Why do job ads use the word "discipline" to mean different areas/types of jobs?

Question

I find on some companies' websites that they use the word "disciplines" to mean different areas/types of jobs.

One of their job descriptions says "You will work across the company with other product groups, as well as across the aisle with other disciplines."

I look up the word discipline and the closest meaning I think is "a field of study" from Merriam Webster or "an area of knowledge or teaching that is studied at a university" from Longman. I can't find the meaning related to different types of jobs.

So why do they use it and why is there a separate profession section from the discipline section?

Cambridge dictionary (As Jim pointed out) uses a sentence "Our company actively recruits graduates for a wide range of disciplines including engineering, science, and business." But recruiting new graduate and recruiting professionals is different. If it is recruiting new graduate it is easy to understand the meaning of discipline as "an area of knowledge or teaching that is studied at a university" from Longman.

But the picture I attached is recruiting professionals so using discipline there is bit confusing to me.

Answer 1

I believe the actual job titles would be in the "Role Type" section and "Discipline" in the example refers to fields (and subfields) of study.

"You will work across the company with other product groups, as well as across the aisle with other disciplines."

For example if your job is in the discipline of graphic design (e.g., you are commercial artist), you might have to work with a packaging engineer who works in the discipline of packaging design. Sometimes the name of a discipline and a job title may be quite similar, such as software/packing engineer(ing) and graphic design(er).

Discipline (n.)

A branch of learning or knowledge; a field of study or expertise; a subject. Now also: a subcategory or element of a particular subject or field.

1962 Lancet 13 Jan. 113/1 Sir Leonard Parsons..had been the first to draw into the paediatrics of his time other disciplines such as biochemistry and immunology.

1999 Independent (Nexis) 16 Apr. 22 Becky, regarded as the brightest prospect in British gymnastics started her sport at five... Her favourite (and best) discipline is the asymmetric bars.

2007 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 28 Jan. viii. 1/2 Duncan is a founder of the World Power Sports Association, which runs a national race series for snowmobile snocross, a discipline similar to motocross. (OED online)

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The boundaries of what were once recognised as discrete design disciplines such as product, graphic, textile, and fashion design have been and continue to dissolve... P. Rodgers and C. Bremmer; Design School (2019)

Product design engineering whilst a relatively new engineering discipline, is gaining support with global distribution of curricula. These pioneering curricula integrate the traditionally disparate disciplines of industrial design and mechanical engineering to develop a creative 'next generation' engineering more adapt at the changing roles of product design and development. A. Silva and R. Simões; Handbook of Research on Trends in Product Design and Development (2010)

Answer 2

Cambridge Dictionary gives:

a subject or a particular type of work:
Our company actively recruits graduates for a wide range of disciplines including engineering, science, and business.

Answer 3

OED defines discipline as a subcategory or element of a particular subject or field (also mentioned in DjinTonic's answer). So the examples in the image you have posted are each a subcategory of a broader discipline/field of study (such as engineering, design, etc.).

Hence, "Software Engineering" is a discipline of Engineering:

Software engineering is an engineering discipline that's applied to the development of software in a systematic approach (called a software process).

(From medium.com)

"Product Design" is a discipline of Design:

Product Design is a design discipline that focuses on developing solutions to human needs, wants, limitation and desires.

(From designcarlow)

"Product Marketing" is a discipline of Marketing:

Product marketing is a marketing discipline that focuses on the process of bringing a specific product to the marketplace.

(From directiveconsulting.com)

"Product Management" is a discipline of Management:

Management as a discipline refers to that branch of knowledge which is connected to study of principles & practices of basic administration.

(From managementstudyguide.com)

Marketing and Management are themselves disciplines of Business.

Answer 4

All three of the answers so far and a number of the comments have been helpful. Nevertheless. It may be worth getting briefly into the etymology of it.

The Latin 'disciplina' is formed from from the verb disco, meaning I learn. Someone who learns from a teacher, a pupil, was called discipulus; what a discipulus learns can be called a disciplina. Before well into the twentieth century, the teaching of boys could be a brutal business. The great Roman Poet, Horace, refers to his teacher as "plagosus Orbilius ", immortalised by his brilliant pupil for his cruel teaching methods. Schooling and corporal punishment became disturbingly associated together and corporal punishment was not mage illegal in the U.K. schools until 1986. So it is not surprising that the word discipline should have given its name both to the knowledge and skills learned but to the brutal methods employed in imparting them.

At universities, the academic meaning of the knowledge, understanding and skills acquired and exercised continues because that is what their profession does. Even here, however, the use of the word discipline, compared to, say, subject, gives it an edge of rigour/self-control, coming from that other sense of 'discipline' associated with control by punishment.

For that reason it is not uncommon for secondary schools with aspirations to academic prestige to refer to subjects as disciplines

For that reason also, it is not surprising that some companies choose to refer to different departments as disciplines, combining as they do expertise/knowhow with seriousness and self control not inflicted by the brutal Whacker Orbilius.