How to Become a Big Data Engineer

Q: What are top Big Data Engineer colleges?

Top Big Data Engineer colleges: VIT Vellore SRM University Chennai Presidency University College of Engineering, Guindy Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi

- Salary, Qualification, Skills, Role and Responsibilities

Who is a Big Data Engineer?

The world is one big data problem ~ Andrew McAfee

Big data is an extensive collection of information. Traditional software is not equipped to utilise or handle big data. Big data comes in unstructured form while traditional data is structured. A Big Data Engineer is a software developer, data scientist and engineer at the same time. He or she performs numerous tasks on a daily basis. A Big Data Engineer identifies, extracts and delivers data in a usable format. He or she ensures that the extracted data is valid. A Big Data Engineer may deal with cloud computing environments. He or she provides assistance in documentation and resolves ambiguities in the data and others.

Big Data Engineer in a Nutshell

A Big Data Engineer is an IT professional responsible for designing and developing data pipelines. It is his or her intelligence behind the data collected from various sources. He or she provides the organised data sets for analysts and data scientists.

Quick Facts for Big Data Engineer

Industry
Information Technology
Average Salary in India
₹100182
Suitable for
Male, Female, Others

A career as a Big Data Engineer is suitable for everyone regardless of the candidate's gender. There are not any gender-based restrictions in the career.
Any special needs
Yes

A Big Data Engineer career is suitable for candidates with special needs. It comes with a desk-based job role. Due to no frequent travel requirement, the career is suitable for the specially-abled. Remote work and work from home may also be provided in this career.

Table of Contents for Big Data Engineer

What is the role of Big Data Engineer?

What is the workplace/work environment of Big Data Engineer like?

How to become a Big Data Engineer?

What are the skills and qualities required to become a/an Big Data Engineer?

Which certifications and internships can be helpful in becoming Big Data Engineer?

Career path progression for Big Data Engineer

Big Data Engineer Jobs and Salaries

What is the job outlook for Big Data Engineer?

Frequently Asked Questions for Big Data Engineer

What is the role of Big Data Engineer?

A Big Data Engineer performs varying roles and responsibilities on a daily basis. It includes interacting with massive data processing systems and databases in large-scale computing environments. He or she sorts through sweeping data to find relevant sets for analysis to predict the behaviour. A Big Data Engineer provides organisations with data analyses that further support them to assess their performance, identifying market demographics and predicting upcoming changes.

Big Data Engineer produces insights that are useful for business, finance, healthcare, science, government, telecommunications and other industries. Now you know what is Big Data Engineer and let us now look at is Data Engineer a good career and how to become a Big Data Engineer.

Also Read: Career as Business Analyst

Designing

A Big Data Engineer is responsible for designing, constructing and maintaining large-scale data processing systems. He or she collects data from various data sources. It includes both types of data- structured and unstructured.

Data Handling

The role of Big Data Engineer includes handling raw data by utilising data processing transformations and algorithms to create predefined data structures. He or she stores data in a data warehouse or data lake for downstream processing.

Data Insights

The role of Big Data Engineer includes implementing the data processes and business logic to transform the collected data into valuable and meaningful information. He or she is required to meet necessary quality, governance and compliance considerations.

Evaluation

A Big Data Engineer job demands evaluating, comparing and improving data pipelines. He or she is required to design pattern innovation, data lifecycle design, data ontology alignment, annotated datasets as well as elastic search approaches.

Preparing Data Pipelines

A career as Big Data Engineer demands preparing automated data pipelines to transform and feed the data into dev, QA and production environments.

What is the workplace/work environment of Big Data Engineer like?

A Big Data Engineer work environment is usually based in the office. He or she designs, builds, tests and maintains data processing systems. A Big Data Engineer may often be provided with work-from-home or remote work employment shifts. A Big Data Engineer role demands strong communication skills. He or she must be comfortable in interviewing and collaborating with business subject matter experts, business analysts and data science teams.

Does Big Data Engineer require travelling?

Likely

A Big Data Engineer career does not come with frequent travel requirements. He or she usually works in an office environment.

Employment Shifts

Full Time, Work From Home

A Big Data Engineer usually works a day-shift. It is a typical 9 am to 5 pm job. Work shift hours may vary from organisation to organisation.

Employment Nature

Contractual, Permanent

A Big Data Engineer finds both types of jobs contractual and permanent. Aspirants can look for jobs depending on their preference through recruitment websites or job portals such as Indeed, Naukri.in and Glassdoor.

Work Place

Office, Work From Home, Remote Work

A Big Data Engineer works in an office environment. He or she may also work from home or from remote locations.

