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 ETL scripts (Python/SQL). Working with Airflow DAGs. Loading data into warehouse. Monitoring pipelines. SQL queries for analysts.

Key skills:

Apache Airflow Need
Apache Cassandra Need
Apache Spark Need
Backup & Disaster Recovery Need
ClickHouse Need
Dagster / Prefect Need
Data Catalog Need
Data Contracts Need
Data Lineage Need
Data Quality Need
Data Warehouse Design Need
dbt Need
Delta Lake / Apache Iceberg Need
Pandas / Polars Need
PostgreSQL Need
SQL-based ETL Need
Stream Processing Need
Data Lake Architecture Need
Database Indexing Need
Database Migrations Need
Query Optimization Need
Network Fundamentals Need
Data Modeling & Schema Design Need
Replication & High Availability Need

Middle

2-5 years

Next

Responsibility: Designing data pipelines. Working with Spark/Flink. Optimizing SQL queries on large datasets. Data quality checks. Working with data warehouse.

Key skills:

Apache Airflow Need
Apache Cassandra Need
Apache Spark Need
Backup & Disaster Recovery Need
ClickHouse Need
Dagster / Prefect Need
Data Catalog Need
Data Contracts Need
Data Lineage Need
Data Quality Need
Data Warehouse Design Need
dbt Need
Delta Lake / Apache Iceberg Need
Pandas / Polars Need
PostgreSQL Need
Prometheus & Grafana Need
SQL-based ETL Need
Stream Processing Need
Data Lake Architecture Need
Database Indexing Need
Database Migrations Need
Query Optimization Need
Network Fundamentals Need
Data Modeling & Schema Design Need
Replication & High Availability Need

Senior

5-8 years

Responsibility: Data platform architecture. Designing data lake/lakehouse. Storage cost optimization. Designing real-time pipelines. Mentoring.

Key skills:

Apache Airflow Need
Apache Cassandra Need
Apache Kafka Need
Apache Spark Need
AWS Need
Backup & Disaster Recovery 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
Delta Lake / Apache Iceberg Need
Docker Need
Elasticsearch / OpenSearch Need
Git Advanced Need
GitHub Actions / GitLab CI Need
GitHub Copilot Need
gRPC & Protocol Buffers Need
Kubernetes Core Need
Pandas / Polars Need
PostgreSQL Need
Prometheus & Grafana Need
Python Web Frameworks Need
Redis Need
REST API Design Need
S3 / Object Storage Need
SQL-based ETL Need
Stream Processing Need
Task Queues Need
Terraform Need
Algorithms & Complexity Need
Data Lake Architecture Need
Async Programming Need
Database Indexing Need
Code Quality & Refactoring Need
Database Migrations Need
Query Optimization Need
Network Fundamentals Need
OOP & SOLID Principles Need
Data Modeling & Schema Design Need
Replication & High Availability Need
Structured Logging Need
Data Structures Need

Lead / Staff

7-12 years

Responsibility: Data platform strategy. DataOps practices. Governance and lineage. Coordination with ML and Analytics. Data quality standards.

Key skills:

Apache Airflow Need
Apache Cassandra Need
Apache Kafka Need
Apache Spark Need
AWS Need
Backup & Disaster Recovery 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
Delta Lake / Apache Iceberg Need
Docker Need
Elasticsearch / OpenSearch Need
Git Advanced Need
GitHub Actions / GitLab CI Need
GitHub Copilot Need
gRPC & Protocol Buffers Need
Kubernetes Core Need
Pandas / Polars Need
PostgreSQL Need
Python Web Frameworks Need
Redis Need
REST API Design Need
S3 / Object Storage Need
SQL-based ETL Need
Stream Processing Need
Task Queues Need
Terraform Need
Algorithms & Complexity Need
Data Lake Architecture Need
Async Programming Need
Database Indexing Need
Code Quality & Refactoring Need
Database Migrations Need
Query Optimization Need
OOP & SOLID Principles Need
Data Modeling & Schema Design Need
Replication & High Availability Need
Structured Logging Need
Data Structures Need

Principal

10+ years

Responsibility: Enterprise data strategy. Multi-cloud data architecture. Data mesh. Cost optimization at scale. Vendor evaluation.

Key skills:

Apache Airflow Need
Apache Cassandra Need
Apache Kafka Need
Apache Spark Need
AWS Need
Backup & Disaster Recovery 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
Delta Lake / Apache Iceberg Need
Docker Need
Elasticsearch / OpenSearch Need
Git Advanced Need
GitHub Actions / GitLab CI Need
GitHub Copilot Need
gRPC & Protocol Buffers Need
Kubernetes Core Need
Pandas / Polars Need
PostgreSQL Need
Python Web Frameworks Need
Redis Need
REST API Design Need
S3 / Object Storage Need
SQL-based ETL Need
Stream Processing Need
Task Queues Need
Terraform Need
Algorithms & Complexity Need
Data Lake Architecture Need
Async Programming Need
Database Indexing Need
Code Quality & Refactoring Need
Database Migrations Need
Query Optimization Need
OOP & SOLID Principles Need
Data Modeling & Schema Design Need
Replication & High Availability Need
Structured Logging Need
Data Structures Need

Gap analysis: skills to develop

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

Apache Airflow

Designs Airflow DAGs: dynamic task generation, XCom for data passing, TaskGroups for organization. Uses sensors, hooks for external system integration. Configures connections and variables.

