data engineer salary

Discover the ideal data engineer salary in various organizations, cities, and at various levels of expertise to determine if this is the right career for you.

More data is produced, gathered, and stored today than at any other time in human history. The volume increases daily. As a result, big data engineers in particular are in high demand right now. This is due to the unitary function they perform in all other data-related operations.

What then exactly does a big data engineer do? A data engineer’s duties include developing, testing, and upkeep of an organization’s data infrastructure. Building data warehouses (for storage) and data pipelines is required (for funneling data into these structures). Additionally, various degrees of data analytics are used. All of this is done with the intention of putting huge data in an approachable format so that it may be used for a variety of data operations, including sentiment analysis, machine learning, and a host of others. Data engineers serve as the hub at the core of the data science wheel by holding everything together.

Big data engineers can make a good salary because of their important position. In this article, we examine the potential salary of a data engineer based on their education, region, industry, and employer. 

What is the Typical Salary of a Data Engineer?

While it can be difficult to establish an exact number, we have compiled information from various job boards and internet wage trackers to provide as broad an estimate as we could. But first, a few of warnings:

  • To gather the data, only “Data Engineer” roles were utilized.
  • The roles in this data are all based in the US.

Data engineering has been advancing in the list of most sought-after positions in the United States. Similarly, in 2018, data engineering was at a poor number. By 2020, it had risen to position six. The median income increased from $100,000 in 2018 to $112,493 in 2021, reflecting this shifting trend.

The average pay for data engineers in the United States, according to a higher estimate from the employment website Indeed, is $117,135. The average pay is listed as $109,194 by Salary.com, $105,574 by Salary Expert, and $92,934 by Payscale, which is a more conservative estimate.

Even though there are some differences, that is to be expected. The most important thing is that none of these numbers are anything to be ashamed of. We can estimate that the mean pay for data engineers in the US is roughly $107K by taking the average of all of them. A lot more money could be made as well, depending on various other conditions. Now let’s examine a few of these.

Factors Affecting Data Engineer Salary in 2022

Your level of education, certifications, years of experience, firm size, industry, and location all affect how much you may expect to make as a data engineer.

  • Education

For careers in data engineering, bachelor’s degrees are frequently the minimal need. Hence, companies frequently seek to hire senior-level data engineers with shown leadership abilities and prior industry experience, and frequently require a master’s degree or professional doctorate. Your income potential can rise with advanced degrees because they will propel you into senior roles more quickly.

  • Certifications

Employers can verify the exact abilities they are looking for by looking at specialized certifications like Cloudera Certified Data Engineer. You can also increase your income and find opportunities in specialized positions by earning certifications from IBM, Amazon, Google, Oracle, and Microsoft. Consider the following data engineer certifications:

  • Google Certified Data Engineer Certification
  • Data Engineer Certifications by Microsoft
  • SAS Certified Big Data Professional
  • Google Professional Data Engineer
  • Data Science Council of America (DASCA) Associate Big Data Engineer
  • Data Science Council of America (DASCA) Senior Big Data Engineer
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS) Certified Data Analytics – Specialty
  • Cloudera Data Platform Generalist Certification
  • Experience level

Your pay as a data engineer will probably rise as you gain more expertise. Similarly, data engineers with one to four years of experience earn an average yearly pay of $88,494, according to Payscale data. Likewise, professionals with five to nine years of experience make an average of $105,107 a year.

Similarly, professionals with 10 to 19 years of experience earn an average yearly pay of $116,960. Professionals with more than 20 years of experience make an average of $117,669 a year. Hence, you can typically anticipate moving into more senior responsibilities as you gain experience.

  • Location

In the US, there are about 6500 data engineers. The amount you’ll make depends on where you live. According to a statistic that assesses the variation in cost of living in the US and is known as the actual personal consumption expenditure, at least a portion of the explanation for income differential between regions is that certain locations have lower living expenses (PCE). As of May 2022, these are the typical data engineer salaries in US cities:

  • Austin, $121,951
  • Boston, $114,608
  • Charlotte, $115,665
  • Chicago, $118,203
  • San Jose, $118,210 
  • Columbus, $124,142
  • Dallas, $115,223 
  • Denver, $108,448
  • Detroit, $119,127 
  • El Paso, $118,013
  • Houston, $113,896
  • San Francisco, $126,100
  • Indianapolis, $108,915
  • Los Angeles, $115,389
  • Las Vegas, $118,248
  • San Diego, $107,998 
  • Nashville, $122,600 
  • New York, $115,506 
  • Philadelphia, $114,668 
  • Phoenix, $111,700 
  • San Antonio, $112,280 
  • Seattle, $127,304 
  • Utah, $102,018
  • Company size

Company size often  impacts data engineer salaries. Companies offering higher salaries tend to be more significant employers such as IBM, Amazon, Meta,  and Google and often have larger, more experienced data science teams.

  • Job title variations and salary

Data engineer job titles vary by company, tasks, and skills required. Therefore, here are some common titles that data engineers can have:

  • Cloud data engineer:  $114,435 
  • AI engineer: $116,581 
  • Big data engineer: $120,239 
  • Data science engineer: $119,229
  • Database architect: $121,883 
  • Enterprise data architect: $149,739
  • Hadoop engineer: $121,131 
  • Information systems engineer: $104,359

In Conclusion:

In this article, we compiled the most recent statistics on big data engineers’ average salaries in the United States. Although there is a wide variety of possible incomes, we now know that they depend on factors including experience, geography, job title, and company.

Additionally, we discovered that data engineers often start out at around $58K. You may earn up to $156K, or even more, if you have greater expertise and precise abilities in fields like corporate software and data warehousing.

However, the route is not predetermined. Therefore, nothing is stopping you if you wish to increase your income or simply take on the challenge of other data-related activities. Many data engineers eventually move into careers in the increasingly sophisticated field of data science. You’ll soon see that data engineering has a lot of potential, both financially and educationally. Start your journey here

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