DATA ENGINEER SKILLS, EXPERIENCE, AND JOB REQUIREMENTS

Published: Jun 03, 2025 – The Data Engineer develops secure, fault-tolerant, and scalable Big Data platforms using open-source technologies on cloud environments like AWS and GCP with Kubernetes. This position is skilled in building complete data ecosystems with components such as HDFS, Spark, Kafka, Airflow, and CEP tools while applying DevOps best practices including CI/CD, containerization, and observability. This role is capable of designing end-to-end solutions, mentoring junior team members, and collaborating effectively across global functions.

Essential Hard and Soft Skills for a Standout Data Engineer Resume
  • Python Programming
  • SQL Programming
  • ETL Pipelines
  • Data Modeling
  • Cloud Computing
  • Data Architecture
  • Dashboard Development
  • API Development
  • Data Visualization
  • Data Pipeline
  • Team Leadership
  • Cross Functional
  • Technical Guidance
  • Continuous Improvement
  • Problem Ownership
  • Business Translation
  • Executive Collaboration
  • Agile Development
  • Process Improvement
  • Team Mentorship

Summary of Data Engineer Knowledge and Qualifications on Resume

1. BS in Computer Science with 3 years of Experience

  • Solid programming/scripting skills, like Java, Scala, Unix/Linux Shell Scripting, etc.
  • Good understanding of database principles and SQL beyond just data access
  • Good understanding of Data Modelling Concepts, experience with modelling data and metadata to support relational & non-relational database implementations
  • Experience with building Logical and Physical data models.
  • Familiar with various big data technologies, open source data processing frameworks E.g., Spark, Flink, Hadoop, HBase, ElasticSearch, Hive, etc.
  • Good understanding of data processing, data structure optimization and design for high scalability, availability, reliability and performance.
  • Good understanding of REST-oriented APIs, understanding of distributed systems, data streaming, Complex Event Processing, NoSQL solutions for creating and managing data integration pipelines for Batch and Real Time Data needs.
  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
  • Excellent oral and written communication skills in English

2. BS in Software Engineering with 6 years of Experience

  • Understand system design, data structure and algorithms, data modelling, data access and data storage
  • Able to write SQL for databases like Postgres, MongoDB, Neo4j
  • Proficient in programming languages like R, Python and/or Go
  • Familiar with regular expressions and scripting languages like bash, korn, awk
  • Experience with data engineering tools and frameworks like Airflow, Kafka, Hadoop, Spark, and Kubernetes
  • Comfortable with DevOps tools like Docker, Git, and Terraform
  • Familiar with building and using CI/CD pipelines for platform development
  • Understand LDAP, OAuth, API gateways
  • Able to show some work using cloud technologies like Azure, AWS and Google Cloud
  • Experience in designing, building and maintaining batch and real-time data pipelines

3. BS in Data Science with 4 years of Experience

  • Experience with the configuration and coordination of data pipelines across projects
  • Experience with migration and transformation of complex data sets using tools such as DataStage, SSIS, and Talend
  • Experience with data pipeline development, including Azure Data Factory, AWS Kinesis, Spark
  • Previous experience working on large data engineering and migration programmes.
  • Previous experience working with data, data environments, databases, and large data sets, possibly in a consulting environment
  • Strong problem solver, someone comfortable with challenging the status quo
  • A strong background in coding with possible experience with R, Matlab, SAS, SQL or Python
  • Project delivery toolset experience in one or more batch ETL tools (such as Informatica, Microsoft SSIS or Talend) OR open source data integration tools (such as Kafka or Nifi)
  • Knowledge and experience in end-to-end project delivery, either traditional SDLC or agile delivery methodologies (or hybrid approaches)
  • Experience in engaging with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
  • Consulting experience and background, including engaging directly with clients
  • Experience in a delivery role on Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, Big Data or analytics projects
  • Exceptional communication, documentation and presentation skills

4. BS in Information Systems with 5 years of Experience

  • Solid experience developing complex ETL processes
  • Experience working with large datasets (terabyte scale and growing) and familiarity with various technologies and tooling associated with databases and big data.
  • Knowledge of Relational DB (MS SQL, PostgreSQL/MySQL).
  • Knowledge of Big Data (i.e. Hadoop, Hive, BigQuery, Snowflake)
  • Strong experience in OO or functional programming in Java/Python or equivalent language
  • Strong Software Engineering principles
  • Systems performance and tuning experience, with an eye for how systems architecture and design impact performance and scalability
  • Knowledge of best practices around DB administration

