Over the last couple of years, businesses have become increasingly reliant on data mining, analysis and implementation, which has led to an increase in demand for data engineers.

Some of roles and responsibilities of data engineers include helping design, build, and maintain analytic infrastructure, designing, building, testing, and monitoring databases, coming up with new uses for existing data, monitoring the functions of data systems, creating processes for acquiring, mining, and verifying data, coming up with ways of improving the quality, reliability and efficiency of data, designing, developing, and installing data recovery procedures, and working together with data architects and other IT team members on various data projects.

The demand for data engineers has become so high that “data engineer” has been ranked as the top job in tech by Burning Glass’s Nova platform. In the period between July 2018 and June 2019, the number of data engineer job postings increased by 88.3%.

Top Trending Job Titles – Data Engineer. Source: Dice Insights

According to Glassdoor, the average salary for data engineers in 2020 stands at $102,864 per year, with a range of between $72,000 and $158,000. In addition to the salary, data engineers get an average of $9,197 in additional cash compensation.

Data Engineer Salaries. Source: Glassdoor

With such attractive salaries, and such a positive outlook for data engineer jobs, you can bet that there is a lot of competition for these positions. If you want to outsmart all the other candidates and snag that coveted data engineer position, you need to ensure that you have a stunning resume that stands out.

Remember, your resume is what takes you through the first round of elimination, and if you have a poor resume, it doesn’t matter how skilled, experienced, or qualified you are, because you will have no other chance to show these skills and qualifications.

So, how do you create a great data engineer resume that gets you through the door and allows you to show why you are the best fit for the position during the job interview?

That is what this guide is all about. In this guide, I will show examples of what a great data engineer resume looks like, and how to write such a resume.

Before we get to that, however, I want to remind you that if you feel creating your data engineer resume from scratch is such a hassle, you can always use our resume builder. Simply select a template that suits you most, fill in relevant information, and our resume builder will do everything else for you.

DATA ENGINEER RESUME EXAMPLES

Below are some examples of what a great data engineer resume looks like. Simply having such a resume will put you way ahead of the competition and get you invited to the job interview, where you can then wow the hiring manager with your competence, skills, and personality.

Senior Data Engineer Resume Sample

Right

Entry Level Data Engineer Resume Sample

Right

WHICH FORMAT SHOULD I USE ON MY DATA ENGINEER RESUME? 

Considering that recruiters and hiring managers have lots of resumes to go through whenever there is an open data engineer position, you should use a format that makes it easy for them to find whatever information they are looking for in your data engineer resume.

The best format to use is the reverse-chronological resume format, which lists your experience and academic qualifications in chronological order, starting with the most recent going back to the earliest. This format is preferred because it showcases your most recent achievements first.

To make your data engineer resume easy to read, use professional resume fonts such as Cambria or Georgia. Incorporate lots of white space in your design to make the contents of your resume ‘jump out.’

If you have less than 10 years of experience, your data engineer resume should not exceed one page. Even for those with over 10 years of experience, keep your resume below two pages. Anything longer than that will probably get tossed into the waste bin without being read.

Finally, save your resume in PDF format. This format allows your resume to render properly regardless of the device it is being viewed on, and is unlikely to get corrupted in transit.

However, check to find out if the employer has provided any instructions regarding the format you should use when submitting your resume, since some employers might have expressly stated which format you need to use.

INTRODUCE YOURSELF WITH A PROFESSIONAL PERSONAL INFORMATION SECTION

The personal information section, which contains your name, your professional job title, and your contact information should be the first thing on your resume.

Here are some things to keep in mind when writing the personal information section of your data engineer resume.

  • Always use a professional-looking email address, preferably one that only has your first and last name. Avoid using personal email addresses that have nicknames and other funny characters.
  • Provide a phone number that you can be easily reached on.
  • It is not necessary to include your physical address in your resume. If you have to, simply mention your city, instead of the whole address.
  • Include a link to your LinkedIn profile only if you have a professional-looking LinkedIn profile. Rather than copying and pasting the whole profile URL, create a shorter and more professional profile link like the one in the example.
  • Add a link to your GitHub, since potential employers will want to see the kind of projects you are working on. Make sure all the links on your resume are clickable.

