incident Response

    Incident response is the planned process an organisation follows to detect, contain, investigate and recover from a security incident. It ends with lessons that strengthen defences.

  • Independent Contractor

    An independent contractor is a self-employed person or business that provides services to a client under a commercial contract, not as an employee. They control how the work is done and handle their own tax and insurance.

  • Inference

    Inference is running a trained model to produce an output, as opposed to training it. In production this is where most of the cost, latency and scaling work of an AI feature sits.

  • Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

    Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is the practice of describing servers, networks and cloud services in version-controlled files. Environments are then created and changed by running that code rather than by clicking through a console.

  • Integration Testing

    Integration testing checks that separate parts of a system work correctly together. Typical targets are a service and its database, a message queue or another team's API, rather than each piece alone.

  • Intellectual Property Assignment

    An intellectual property assignment is a legal transfer of ownership of work such as code, designs and inventions from its creator to another party. That party is usually the company paying for the work.

  • Internal Developer Portal

    An internal developer portal is one internal website where engineers find services, owners, docs and self-service templates for building software. It is usually the visible front end of a platform engineering effort.

  • ISO 27001

    ISO 27001 is an international standard for building and running an information security management system (ISMS). Organisations can be formally certified against it by accredited bodies.

  • IT Outsourcing

    IT outsourcing is using an outside provider for technology work such as software development, infrastructure or support, instead of doing it all in-house. Models range from fixed projects and managed services to dedicated teams and staff augmentation.

  • IT Staffing

    IT staffing is the practice of sourcing and placing technology professionals with a company on a contract, contract-to-hire or permanent basis. A staffing partner finds and screens candidates, and often employs contractors, while the client directs their work.

J

  • Java Developer

    A Java developer builds software in Java, a mature, strongly typed language used for enterprise backends, financial systems and large web services. Organisations usually hire one to extend or modernise core systems that run on the JVM.

  • Job Description

    A job description is a written outline of a role's purpose, responsibilities, required skills and working conditions. In engineering hiring it shapes who applies, what interviewers test and how a new hire's first months are judged.

K

  • Kanban

    Kanban is a method for managing work by showing it on a board and limiting how much is in progress at once. Tasks flow continuously from start to finish rather than in fixed sprints.

  • Key Management

    Key management is the set of practices and systems for creating, storing, using, rotating and retiring cryptographic keys. It keeps encrypted data and digital signatures trustworthy.

  • Knowledge Graph

    A knowledge graph is a structured network of entities and the relationships between them, stored so that both software and AI models can query connected facts.

  • Knowledge Transfer

    Knowledge transfer is the structured handover of system understanding, decisions and operating know-how from one person or team to another. In engineering it matters most at onboarding, vendor changes, contract endings and handovers to support teams.

  • Kubernetes

    Kubernetes is an open-source platform for running containerised applications across a cluster of machines. It schedules containers, restarts failed ones, scales them with demand and routes traffic between them.

  • KYC/AML

    KYC/AML means the Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering controls regulated firms use to verify customers and detect suspicious money flows. They apply to banks, payment firms and, in many countries, crypto exchanges.

L

  • Labor Law

    Labor law, or labour law, is the body of rules governing relations between employers, workers and their representatives. It covers contracts, pay, working time, leave, safety, discrimination, dismissal and collective rights.

  • Large Language Model (LLM)

    A large language model (LLM) is a neural network trained on very large amounts of text to predict and generate language. It powers chat assistants, summarisers, coding tools and AI agents.

  • Layer 1 vs Layer 2

    A Layer 1 blockchain secures and settles transactions itself, while a Layer 2 processes them off the main chain and posts the results back to it. Layer 2s exist mainly to lower fees and raise throughput while borrowing the base chain's security.

  • Layer 2

    A Layer 2 is a network built on top of a base blockchain that processes transactions away from the main chain and settles the results back to it. The aim is lower fees and higher throughput.

  • Least Privilege

    Least privilege is the principle of giving every user, service and process only the access its job needs. It limits how far a mistake or a compromised account can spread.

  • Liquid Staking

    Liquid staking lets holders stake tokens to help secure a proof-of-stake network while receiving a tradable token that represents the staked position. That receipt can be sold, lent or used as collateral.

  • Liquidity Pool

    A liquidity pool is a reserve of two or more tokens held in a smart contract that traders swap against. The price shifts automatically as the ratio of tokens in the pool changes.

  • LLMOps

    LLMOps is the practice of running applications built on large language models in production, from prompt versioning to evaluation and monitoring. It extends MLOps for systems whose behaviour depends on prompts, retrieved context and external models.