5. BS in Statistics with 7 years of Experience

  • Strong knowledge of data warehousing and data modelling concepts.
  • Experience building data integration pipelines, familiarity with ETL, ELT, Change Data Capture (CDC), Streaming and other data processing patterns.
  • Experience with Airflow or similar workflow management solutions.
  • Coding proficiency in at least one modern programming language, Python
  • Experience with AWS, good understanding of data services offered and ability to recommend cost-effective solutions in and out of the box
  • Strong knowledge of various relational and non-relational database systems, proficiency in at least one (Postgres, ElasticSearch, Redshift, MongoDB, etc), experience with structured and semi-structured data.
  • Experience with streams and event-driven patterns
  • Excellent documentation and communication skills.

6. BS in Applied Mathematics with 4 years of Experience

  • Experience working with distributed systems, cloud, and container platforms
  • Experience with ETL, ELT, Pipelines, Cleansing and Mastery
  • Experience with languages (ie. SQL, Python, Node, Scala)
  • Experience working with a variety of relational and non-relational database systems (ie, Postgres, MongoDB, Redis)
  • Experience with cloud-based data visualization technologies (ie. Looker, Domo, Tableau)
  • Experience working in an agile development environment
  • Excellent communication and collaboration skills, a desire to learn and teach
  • Experience deploying IT technology for Big Data in an industrial setting (sensors, IIoT, Hadoop)
  • Experience with signal and image processing of industrial data

7. BS in Computer Engineering with 5 years of Experience

  • Strong experience in back-end technologies such as Java, Spring Boot, Apache Storm, Apache Spark, Kafka, Redis, Hadoop, HBase/Cassandra, MongoDB, Elastic Search/SOLR, and Python.
  • Experience in designing and implementing REST-based micro services.
  • Strong experience in database design, SQL queries and data pipeline implementation
  • Experience in developing event-driven applications and familiarity with Kafka or any messaging system.
  • Excellent communication and teamwork skills.
  • Experience in scrum-based software development, JIRA and CI/CD.
  • Experience in Kubernetes or containerised application development.
  • Experience with Machine Learning with Python.
  • Experience in BPMN, Apache Camel, Drools, Mule, Alfresco
  • Knowledge of machine learning techniques (unsupervised learning, deep learning)

8. BA in Economics with 4 years of Experience

  • Advanced working SQL knowledge and experience working with relational databases, query authoring (SQL) as well as working familiarity with a variety of databases.
  • Strong analytic skills related to working with unstructured datasets.
  • Experience building and optimizing ‘big data’ data pipelines, architectures and data sets.
  • Experience with big data tools including Hadoop, Spark, Kafka, etc. and cloud data services
  • Experience with relational SQL databases such as Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL or Postgres.
  • Experience with data pipeline and workflow management tools including Azkaban, Luigi, Airflow, etc.
  • Experience with stream-processing systems including Storm, Spark-Streaming, etc.
  • Experience with object-oriented/object function scripting languages including Python, Java, C++, Scala, etc.
  • Experience supporting and working with cross-functional teams in a dynamic environment.
  • Experience with visualization tools such as PowerBI/Tableau or other BI tools with hands-on experience in these tools

9. BS in Electrical Engineering with 3 years of Experience

  • In-depth experience in the latest version of core Java, Spring Framework, REST Framework
  • Knowledge on SQL with RDBMS
  • Experience of working in a Cloud environment like AWS, etc
  • Experience with containers like Docker
  • Experience in agile/SAFe development methodologies
  • Strong object-oriented development and design knowledge and experience
  • Knowledge of design patterns and practical application of the same
  • Strong abstraction, analytical and problem-solving skills

10. BS in Computational Biology with 3 years of Experience

  • Experience in creating data pipelines using SQL / Python / Airflow 
  • Experience with designing DataMart, Data Warehouse, database objects within relational databases, MySQL, SQL-Server, Vertica
  • Strong proficiency in SQL and query writing
  • Familiarity with common API’s including REST, SOAP
  • Experience with Tableau / PowerBI/ SSRS
  • Strong Problem-Solving, Verbal and Written communication skills
  • Excellent analytical, organizational skills and ability to work under pressure /deliver on tight deadlines
  • Strong experience in stellar dashboards and reports creation for C-level executives
  • Experience with data science tools such as Pandas, Numpy, and R
  • Experience in Open Source technologies like Python, Java 
  • Understanding of distributed computing
  • Experience with Python, SSIS, Informatica

