The new profession is already in the top ten of the fastest growing: the salary can reach 4,000 euros after taxes.

Šarūnas Chomentauskas, director of data analytics solutions company Exacaster, says that data engineers are named as the fastest growing and most needed technology profession in the world.

“And we are already seeing this trend not only abroad, but also in Lithuania. Responding to business needs
we’re going 30 percent. increase the number of employees and, in particular, create highly paid jobs, especially for data engineers. It is a profession that is now “on the wave” and whose demand will only increase as companies turn more and more to the data and the value it creates, “says Š. Chomentauskas.

According to the manager, until recently, the most necessary and popular profession of this time was called data scientists, but practice has shown that more than 80 percent. The job of data scientists today is data engineering. Therefore, a data scientist may need up to four data engineers to “maintain.”

The wage curve is rising, offering excellent working conditions.

However, while the demand for data engineers in the market is growing by leaps and bounds, employers are facing a problem: there is a severe shortage of these specialists in the market. “Although the business demand is huge and the jobs created are highly paid, very few data engineers are trained, so there is a great shortage of these specialists in today’s market,” Š. Chomentauskas.

Indrė Kaikarė, head of job search and selection company jobRely, confirmed that the demand for data engineers in the Lithuanian market is really growing rapidly and that this relatively new profession is already in the top ten of the fastest professions. increase.

Currently, more than sixty open data engineer positions are published on the LinkedIn social network alone, while there are only about one hundred and a half professionals available in the market. We clearly see how much demand significantly exceeds supply, ”commented I. Kaikarė.

According to the head of the hiring company, the salary curve for these specialists is also increasing. Depending on experience, the salary of data engineers with average experience (the so-called “mid” level) in the market is about 2,000. Eur after tax, and leadership and experience positions (“senior”, “lead”) can reach 3500-4000 Eur after tax.

In addition, according to I. Kaikarė, since the shortage of these specialists in the market is incredibly high, employers often agree to retrain employees: data specialists, analysts and programmers are retrained as engineers of data.

Head of the data analysis solutions company Š. Chomentauskas confirms that very often they have to train data engineers to work in other specialties, even if they do not have specific experience in working with data engineering tools. Database specialists, back-end programmers, etc. they are the most common among these specialists.

Currently, the company, which is ready to employ 15 data engineers, offers these specialists a well-paid job with global projects from Lithuania to the United States, as well as several additional benefits. For example, employees who have worked for the company for at least half a year receive company shares, an amount of 2000 EUR per employee per year for personal development (books, training, lectures) and one non-working day every other Friday for the purpose of studying.

Lithuanian universities are also starting to prepare a data engineer

Universities and some private educational institutions are already beginning to prepare much-needed data engineers for the market, although it will be some time before these professionals fill the market and fill the emerging niche.

Last year, the first Bachelor degree study program in Lithuania, Science and Data Engineering, was launched at Kaunas University of Technology, and the first graduate program will graduate in 2024. According to the doc of the Faculty of Mathematics and Science KTU natives. Dr. Kristina Šutienė, the new program was launched with market needs in mind and in consultation with commercial representatives in this field.

“This program combines two important competencies that a modern data professional needs. The first is data science, which is based on data analysis using modern mathematical methods. The second is to work with advanced information technology for data management, which includes data extraction, scanning from various sources, storage, graphing and even the design and development of information systems. As the program consists of several directions, future graduates can specialize in one or another direction that is more acceptable to them, ”said K. Šutienė.

By the way, although some other IT studies are more actively chosen by children, the new study program has gained similar popularity among both genders. It is planned to admit about fifty more students to study in this program this year.

IT education startup Turing College, the first Lithuanian startup in the Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator, responded to the leap in the data engineering profession to the market by introducing an innovation in data science learning in the European market based on education and trade associations. It enables data scientists to prepare for the market in 6 to 9 months, and participants who successfully complete the program receive a job offer in lieu of a diploma.

It is true that this new educational company is currently training not specifically as a data engineer, but as a data scientist who may choose to prepare more strongly for the role of data engineer at the end of the course. According to Giedrius Žebrauskas, director of the training program at Turing College, these studies are already one of the fastest ways to acquire the specialization of a junior data engineer in Lithuania. According to G. Žebrauskas, in the future it is planned to prepare the whole course from the beginning, which is more focused on data engineering.

“We see a trend that the need for data specialists is growing, we receive inquiries about these specialists from employers every week,” said G. Žebrauskas. – As the demand is really low and the supply of people who can do a good job is quite limited, data specialists (analysts, scientists, engineers) get better salaries than the common labor market and excellent conditions even at the entry level . In our opinion, the demand curve for data professionals is growing faster than that of programmers. “

I. Kaikarė, the director of the recruitment and selection company, summarized that more and more companies are relying on data to grow their business, so the demand for data engineers will only increase – abroad, ”says I. Kaikarė.