Data Engineer
| Median wage (USD) | 139500 |
|---|---|
| Projected employment growth (%) | 4 |
| AI exposure (%) | 60 |
| Maximum exposure (%) | 95 |
| Source | eloundou |
| What AI changes in this occupation | Schema, data-model and SQL code generation — DDL, queries, stored procedures — is delegated to AI Database design, schema documentation and parameter tuning become AI-assisted Framing requirements with architects and business teams, arbitrating the architecture and owning the data platform remain human |
| Key skills | Data modeling and warehousing · SQL and ETL pipelines · cloud platforms · data governance and quality |
| Courses to get ahead | IBM Data Engineering Professional Certificate · Coursera · 5 months · 92 · SQL, Python, ETL, warehouses and data lakes: you build the whole chain, from raw pipeline to usable model — the part AI now generates and you supervise. Preparing for Google Cloud Certification: Cloud Data Engineer Professional Certificate · Coursera · 3.5 months · 88 · Designing cloud data warehouses and lakes, pipelines and their operation: the architecture you arbitrate, not the code AI writes. DeepLearning.AI Data Engineering Professional Certificate · Coursera · 15 weeks · 86 · Data modeling, warehousing and schema documentation: the structure AI proposes and you validate with the teams who will use it. Introduction to Data Engineering (IBM) · Coursera · 1 week · 82 SQL for Data Science (University of California, Davis) · Coursera · 2 weeks · 79 ETL and Data Pipelines with Shell, Airflow and Kafka (IBM) · Coursera · 5 weeks · 77 |
| Occupations to pivot toward | Database Administrator · 104620 · 4 · 60 Data Scientist · 120230 · 35 · 59 Software Developer · 135980 · 10 · 45 |
| Skills to acquire for the pivot | Eloundou's measured exposure is 60% (human β) and rises to 95% (human ζ): schema, data-model and SQL code generation, schema documentation, testing and parameter calculation are largely delegable to AI, but framing requirements with architects and business teams, arbitrating the architecture, development standards and responsibility for backup and recovery remain human. BLS growth is +4% from 2025 to 2035 (as fast as average) for the 'Database Administrators and Architects' group: its 144,500 jobs are projected to reach 151,000 (+6,500), with about 7,300 openings a year. The volume of data to manage and AI entering processing chains support demand, but automation of routine operations and the shift to cloud services weigh on growth, which stays at the average for all occupations. The median salary ($139,500, May 2025) is that of the BLS 'Database Architects' profile (SOC 15-1243), whose O*NET page lists 'Data Engineer' among its reported job titles; the combined 'Database Administrators and Architects' group shows $126,760 and administrators alone $104,620. The lowest 10% earn less than $86,240 and the highest 10% more than $204,000. It is above data scientists ($120,230) and database administrators ($104,620), and in line with computer network architects ($134,050). |
| GPT-4 exposure — beta / zeta (%) | 88 · 100 |