11. BS in Physics with 6 years of Experience

  • Strong programming experience with Python or Java/J2EE and Object-Oriented technologies
  • Experience with Cloud (AWS)
  • Proficiency in multiple modern programming languages
  • Good understanding of data modeling and database concepts and strong SQL skills
  • Good understanding of the computer science fundamentals, data structures, algorithms and performance tuning
  • Good understanding of the asset management business and asset classes
  • Experience working with private or public cloud platforms
  • Experience with Agile and a product-based development model
  • Experience in application, data, and infrastructure architecture disciplines
  • Some knowledge of architecture and design across all systems
  • Knowledge of industry-wide technology trends and best practices
  • Ability to work in large, collaborative teams to achieve organizational goals

12. BS in Information Technology with 3 years of Experience

  • Experience with data engineering tools, languages, frameworks to mine, cleanse and explore data.
  • Able to scrub, clean, migrate, and mine data.
  • Strong experience in Python 
  • Strong experience in programming languages(Python)
  • Good to have AWS solution architect certification
  • Good to have knowledge on Analytics Services & Cloud Methodologies.
  • Strong decision-making skills in terms of data analysis
  • Knowledge of SQL and Agile and Scrum methodologies

13. BS in Industrial Engineering with 7 years of Experience

  • Experience with data modeling, data warehousing, and building ETL pipelines
  • Experience with scripting language (e.g., Python)
  • Experience with big data technologies such as Spark, Hadoop, Hive, HBase, Pig, etc.
  • Experience working with a cloud services platform (specific experience with AWS technologies, e.g., Redshift, S3, EC2)
  • Experience in architecting large-scale BI solutions
  • Experience gathering business requirements and using industry standard business intelligence tools to extract data, formulate metrics and build reports
  • Experience using SQL, ETL and databases in a business environment with large-scale, complex datasets
  • Proven track record of successful communication of analytical outcomes, including an ability to effectively communicate with both business and technical teams

14. BS in Artificial Intelligence with 5 years of Experience

  • Ability to design and develop SQL or Python data pipelines that power data lake and data warehouse
  • Ability to design and develop big data pipelines with both structured and unstructured data
  • Comfortable with modern data orchestration tools like DBT, AWS Glue, Apache NiFi and Airflow
  • Ability to design and develop strategies to acquire data as a product
  • Experience with test-driven code development practices
  • Experience with GitLab code development practices
  • Comfortable with developing infrastructure as code such as CloudFormation or Terraform
  • Experience in advocating for adopting industry tools and practices at the right time

15. BS in Management Information Systems with 6 years of Experience

  • Experience and advanced knowledge of SQL
  • Experience in Data Modeling, ETL Development, and Data Warehousing
  • Experience using business intelligence reporting tools (Power BI, Tableau, Cognos, etc.)
  • Experience using big data technologies (Hadoop, Hive, Hbase, Spark, EMR, etc.)
  • Knowledge of Data Management fundamentals and Data Storage principles
  • Experience coding and automating processes using Python or R
  • Basic knowledge of UNIX shell scripting
  • Experience as a Data Engineer, BI Engineer, Business/Financial Analyst or Systems Analyst in a company with large, complex data sources.
  • Experience working with AWS big data technologies (Redshift, S3, EMR)
  • Knowledge of software engineering best practices across the development lifecycle, including agile methodologies, coding standards, code reviews, source management, build processes, testing, and operations
  • Success in communicating with users, other technical teams, and senior management to collect requirements, describe data modeling decisions and data engineering strategy.
  • Experience providing technical leadership and educating other engineers for best practices on data engineering.
  • Familiarity with statistical models and data mining algorithms.

16. BS in Business Analytics with 5 years of Experience

  • Experience in data engineering in a public sector or complex organisational environment.
  • Demonstrated track record of manipulating, processing, and extracting value from large, decoupled datasets, with a high level of attention to detail on data quality, wrangling and validation.
  • High-level communication skills, including effective report writing, and the ability to verbally brief senior management.
  • Demonstrated skills and experience leading and managing staff.
  • Experience collaborating with project/business stakeholders in an Agile environment to deliver solutions and perform verification and validation.
  • Knowledge of, and experience in deploying applications into production environments with code packaging, testing, deployment, and release management.
  • Ability to work with structured, unstructured, and semi-structured data.
  • Extensive experience managing and supporting cloud-based data warehouses, with advanced skills in Microsoft Azure Suite including Data Factory, SQL and Synapse, and intermediate skills in Python.
  • Experience setting up data marts for use cases and adhering to strict information security requirements.

