#data analytics engineer

We live in a digital world where data is considered to be the new oil. At the dawn of 2020, it was estimated that the amount of data in the world was 44 zettabytes. To put that into perspective, the amount of data in the digital universe was 44 times bigger than the number of stars in the observable universe. Needless to say, the data can prove to be a goldmine for businesses having the right tools to filter and analyze the same. 

But, despite its importance, 87% of data science projects don’t take off. Part of the reason lies with the lack of adequate talents. This is why businesses need to hire data analytics engineers having the requisite skills to analyze and make sense of the raw data. But some of you familiar with the terms data scientists, data engineers, and data analysts might be wondering where the data analyst engineers fit into the team.

So, first, let’s talk about the different roles played by the data specialists in an ideal data team. This will help you figure out how the data analyst engineer fits into the overall scheme of things. In the following pages, we present to you a comprehensive guide about the need and the steps to follow for hiring a data analytics engineer. 

Role of different data specialists

In this world of data, analysis and drawing insights from data are more important than management.  You cannot afford to be a data-driven organization by limiting yourself to collecting, storing, and analysis of data. It is equally important to process, plan and draw insights for long-term planning from the data. 

Research shows that globally recognized data-driven organizations harness digital insights to optimize operations, products and services and are likely to grow at a CAGR of 27%. Such organizations are more likely to attract and retain customers. But, to form the ideal data team you need data architects, data QA, data engineers, data analysts, data scientists, and BI engineers. 

All these personnel perform designated roles in your data team and are equally important. Whereas the data infrastructure engineer’s job is to collect data, the data engineer’s job is to move or store the data. The data scientists and analysts then perform the tasks of exploration, aggregation, and optimization of the data. Based on the optimized data, the machine learning engineer then develops insights to train AI. 

So, the question arises as to why you should hire a data analytics engineer? To answer this question let’s explore the role of a data analyst engineer in your team first. 

Where does the data analyst engineer fit in?

To understand the role of a data analyst and why you should hire a data analyst engineer, it is important to comprehend the change of approach in the management of analytics data from ETL to ELT. The fundamental difference between ETL (Extract, transform and Load) and ELT (Extract, load, and transform) lies in the way the two approaches manage raw data. 

In this context, ELT offers a modern alternative to ETL and brings in more agility or flexibility in the process. The shift to the ELT approach means that data now lands in the warehouse in the raw format without transforming. To adopt this approach, therefore, your business needs personnel who are well versed with the business and have the technical ability to clean and model the raw data into well-defined datasets. 

This task can be ideally performed by a data analyst engineer and is precisely the reason why you should hire a data analyst engineer. The data analyst engineer can act as a bridge between the data analysts and the data engineers in your team. They can chip in your data management efforts by building updated, well-tested, and documented datasets that can be used by the rest of the persons to answer their queries.  

Steps to hire data analytics engineer

The ideal data analytics engineer should have profound knowledge about data engineering tools, business analytics software and a good grasp of communication. They should be able to analyze and structure raw data to draw insights from the same. Additionally, they should also be capable of explaining the technical aspects in simple language to all personnel in the organization. 

Needless to say, it can be difficult to hire the right data analyst engineer having all the requisite qualities. Therefore it is better to hire offshore data analysts. Hiring offshore data analysts is a better option as you get a ready pool of top-quality data analysts that have been prefiltered for you to choose from.  This option is also more affordable and saves you from the burden of administrative and other costs.