Start here
What does it mean to be a modern data engineer?
You’ve probably been there.
Instead of working on strategic goals, you have a full week of firefighting. Maintenance and solving urgent issues consume most of your time.
Or maybe you build pipelines, but you don’t get the trust and respect that you deserve. You and your work are invisible to the stakeholders.
You want to be an engineer who drives innovation and has real impact not just on your team, but your entire company.
But here you are, handed another top-down feature request where you already know won’t matter.
Your day might look like this:
Fixing broken and flaky DAGs
Cleaning bad data, because of a broken contract
Pushing tickets, not strategy
Sitting in meetings and wondering why you were invited
Sure some of that comes with the job.
But at some point, you start asking:
“Is this really the impact I want to have?”
“Isn’t there a smarter way to solve these problems before they escalate?”
“Why am I not in the room when key data decisions are made?”
“Couldn’t I be the one driving data-driven innovation and transformation?”
If you’ve asked yourself these questions…You’re not alone and you’re not wrong!
There is a better way: Modern Data Engineering
Being a data engineer in times of LLMs, automations, and tools with ever increasing capabilities. This means less grunt work and more opportunity to elevate our role.
Yes, we still build pipelines, do coding, and clean data. But modern data engineering goes further.
It’s about becoming:
The Expert Builder crafting production-grade systems with confidence.
The Data Innovator driving digital data-driven transformations for the entire company.
The Force Multiplier lifting your entire team through ownership, clarity, and leadership.
These are the three pillars of modern data engineering and this publication helps you master all of them.
The three pillars of modern data engineering
The three pillars are about becoming the kind of engineer who…
Builds robust systems
Drives business innovation
Elevates the team, the product, the company
Let’s look at them briefly.
The Expert Builder
Even today, data quality and robust systems are often overlooked and rare. But, if you want to avoid being stuck in maintenance mode most of your workday, you need to become a master of your craft.
Obviously, this includes knowledge of the tools, you are using. But most engineers stop here and forget the parts that truly matter.
I’m a big believer in mastering the fundamentals first, before becoming an expert in tool X or platform Y.
“Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise.”
Michael Jordan
Tools come and go. If you want to stay on top, focus on the parts of your job that will still matter years from now.
Some of those technical fundamentals:
SQL & Python
Data modeling
Data architecture
CI/CD principles
Testing your code and data
System design
… and more.
The data that flows through your pipelines gets used to train ML models or drive business decision. So make sure the systems you’re building are robust, scale, and detect errors as early as possible.
In The Expert Builder section, you won’t just find how to do things - but how to do things right. We’ll strive not just for shallow knowledge, but for deep understanding them. One post at a time.
The Data Innovator
“Our stakeholder needs this data, I don’t know why, I just build the system to make it work. I’m the tech guy.”
You’ve probably heard something like that or maybe you’ve even said it yourself.
But data is no longer just rows in a warehouse. Today it’s one of the most underutilized assets in modern business.
And you? You are probably the person that knows more about (your) data than anyone else.
You know what is collected by source systems, you know what is possible, and you know what is broken but can be fixed with the right initiative.
So don’t limit yourself to being “the tech guy”.
Together with the people who know the domain, the market, the customer better than you do, you can turn legacy data into new revenue streams, strategic bets, and game-changing insights.
But that only happens when you stop seeing yourself as the one who delivers the data and start acting like the one who guides how data is used.
If you want to:
Take a seat at the table
Be seen as a strategic partner
Drive high-leverage initiatives
Build a reputation that gets you into the next-level rooms
…then you need to stop delivering dashboards and start delivering direction.
Because modern data engineering isn’t just about building shovels during the AI gold rush.
It’s about being the person who knows where to dig.
There is more than just pipelines and reports.
You can:
Automate entire marketing campaigns
Eliminate hours of weekly manual work
Turn raw data into algorithms and strategic advantage
Help product teams ship the right features
Transform cost centers into growth engines
The use cases are endless and the business is waiting for someone like you to step up.
