In this story, I would like to talk about the essential skills and knowledge that I would like to acquire fifteen years ago to be successful in the data engineering space. The engineering leadership role requires a more technical approach and hands-on activities to guide the development team towards the optimal and desired outcome set as the project goal. There is a lot to discuss about architecture and technical standards, communicating effectively with key stakeholders and ensuring projects are delivered to a high degree of technical quality. Ideally, I would like to go back fifteen years in my career and see what I need to become a successful leader in data engineering. Over my nearly fifteen-year career in analytics and technology, I've seen a lot. This story is a summary of the lessons I have learned.
It's true that there aren't many leadership resources available for lead data engineers, and most technology leadership references are for data analytics managers who oversee the team of analysts to ensure projects are delivered on time and within budget.
Data engineering is an exciting and very rewarding field. Companies will always hire someone who knows how to process data (ETL) efficiently.
It definitely won't be boring and it pays well.
In one of my previous stories, I wrote about the role without the prefix “Leader”, what is included, what to expect and how to meet the requirements (1). However, the prefix “Leader” requires more attention to leadership and developing interpersonal skills.
The position is well paid because it is not an easy task to build a good and efficient data platform that provides value. Requires considerable technical experience and strong coding skills. Consider data engineering as a combination of analytics and software engineering. The position would require certain skills to merge these skill sets to build solid data…