  • Load Balancer

    A load balancer is a network component that spreads incoming requests across several servers or containers. It keeps any single instance from being overloaded and steers traffic away from unhealthy ones.

  • Low-Code Platform

    A low-code platform is a development environment for building applications mostly through visual editors and prebuilt components. Custom code is added only where the visual tools fall short.

M

  • Machine Learning

    Machine learning is a branch of AI in which systems learn patterns from data to make predictions or decisions. The behaviour comes from training on examples rather than from rules written by hand.

  • Machine Learning Engineer

    A machine learning engineer builds, deploys and maintains machine learning models as reliable software in production. Teams usually hire one once a model has proved its value and must run, scale and stay accurate every day.

  • Managed Services

    Managed services is an engagement where an outside provider runs a system or function, such as cloud infrastructure or support, against agreed service levels. The client buys an ongoing outcome rather than paying for individual people or hours.

  • Master Services Agreement (MSA)

    A master services agreement (MSA) is a framework contract setting the general legal and commercial terms between a client and a provider. Individual projects are then added through shorter statements of work.

  • Maximal Extractable Value (MEV)

    Maximal extractable value (MEV) is the profit that whoever orders transactions in a block can capture by including, excluding or reordering them. Users experience it as front-running and worse trade prices.

  • Mean Time to Recovery (MTTR)

    Mean time to recovery (MTTR) is the average time it takes to restore a service after a failure or incident begins. It shows how quickly a team detects, responds to and fixes problems.

  • Microservices

    Microservices is an architectural style in which an application is built as a set of small, independently deployable services. Each owns a specific business capability and its own data, and talks to the others over the network.

  • Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

    A minimum viable product (MVP) is the smallest version of a product that real users can use and that tests the most important assumption about it. It aims to learn quickly with the least effort.

  • MLOps

    MLOps is the practice of deploying, monitoring and updating machine learning models in production. It applies DevOps discipline to models and the data they depend on, so releases are repeatable, auditable and reversible.

  • MLOps vs DevOps

    DevOps automates building, testing and running code, while MLOps extends that practice to the data, training and evaluation that machine learning models need. MLOps also tracks model drift after release, a problem ordinary application code does not face.

  • Model Context Protocol (MCP)

    The Model Context Protocol is an open standard for connecting AI applications to tools and data sources through one common interface. A system exposed as an MCP server can be used by any client that speaks the protocol.

  • Model Drift

    Model drift is the decline in a machine learning model's accuracy over time. It happens when the data or real-world patterns seen in production move away from those it was trained on.

  • Model Quantization

    Model quantization is reducing the numeric precision of a model's weights, for example from 16-bit to 8-bit or 4-bit values. The model then needs less memory and runs faster.

  • Monolith

    A monolith is an application built and deployed as a single unit, with interface, business logic and data access in one codebase. It shares one release process and is often the simplest sensible starting point.

  • Monolith vs Microservices

    A monolith ships the whole application as one deployable artefact; microservices split it into small services that are released independently. Monoliths are simpler early on, while microservices suit large teams that need to move separately.

  • MPC Wallet

    An MPC wallet is a crypto wallet whose private key is never held in one place. Several parties each keep a key share and sign together, so no single device, person or server can move funds alone.

  • Multi-Cloud

    Multi-cloud is a strategy of using services from two or more public cloud providers within one organisation. It is chosen for resilience, specific capabilities, regulatory reasons or bargaining power.

  • Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

    Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a login method that requires two or more independent proofs of identity. A typical pairing is a password plus an authenticator app, passkey or hardware key.

  • Multimodal AI

    Multimodal AI refers to models that can take in and reason across more than one kind of data, such as text, images, audio and video, within the same task.

  • Multisig

    A multisig is a crypto wallet that needs approval from several keys before a transaction can go through, such as any three of five signers. It removes the single point of failure of one private key.

N

  • Named Entity Recognition (NER)

    Named entity recognition is the task of finding and labelling specific things in text, such as people, companies, places, dates, amounts or product codes. It turns free text into fields a system can store and search.

  • Natural Language Processing (NLP)

    Natural language processing is the field of AI that lets software understand, analyse and generate human language, in written text or in speech. Chatbots, email triage, sentiment analysis of product reviews and speech-to-text transcription in contact centres are everyday uses.

  • NFT

    An NFT, or non-fungible token, is a unique on-chain record of ownership for one specific item. It can stand for digital art, a game asset, an event ticket, a membership or a physical good.

  • NLP Engineer

    An NLP engineer builds software that understands, extracts from or generates human language, using classic NLP and large language models. They turn text and speech data into reliable product features.

  • Node.js Developer

    A Node.js developer builds server-side applications in JavaScript or TypeScript on the Node.js runtime, such as APIs, real-time services and integrations. For a team, hiring one often means a single language across frontend and backend.

