Data Science

All About Data Engineering Salaries

Written by John Terra
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Updated on February 25, 2025

Data engineers are in high demand thanks to the influx of data daily. Consequently, the position offers excellent compensation. How great, you ask? Let’s find out.

This article explores the data engineering salary landscape, breaking down figures by job location, experience level, industry, and job title. We will also touch on what data engineers do and how you can boost your data engineer salary. By the end of the article, you’ll have a clear understanding of data engineer salaries and know how to get started in this field through a reputed data science course.

What Does a Data Engineer Do?

Data engineers handle the engineering behind systems that store, extract, and process data, building and maintaining the applications’ databases and managing the infrastructure that lets them run. A data engineer might be responsible for a MongoDB NoSQL data warehouse and an SQL data store, where they handle all the activities to ensure data accessibility.

Data engineers are often part of a team that includes data analysts, software engineers, developers, and designers. These professionals have the expertise to collect and manipulate data that others can use to fulfill critical business objectives.

Data engineer responsibilities tend to vary widely based on the organization. Data engineers may do some or all the following:

Analyzing and optimizing database performance.
Building, testing, and maintaining database pipeline architectures.
Collaborating with management to better understand company objectives.
Choosing the best storage technology (SQL or NoSQL).
Creating query plans and validating results.
Designing indexes on data stores.
Developing business intelligence reports for stakeholders, managers, and advisors.
Developing algorithms to change data into useful, actionable information.
Ensuring the datastore is up to date, then replicating it across multiple machines.
Ensuring compliance with established data governance and security policies.
Identifying patterns in historical data.
Supporting the development of data streaming systems.
Tuning data warehouses.

Also Read: The Top Data Science Interview Questions for 2025

Factors Influencing Data Engineer Salaries

According to Glassdoor.com, data engineers earn a yearly salary of around $106,000. However, many factors figure, such as:

Company size. Data engineers who work for larger companies can earn more substantial salaries than their counterparts who work for smaller companies.
Demand. Some occupations experience gluts, with far more candidates than open positions. For example, there is currently an IT skills shortage that could cost trillions by 2026.
Education. Data engineers possessing advanced degrees or specialized training in data engineering often command higher salaries.
Experience. Data engineers with more experience earn higher salaries than similar engineers without as much experience. A senior data engineer’s salary will be considerably higher than an entry-level data engineer’s pay.
Industry. Data engineers in finance, healthcare, and technology may earn higher salaries than other industries.
Location. Employment situations vary widely from city to city. For example, Boston could be on a data engineer hiring spree while Seattle is shedding jobs.
The Economy. This factor should be fairly obvious. A booming economy means more jobs, while a depressed economy typically means hiring freezes and layoffs.
Skills. Data engineers with a robust skill set that includes programming languages like Python and SQL typically enjoy higher salaries. Professionals with a broader skill set and experience with data management tools like Hadoop and Spark may also draw higher salaries.

Let’s look at some data engineers’ salaries, broken down by these factors.

Data Engineer Salaries

Our salary figures are based on experience, industries, and top companies, courtesy of Glassdoor.com.

By Experience. When a boss pays you, they aren’t just buying your time and energy, they are also buying your experience. So, the more experience you have, the more they’ll be willing to pay.

0-1 years: $86,378 per year.
1-3 years: $97,544 per year.
4-6 years: $109,174 per year.
7-9 years: $118,171 per year.
10-14 years: $131,216 per year.
15+ years: $147,669 per year.

By Industries. Not all industries pay the same since the role of data engineering isn’t as prominent in some industries as in others.

Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation: $147,276 per year
Agriculture: $146,739 per year.
Energy, Mining & Utilities: $143,944 per year.
Financial Services: $136,986 per year.
Telecommunications: $135,082 per year.

By Top Companies. As with industries, not all companies in the same field pay the same. Larger companies tend to pay more. Here are the ten best-paying companies as of November 2024.

Verily: $266K annual median
Meta: $264K annual median
Tencent: $250K annual median
Roku: $249K annual median
Airbnb: $249K annual median
Google: $241K annual median
LinkedIn: $240K annual median
Dropbox: $240K annual median
Slack: $240K annual median

Also Read: Why Use Python for Data Science?

By Job Title. Data engineers often find themselves in a position related to their field, but not necessarily a data engineer per se. Here’s a breakdown of the five best-paying jobs related to data engineering, as reported by Ziprecruiter.com.

Data Engineer II: $129,716 per year
Senior Data Engineer: $126,328 per year
Pyspark Developer: $111,845 per year
Staff Data Engineer: $99,330 per year
Data Programmer: $58,536 per year

By Location. Real estate isn’t the only place where location matters. Data engineers looking for a place to settle down and have a promising career should carefully note which cities pay the best. Indeed.com reports that these are the best-paying cities in the United States for data engineering professionals.

San Jose, CA: $173,112 per year
San Francisco, CA: $160,415 per year
Jersey City, NJ: $152,587 per year
Chicago, IL: $133,100 per year
Redmond, WA: $132,487 per year
Boston, MA: $130,889 per year
Richmond, VA: $128,816 per year
San Diego, CA: $125,480 per year
Atlanta, GA: $119,505 per year

How to Increase Your Salary as a Data Engineer

Checking out the pay grades for data engineering jobs can be a real eye-opening experience, especially if you’re in the field and seeing substantially better pay offered by other companies. If you’re wondering how you can be a part of this and boost your salary to something more acceptable, there are several avenues you can take towards increasing your value as a data engineer:

Acquire new skills and knowledge. Raise your value as a data engineer by learning new technologies and improving skills in greater demand in the job market. These skills and technologies might include artificial intelligence, machine learning, or big data technologies like Hadoop and Spark.
Get certification. Earning a professional certification in data engineering can showcase your expertise and boost your earning potential. Certification is also a great way of staying current with the latest tech innovations and networking with peers and possible future employers.
Gain experience. As with most jobs, the more experience under your belt, the more valuable you are to your current or potential employers. So, focus on gaining experience working on challenging and complex data engineering projects. Additionally, consider assuming additional responsibilities at your workplace or searching for new challenges in your current role, all to increase your experience level.
Negotiate that salary. When the time comes to prepare to negotiate your salary, make sure you research and understand what other data engineers with experience and skills like yours are earning in your region or city. Bring along the data to support your request for a better salary. Be confident in your negotiations, but prepare to be a little flexible as well.

Also Read: What Is Data Processing? Definition, Examples, Trends

Upskill to Boost Your Data Engineer Career

We mentioned earlier that earning a certificate is a great way to increase your data engineering salary. To pursue that avenue, look at this data science course. This intense 11-month course will teach you data science and generative AI skills as it imparts experience in essential, popular data science tools such as ChatGPT, DALL-E, Midjourney, and others.

So, whether you’re getting ready to launch a career in data engineering or you want to upskill yourself to get a better pay grade, check out the online training and make things happen.