Data engineer salary
Glassdoor finds that the median annual salary for a data engineer is $134,000, with a reported salary range of $111,000 to $164,000 depending on skills, experience, and location. Senior data engineers salaries range between $120,000 and $236,000, while lead data engineer salaries range from $168,000 to $252,000. Here’s what some of the top tech companies pay their data engineers per year, according to Glassdoor:
- Meta, $265,000
- Google, $242,000
- Apple, $235,000
- Cisco Systems, $234,000
- Microsoft, $196,000
- Amazon, $192,000
Then the US Bureau of Labor Statistics says this job category is expected to grow at 9% a year through 2033, which, the bureau adds, is much faster than average.
Data engineer skills
Coursera suggests acquiring solid programming skills, statistics knowledge, analytical skills, and an understanding of big data technologies to start a career in data engineering. Knowledge of distributed systems like Hadoop and Spark, as well as cloud computing platforms such as Azure and AWS, is useful, as well as strong programming skills in at least one programming language like Java, Python, or Scala. Coursera also recommends good knowledge of relational databases or NoSQL databases like MongoDB or Cassandra, and a strong understanding of ML principles, statistics, algorithms, and math concepts.