  • Non-Compete Clause

    A non-compete clause is a contract term that stops someone working for a competitor, or starting a rival business, after they leave. It usually applies for a set period and area, and enforceability varies widely.

  • Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)

    A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is a contract in which one or both parties agree to keep specified information confidential. The information may be used only for an agreed purpose, such as evaluating a partnership or a hire.

  • NoSQL Database

    A NoSQL database stores and retrieves data without the fixed tables and relations of traditional SQL systems. It uses documents, key-value pairs, wide columns or graphs, and is often built to scale horizontally.

  • Notice Period

    A notice period is the time an employee or employer must give, after deciding to end employment or a contract, before it actually ends. It is set by the contract, local law or both.

O

  • OAuth 2.0

    OAuth 2.0 is an authorisation framework that lets an application act on a user's behalf without their password. It issues limited, revocable tokens tied to specific scopes.

  • Observability

    Observability is the ability to understand what a running system is doing, and why, from the data it emits. That data is mainly logs, metrics and traces, which let engineers answer new questions without shipping new code.

  • Offboarding

    Offboarding is the structured process of ending someone's work with an organisation. It covers final pay and documents, knowledge handover, removal of system access and return of equipment, for employees and contractors alike.

  • On-Call Rotation

    An on-call rotation is a schedule that assigns engineers, in turn, to respond to production alerts and incidents outside or during normal hours. Someone is always available to restore service.

  • Onshore vs Nearshore vs Offshore

    Onshore, nearshore and offshore describe where external engineers work: in your country, a nearby one with similar hours, or a distant region. Each balances cost, time zone overlap, cultural proximity and access to talent differently.

  • Open Source

    Open source describes software whose source code is published under a licence that lets anyone use, study, modify and share it. Projects are often developed in public by communities of individuals and companies.

  • Oracle

    A blockchain oracle is a service that brings outside data, such as asset prices or event results, onto a blockchain so smart contracts can use it. Contracts cannot fetch that data themselves.

  • Order Book

    An order book is the live list of buy and sell orders for an asset, organised by price. A matching engine pairs compatible orders to produce trades.

  • ORM (Object-Relational Mapping)

    An ORM (object-relational mapper) is a library that maps database tables to objects in application code. Developers can read and write data with their programming language instead of writing raw SQL for every query.

  • OWASP Top 10

    The OWASP Top 10 is an awareness document from the OWASP Foundation listing the most critical categories of web application security risk. It is revised periodically using community data.

P

  • PCI DSS

    PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) is the security standard for organisations that store, process or transmit payment card data. It sets controls to protect cardholder information from theft and misuse.

  • Penetration Testing

    Penetration testing is an authorised, simulated attack on a system to find exploitable weaknesses before real attackers do. Testers work within an agreed scope and report what they reached and how to fix it.

  • Permanent Establishment Risk

    Permanent establishment risk is the chance that a company's activity abroad, such as staff working or signing deals there, creates a taxable presence. The company may then owe tax and filings it did not plan for.

  • Platform Engineer

    A platform engineer builds and runs the internal developer platform that product teams use to ship software. It bundles shared tooling, infrastructure and self-service workflows, and the role pays off once several teams keep reinventing the same infrastructure.

  • Platform Engineering

    Platform engineering is the discipline of building an internal developer platform that product teams use to build, deploy and run software. It bundles shared tools, templates and self-service workflows so teams stop reinventing infrastructure.

  • Platform Engineering vs DevOps

    DevOps is a culture of shared delivery ownership; platform engineering builds an internal product that makes that culture practical at scale. Platform teams give other developers self-service tools and paved paths.

  • Policy as Code

    Policy as code means writing security, compliance and operational rules as machine-readable code that tools check automatically in pipelines and at runtime. Policies are versioned, reviewed and tested like application code.

  • Post-Launch Support

    Post-launch support is the work of keeping software running, secure and improving after release. It covers bug fixes, monitoring, updates, user help and small enhancements.

  • Post-Quantum Cryptography

    Post-quantum cryptography is the family of encryption and signature algorithms designed to resist attacks by future quantum computers. The algorithms run on today's ordinary hardware.

  • Predictive Analytics

    Predictive analytics uses historical data and statistical or machine learning models to estimate what is likely to happen next. Common targets are customer churn, product demand and credit risk.

  • Product Discovery

    Product discovery is the work of understanding user problems and testing possible solutions before committing to build them. It reduces the risk of shipping something nobody needs.

  • Product Manager

    A product manager decides what a team should build and why, owning the product's direction, priorities and outcomes. Companies hire one when engineering capacity is growing faster than clarity about which problems deserve it.