17. BA in Cognitive Science with 3 years of Experience

  • Ability to design ETL pipelines for metric persistence
  • Experience building both near-real-time and batch systems that scale
  • Experience developing and running systems on AWS
  • Ability to deliver projects in Python
  • Deep understanding of using relational and columnar databases to organize and present data in a cloud environment like AWS
  • Ability to create and execute testing plans to ensure data quality
  • Ability to deliver projects in Java or Scala
  • Experience working with serverless architecture
  • Understanding of data preparation for machine learning
  • Understanding of data preparation for performant reporting dashboards

18. BS in Bioinformatics with 5 years of Experience

  • Ability to work in a highly energetic global environment, showing the ability to quickly overcome technical challenges and respond appropriately.
  • Experience in working on projects with demanding timelines..
  • Strong communication skills as this individual will need to work closely with clients, users and managers.
  • Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
  • Good team player, gets on well with others and is able to work with people of different skill levels.
  • An understanding of quality and process improvement.
  • Good organizational skills to keep track of issues & requests and ensure proper follow-up and closure
  • Experience and hands-on proficiency in the following tools/skill sets including Informatica, Oracle and UNIX scripting, delivering high-quality solutions.
  • SDLC lifecycle experience leading development efforts within a data warehouse environment with complex dataflow and data integration from multiple sources with different integration strategies (push vs pull, file vs database, etc.).
  • Knowledgeable with data warehouse concepts such as SCDs, star schema, hierarchy, and aggregation.
  • Ability to understand and work effectively within a complex IT environment containing an onshore/offshore model, multiple development and testing environments, sharing of environment with multiple teams, load balancing and disaster recovery setup.
  • Ability to quickly grasp problems and issues and communicate effectively with other team members.
  • Understanding of development using SCRUM and Agile practices
  • Good written and oral communication skills

19. BS in Operations Research with 4 years of Experience

  • Experience with data modeling, data warehousing, and building ETL pipelines
  • Experience in software development, data engineering, business intelligence, data science, or a related field with a track record of manipulating, processing, and extracting data from large datasets
  • Knowledge of data management fundamentals and data storage principles
  • Experience with Kronos as an application developer or engineer
  • Understanding of HR processes from hire to payroll.
  • Knowledge of Time and Attendance or Workforce Management domains.
  • Experience with WIM interfaces involving integrating employee data with Kronos, outbound integrations to payroll vendors.
  • Solid understanding of database tables used by Kronos and inter-relationships.
  • Strong SQL skills with experience in writing complex SQLs, materialized views, high performance queries.
  • Experience with AWS services such as S3 and RDS.
  • Experience with Big Data Technologies.
  • Strong knowledge of data management fundamentals and data storage principles.
  • Experience in working and delivering end-to-end projects independently.
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills across diverse audiences.

20. BS in Mechanical Engineering with 3 years of Experience

  • Experience with extract, transform, and load (ETL) methods and tools
  • Experience with data modeling, data warehousing, and building ETL pipelines
  • Experience with SQL queries and JSON objects
  • Experience with both SQL and NoSQL databases, including PostgreSQL and MongoDB
  • Familiarity with microservice architectures
  • Interest in event streaming architectures, such as Apache Kafka
  • Knowledge of data mining, machine learning, data visualization and statistical modeling
  • Ability to thrive in a fast-paced work environment with multiple stakeholders
  • Experienced with Azure Cloud Services including DataFactory, Functions and SSIS.
  • Experience with Spark and Big Data
  • Experience with Elastic Search
  • Experience with digital web data from sources such as Adobe, GA or DFP
  • Experience in Machine Learning and Data Science

21. BA in Mathematics with 4 years of Experience

  • Fluent in English and Interpersonal skills
  • Experience in ETL tools or data pipeline language such as Python, Scala
  • Knowledgeable in using Databases and writing SQL queries
  • Good time management and multitasking skills
  • Experience in data warehouse design
  • Experience with ‘Big Data’ technologies/tools Ex. Tensorflow)
  • Experience with third-party libraries and APIs
  • Experience with automating operation tasks with Shell Script, Python
  • Knowledge in business analysis or data modeling