In The Data Innovator section, we will focus on exactly that. Using your unique talent and knowledge of data to find the best use cases and initiatives that you should concentrate on.
If done right, your work won’t be invisible and you will be more than a plumber that fixes problems here and there.
The Force Multiplier
There was a turning point in my career.
After several low impact roles and eventually being seen as the “lead tech guy”, I got into a new project.
The situation was rough. I was working for an agency whose client just scaled the user base from a few thousand to millions of active users. The product was growing, the client was happy.
The problem? The entire team (eight people) had left over the previous 12 months. That left me as the ‘oldest’ team member with less than two months of project experience.
The client trusted the product, but they no longer trusted the process.
They were nervous and I could sense it from day one.
I realized something quickly:
Doing a technically solid job over the next few months wouldn’t be enough.
I had to evolve and be more than the leading tech guy. I had to:
Ensure every release was spot-on with no critical issues
Rebuild the client’s trust in the agency and the product team
Lead the newly formed team and give them time to evolve
Coach team members that weren’t on the required level yet
Set up automated quality standards, so the team could shine, with or without me
Be the go-to contact for the client and other teams, so the development process and communication doesn’t dip
In other words, I had to elevate the entire team through ownership, clarity, and influence. I had to become a force multiplier.
Force multipliers don’t just do an excellent job themselves. They raise the bar of the team, other teams, and ultimately the entire company.
They establish systems that run smoothly without them, and ironically, that makes them irreplaceable.
In The Force Multiplier section, we cover how you can become that kind of data engineer. We’ll talk about:
Leadership (no you don’t have to be an extrovert)
Communication - written, spoken, async
Process optimization
Ownership
etc.
These high-leverage skills will help you advance in your career and become an asset to each company you choose to work for.
Become the master of modern data engineering
Becoming a master of the three pillars of modern data engineering will transform you into a more strategic and high-impact data engineer.
Your technical skills might get you in the room, but the combination of all three pillars is what makes people want to keep you there. Even better, it’ll invite you to more important rooms.
Even if you focus on just one pillar, you’ll level up. You’ll feel the difference and others will notice it too.
Master two? Now you’re in high-demand with the freedom to choose where and how you work.
But mastering all three will not only be a lifelong journey, but also the ultimate realization of your full potential.
You’ll:
Transform how you’re seen by teams, leaders, and stakeholders
Become highly sought-after across industries and company sizes
Lead by example and be ready to step into official leadership roles and shine
Work on meaningful, high-impact projects that challenge and excite you because that’s what you’ve built for
And most importantly: Actually enjoy every data engineering role you take
This isn’t just about becoming a better data engineer. It’s about becoming the kind of engineer modern companies can’t afford to lose.
Who am I anyway?
Before I moved into data engineering, I spent over 8 years working as a freelance software engineer.
I’ve worked with big industrial clients, leading e-commerce companies, and ambitious startups.
But now you may wonder:
“If most of your career was outside data engineering, what makes you capable of talking about this stuff?”
Because I’ve faced every single one of these problems firsthand.
I lacked technical excellence and built solutions that caused more harm than good
I spent two years on a project that got shut down overnight when COVID hit because there was zero visibility (and also no users)
And yes, I was once the kind of teammate who was easily replaceable and had no impact
Luckily, I learnt from all these mistakes and continued to grow throughout my career.
After deep conversations with several seasoned data engineers, thought-leaders, Heads of Data (Engineering), C-level people, and data architects, I noticed:
The same challenges apply to data engineering, the same lessons matter, and the same transformation is possible.
I’m convinced our profession is evolving and we need to raise the bar together to meet the new requirements.
I may not be the most experienced data engineer, but I’m here to grow alongside you, and share everything I learn along the way.
Your next steps
To get started, just subscribe to the free newsletter.
You’ll get new articles that help you grow as a modern data engineer
If you want to go one step further, there are paid options that offer even more content, templates, checklists, and in the future group calls.
Whatever, you choose, I’m happy you are here.
Let’s build something better, together.