Role · Data engineer
What does a data engineer do, and how is that different from an analyst?
A data engineer builds the pipelines, platforms and integrations every other data role leans on. An analyst uses the data; an engineer makes sure it is there by itself every day. Without this role, every dashboard stays manual work.
What do you do in this role?
The data engineer builds the foundation: pipelines, platforms and integrations every other role leans on. Without this role, every dashboard stays manual work.
- Building pipelines and platforms
- Unlocking and connecting sources
- Setting up maintenance and monitoring
Unsure between this role and the other one? What is the difference between a data analyst and a data engineer?
What companies look for in a data engineer
- Someone who builds a pipeline that runs overnight and tells you in the morning that it fell over. Silent failure is the real risk.
- Knowledge of where the data comes from, not only where it goes. Most problems sit at the source.
- Someone who picks the boring thing that works over the new thing that impresses.
- Transferability: documentation, tests and a set-up someone else still understands a year later.
What matters
- SQL and Python, both at working level.
- One cloud platform you know well (Azure, AWS or Google) rather than three superficially.
- Orchestration: Airflow, dbt or whatever you already run.
- Git, tests and monitoring. This is the difference between a script and a system.
- Knowing when something should not be built.
How the role is changing
The line with software engineering is fading. What used to be a set of scripts is now a system with version control, tests, deployment and monitoring, and that is simply software. At the same time part of the work is moving up: platforms take over the transport, and what remains is modelling, defining and governing. Those who grow here end up as analytics engineers, platform engineers or architects.
How you stand out among the other hundred
By showing what happened when something fell over. Anyone can build a pipeline that works on a good day; the difference is what was built in for the bad day. Talk about a time it went wrong, what you changed, and how you knew it did not happen again. That is the story a lead engineer will dig into.
What every role has in common
Companies increasingly look for someone who is broadly deployable. That does not mean you have to be able to do everything: it means you look into the disciplines around yours.
As a BI specialist you do not have to be an AI specialist. But if you demonstrably use AI in your work and keep learning about it, you become added value rather than replaceable. The same goes for communicating across departments: anyone who recognises the problems, pitfalls and opportunities of sales or finance delivers work that actually lands there.
What you can earn
Our own rates are based on a gross full-time monthly salary of € 3.000 to € 3.200. That is the floor we work from for a starting professional working full time.
A market indication per role is deliberately absent. The same job title varies widely between companies (a senior BI specialist earns noticeably less at one employer than at another) and the region weighs heavily: Amsterdam sits above Eindhoven, Eindhoven above Rotterdam, and Rotterdam above Drenthe. Quoting a number without checking it would mislead you in a conversation about your own income.
Just ask us. We see what the market pays and we will tell you what we know, including when we do not know.
Current vacancies
There is no vacancy open in this role right now. Sign up anyway: most of the work we do is never advertised.
Through which brand does a data engineer reach you?
- New Data Student
- a student or starter, with guidance, for the work that keeps being postponed
- New Data Squad
- an experienced professional who sets the lines and guides the change
- New Data Search
- somebody you employ yourself
Which form fits depends on the question, not on what we happen to sell.
Do you work as a data engineer?
Leave your details. We find the assignment that fits what you can do, not the other way round.