Technology Career Progression Roadmap - Data Engineer

I was supposed to have had a personal development plan probably in my first few weeks but now it’s the end of the fourth week and I’m still waiting. This is probably because the team is busy preparing for the next kickoff so I’ll be patient. I searched on the Intranet and found a template. It’s early days and I haven’t demonstrated any skills to my manager for us to work on a plan but it’s always good to have career meetings with the manager bi-annually to manage expectations. Without metrics or service level agreements, it’s hard to know if I’m performing to standard. The plan can identify skill gaps and help with promotions or internal transfers.

In the meantime, let’s talk about what a technology career progression looks like at my company since I found an illustration last week. Every company is different because some roles might not exist. The benefit of working at a medium-sized company is there’s some structure and well-defined roles which include business analyst, product owner, IT, cybersecurity, architect, and engineer. The engineering section is extremely broad at my company so I’ll focus on data engineer. If you want, I can explain the other roles in future podcasts.

At the bottom of the roadmap, we have Associate Technician (Trainee). The performance expectations are minimal and the employer looks for values rather than relevant skills. This is not to say they don’t look for experience and transferable skills. This role is great for career changers or early careers where you may have little to no technical skills because you’ll be trained on the job. At my company, some new joiners come with zero experience while others did a bootcamp or attended university. There are also internal transfers and junior candidates. It’s nice to see my company considers a wide range of people and is willing to train people internally.

My company aims to promote Associate Technician to Associate Engineer within a year. This is a Level 1 or junior role and the engineer is expected to have basic proficiency in at least one programming language; learn about code reviews and unit testing; identify and solve bugs; contributing to decision-making; learn about immediate stakeholders within the team and the wider organisation; be able to communicate ideas, collaborate, and share knowledge.

The next title is Data Engineer. Congratulations, you’re now Level 2 or Level 3 with intermediate or advanced skills in programming. You’re expected to configure environments; follow best practices of the software development lifecycle; regularly review code; debug independently as an individual contributor; be able to lead small to medium-sized projects and support juniors. You build relations with non-technical stakeholders outside of the engineering team, give feedback and influence project direction.

The next title is the level 4 Senior Data Engineer. You’re now an expert in multiple programming languages and contribute to large-scale systems. You keep abreast of technology and industry trends and introduce new techniques to the team. You attend organisational meetings, representing your engineering team; and influence team direction.

The next title is Lead Data Engineer whereby you set the strategic direction for multiple teams and drive best practices and adopt the latest technologies. You mentor senior engineers and build strong relationships with external stakeholders and lead organisational collaborations.

Remember, titles vary in different companies and an engineer can wear multiple hats. Your company may have Staff Engineers and Principal Engineers. Some companies are ambitious and put pressure on staff to develop and get promoted. If you’re in such a company, you might hear your colleagues discuss promotions every other day. Other companies might be more understanding of people’s wants and needs and let you stay in your role without more responsibilities. You could be a family-oriented person with a new-born or are content with your work situation. That’s ok too because companies value your experience as long as you’re adding value to the company and mentoring juniors.

Personally, progression really depends on the company, if they have the budget or headcount, or the projects you’re exposed to. Also a level 1 engineer at one company might be a level 2 at another. If the projects are simple, you’re able to progress and get a better title in your company but you lack the skills for more complex projects so you might be seen as a junior when interviewing at another company. Job titles are sometimes misleading so I’d focus on the responsibilities and salary.

I hope you’ve found this progression roadmap helpful. Let us know if your company has a different title, or if your role wears many hats. Are you thinking about a promotion or an internal transfer?

You’ve been listening to Data with Beau. Until next time, take care.