Select your current position

Pick a role and level — we'll show the growth path, skills and gap analysis.

Development path

Junior

0-2 years

Current

Responsibility: Writing dbt models. SQL transformations. Documenting models. Data quality tests. Working with data warehouse.

Key skills:

Apache Airflow Need
BI Dashboards Need
ClickHouse Need
Dagster / Prefect Need
Data Catalog Need
Data Contracts Need
Data Lineage Need
Data Quality Need
Data Warehouse Design Need
dbt Need
Pandas / Polars Need
PostgreSQL Need
SQL-based ETL Need
Data Lake Architecture Need
Database Indexing Need
Database Migrations Need
Query Optimization Need
Data Modeling & Schema Design Need

Middle

2-5 years

Next

Responsibility: Designing analytical models (Star Schema, OBT). Setting up dbt best practices. Metrics layer. Orchestration.

Key skills:

Apache Airflow Need
BI Dashboards Need
ClickHouse Need
Dagster / Prefect Need
Data Catalog Need
Data Contracts Need
Data Lineage Need
Data Quality Need
Data Warehouse Design Need
dbt Need
Pandas / Polars Need
PostgreSQL Need
SQL-based ETL Need
Data Lake Architecture Need
Database Indexing Need
Database Migrations Need
Query Optimization Need
Data Modeling & Schema Design Need

Senior

5-8 years

Responsibility: Analytics stack architecture. Semantic layer. Data contracts. Performance optimization. Self-service analytics.

Key skills:

Apache Airflow Need
Apache Kafka Need
AWS Need
BI Dashboards Need
ClickHouse Need
Code Review Need
Dagster / Prefect Need
Data Catalog Need
Data Contracts Need
Data Lineage Need
Data Quality Need
Data Warehouse Design Need
dbt Need
Docker Need
Elasticsearch / OpenSearch Need
Git Advanced Need
GitHub Actions / GitLab CI Need
GitHub Copilot Need
Pandas / Polars Need
PostgreSQL Need
Python Web Frameworks Need
Redis Need
REST API Design Need
SQL-based ETL Need
Unit Testing Need
Algorithms & Complexity Need
Data Lake Architecture Need
Documentation as Code Need
API Documentation Need
Database Indexing Need
Integration Testing Need
Code Quality & Refactoring Need
Database Migrations Need
Query Optimization Need
Data Modeling & Schema Design Need
Structured Logging Need
Data Structures Need

Lead / Staff

7-12 years

Responsibility: Analytics engineering strategy. Data modeling standards. Coordination with data and product teams. Data governance.

Key skills:

Apache Airflow Need
Apache Kafka Need
AWS Need
BI Dashboards Need
ClickHouse Need
Code Review Need
Dagster / Prefect Need
Data Catalog Need
Data Contracts Need
Data Lineage Need
Data Quality Need
Data Warehouse Design Need
dbt Need
Docker Need
Elasticsearch / OpenSearch Need
Git Advanced Need
GitHub Actions / GitLab CI Need
GitHub Copilot Need
Pandas / Polars Need
PostgreSQL Need
Python Web Frameworks Need
Redis Need
REST API Design Need
SQL-based ETL Need
Unit Testing Need
Algorithms & Complexity Need
Data Lake Architecture Need
Documentation as Code Need
API Documentation Need
Database Indexing Need
Integration Testing Need
Code Quality & Refactoring Need
Database Migrations Need
Query Optimization Need
Data Modeling & Schema Design Need
Structured Logging Need
Data Structures Need

Principal

10+ years

Responsibility: Enterprise analytics architecture. Data mesh analytics. Semantic layer strategy. Industry best practices.

Key skills:

Apache Airflow Need
Apache Kafka Need
AWS Need
BI Dashboards Need
ClickHouse Need
Code Review Need
Dagster / Prefect Need
Data Catalog Need
Data Contracts Need
Data Lineage Need
Data Quality Need
Data Warehouse Design Need
dbt Need
Docker Need
Elasticsearch / OpenSearch Need
Git Advanced Need
GitHub Actions / GitLab CI Need
GitHub Copilot Need
Pandas / Polars Need
PostgreSQL Need
Python Web Frameworks Need
Redis Need
REST API Design Need
SQL-based ETL Need
Unit Testing Need
Algorithms & Complexity Need
Data Lake Architecture Need
Documentation as Code Need
API Documentation Need
Database Indexing Need
Integration Testing Need
Code Quality & Refactoring Need
Database Migrations Need
Query Optimization Need
Data Modeling & Schema Design Need
Structured Logging Need
Data Structures Need

Gap analysis: skills to develop

To reach the next level you'll need to develop:

Apache Airflow

Independently builds Airflow DAGs for ELT pipelines with dbt operators and data quality checks. Configures retry policies, SLAs, and alerting for transformation jobs. Optimizes task parallelism and resource pools.

