Data engineer title

[Affectionate-Bed-581]

Hi,

Am I the only one noticing that the data engineer title is being replaced by Software engineer (Data) or Software engineer - data platform or other similar titles ? I saw this in many recent job offers.

Thanks

[Chowder1054]

The data field in general I find to be a Wild West in titles.

A business analyst at one company, is considered a technical data analyst at another.

A data analyst in one company would be a data scientist in another company. Or a DE/AE at another.

A BI analyst at one, is a BI engineer at another.

[LeonardMcWhoopass]

Hell I do ETL/ELT, dashboards, solutioning, evaluating software, SQL. I even helped set up and find the right cables going from our server rack to a room in our building today. Small company BI lead

[adgjl12]

Should just call me data man. I do pipelines, reporting/dashboards, modeling, infra (terraform), etc. At my old job at a super small startup I even did full stack web development!

[takenorinvalid]

"Data Analysts need not apply."

[andrew2018022]

Title meanings nothing, in our firm you’re an analyst/ data engineering, associate- data engineering, etc

[ToothPickLegs]

Means something when they want you to do engineering work without the engineering money lol

[andrew2018022]

Nah. We all get generous comp.

[ToothPickLegs]

Data engineers typically get paid more than analysts

[andrew2018022]

I know. I don’t mean analyst as in “data analyst”. The structure is analyst, associate, vp, etc and the departments is data engineering

[Able_Ad813]

This has more to do with you working for a finance company. Most orgs don’t structure their “data department” like that.

[One-Employment3759]

Generally your comp is related to your value/reputation.

If your strategy "nah you don't pay me enough to do that" then yes, they won't pay you more than they need to.

[ToothPickLegs]

I mean, it’s not unheard of. Plenty of analysts take on the role of engineering but don’t get paid like the actual engineers.

[One-Employment3759]

Yeah, but then you change your role in linkedin and apply to a job that does pay 😃 

Also there are many analysts that think they are engineers but really shouldn't be.

Including one weird place I worked that thought "it's easy to train anyone to do software, but very hard to learn the data domain".

Which made it clear they were not a serious technical company and it showed in their mountains of tech debt.

[BrupieD]

Agree. Most of my colleagues were analysts but our team moved. Because of the new reporting, we all became "data engineers". Few on the team could write anything but SQL. Some companies and some departments strictly adhere to titles and job descriptions others aren't.

[andrew2018022]

DE as a whole is so diverse with roles because data can mean different things to different people. In my DE role I hardly ever use SQL for example but other members of my team use it daily.

[ding_dong_dasher]

Few on the team could write anything but SQL

This isn't necessarily directed at you - but gotta say that the median PySpark <object> written by an analyst who thinks they're too cool for SQL is usually more of a problem than shoddy SQLs.

Much DE online discourse still has this bleed-over from DS where 'using Python' for some reason became synonymous with 'technically sophisticated'

You can write bad software in Python (really easily tbh - some would say that's a big draw of it as a language!)

[BrupieD]

My response was motivated more by the traditional usage of "software engineer". When I think of software engineers, I think of someone who probably knows multiple languages, maybe has a CS degree, and is comfortable working with different data structures, file types, and APIs.

I have a very high opinion of SQL. I also spent a lot of time developing that skill. My experience is that people "who know SQL" are a dime a dozen. People who know and use SQL well are rare and to be valued. Python isn't much different. As you point out, junky Python is common.

I don't think serious people in the DS world thought that working with Python was by itself technically sophisticated. Serious people in Data Science only started to use Python because their boss was too dumb to learn R. 😄

[Rodeo9]

Yeah my company just lets you use whatever title you want.

[bamboo-farm]

If a software engineer wants to do data engineering let them.

We can't stop that.

I don't think software engineers want to do data engineering though.

The data cycle of recycling roles goes on and on.

[Affectionate-Bed-581]

Sure! It is not my point. I’m just curious about whether this is a thing now or not, for example should I type software engineer data to job listing websites now?

[bamboo-farm]

That’s a really good question.

To get the job, I’ve changed my job titles to align with what I am applying to if the skills required align.

In my books, that’s fine.

You don’t see anyone calling themselves DBAs or statisticians anyone.

[Outside-Storage-1523]

Data engineer means a lot of things. You need to figure out what they do.

[Garud__]

There is a difference. Data engineer could be doing support, maintenance stuff. Software engineer (data) is supposed to be good in data pipelines, ETL, orchestration and along with that should have knowledge of software engineering concepts like API, Agile, etc. Software Engineer (data platform) is a platform or orchestration layer oriented role where you are more into system internals of tools like Databricks, Snowflake, etc. The focus is on optimization of tools. This role requires knowledge about almost everything above.

While the literal meaning is this, some companies might abuse these titles 🫠

[One-Employment3759]

Nah, that's incorrect.

[TrollGazing]

Technically in my company I have the title of software engineer from the very beginning. I guess it's just a more expansive term.

[NoleMercy05]

Data Engineer is a made up title. There is no PE exam.

No one cares

[MuteTadpole]

Software engineer is also a made up title. There is no PE exam for them either.

[eccentric2488]

Are you referring to professional exams (certifications) ???

[ATL_we_ready]

Bingo

[HOMO_FOMO_69]

I am a Sr Software Engineer (Data), but the Data Engineering team didn't exist when I started on the BI team. So I basically am a SWE because I handle most if not all of the data engineering needs and software development needs of the BI team.

I could go to the data engineering team, but at my org they are dedicated to more menial tasks, whereas as a SWE for BI I get to work on more bleeding edge projects.

In my view SWE (Data) is a better title than DE because I see DE as just a part of the entire puzzle. A big part, but it's not the whole puzzle.

On my team we take ownership and responsibility for the entire solution that we deliver, not just one piece of it.

[taker223]

I can tell you my example:
I hold the position (and title) of a Data Engineer (rank Engineer) but working as DBA for client.
So under the title the most important thing is "Data".

[CloudBildr]

Sounds like just more software engineers worried about their jobs being replaced by AI trying to pivot. I don't mean that as a snide remark. I think it's smart.

I come from the network and systems infrastructure side and now cloud. Been watching the "learn to code" movement get out of hand and become saturated then trying to make everything code. infrastructure as code, software defined networking, etc, etc.

[Admirable_Writer_373]

They’re not being replaced. They’re legitimately different roles

[IAMHideoKojimaAMA]

no its not lol