Leads data platform architecture, mentors engineers and owns the data roadmap.
Entry
Senior
Coding
Very High
Key skills
Career overview
The Senior Data Engineer owns the architecture and reliability of the data platform: ingestion, transformation, orchestration, quality and cost at scale. They mentor engineers and set standards. The role leads to Data Architect, Data Platform Engineer or Head of Data positions.
Main responsibilities
- Build reliable data ingestion pipelines
- Model and maintain the data warehouse
- Guarantee data quality, freshness and lineage
- Describe infrastructure as code and version it
- Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines
- Monitor platform health, alerts and dashboards
- Track and optimise cloud spending
- Coordinate the technical work of the team
- Mentor junior team members and review their work
- Own the technical roadmap of the perimeter
Technical skills
Technologies
Education level
Education requirements vary depending on the company, country and experience. Professional experience, certifications and technical skills can sometimes compensate for formal education.
High School / Bac
Less common
Bac+2 (2-year degree)
Less common
Bac+3 (Bachelor)
Less common
Bac+5 (Master / Engineering)
Common entry point
Experience & coding level
Experience level
Coding level
Useful certifications
Certifications are never mandatory. They are one way among others to prove a skill.
- Google Professional Data Engineer
- AWS Data Analytics Specialty
- Databricks Certified Data Engineer
Where can this career take you?
Multiple paths are possible. Click a role to open its profile.
Direct progression
Possible branches
Where can you go next?
Realistic next career moves, with compatibility and a transition roadmap for each.
Overlap: 63% · Difficulty: Medium
Skills to learn: IaC (Terraform), Observability, Developer experience
View roadmapOverlap: 75% · Difficulty: Medium
Skills to learn: Pipelines & ETL/ELT, Documentation
View roadmapWhere can you go from here?
A typical progression built from real career relationships. Click any role to open its profile.
Soft skills
- Leadership
- Problem solving
- Big-picture thinking
- Mentoring
- Clear communication
- Sense of ownership
Common previous careers
Roles that frequently lead into this career.
Overlap: 63% · Difficulty: Easy
Skills to learn: Spark / distributed processing, Streaming (Kafka), Mentoring
View roadmapRelated resources
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Senior Data EngineerData Platform Engineer
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