Below is an example of a well written personal information section:

Personal Information

NICK BURTON
Data Engineer
Cellphone: 345-563-4345
Email: nickburton@gmail.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nickburton
GitHub: github.com/nickburton

Right

GET THE RECRUITER EXCITED WITH A CAPTIVATING RESUME SUMMARY OR OBJECTIVE

We have already seen that recruiters are busy people. They have hundreds of resumes to go through. Therefore, you want to make their job as easy as possible. Even before they go through your entire resume, you can show them that you are the right person for the job with a captivating resume summary or objective.

The resume summary is great for data engineers with a lot of experience. When writing your resume summary, quickly highlight your experience, what you are good at, and the most significant impact you have made as a professional data engineer. Below is an example of a great resume summary:

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

Passionate and dedicated senior data engineer with over 10 years’ experience. Highly experienced in Ruby on Rails, extensive knowledge of the Hadoop ecosystem and SQL based technologies. Helped a company save $1 million within a year, and helped current employer increase gross profit by 180% within four years.

Right

Contrast that with the following resume summary:

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

Data engineer with over 10 years’ experience. Looking for opportunities in a challenging environment that will allow me to use my data engineering skills to bring positive change.

Wrong

Do you think the second candidate has any chance when there are candidates with resume summaries like the first one? Hardly!

With the first example, the recruiter knows exactly what the candidate is bringing to the table.

If you don’t have a lot of professional experience as a data engineer, you should use a resume objective instead of a resume summary. Unlike the resume summary, the resume objective focuses on your skills and passion for the job, since you don’t have much experience.

Look at the following resume objective:

RESUME OBJECTIVE

Entry-level data engineer seeking a position in a firm that will give me an opportunity to learn and improve my skills. Recently graduated, no real-world experience yet.

Wrong

Now compare it to the following:

RESUME OBJECTIVE

Entry level data engineer who is highly proficient with Python, Hadoop and Spark. Certified Kubernetes Application Developer and Google Cloud Certified Data Engineer, and conversant with the deployment of AWS. Part of the team that won the 2019 TechGig Data Engineering Hackathon.

Right

While both are entry level data engineers with no meaningful experience, you can already tell which of them is going to get the job. The second one of course, because this candidate has already provide proof that they can do the job.

A good way to increase your chances of getting invited to interviews when you don’t have much data engineering experience is to take part in data engineering contests and hackathons.

Not only does this help you improve your skills, it will also act as positive proof of what you can do. As a bonus, some contests and hackathons pay good cash prizes to winners.

SHOWCASE YOUR PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE AS A DATA ENGINEER

You know you are as good as data engineers get. Problem is, the recruiter doesn’t know that. The onus is on you to prove to them that you are as good as you claim. What better way to do that than by showcasing your impressive data engineering experience?

Don’t mention all your experience. Instead, focus on the experience that is relevant to the company and position you are applying for.

For each entry in your experience section, mention the company, the job title, the period during which you worked there, and a few bullet points highlighting what you accomplished while in that position.

Below is an example of a well written experience section:

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Senior Data Engineer, AMACO Reinsurance
2015 to present

  • Designed and built a smartphone based reinsurance profit calculation platform to help sales people out in the field.
  • Provided data for 10+ data scientists, which they used to come up with sales forecasts and estimate future demand.
  • Used client data to develop client conversion system that resulted in a 180% increase in gross profit within four years.
  • Oversaw the development of a mass reinsurance system, complete with information management environments and transaction processing.

Right

If you haven’t been formally employed as a data engineer yet, there are still other avenues you can use to get some experience to include in your resume. Take part in some data engineering contests, make contributions to open source projects on GitHub, or find some freelance data engineering jobs on sites like Upwork.

These will take you just a couple of days or weeks, but you can still include them in your resume. Remember, the job of the experience section of your resume is to show what you can do, and freelance work done for a client is better than nothing at all.

ARE YOUR MISSING OUT ON JOB INTERVIEWS BECAUSE OF YOUR EDUCATION SECTION?

The good thing about searching for a job as a data engineer is that your experience matters a lot more than your education. However, if you are an entry-level data engineer without a lot of experience, your education could be the difference between getting your dream job and getting yet another ‘we are sorry’ email.