Presence in Geographical Area

Semi-urban, Urban

A Big Data Engineer finds flourishing employment opportunities in metropolitan cities such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, New Delhi, Mumbai and Pune.

Time Pressure

Likely

Yes, a Big Data Engineer comes with the pressure to complete tasks within the given timeframe. Extending deadlines creates a bad impact on the professional front.

Overtime Details

A Big Data Engineer may occasionally be required to work extended hours in order to meet the deadlines or during working on prioritised projects under special circumstances.

Weekly Hours of Work

Min 40 Hours

A Big Data Engineer works a minimum of 40 hours per week. The Big Data Engineer's work hour may vary depending on employing organisations.

How to become a Big Data Engineer?

Steps to become a Big Data Engineer

There are a few steps that are required to follow to become a Big Data Engineer. Below, we have mentioned how to become a Big Data Engineer. We have discussed the steps in detail for how to become a Big Data Engineer in the article.

Identifying the skills
Formal Training/Courses to pursue
Become Certified
Building a strong Resume
Look for Internship opportunities
Job Hunting
Preparing for the Interview
Landing a Job

01 Step

Identifying the skills

The first and foremost step in how to become a Big Data Engineer is to have the required skills. Individuals who want to pursue a career as Big Data Engineer must have some of these soft skills and hard skills.

Some of the soft skills are Communication Skills, Problem-Solving Skills, Analytical Skills, Attention to Detail, Critical Thinking, and Organisation skills.

Communication Skills
Problem-Solving Skills
Analytical Skills
Attention to Detail
Critical Thinking
Organisation skills

Every individual who is looking how to become a Big Data Engineer is required to have some of these hard skills such as EDA, Multi-Cloud computing, SSRS, Excel, PowerBI, Google Looker, PowerBI, SQL and Programming languages.

EDA
Multi-Cloud computing
MatLab, SAS, and R statistical
Google Looker, PowerBI
SQL
Programming languages

02 Step

Formal Training/Courses to pursue

In order to become a Big Data Engineer, individuals must complete their 10+2 in Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics or Computer science with at least 50 per cent aggregate from a recognised board.

Students must apply for a bachelor's degree to become a Big Data Engineer by passing an entrance examination. Individuals who are willing for higher job positions must apply for a master’s degree, however, it is not mandatory to become a Big Data Engineer. We have mentioned below the Big Data Engineer entrance examination and the most popular Big Data Engineer Bachelor’s and Big Data Engineer Master’s degree programmes.

Entrance Examinations

JEE Main	JEE Advanced
BIT SAT	SRMJEEE
WBJEE	VITEEE

Bachelor’s Degree Programmes

B.Tech in Big Data Analytics
B.E in Big Data Analytics
B Tech Data Science and Engineering

Master’s Degree Programmes

M.Sc in Data Science and Data Analytics
M.Sc in Statistics and Data Analytics
M.Tech in Big Data Analytics

03 Step

Become Certified

Students who are searching for how to become a Big Data Engineer can opt for one of these certifications. Pursuing a specialised certification adds that extra knowledge and skills and will also help to sharpen their skills. It is not mandatory to opt for these certifications but individuals willing to opt for a higher position must opt. We have mentioned below some of the specialised certifications.

Cloudera Certified Professional (CCP) Data Engineer
Certified Big Data Professional (CBDP)
Google Cloud Certified Professional Data Engineer

04 Step

Building a strong Resume

Once the Individual has completed their bachelor’s degree or master’s, the next step that comes up in how to become a Big Data Engineer is building an attractive resume as it is the most important step to reaching their dream career. A resume must be attractive, formal and brief. Individuals must include all of their details such as work experience, interests, educational background, skills and specialised certifications, and internship experience.

05 Step

Look for Internship opportunities

Once you have built a strong resume, look for internship opportunities on various internship offering portals such as Internshala, Internworld or others. However, this step is not mandatory and depends on the individual or the colleges that demand students to pursue internships. Pursuing an internship helps individuals to explore their interests, skills and potential for certain job roles.

06 Step

Job Hunting

After completing internship individuals can start hunting for Big Data Engineer jobs. Research various companies and apply for positions for Big Data Engineer roles on various job portals like Naukri. in, Linkedin and others.

07 Step

Preparing for the Interview

Once you have applied for the job, the next step is to prepare for the interview which includes Preparing a self-introduction or some stories for a few minutes to talk for atleast 2 minutes, researching the company and the job description. Individuals must know clearly what will be there roles and responsibilities as Big Data Engineers and must be ready to respond to the questions of the interviewer such as why they are fit for this job or what they are good at and others.

