Data Engineering

Data engineering is a subfield of data science responsible for designing, building, and maintaining data infrastructure to collect, process, store, and deliver data so that it can be used and analyzed at scale. Data engineering is extremely important for navigating today’s big data landscape because it enables organizations to generate timely data analysis to guide more effective decision-making.

Data engineers are tasked with the responsibility of preparing massive amounts of data for analysis by data scientists. By using frameworks like Apache Spark to pull data from Hadoop data lakes, data engineers can deliver data for analysis quickly. With the use of machine learning platforms such as TensorFlow, they can train and use neural networks to help decipher unstructured data like video, audio, and image files. And, by using cloud database platforms like Cloudera, data engineers can leverage the power and scalability of cloud-based approaches for their work.

Big data is changing the way we do business and creating a need for data engineers who can collect and manage large quantities of data. Learn more about the role of a data engineer and find out how to become one.‎

When starting to learn data engineering, you might need to already have strong experience in working with data projects. A four-year college degree in computer science would be highly beneficial, but more often than not, companies might be more interested in someone who has a strong understanding of the fundamentals of computers, software, coding, and programming languages. You will need to have a comprehension of the data engineering ecosystem, databases, and languages like Python, Sequel, and C. It would also help to possess a keen analytical ability to see through the data weeds to offer some insights and understanding to others in your organization.‎

Yes! Coursera offers a wide range of online courses and Specializations in data engineering and related topics like machine learning and data science. You’ll be taking these courses from top-ranked institutions and organizations like the University of California San Diego, the University of Colorado, Google Cloud, and IBM, so you don’t have to sacrifice the quality of your education to learn online. Coursera also offers the opportunity to get professional certificates in data engineering and data science from Google Cloud and IBM, so you can continue to add to your credentials on your own flexible schedule.‎