Apache Cassandra

Designs Cassandra data models optimized for query-driven access patterns. Implements efficient batch operations and manages TTL-based data lifecycle. Tunes read/write consistency levels to balance latency and durability.

Apache Spark

Independently implements Spark data pipelines: optimizes shuffle operations and partitioning strategies, implements Structured Streaming for real-time ETL, manages Delta Lake tables with ACID transactions. Tunes Spark configurations for memory, parallelism, and cost efficiency.

Backup & Disaster Recovery

Configures backup for data pipeline artifacts: intermediate data versioning in S3, point-in-time recovery in PostgreSQL. Implements rollback mechanisms for ETL processes.

ClickHouse

Designs ClickHouse tables for analytical pipelines: engine selection (MergeTree, AggregatingMergeTree, ReplacingMergeTree), partitioning by date, materialized views for pre-aggregation. Optimizes insertion through batch inserts.

Dagster / Prefect

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

Data Catalog

Configures data catalog: integration with metadata sources (Hive, Glue, dbt), automated harvesting. Creates business glossary. Tags data for classification (PII, financial).

Data Contracts

Creates data contracts: YAML/JSON schema definitions, quality checks, SLA metrics. Integrates contract validation into CI/CD. Configures alerting on contract violations.

Data Lineage

Configures automated lineage collection: Airflow/dbt/Spark integration with lineage system. Uses lineage for debugging data quality issues. Visualizes dependencies in DataHub/OpenMetadata.

Data Quality

Configures data quality framework: Great Expectations/Soda for automated checks, custom expectations, alerting on failures. Monitors data freshness and volume anomalies.

Data Warehouse Design

Designs DWH components: dimensional modeling per Kimball, SCD Types (1, 2, 3), aggregate tables. Configures incremental loading. Optimizes performance through distribution keys and sort keys.

dbt

Designs dbt project: custom macros, incremental models, snapshots for SCD Type 2. Configures environments (dev/staging/prod). Optimizes models through materialization selection.

Delta Lake / Apache Iceberg

Independently implements data pipelines with Delta Lake/Apache Iceberg. Optimizes performance. Ensures data quality.

Pandas / Polars

Optimizes processing through pandas/Polars: chunked reading for large files, category dtype for memory, vectorized operations instead of iterrows. Migrates to Polars for performance-critical tasks.

PostgreSQL

Optimizes extraction from PostgreSQL: COPY for bulk export, cursor-based pagination, partitioned tables. Configures logical replication for CDC. Designs staging tables for ETL.

Prometheus & Grafana

Adds custom metrics to applications (counter, gauge, histogram). Writes PromQL queries for dashboards. Creates Grafana dashboards. Configures basic alerts (high error rate, high latency).

SQL-based ETL

Designs SQL transformations: stored procedures for complex ETL, parameterized queries, temp tables for intermediate computations. Optimizes execution plans. Manages transaction control.

Stream Processing

Builds real-time ETL pipelines with Kafka Streams for data transformation and enrichment. Implements exactly-once semantics and monitors consumer lag across processing stages.

Data Lake Architecture

Independently designs ETL pipelines across data lake zones with schema evolution support. Optimizes storage costs using lifecycle policies, compaction, and tiered storage. Implements data quality gates between medallion layers with automated validation.

Database Indexing

Designs indexing strategy for ETL sources: partial indexes for active records, covering indexes for frequent extractions. Understands read/write performance trade-offs in OLTP sources.

Database Migrations

Designs schema evolution for data pipelines: backward-compatible migrations, expand-contract for zero-downtime, versioning through Flyway/Alembic. Handles schema drift in sources.

Query Optimization

Optimizes extraction and transformation: predicate pushdown, partition pruning, choosing between JOIN and subquery. Profiles SQL queries in Airflow through query tags. Optimizes Spark SQL execution plans.

Network Fundamentals

Configures network connectivity for data infrastructure: VPC peering for cross-account access, PrivateLink for managed services, security groups for data pipeline components. Diagnoses connection issues.

Data Modeling & Schema Design

Designs dimensional models: Kimball methodology (conformed dimensions, bus matrix), Data Vault (hubs, links, satellites). Applies SCD Type 2 with effective dates. Models semi-structured data.

Replication & High Availability

Configures and manages database replication for data pipelines: sets up read replicas for ETL offloading, handles schema migrations across replicated environments, and implements change data capture (CDC). Understands consistency trade-offs and designs data flows accounting for replication lag.

Career transitions

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

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