Data engineer career path at tech companies · 364 roles · 90 days to Oct 16, 2026
Updated
In short
Of the 364 data engineer roles at tech companies in the 90 days to Oct 16, 2026, 167 are senior, more than at any other level. The median stated pay for senior roles is $168.8k a year. Data Modeling rises most. Among the roles whose requirements we could read, it is required in 28 of 74 (38%) mid-level roles and 95 of 167 (57%) senior roles. Data architect roles share 8 of the 13 required skills listed for data engineer roles; no other role shares more.
Levels in order
Each level counts its own roles. A median shows only where 50 or more of that level’s roles state pay, and each is taken over a different set of roles.
| Level | Roles | Median stated pay | At least half ask for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Junior data engineer | 23 roles | Not shown | 2+ years, 13 of 21 |
| Mid-level data engineer | 74 roles | Not shown | 3+ years, 64 of 66 (97%) |
| Senior data engineer | 167 roles | $168.8k a year | 5+ years, 113 of 137 (82%) |
| Staff data engineer | 34 roles | Not shown | 8+ years, 17 of 29 |
| Principal data engineer | 13 roles | Not shown | 10+ years, 7 of 13 |
| Lead data engineer | 15 roles | Not shown | 5+ years, 13 of 14 |
Lead titles say who leads a team, not a step above principal, so lead is listed last and not compared with the level before it.
What rises at the next level
Required skills asked for in a larger share of roles at the next level, by 5 points or more. Each count is out of that level’s roles whose requirements we could read.
Mid-level to senior
Out of 74 mid-level and 167 senior roles whose requirements we read.
| Skill | Mid-level | Senior |
|---|---|---|
| Data Modeling | 28 of 74 (38%) | 95 of 167 (57%) |
| AWS | 20 of 74 (27%) | 69 of 167 (41%) |
| CI/CD | 18 of 74 (24%) | 63 of 167 (38%) |
| Python | 51 of 74 (69%) | 135 of 167 (81%) |
| SQL | 52 of 74 (70%) | 133 of 167 (80%) |
In the senior top 15, not in the mid-level top 15: Data Quality
Not compared, fewer than 50 roles read at one of the two levels: junior to mid-level, senior to staff and staff to principal.
Roles closest to data engineer, by shared skills
Compared over each role’s most-required skills, umbrella labels such as “Programming” left out. The more skills two roles share, the shorter the move between them.
Data architect50 roles
8 shared: SQL, Python, Data Modeling, ETL, Data Warehousing, AWS, Spark, Data Quality
Analytics engineer106 roles
6 shared: SQL, Python, Data Modeling, ETL, Data Warehousing, Snowflake
Median stated pay: $170k a year
Software engineer2,484 roles
5 shared: SQL, Python, CI/CD, AWS, Git
Median stated pay: $178k a year
Data analyst217 roles
5 shared: SQL, Python, Data Modeling, Snowflake, Data Quality
Median stated pay: $115k a year
More on data engineer roles
How we count: 364 roles from 322 employers in the 90 days to Oct 16, 2026, each role counted once however many boards post it. Methodology