LinkedIn ranks the data engineer role as a ‘job on the rise’ in 2021. Data engineering is one of the fastest-growing tech occupations, with job postings growing 50% year on year.

As the volume, velocity, and variety of data grow, the need for systems to process this data also increases. This is why data engineers are in great demand today. LinkedIn shows 125,000 open vacancies for data engineers in the US.

Data engineers often don’t clean, process, or make sense of the data. They build the systems that enable data scientists and data analysts to do so. The role of a data engineer is to build data pipelines that transform raw, unstructured data into formats data scientists can use for analysis.

The Robert Half Salary Guide 2021 identifies the data engineer position as one of the best paid. It estimates that data engineers with little or no experience, developing skills can earn $132,500. With experience and skills, this can go up to $226,500.

In this comprehensive salary guide, we look at various sources to paint a clear picture of data engineering salaries in the US. In addition to experience, we explore educational background, skills, specialization, location, and type of organization as factors influencing compensation.

We’ll also show you what you need to do to land a higher salary in the field.