  • Product Requirements Document (PRD)

    A product requirements document (PRD) describes what a product or feature should do and why. It sets out goals, target users, scope, requirements and success measures before design and development.

  • Product Roadmap

    A product roadmap is a high-level plan showing where a product is heading over time. It sets out the problems to address, the outcomes sought and the rough order of major work.

  • Professional Employer Organization (PEO)

    A professional employer organization (PEO) is a firm that shares employer duties with a client through co-employment. It runs payroll, benefits and HR administration, while the client keeps its own legal entity and stays an employer.

  • Progressive Web App (PWA)

    A progressive web app (PWA) is a website that uses modern browser features to behave like an installed app. It can sit on a home screen, work on poor connections and send notifications.

  • Project-Based Outsourcing

    Project-based outsourcing is handing a defined piece of work, such as building an app or migrating a system, to an outside firm that delivers it end to end. The provider owns the team, the method and the delivery against an agreed scope.

  • Prompt Engineer

    A prompt engineer designs, tests and refines the instructions and context given to AI models so they produce accurate, consistent and safe output. For buyers, the key question is whether that work needs a dedicated role or sits within AI engineering.

  • Prompt Engineering

    Prompt engineering is the practice of designing and testing the instructions, context and examples given to a language model. The aim is reliable, useful output.

  • Prompt Injection

    Prompt injection is an attack where text a model reads, such as a web page, email or document, carries instructions that override what the application intended. It is the main security risk for any model that can call tools.

  • Proof of Concept (PoC)

    A proof of concept (PoC) is a small, focused experiment that shows whether a technical idea or approach is feasible. It comes before a team commits to building the thing properly.

  • Proof of Stake

    Proof of stake is a consensus mechanism in which validators lock up the network's native token as collateral for the right to propose and confirm blocks.

  • Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)

    Public key infrastructure (PKI) is the system of certificate authorities, certificates and policies that binds public keys to identities. It lets parties trust encrypted connections and digital signatures.

  • Public vs Private Blockchain

    A public blockchain lets anyone join, read and validate transactions, while a private blockchain restricts those rights to participants an operator approves. Public chains favour openness and decentralisation; private ones favour privacy, control and speed.

  • Public, Private and Hybrid Cloud

    Public, private and hybrid cloud are the main cloud deployment models, describing where computing resources run and who shares them. Public cloud is shared provider infrastructure, private cloud serves one organisation, and hybrid connects the two.

  • Python Developer

    A Python developer writes software in Python, a general-purpose language used for web backends, automation, data pipelines, machine learning and scripting. Before hiring one, decide which of those areas the job actually needs.

Q

  • QA Engineer

    A QA engineer makes sure software works as intended before and after release, designing test strategies, writing automated tests and finding defects. QA means quality assurance, and teams often hire one when escaped bugs start reaching customers.

  • Quality Assurance (QA)

    Quality assurance (QA) is the set of practices that make sure software meets requirements and works reliably for users. It covers how quality is built into the process as well as how products are tested before release.

R

  • RAG vs Fine-Tuning

    RAG gives a language model relevant documents at the moment it answers, while fine-tuning retrains the model's weights on custom examples. RAG suits changing facts that need citing; fine-tuning suits fixed styles, formats or specialised skills.

  • Rate Card

    A rate card is a provider's list of agreed prices by role, seniority level or service, used to quote and bill work under a contract. In technology staffing it usually sets hourly, daily or monthly rates for each engineer profile.

  • Rate Limiting

    Rate limiting is a technique that controls how many requests a client can make to a service within a set period of time. It protects systems from overload, abuse and runaway costs.

  • React Developer

    A React developer builds user interfaces with React, the JavaScript library for composing interactive components. Their work covers web apps and sometimes React Native mobile apps, and teams bring one in when an interface is complex and must stay fast.

  • Real World Asset (RWA)

    A real world asset (RWA) is a physical or traditional financial asset whose ownership or economic rights are represented by a blockchain token. Examples include property, bonds, invoices and commodities.

  • Reentrancy

    Reentrancy is a smart contract vulnerability where an external call lets another contract call back in before the first call finishes. Attackers use it to act on stale state, often withdrawing funds repeatedly.

  • Refactoring

    Refactoring is the practice of improving the internal structure of existing code without changing what it does for users. The goal is code that is easier to read, test and extend.

  • Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF)

    RLHF is a training method that uses people's preferences between model outputs to shape a model's behaviour. It is mainly used to make language models more helpful, honest and safe.

  • Release Management

    Release management is the process of planning, scheduling, coordinating and controlling how software changes move from development into production. It keeps releases predictable, safe and well communicated.

