[dpeck]

Data Engineering.

Honestly I don’t like the name because gathering information, transforming, storing, and making it available for other uses is core to general software engineering, but I digress.

Many large companies in non-tech spaces are investing HEAVILY in their data engineering and automation teams. Many setting up Chief Data Officer positions and lots of roles reporting into them that have very good compensation and great work life balance.

You have to be ok that your area of work isn’t the full focus of the business and learn to work very well with other functions like finance, sales, etc. But if you can do that, it’s a great time to look into these kinds of jobs.

[pickle-wizard]

This sounds interesting to me. How would one move into this spaces? I come from a Sysadmin/DevOps backgroud. I have done a lot of scripting over the years, but never any software development. Would it be worth while getting a Masters in something like Data Analytics, or should I focus more on certifications?

[dpeck]

In my opinion masters are not worth it unless someone else is paying for it.

The line between scripting and software development means a lot less when you’re writing ETL pipelines. I don’t think you’d have too much to worry with if you’re comfortable with something like Python from a devops context.

Speaking for the teams that I lead, do a little work with Airflow, have something approaching expert level SQL skills, be able to talk about Python requests, pypetter, and related libraries/tools and you’d have a good shot at getting an interview.

[giantg2]

I hate these roles at my company. I guess it's mostly because the data systems are a mess and require DB2 and COBOL knowledge.