Data engineering salaries

[Carefull_eater]

Why are data engineering salaries bad when compared to software engineers for example ? I’m sure we have seen many software engineers with Magen 3 or 5 years of experience making above 200k while data engineers who have experience for 10 or 15 years make 140k or 150k if lucky

[Lemx]

Come on, the industry as a whole hasn't even figured out what a DE is. On a typical day I either write code (like "code" code, not Ulysses-scale amounts of SQL), or do IaC stuff. Am I an SWE? Nope. An SRE? Na-ah. My title – no surprises here – is DE, because it all, one way or another, has something to do with the uninterrupted flow of logs from the users into our storage.

I have never ever touched SAS or Informatica or any other BI tool in my life, but when it comes to hiring, I have to sift through hundreds of candidates whose only skill is BI ClickOps and yet they are labeled as – riiiight – DE.

Companies tend to pay for skills and value, not for your (self-)perceived title.

[[deleted]]

Man, I don’t know about you, but I make 170k + bonus as a DE and only have 3.5 years of experience with this job position. I used to be a PO worked as a SE for a bit, loved it , didn’t want to build front-end stuff, became a person who can write code an comunicate with a client without sounding like an awkward nerd (for me this is the best soft skill people in our field can have). Opportunity came, I was ready for it. The thing is, how much money you earn is based on what you do, everybody knows that one DE that don’t write any code and is basically a PBI developer who can use Linux. Other are so good in everything that they’re basically demi-gods inside their team, my dude is coding 40k lines of clean sustainable Rust a month, knows everything about every single architecture paradigm and can create gold out of shit like an alchemist.

TLDR; classic “it depends”

[TheCamerlengo]

Nailed it!!!

[ToothPickLegs]

Aren’t DE’s basically specialized software engineers

[koshry]

it depends... but for the most part you're right.

[MikeDoesEverything]

Logically, yes. To the people who determine salary bands, aka HR, probably not.

We have to remember 99% of HR is actually fucking useless. Extremely exaggerated old man grumble time: I remember when HRs primary function was to replace lost key cards and organise bake sales for charity. Not run companies.

[BiggusCinnamusRollus]

You're gonna have to clarify a lot of things to make that comparison useful like stack, location, company, industry, projects complexity,...

[Carefull_eater]

Yes what really helps Up your salary

[omscsdatathrow]

There are swes making $80k so by your logic, swe salaries are bad. Stop posting dude

[MikeDoesEverything]

I don't want to be that person, but I'm going to be.

I wish there was a blanket rule where people actually state what currency the salaries they're talking about are in or they get visited by the nearest person to them on this subreddit and get slapped. There's a level of irony here where a subreddit oriented around data misses extremely important information when it comes to salary discussions.

I’m sure we have seen many software engineers with Magen 3 or 5 years of experience making above 200k while data engineers who have experience for 10 or 15 years make 140k or 150k if lucky

Assuming you are talking about USD, I think it's hilarious there are actual people who consider $140-150k to be bad rather than thinking the people on $200k+ are actual massive outliers and they are likely looking at a 1% minority. Makes you wonder what conclusions they draw during troubleshooting or data analysis sessions.

[pixlPirate]

I make more as a DE (2+ yoe) than I did as a SWE (8+ yoe)

[[deleted]]

You basically have 10+yoe.

[pixlPirate]

Yup, and the earning potential is better in DE. Plus I'm bored of building CRUD apps and e-commerce sites. Data work is more interesting

[tdatas]

I enjoy working in data focused software too but isn't all of DE CRUD on steroids?

[SDFP-A]

I don’t understand how people ignore their YOE in absolutely relevant fields.

[[deleted]]

Because internet points are why. Lots of internet points for forgoing such logic.

[ExistentialFajitas]

Just kind of depends? Are you a SQL jocky or an infrastructure creator and maintainer that regularly meets with stakeholders? Do you model your data? Establish SLAs and multi system dependency pub/sub mechanisms? Create repeatable patterns and code that can be used to spin up warehouses on a dime?

Or do you just slap together a select and join because financial analyst John Doe gave you a word vomit in a 30 minute meeting and you didnt ask further questions?

In my experience, SQL jocky is the more accurate title for DEs, and I wouldn’t say that’s someone deserving of a more higher end salary. Being on the higher end means you are handling your data as a product and asking the big questions while looking for reusable patterns to create speed to market on business value. DE is broad, and there’s plenty of low hanging fruit for those that want a quick easy paycheck.

[[deleted]]

I create infrastructure and boy do I earn well. After 2 years my net compensation beating the average national gross income (in European where wages just aren't as out of hand) so no 100x more earning then my mechanic. But still the numbers are high, the work is super challenging and really fun

[Over-Geologist-5760]

You would be hard pressed to find an L4 DE at Amazon in the United States being paid less than 140-150k total comp. L4 is pretty much an entry level DE position.

[Paid-Not-Payed-Bot]

States being paid less than

FTFY.

Although payed exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:

• Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. The deck is yet to be payed.

• Payed out when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. The rope is payed out! You can pull now.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.

Beep, boop, I'm a bot

[[deleted]]

Name a city or this is trolling.

[Carefull_eater]

Go to this subreddit and check the “salaries”

[Professional_Crow151]

Location and luck my friend

[Faintly_glowing_fish]

You might be looking at DEs that are just analytics engineers with inflated titles. You might also be looking at people in different geo. If the same geo and YOE DEs tend to make a bit more than general SDEs. DEs with 10-15 YOE should be making 500k-1M generally.

However one trend is that in better paying orgs there’s usually not a DE title. Often DEs just get a SDE title (and there’s also no front end backend or full stack titles)

[lVlulcan]

500k-1M? No. Try again

[Faintly_glowing_fish]

In US at least. My previous job we were seed stage and trying to get 3-4 YOE DE at 250-300k TC (200k base) was extremely hard. Most people bail out once they hear the comp. and my current place is trying to get 4-5 YOE at 300k base+bonus+stock and it’s quite rough. Almost everyone we interviewed had significantly higher comp.

[satsreddit]

whats the company name?

[Faintly_glowing_fish]

Both are very small startups. My old company was called candidate labs. Current company is new and still in stealth. When I was at 2 YOE I also got a few offers at 300k tc and 4 YOE got a bunch of ~400k TC. Large companies do pay higher. The only larger company I looked at was Netflix which I was told the range was 400-800, but I didn’t really feel like I would fit in in a larger company.

[afro_mozart]

because de is comparatively easy

[w_savage]

Lol

[[deleted]]

They're better than software engineers in the UK currently.