  • Remote Developer

    A remote developer is a software engineer who works away from the company's offices, often in another city or country. They join the team through shared tools, code repositories and scheduled calls rather than a desk on site.

  • Remote-First Team

    A remote-first team is organised so remote work is the default, with processes, tools and communication designed for distributed people rather than an office. Any offices are optional places to meet, not the centre of work.

  • Replacement Guarantee

    A replacement guarantee is a staffing promise to supply a substitute if a placed engineer leaves or proves a poor fit within an agreed window. The replacement normally carries no second placement fee, though conditions and exclusions apply.

  • REST API

    A REST API is a web interface that exposes resources at URLs and uses standard HTTP methods to read and change them. GET, POST, PUT and DELETE map to reading, creating, replacing and removing data.

  • REST vs GraphQL

    REST lets the server shape each response across many fixed endpoints; with GraphQL, the client requests exactly the fields it wants from one endpoint. REST caches more easily, and GraphQL reduces over-fetching for complex front ends.

  • Retained Search vs Contingency Recruitment

    In retained search a recruiter is paid partly up front for an exclusive, committed search. Contingency recruitment pays only when a candidate is hired, so retained suits senior or scarce roles and contingency suits volume and mid-level hiring.

  • Retainer Model

    A retainer model is an arrangement where a client pays a recurring fee to reserve a provider's capacity or expertise for ongoing work. It suits support, advisory and improvement work that has no single end point or fixed scope.

  • Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)

    Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is a pattern that hands a language model relevant passages from your own documents at question time. Its answers then rest on that material, not only on what it learnt in training.

  • Reverse ETL

    Reverse ETL is syncing modelled data from a warehouse back into operational tools such as CRMs, support desks and ad platforms. Teams can then act on it where they work.

  • Right to Work

    Right to work is a person's legal permission to be employed in a country, and the checks employers make to confirm it before someone starts. In the United States, the phrase also names laws on union membership.

  • Roadmap Prioritization

    Roadmap prioritisation is the process of deciding which initiatives, features or problems a product team tackles first. Teams weigh value, effort, risk and strategy using explicit criteria.

  • Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

    Role-based access control (RBAC) is an access model in which permissions attach to roles rather than people. Users and services get access by being assigned one or more roles.

  • Rollback

    A rollback is the act of returning a system to a previous known-good version after a release causes problems. It restores service quickly while the team investigates the cause.

  • Rollup

    A rollup is a Layer 2 network that executes transactions off the main chain and posts them in compressed batches to it. Fraud proofs (optimistic) or validity proofs (ZK) keep the results honest.

  • Rust Developer

    A Rust developer builds software in Rust, a systems language that offers high performance and memory safety without a garbage collector. Companies hire one for infrastructure, embedded or blockchain components where crashes or vulnerabilities are costly.

S

  • SaaS, PaaS and IaaS

    SaaS, PaaS and IaaS are the three main cloud service models, each defined by how much of the technology stack the provider manages for you. IaaS rents raw infrastructure, PaaS adds managed runtimes, and SaaS delivers a finished application.

  • Salary Benchmarking

    Salary benchmarking is comparing pay for a role against market data for similar jobs, levels and locations to set fair, competitive compensation. It informs offers, pay bands, raises and decisions about where to hire.

  • Scope Creep

    Scope creep is the gradual, uncontrolled expansion of a project's requirements after work has started, without matching changes to time, budget or resources. It is a common reason projects run late.

  • Scrum

    Scrum is an agile framework in which a small, cross-functional team delivers work in fixed-length cycles called sprints. It follows defined roles, events and artefacts that make progress visible and regularly inspected.

  • Secrets Management

    Secrets management is how a team stores, distributes, rotates and audits sensitive values such as API keys, passwords and certificates. The aim is that no secret ever sits in code or plain configuration.

  • Security Audit

    A security audit is a structured review of systems, code, configuration or processes against a defined standard. It produces findings showing where security falls short and how to fix it.

  • Security Engineer

    A security engineer designs, builds and maintains the controls that protect an organisation's systems, applications and data from attack. Companies often hire one when enterprise customers, audits or rapid growth raise the stakes.

  • Security Patch Management

    Security patch management is the ongoing process of finding, testing and applying updates that fix known flaws. It covers operating systems, libraries, applications and infrastructure.

  • Server-Side Rendering (SSR)

    Server-side rendering (SSR) is a technique where the server builds the full HTML for a page on each request and sends it to the browser. Content appears quickly and search engines can read it easily.

  • Serverless Computing

    Serverless computing is a cloud model where the provider runs code or services on demand and manages the servers behind them. Teams pay for actual usage rather than for idle capacity.

