[closeparen]

For us it's simply the runtime you target. A frontend engineer writes code for the browser. A mobile engineer writes code for iOS or Android. A backend engineer writes code for servers. A data engineer writes code for the analytical/warehouse environment.

It was typically backend engineers doing the data pipelines to expose records from their own services, until the company got bigger and the analysts got more demanding, and that became a dedicated role.

[moandcompany]

Engineers are professionals in the business of solving problems :)

[walshemj]

Scientists with thumbs was one definition I heard