[dormento]

When the hype cycle for "technology x" is in full swing, everybody becomes a "x engineer", sometimes without even knowing. According to some of my previous employers, I've been an "engineer" in areas such as information security, development using specific languages and/or frameworks and the like. This was of course more performative than anything else - no reputable dev shop would be caught dead not having a couple blockchain engineers on call when the customer demands.

IMHO, it not only means nothing at all, it also could mean nothing in several different ways. For example, if you take "AI engineer" to mean "someone who uses AI as a tool in their daily job as a software developer", then I'm also a "chair engineer", "coffee engineer" and "keyboard engineer" as well, since I consider those essential to be able to design and code, even if they're not part of the deliverable. Or you could go the way of champagne - "engineer is anyone who is registered by this engineering council/association, and this is done by filling certain requirements in matters of education and/or professional status".