However, even if you have enough experience, your education is still important. Even if you are a self-taught data engineer whose degree is not relevant to engineering, just include it in your resume.

Some positions might be reserved for someone with a college degree, and failing to list your degree because it is not relevant to the position could cost you the job.

If you don’t have a college degree, don’t include the education section in your resume. It is far much better to leave out this section than have a high school diploma as your highest academic achievement on your resume.

When writing your education information, there are three things you have to include: the name of the school you attended, the years you were there, and the academic qualification you attained. If you are an entry-level data engineer without lots of experience, you can take it a notch higher by mentioning any relevant accomplishments you made while in school.

Below is an example of a well written education section:

EDUCATION

2011 – 2015:

Colorado State University
BSc, Computer Engineering
GPA 3.78
Key Achievements

  • President, AI and Machine Learning Club
  • Used regression models to build an algorithm to predict likelihood of getting green lights in traffic.
  • Excelled in data science coursework.

Right

GET THE RECRUITER SOLD BY HIGHLIGHTING YOUR DATA ENGINEERING SKILLS

Having a properly written skills sections is another way of setting yourself apart from the competition. Most candidates simply Google the skills required of a data engineer and paste them all on their resume. However, you are too clever for that, or so I hope.

A data engineer resume with too many skills doesn’t look believable. No one is going to believe you are good at using 15+ data engineering tools and are good at every imaginable soft skill.

Don’t list all the skills you found on Google. Actually, there is no point in searching for data engineering skills on Google. Simply go through the job posting and you will find the skills that the employer is looking for. These are the skills you should include in your resume. List them starting with your strongest skill first.

However, don’t stop there. To make your resume even more credible, make sure that the experience section of your resume contains bullet points showcasing these skills.

If you do that, you will not only have claimed to have the skills the employer is looking for, you will also have provided proof that you can walk your talk.

Below are some of the skills you might include in your data engineer resume:

Technical Skills

  • Big data: Hadoop, Spark, Pig, Hive, MapReduce, etc.
  • Database architectures and skills such as Oracle and MongoDB
  • Programming skills: Python, SQL, Java, Node.js, R, etc.
  • ETL pipelines
  • Data pipelines
  • Scrum
  • Agile methodology
  • Cloud technologies: Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Service (AWS), Google Cloud, etc.
  • Machine learning
  • Data warehousing solutions

Soft Skills

  • Problem solving skills
  • Leadership skills
  • Communication skills
  • Managerial skills
  • Attention to detail
  • Team work
  • Creativity
  • Adaptability
  • Time management
  • Good work ethic

TAKE THINGS A NOTCH HIGHER BY SHOWCASING YOUR CERTIFICATIONS

While certifications are not absolutely necessary, they might be crucial when you are up against an equally skilled and experienced candidate.

In such cases, you need to give yourself all the advantage you can get, and certifications could do just that for you.

Therefore, if you have any certifications that are related to data engineering, don’t be shy to list them in your data engineer resume.

Below are some certifications that are relevant to data engineers:

  • IBM Certified Data Engineer
  • Cloudera Certified Professional (CCP): Data Engineer
  • AWS Date Engineer Certification
  • Certified Analytics Professional
  • Google Cloud Certified Professional Data Engineer
  • MongoDB Certified Data Engineer
  • Hortonworks Certified Hadoop Developer
  • Horton Certified Associate
  • HDP Apache Spark Developer
  • Google Data Engineer Certification

WRAPPING UP

If you follow the guidelines shared in this article when creating your data engineer resume, you will already have given yourself a huge advantage over the competition, and as a result, you will start getting more invitations to job interviews.

If you are not sure how to impress the hiring manager once you are invited to an interview, you can read a few tips here.

Once you are done writing your resume, don’t be in a rush to submit. Take some time to go through it and make sure that everything looks great, that there are no spelling mistakes and grammar errors, and that everything you have included in the resume checks out. You can even have a friend go over your resume to identify any errors you might have overlooked.

After doing all that, you can now go ahead and submit your resume, accompanied by a well-written cover letter.

All the best in your job search! And remember, if you don’t want to go through the hassle of creating your data engineer resume from scratch, you can always use our resume builder.

Data Engineer Resume: Sample And Complete Guide

Comments are closed.