"A computer operator is the person responsible for monitoring and controlling computer systems especially mainframe computer systems in a company or organization."
It's kind of archaic, now, but back in the day you used to have a computer that filled a whole room and there would be an operator in charge of compiling and running jobs, returning (printed) output, managing user accounts, resources, backups.
Sort of analogous to a system administrator on multiple smaller computers used as servers, or the IT guy on personal computers used for work, but much more direct, in that they would actually be the one who operated the computer. Users submitted typed programs that would be input into punchcards and run as a batch, or run on a scheduled basis.
When I was an undergrad student in 2010 I worked part time as a contractor for the state of NY and my official title was “computer operator”. For the most my job was IT support
Computer operators were not very technical--just trained on the various tasks listed. It was often a low wage job. Not like a more familiar sysadmin of more recent years.
It's kind of archaic, now, but back in the day you used to have a computer that filled a whole room and there would be an operator in charge of compiling and running jobs, returning (printed) output, managing user accounts, resources, backups.
Sort of analogous to a system administrator on multiple smaller computers used as servers, or the IT guy on personal computers used for work, but much more direct, in that they would actually be the one who operated the computer. Users submitted typed programs that would be input into punchcards and run as a batch, or run on a scheduled basis.