BI Dashboards

Designs analytical dashboards with correct business logic: metric calculation at the BI vs dbt level, parameterized reports, cross-filtering. Optimizes dashboard performance through proper data modeling in the mart layer.

ClickHouse

Writes complex analytical queries using ClickHouse-specific functions: arrayJoin, windowFunnel, retention. Optimizes queries through proper ORDER BY key selection and PREWHERE usage for filtering.

Dagster / Prefect

Independently implements data pipelines with Dagster / Prefect. Optimizes performance. Ensures data quality.

Data Catalog

Independently maintains data catalog entries for transformation layer. Configures automated metadata extraction from dbt docs and lineage graphs. Implements tagging taxonomies and data classification for governed self-service access.

Data Contracts

Independently defines data contracts for transformation layer outputs using dbt contracts and schema tests. Implements automated contract validation in CI/CD pipelines. Negotiates contract changes with upstream data producers.

Data Lineage

Independently implements data lineage tracking across dbt transformation layer. Configures column-level lineage with dbt metadata and external lineage tools (OpenLineage, DataHub). Automates impact analysis for schema changes.

Data Quality

Configures comprehensive dbt testing: custom generic tests, dbt expectations package for statistical checks, freshness tests for sources. Implements data quality dashboards for monitoring quality metrics.

Data Warehouse Design

Designs dimensional models and semantic layers that serve multiple downstream consumers. Builds reusable dbt packages with proper materialization strategies, incremental models, and well-documented data marts. Implements slowly changing dimensions and manages schema evolution without breaking existing analytics pipelines.

dbt

Independently builds dbt transformation pipelines with incremental models, snapshots, and custom macros. Implements data quality tests with dbt-expectations and dbt-utils packages. Configures materializations and optimizes model performance.

Pandas / Polars

Applies pandas/polars for complex data preprocessing: merging heterogeneous sources, pivot tables, time series processing. Uses polars to accelerate local processing of large files before loading into the warehouse.

PostgreSQL

Creates complex analytical queries with CTEs, window functions, and subqueries in PostgreSQL. Uses EXPLAIN ANALYZE for profiling queries on large tables. Works with PostgreSQL-specific types: JSONB, ARRAY, INTERVAL.

SQL-based ETL

Develops complex SQL transformations in dbt: window functions for metric calculation, CTE chains for multi-step business logic, Jinja macros for DRY approach. Implements incremental models with merge strategy for optimization.

Data Lake Architecture

Independently builds analytics data products on top of data lake layers using dbt and Spark SQL. Optimizes query performance through intelligent partitioning and Z-ordering. Ensures data quality with Great Expectations checks at zone boundaries.

Database Indexing

Analyzes query execution plans to determine necessary indexes in data sources. Creates composite indexes for typical analytical patterns: date filtering + dimension. Understands the trade-off between read and write speed.

Database Migrations

Independently designs schemas and optimizes queries with Database Migrations. Understands indexing and execution plans. Uses ORM effectively.

Query Optimization

Optimizes dbt models and SQL queries: rewrites subqueries as CTEs, eliminates redundant JOINs, uses incremental strategies for heavy models. Analyzes query profiles in Snowflake/BigQuery to identify bottlenecks.

Data Modeling & Schema Design

Designs dbt models by layer: staging for raw data cleansing, intermediate for business logic, marts for consumers. Applies dimensional modeling (Kimball) for analytical marts. Implements SCD Type 2 for historical dimensions.

Career transitions

Possible career trajectories for the <strong>Analytics Engineer</strong> role

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Roles people often move here from

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╨а╨╛╤Б╤В ╨▓ Analytics Engineering ╤З╨╡╤А╨╡╨╖ dbt ╨╕ data modeling

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