  • Service Level Agreement (SLA)

    A service level agreement (SLA) is a provider's contractual commitment to meet measurable standards such as availability or response time. It also sets the remedies that apply when those standards are missed.

  • Service Level Objective (SLO)

    A service level objective (SLO) is an internal reliability target for a service, such as the share of requests that must succeed quickly. It defines what good enough looks like for users over a rolling window.

  • Service Mesh

    A service mesh is an infrastructure layer that manages communication between services. It handles encryption, retries, traffic routing and telemetry consistently, without changes to application code.

  • SIEM

    SIEM, or security information and event management, is a platform that collects and correlates logs from many systems to detect threats. It also supports investigations and compliance reporting.

  • Single Sign-On (SSO)

    Single sign-on (SSO) lets users sign in once with a central identity provider and then reach many applications. Each app trusts the provider instead of keeping its own password.

  • Single-Page Application (SPA)

    A single-page application (SPA) is a web app that loads one HTML page and then updates the view in the browser with JavaScript as users navigate. New data comes from APIs instead of full page reloads.

  • Site Reliability Engineer

    A site reliability engineer (SRE) applies software engineering to operations, keeping production systems available, fast and recoverable. Organisations hire SREs when outages, slow responses or on-call fatigue start hurting customers and teams.

  • Site Reliability Engineering (SRE)

    Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) is an approach to running production systems that applies software engineering to operations. It sets measurable reliability targets and replaces repetitive manual work with automation.

  • Small Language Model

    A small language model is a language model with relatively few parameters, built to run cheaply and quickly on a single server, device or private environment.

  • Smart Contract

    A smart contract is a program deployed on a blockchain that runs exactly as written whenever it is called. It can hold and move digital assets according to its own rules, without an intermediary.

  • Smart Contract Developer

    A smart contract developer writes, tests and deploys programs that run on a blockchain and execute automatically when conditions are met. Because contracts often hold value and are hard to change, buyers should weigh security track record above speed.

  • Smart Wallet

    A smart wallet is a crypto wallet that is itself a smart contract. Because its rules are code, it can offer recovery without a seed phrase, spending limits, batched actions and sponsored gas.

  • SOC 2

    SOC 2 is an independent audit report on how a service organisation controls security and related risks, based on the AICPA Trust Services Criteria. Business customers often request it from software vendors.

  • Software Bill of Materials (SBOM)

    A software bill of materials (SBOM) is a machine-readable inventory of every component and version that makes up a piece of software. It includes indirect, transitive dependencies.

  • Software Development Kit (SDK)

    A software development kit (SDK) is a packaged set of libraries, tools, documentation and samples for one platform or service. It saves developers from building integrations from scratch.

  • Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

    The software development life cycle (SDLC) is the end-to-end process by which software is planned, designed, built, tested, released and maintained. Different models organise these stages in different ways.

  • Software Engineer

    A software engineer designs, builds, tests and maintains software systems using engineering discipline. The title spans specialisms from user interfaces and server code to data and machine learning, so hiring well starts with naming the one you need.

  • Software Supply Chain Security

    Software supply chain security protects the code, dependencies, build systems and pipelines that produce software. Its goal is that attackers cannot tamper with what ships to production.

  • Solutions Architect

    A solutions architect designs the technical approach to a specific business problem, deciding which systems, integrations and technologies fit together. Teams engage one early, before committing budget, to turn requirements into a buildable plan.

  • SQL

    SQL (Structured Query Language) is the standard language for defining, querying and changing data in relational databases. It is used to filter, join, aggregate and update rows stored in tables.

  • SQL vs NoSQL

    The difference is the data model: SQL databases keep related tables under a fixed schema, and NoSQL databases use flexible documents, key-value pairs or graphs. SQL is strongest at joins and transactions; NoSQL often scales out more easily.

  • Stablecoin

    A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency designed to hold a steady value, usually against a national currency such as the US dollar. It stays stable through cash reserves, crypto collateral or supply rules.

  • Staff Augmentation

    Staff augmentation is an engagement model where a company adds outside engineers to its own team for a set period, managing their work directly. The provider sources and employs them; the client keeps control of priorities, process and delivery.

  • Staff Augmentation vs Consulting

    Staff augmentation adds engineers who work under your direction; consulting brings experts who diagnose a problem and own advice or a deliverable. Augmentation buys capacity, while consulting buys judgement.

  • Staff Augmentation vs Dedicated Team

    Staff augmentation supplies individual engineers who work under your leads; a dedicated team is a complete squad, with its own lead, built around your product. The choice changes your management load and how the work scales.

