When Nest Labs wants to increase profitability, it’s up to Tejash Patel to help figure out how. Has the engineering department at the maker of smart thermostats, security cameras and other devices for the home put in features that don’t address customer needs? Should the global supply manager negotiate better prices on certain parts?

To find answers, Patel, a business operations systems manager in Nest’s supply chain arm, analyzes data and meets frequently with the operations, engineering and marketing departments. “You can really have an impact on how the company operates,” says Patel, 34. “You’re not just sitting behind your computer not ever talking to anyone.”

It’s a rare kid who dreams of working in supply chain management, a field where responsibilities typically divide into four parts: plan, source, make and deliver the product. Patel certainly didn’t. He grew up intrigued by the computers his father, an engineer, brought home, and he studied computer science at the University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign.

But demand for MBAs to fill these functions has been growing along with the geographical reach and complexity of supply and distribution channels, say b-school placement professionals. Companies focus on finding cost savings in their supply chain to avoid raising prices, says Dean Vera, director of the MBA Office of Career Management and assistant dean at the business school of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey–Newark and New Brunswick. Consulting firms also are looking for supply chain experts.

Patel didn’t know much about the field until he entered it. After college, he worked for several years in software development and as an information technology consultant. Eventually, tired of “clients in random cities with small problems,” he headed to the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, thinking that perhaps he would target Silicon Valley.

A summer internship at Nest in Palo Alto, where a major project involved analyzing data and developing insights that would help upper management make strategic decisions, led to his current job after graduation in 2015.

[Determine if an MBA in supply chain management fits your career goals.]

He’s glad that it offers the best of both worlds. There’s a technical component; one responsibility is to supervise software developers creating the tools used to analyze data. And, he says, you can “touch different areas of the business that you don’t often get to in other roles.”

Other areas are also heating up in MBA hiring.

— Market researcher: To help them beat the competition, companies need people who can analyze numbers and point to the next profitable niche. Expert projections put job growth in this field at 19 percent over the next 10 years or much faster than average. Market research analysts at the upper end of the pay scale can command a salary nearing $120,000.

— Technology product manager : New tech products constantly are debuting, and that spurs demand for tech-savvy brand managers. Unlike a product manager for a leading toothpaste, say, who can be effective at the job without ever having formulated toothpaste, technology brand managers are expected to be very familiar with a product’s inner workings.

Among 2015 MBA grads of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management, the mean salary for this type of job was $124,927, with a $25,265 signing bonus.

[Dive into job rates and starting salaries for MBA grads.]

— Leader-in-training : Leadership development programs that rotate employees through company departments were among the first budget items cut during the financial downturn. Now they are being reinstated by employers in need of new managers to take over the business.