08 Step

Landing a Job

Landing your desired or dream career is the most important step in how to become a Big Data Engineer. Once the individuals are get selected and receive the offer letters they will be required to select the best and right offer for them. After selecting an offer letter the next is to step into the job.

What are the skills and qualities required to become a/an Big Data Engineer?

Analytical skills
Machine learning
Knowledge of Data Visualization
Knowledge of cloud computing

A Big Data Engineer career demands specific skill sets to perform everyday tasks in the work environment. We have provided here details of Big Data Engineer skills.

Machine Learning Skills: A Big Data Engineer is required to possess machine learning skills. He or she is required to sort and process large amounts of data in a small amount of time. A Big Data Engineer must be familiar with the use of algorithms required for the data ingestion process.

Cloud Computing: Clouds provide distributed access and better scalability. That is why they are essential to store and process data. The popular cloud services for Big Data are AWS, Azure Data Lake and Google Cloud. A Big Data Engineer must be familiar with the cloud storage types, security levels and service providers.

Hadoop: Hadoop has varying degrees of scale that depends on data and mode. A Big Data Engineer must know which mode he or she should use and for which purpose. He or she must know in which data set and where he or she can apply Hadoop.

Analytical Skills: A Big Data Engineer is required to understand complex data. He or she must know how to utilise the analytical tools in big data to troubleshoot problems. A Big Data Engineer is required to apply mathematics and specific science skills to become an expert in Big Data.

Data Visualisation: The role of Big Data Engineer must be able to visualise data. Data Visualisation is crucial to increase imagination and creativity. A Big Data Engineer is required to interpret the data visually.

Popular Online Engineering Courses and Certifications

Which certifications and internships can be helpful in becoming Big Data Engineer?

We have provided here a list of relevant Big Data Engineer certification courses. Aspirants can enrol themselves in any of these courses to upgrade their skills and knowledge for a career as Big Data Engineer.

PG Certificate Program in Machine Learning and Big Data Analytics	Big Data Hadoop Certification Training Course
AWS Big Data Certification Training Course	Post Graduate Program in Big Data Engineering
Big Data Hadoop Certification Training	Online Big Data Course

Internship Availability

Yes

Aspirants who want to become a Big Data Engineer are required to acquire specific skill sets. An internship provides them with the best opportunity to learn the necessary skills and get knowledge functioning in the industry. Candidates having a prior Big Data Engineer internship tend to do better in the job interview and their resume gets more effective to get noticed by recruiters for entry-level positions. Aspirants can opt for Big Data internships during their academic programme or after the completion of their college degree.

Career Path Progression for Big Data Engineer

Aspirants are required to give a start by opting for entry-level Big Data Engineer roles in the industry. Further, after gaining experience they progress and are promoted to senior-level roles with more responsibilities.

Junior Big Data Engineer: A Junior Big Data Engineer is responsible for ensuring data pipelines are scalable, secure and serve multiple users. He or she works under the supervision of the Senior Big Data Engineer.

Senior Big Data Engineer: A Senior Big Data Engineer is responsible for solution design, data modelling and development. He or she is required to design and develop scalable Big Data solutions. A Senior Big Data Engineer is required to build data pipelines and ETL using various sources.

Big Data Engineer Jobs and Salaries

Junior Big Data Engineer

Employment Nature

Contractual/Permanent

Monthly Salaries

Average Salary 60227

Job Description

A Junior Big Data Engineer is responsible for developing, testing and maintaining big data solutions for a company. He or she is required to gather large amounts of data from various sources and ensure that it is quickly accessible and efficiently for downstream users.

Salary Description

The average Junior Big Data Engineer salary varies depending on candidates’ skills, academic qualifications and employing organisation. The average salary of a Junior Big Data Engineer is Rs. 722721 per annum.

(Source: Intellipaat.com)

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Senior Big Data Engineer

Employment Nature

Contractual/Permanent

Monthly Salaries

Average Salary 140137

Job Description

A Senior Big Data Engineer is required to supervise the junior Big Data Engineers. He or she manages data pipelines and provides the required technical support and guidance to business users. A Senior Big Data Engineer works closely with Security, Business Resilience, Risk and Architecture teams.

Salary Description

The salary of a Senior Big Data Engineer varies depending on various factors such as skills, expertise and prior experience. The average Big Data Engineer salary is Rs. 1,681,640 per annum.

(Source: Intellipaat.com)

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What is the job outlook for Big Data Engineer?

The demand for Big Data Engineers has risen up more than ever before. There are numerous companies in fierce competition to recruit the best talent. Businesses of all sizes are striving for capturing, processing and analysing the data sets. It has resulted in numerous Big Data Engineer jobs in the industry. Aspirants are required to have a special set of skills to convert unstructured data into actionable insights.