  • Staff Augmentation vs Managed Services

    Staff augmentation supplies engineers who work under your direction; managed services hands an ongoing function to a provider bound by service levels. One buys capacity, the other buys a running outcome with defined accountability.

  • Staff Augmentation vs Outsourcing

    Staff augmentation and outsourcing differ in who directs the work and who carries delivery risk. Augmentation adds outside engineers to a team you manage; outsourcing hands a project or function to a provider that runs delivery.

  • Staff Augmentation vs Staffing

    Staff augmentation embeds contract engineers in your team for a period; permanent staffing finds people you hire as your own employees. What separates them is who employs the engineer and for how long.

  • Staffing Agency vs Employer of Record

    A staffing agency finds and supplies workers, while an employer of record legally employs people you have already chosen. One solves sourcing; the other solves employing people where you have no entity.

  • Statement of Work (SOW)

    A statement of work (SOW) is a document that defines one engagement: the work, deliverables, timeline, roles, fees and acceptance terms. It usually sits under a broader master services agreement.

  • Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

    Static application security testing (SAST) analyses source or compiled code for security flaws without running it. It usually runs in the developer's editor or the CI pipeline.

  • Stream Processing

    Stream processing is computing on data continuously as each event arrives, so results update within seconds. It is the engine behind real-time data streaming, replacing waits for scheduled batch runs.

T

  • Talent Acquisition

    Talent acquisition is the ongoing work of finding, attracting, assessing and hiring people to meet an organisation's long-term skill needs. Unlike reactive recruiting, it plans pipelines, employer brand and hiring process ahead of individual vacancies.

  • Talent Pool

    A talent pool is a group of pre-screened candidates that a company or staffing partner keeps in contact with, so roles can be filled quickly when they open. It turns hiring from a fresh search into a shortlist that already exists.

  • Team Scaling

    Team scaling is growing or shrinking an engineering team's size and skill mix to match workload while keeping delivery speed and quality steady. It involves hiring routes, team structure and process, not headcount alone.

  • Technical Debt

    Technical debt is the future cost created when software is built in a quicker or simpler way than it should be. It shows up as extra effort, bugs and slower delivery every time that code is touched later.

  • Technical Interview

    A technical interview is a structured conversation in which engineers assess a candidate's knowledge, problem-solving and design judgement for a specific role. It usually follows a screening call or coding assessment and may include system design or live coding.

  • Technical Lead

    A technical lead is the senior engineer who guides a team's technical direction, setting architecture, standards and quality while still writing code. Teams usually need one once several engineers share a codebase and decisions need a clear owner.

  • Technical Screening

    Technical screening is the early stage of hiring where a candidate's engineering skills are checked, through tests, calls or reviews, before full interviews. It filters the pipeline so senior interviewers spend time only on credible candidates.

  • Technical Specification

    A technical specification is a document that explains how a feature or system will be built. It covers architecture, data, interfaces, risks and trade-offs, so engineers can agree an approach before coding.

  • Terraform

    Terraform is an infrastructure-as-code tool that lets teams define cloud and on-premises resources in declarative configuration files. It then plans and applies the changes needed to make reality match.

  • Test Automation

    Test automation is the use of software to run tests, compare results with expectations and report failures without manual effort. It lets teams check every change quickly and consistently.

  • Threat Modeling

    Threat modeling is a structured way to identify what could go wrong with a system's security during design. Teams then decide which risks to mitigate before code is written.

  • Time and Materials (T&M)

    Time and materials (T&M) is a contract model where the client pays for the actual time worked and costs incurred, at agreed rates. It replaces a fixed price for a fixed scope with flexible billing that follows the work as it changes.

  • Time to Hire

    Time to hire is the number of days between a candidate entering the hiring process and accepting an offer. It shows how quickly a company moves once it has found the person it eventually hires, separate from how long the role was open.

  • Time Zone Overlap

    Time zone overlap is the number of working hours that colleagues in different locations share each day, when live meetings and quick replies are practical. It shapes how distributed engineering teams plan collaboration, reviews and handoffs.

  • Time-Series Database

    A time-series database is built to store and query measurements indexed by time, such as metrics, sensor readings or prices, at very high write volume.

  • TLS

    TLS (Transport Layer Security) is the protocol that encrypts and authenticates data travelling between two systems. Typical pairs are a browser and a web server, or two internal services.

  • Token Vesting

    Token vesting is a schedule that releases tokens to founders, team members or investors gradually over time rather than all at once. A smart contract usually enforces the schedule.

  • Tokenization

    Tokenization is the process of recording ownership of an asset as tokens on a blockchain. The asset can then be divided into smaller units, transferred and settled without a central registrar.

