Funny job titles and the jobs behind them

The job title generator's word lists

Each title takes one word from each list: 18 levels, 30 departments and 28 nouns, which makes 15,120 titles.

Weird job titles that are real

• Security Princess. Parisa Tabriz’s title at Google, which she joined in 2007. It went on her business card for a conference in Tokyo.
• Jolly Good Fellow. Chade-Meng Tan’s title at Google until he left in 2015.
• Digital Prophet. What David Shing called himself at AOL from 2011. The best titles are often self-issued.
• Technoking of Tesla. Elon Musk’s title in a 2021 Tesla filing with the SEC. The finance chief, Zach Kirkhorn, became Master of Coin the same year.
• Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office. Larry the cat, in the job at 10 Downing Street since 2011.
• Director of Rodent Mitigation. Kathleen Corradi, the first in New York City, appointed by Mayor Eric Adams in April 2023.
• Chief Heat Officer. Miami-Dade County created the job in 2021 and calls it the world’s first.
• Night Mayor. Amsterdam elected its first in 2003.
• Galactic Viceroy of Research Excellence. The title James Mickens went by at Microsoft Research.
• Chief Vibes Officer. Troye Sivan for Smirnoff in 2024, though the announcement itself says it “is not a real title”.
• Chief Tasting Officer. A Wendy’s contest in 2026 with a $100,000 prize, which its release calls an honorary title.
• Sandwich Artist. The crew job on Subway’s careers site.
• Tax Wrangler. One of the departments on Automattic’s job board, next to Fraud Wrangler. The generator borrowed Wrangler.
• Chief Evangelist. Guy Kawasaki’s title at Canva from 2014. The generator borrowed Evangelist too.

The real or fake job titles game mixes titles like these with ones we made up, and you pick which is which. After this list, the made-up ones start to sound tame.

Job-ad titles that mean extra work

A job ad that asks for a rockstar, a ninja, a wizard or a unicorn is describing the workload. The wizard fixes problems nobody can describe, and the unicorn is one hire with every skill on the list. A superhero works late without a cape allowance. A Support Hero answers the same ticket queue as a support agent, with a better name on it. The corporate buzzwords in the same ad usually say the rest. Our generator is more honest. Its Ninja quietly fixes things, and its Rockstar breaks them, loudly.

Titles that don’t match the job

Some people have two titles and some have none. The Teams profile says one thing and payroll says another, while the staff directory lists you in a building you’ve never set foot in. Then there’s the person the last reorg forgot, who found a clipboard, walked the floor asking questions and wrote down the answers. It can take years for someone to ask what that job is.

In Reorg, every person at the desks carries a made-up title of the same kind, and your job is to keep your eye on your manager through the swaps.

A title for your real job

Real titles are getting grander without the pay. 39% of US workers have been handed a more senior title and the same salary, a promotion that shows up only in the email signature. Grand can backfire, too. 41% say a job title has made them look overqualified or underqualified.

Still, the title counts. 54% say it affects whether they accept an offer. For a real job, start with the name people search for, such as accountant or support engineer, then add the level your pay matches. The level you were promised can wait for the review. Whether the grander title pays more is another matter, and Pay Grade tests that on real US median pay.

When the grander title gets announced on LinkedIn, the LinkedIn speak translator turns the announcement back into plain English. Your title is also the line under your name on a call. The Zoom backgrounds for work calls are the picture behind it, with each joke placed where your head isn’t.