22. BS in Systems Engineering with 6 years of Experience

  • Intermediate skills with engineering tools (IDEs, social, diagraming, compilation, build, testing)
  • Expertise in 1 or more TIOBE-Top-10 programming languages (SQL)
  • Knowledge of ETL/Data Warehousing concepts
  • SQL Server experience writing complex yet efficient SQL queries and stored procedures
  • Experience with data visualization tools such as Tableau or PowerBI
  • Experience in developing BI/Data Warehouse solutions using SQL Server Analysis Services Tabular
  • Understanding of database design and modeling principles
  • Strong data analysis skills
  • Strong understanding of Data warehousing concepts such as (Kimball and Inmon methodologies, ETL & ELT architecture design, tabular model design
  • Experience with DAX and PowerShell 

23. BS in Big Data Analytics with 4 years of Experience

  • Experience of working within a data and analytics team to deliver data and tools into a data-driven community
  • Knowledge of designing, implementing, and using relational, graph, and NoSQL databases
  • Proven technical skills with Hadoop and a broad range of associated technologies, such as Python, Spark, HIVE, NoSQL, SQL, Dataiku, Talend, Linux, Java, Jenkins, Azure, S3, others
  • Experience with big data platforms, data architecture, and design techniques, and working with large data sets
  • Experience working within data and analytics teams to deliver data visualization tools and dashboards to a data-driven community
  • Experience with big data platforms, data architecture, and design techniques, and working with large data sets
  • Experience in data architecture and data integration solutions
  • Good knowledge of English in speech and writing

24. BA in Quantitative Economics with 7 years of Experience

  • Experience in developing scalable, secure, fault-tolerant, resilient & mission-critical Big Data platforms.
  • Able to maintain and monitor the ecosystem with high availability.
  • Understanding of all Big Data components & Administration Fundamentals. 
  • Hands-on in building a complete data platform using various open-source technologies.
  • Good fundamental hands-on knowledge of Linux and building a big data stack on top of AWS/GCP using Kubernetes.
  • Strong understanding of big data and related technologies like HDFS, Spark, Presto, Airflow, Kafka, Apache Atlas, etc.
  • Good knowledge of Complex Event Processing systems like Spark Streaming, Kafka, Apache Flink, Beam, etc.
  • Able to drive DevOps best practices like CI/CD, containerization, blue-green deployments, secrets management, etc in the Data ecosystem.
  • Able to develop an agile platform with auto-scale capability up & down as well vertically and horizontally.
  • Able to develop an observability and monitoring ecosystem for all the components in use in the data ecosystem.
  • Proficiency in at least one of the programming languages Java, Scala, Python or Go.
  • Proficient understanding of distributed computing principles.
  • Familiar or prone to adopt design thinking methods.
  • Ability to build internal client relationships and work effectively across functions and geographies.
  • Ability to design solutions independently based on high-level architecture.
  • Ability to mentor and guide junior members and contribute to global department expertise, deliverables quality, and skills development.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills for coordinating across teams.

25. BS in Computer and Information Science with 6 years of Experience

  • Experience in SAP data warehousing & analytical tools like Tableau etc.
  • Ability in data modeling, ETL development, and Data warehousing
  • Knowledge of data management fundamentals and data storage principles
  • Experience with Python/JavaScript or similar programming languages
  • SQL knowledge and experience working with relational databases, query authoring (SQL) as well as working familiarity with a variety of databases.
  • Experience building and optimizing big data pipelines, architectures and data sets.
  • Experience performing root cause analysis on internal and external data and processes to answer specific business questions and identify opportunities for improvement.
  • Experience with data warehousing platforms/storage platforms such as SAP BW/HANA
  • Experience with SAP data extractors, SAP Integration tools like SLT, SDI & understanding of Supply chain processes
  • Experience with cloud data warehousing/Big data environments like Snowflake, BigQuery, Google Cloud Storage etc
  • Experience with object-oriented/object function scripting languages including Python, Java, etc.
  • Experience with data pipelines and streaming frameworks such as Pubsub, Spark, Airflow, Kafka etc
  • Experience with RDBMS and NoSQL
  • Ability to embrace, learn, and apply new technologies and tools
  • Familiarity with agile software development methodology
  • Ability to communicate well with both technical and non-technical teams