  • Tokenization (AI)

    In AI, tokenization is splitting text into small units called tokens, such as words or word pieces, which a language model reads and generates. Token counts set how much text fits in a model's context window and usually drive the cost of each API call.

  • Tokenomics

    Tokenomics is the economic design of a crypto token. It covers how the token is created, distributed, used, rewarded and removed from supply over time.

  • Total Cost of Employment

    Total cost of employment is everything an employer spends to keep someone on staff, beyond gross pay. It adds employer social contributions, mandatory benefits, insurance, equipment, statutory leave and any EOR or admin fees.

  • Training Data

    Training data is the set of examples a machine learning model learns from. Its quality, coverage and labelling largely determine how well the model performs.

  • Transformer

    A transformer is a neural network architecture that uses attention to weigh the relationships between all parts of an input. It is the basis of most modern language models.

  • Trial Period

    A trial period is an agreed opening phase of a job or engagement in which both sides test fit and either can end it on shorter notice. In employment it is usually called probation, and its terms depend on the contract and local law.

U

  • UI/UX Designer

    A UI/UX designer shapes how a digital product works and looks, from user research and flows to the visual interface. UX covers experience and structure, UI the visual layer, and teams usually hire one before flows are built in code.

  • Unit Testing

    Unit testing is the practice of writing small automated tests that check individual functions, classes or modules in isolation. They run in milliseconds and catch regressions as soon as code changes.

  • Upgradeable Proxy

    An upgradeable proxy is a smart contract pattern that lets code be changed after deployment. A fixed proxy address holds the data, while a separate logic contract can be swapped for a new version.

  • User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

    User acceptance testing (UAT) is the final phase of testing, in which business users or clients check that software meets their needs in realistic scenarios. It comes before the software is approved for release.

  • UX Research

    UX research is the systematic study of users, their needs, behaviours and context, to inform how products are designed. It combines methods such as interviews, usability testing, surveys and analytics.

V

  • Vector Database

    A vector database stores embeddings and quickly finds the ones most similar to a query vector, usually alongside metadata filters. It is the common retrieval layer behind semantic search, recommendations and RAG.

  • Vendor Management

    Vendor management is selecting, contracting, monitoring and reviewing outside suppliers so they deliver what was agreed at acceptable cost and risk. For technology buyers it spans staffing providers, development partners, and cloud and software vendors.

  • Version Control

    Version control is a system that records every change to a set of files over time. Teams use it to collaborate, review history, compare versions and restore earlier states when something goes wrong.

  • Visa Sponsorship

    Visa sponsorship is when an employer formally supports a foreign worker's application to live and work in a country. The sponsor usually takes on legal duties such as meeting wage rules, keeping records and reporting changes.

  • Vulnerability Assessment

    A vulnerability assessment is a systematic review that identifies, ranks and reports known security weaknesses across systems. It usually combines automated scanning with analyst review and prioritisation.

W

  • Web Accessibility (WCAG)

    Web accessibility is the practice of building websites and apps that people with disabilities can perceive, navigate and use. WCAG is the widely used standard that sets testable criteria for it.

  • Web Application Firewall (WAF)

    A web application firewall (WAF) is a filter in front of web applications and APIs that inspects HTTP traffic. It blocks requests matching known attack patterns or abusive behaviour.

  • Web3

    Web3 is a model of the internet where users hold their own digital assets and identity through blockchain-based applications. Instead of logging into central platforms, people connect wallets to apps built on smart contracts and tokens.

  • Web3 Wallet

    A Web3 wallet is an app or device that holds the keys to a user's blockchain accounts and signs transactions. It lets people hold assets and connect to decentralised applications under their own control.

  • Webhook

    A webhook is an HTTP callback that one system sends to another when a specific event occurs, such as a payment succeeding. The receiver learns about changes immediately instead of polling repeatedly.

  • WebSockets

    WebSockets is a protocol that keeps a single, long-lived, two-way connection open between a client and server. Either side can send messages at any time, which suits real-time features.

  • Work Permit

    A work permit is official permission from a government allowing a foreign national to work in that country, often tied to a specific employer, role or period. It may be issued separately from, or combined with, a visa or residence permit.

Z

  • Zero Trust

    Zero trust is a security model that never grants trust based on network location. Every user, device and request is verified before receiving the least access it needs.

  • Zero-Knowledge Proof

    A zero-knowledge proof is a cryptographic method for proving a statement is true without revealing the data behind it. For example, it can show someone is an adult without exposing their date of birth.

  • zkEVM

    A zkEVM is a virtual machine that runs Ethereum-compatible smart contracts and produces zero-knowledge proofs that the execution was correct. It powers ZK rollups that support existing Ethereum tools.

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