Data Engineering Career Path
Explore the data engineering career ladder from Junior to Principal. See skills needed at each level and salary expectations.
Roles
5
in data engineering
Career Levels
5
Junior to Principal
Median Salary
$175,979
across all levels
Browse Jobs
→
data engineering openings
Career Ladder
Progression from Junior to Principal in data engineering
Junior
$108,675 median
Data EngineerData ScientistData AnalystDatabase Engineer
ETLData PipelinesSQLData WarehousingSparkAirflowCloud Data ServicesStatistics
Mid-Level
$155,450 median
Data EngineerAnalytics EngineerData ScientistData AnalystDatabase Engineer
ETLData PipelinesSQLData WarehousingSparkAirflowCloud Data Servicesdbt
Senior
$184,750 median
Data EngineerAnalytics EngineerData ScientistData AnalystDatabase Engineer
ETLData PipelinesSQLData WarehousingSparkAirflowCloud Data Servicesdbt
Staff
$222,000 median
Data EngineerAnalytics EngineerData ScientistDatabase Engineer
ETLData PipelinesSQLData WarehousingSparkAirflowCloud Data Servicesdbt
Principal
$210,200 median
Data EngineerData ScientistDatabase Engineer
ETLData PipelinesSQLData WarehousingSparkAirflowCloud Data ServicesStatistics
Salary Progression
Median salary by seniority level
Skills by Level
Which skills are needed at each career stage
Skill
Junior
Mid-Level
Senior
Staff
Principal
ETL
Data Pipelines
SQL
Data Warehousing
Spark
Airflow
Cloud Data Services
Statistics
Machine Learning
Python
Deep Learning
Experimentation
Data Visualization
Database Administration
Performance Tuning
Roles in Data Engineering
5 canonical roles in this family
Analytics Engineer
IC
SQLdbtData Modeling
midseniorstaff
Data Analyst
IC
SQLData VisualizationStatistics
juniormidsenior
Data Engineer
IC
ETLData PipelinesSQL
juniormidseniorstaffprincipal
Data Scientist
IC
StatisticsMachine LearningPython
juniormidseniorstaffprincipal
Database Engineer
IC
Database AdministrationSQLPerformance Tuning
juniormidseniorstaffprincipal
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