Being responsible for the system requires the data engineer to have several skills because it requires foresight. Data engineers are needed to know primary programming languages, databases, and logical skills.
Some of the technical skills that must be possessed are knowledge of system scripting, mastering Structured Query Language (SQL) and Python, and experience in cloud computing.
A career as a data engineer is not necessary to have a special degree. Indeed, most companies require that their prospective employees have IT or Statistics graduates.
If you don’t have a degree in a related field, you can take a certified course as material for the company’s consideration of your abilities in the field of data engineering.
Who Is Data Engineer?
Typically, data engineers work closely with data analysts and data managers. Even though the names are similar, these three data-related professions have different tasks.
In general, data engineers can be interpreted as people responsible for a company’s data infrastructure. They are tasked with building systems or infrastructure related to large volumes of data.
This infrastructure can be a database, pipeline, data warehouse, or other systems designed to process large-scale data.
Just imagine you have to be able to build a system that can accommodate thousands, even millions, of requests in one minute. Such a large amount of data cannot be accommodated in a conventional infrastructure, right?
Therefore, they will be tasked with building and maintaining the system to be used for the company’s benefit.
Career Overview
Technology-based and established companies have realized how important data is to determining business decisions. However, the data is still in the form of raw data that has no information value.
Collecting and preparing data requires technical skills in the IT field; this expertise is owned by the Data Engineer and will be used by the data science team and data analysts to produce accurate information to assist business decisions.
A data engineer is a software engineer whose their main task is to prepare data collected from various information sources by building a data system or infrastructure so the data can quickly analyzed and support company needs.
Besides that, in their duties, a data engineer is required to optimize the architecture and data pipeline so that data delivery is more optimal.
Data engineers are bachelor graduates majoring in data science, informatics engineering, and information systems. They have data field certifications, for example, from Google or IBM.
The capabilities that data engineers need to have are SQL, Python, and C++ programming languages and cloud computing platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Microsoft Azure.
Required Skills:
- Ability to understand and analyze statistics
- Understanding data mining
- Communication skills
- Problem solving ability
- Collaborative ability
- Thorough, disciplined, and nimble
Let’s get detailed explanation:
1. Mastering SQL and Python
SQL (Structured Query Language) is a programming language to access data. With SQL, you can access, retrieve, run queries, or delete data in the database.
Besides SQL, data engineers are also encouraged to master the Python programming language. Python is often used in website development, software, scripting systems, and data management.
The thing that makes Python reliable in data management is its ability to decipher lines of code and data to make it easier to read.
2. Mastering scripting systems
Script languages are used to translate code or commands on a site. You will use scripting to make the data more legible and accessible for the data manager to process.
3. Understanding in Cloud Computing
Cloud computing or cloud computing is computerized technology via internet servers. This system allows users to store data on a small to large scale.
Because it combines computer systems and the internet, you can access data from various locations and platforms.
The most frequently used cloud computing platform in data management is Amazon Web Services.
Responsibilities
Suppose you choose the profession of being a database engineer. In that case, the main database engineer task that you have to do is build and provide infrastructure for collecting large amounts of data.
You also need to ensure that the system built is sufficient to accommodate all the data collected.
However, to be able to carry out the primary database engineer duties, you must perform several other database engineer tasks, such as:
1. Collecting Data dan Process Data
The main task of the database engineer is to collect and process data from various sources. Usually, database engineers will collect data from multiple databases such as SQL Server, MySQL, CSV, and HTML. Furthermore, the data that has been collected will be sorted by type, such as structured and unstructured data.
2. Data Cleaning
Sometimes in the raw data, there are data anomalies, data types that do not match, null data, data duplication, writing that is not uniform, etc. These problems can interfere the data analysis process.
Therefore, after the data has been collected and tidied up, the database engineer’s job is to clean raw data or so-called raw data into neat data ready to be used by data scientists and data analysts.
3. Develop Data Warehouse
The database engineer’s next task is to develop a data warehouse.
A database engineer is tasked to create a data warehouse by managing a set of data.
You use with the help of tools and software such as Ab Initio Software, Informatica PowerCenter, Pentaho, and so on, which can facilitate access to information, add insight from big data, and help speed up query-response times.
There are many benefits from developing and using data warehousing, starting from database engineers being able to produce primary, accurate and better data, making far more comprehensive and fast decisions, and making it easier for companies to store extensive data with high security.
Careerpath Roles
1. Junior Data Engineer (Entry Level)
The responsibility of a junior data engineer is usually only to execute the assigned tasks according to the predetermined working time, even in doing his job junior data engineer. Always under the supervision of a supervisor to ensure that all assigned readings can be completed properly.
2. Data Engineer Officer
After being considered capable of completing all the tasks appropriately assigned, slowly supervision was also reduced until he could work without charge, so when you are at that level, it means you have become a data engineer officer.
3. Senior Data Engineer
The next level is a senior data engineer. His responsibility is to ensure that all targets carried out by the team can be completed properly. In addition, conducting audits and evaluating the needs of all company activities regularly, plan the development of data infrastructure and project server needs.
Job Prospect
Job prospects in the IT field are being eyed a lot, mainly thanks to the growth of technology-based start-ups, which are increasingly fertile from year to year.
Not only programmers and developers but there, is also another IT profession that is gaining popularity, namely data engineering.
Data is a good commodity in the Industry 4.0 era. Because of its importance, many people liken data to a resource as valuable as oil.
That is why the role of a professional data engineer is urgently needed today.