● CAREER ROADMAP

Data Engineering & Analytics

Turn raw data into trusted pipelines, models and decisions.

Data Engineers and Analysts build the pipelines and models that turn messy raw data into trusted, decision-ready information. Demand is high across every industry, and the work spans hands-on engineering and business-facing analysis.

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The complete Data Engineering & Analytics field roadmap - everything worth learning, from fundamentals to advanced. Highlighted core topics are the ones we take you through in the UstackSchool programme.

Core - taught in the programmeRecommendedOptional / advanced

Programming

Python Advanced SQL Bash Scala Java

Relational Databases

PostgreSQL Data modelling Indexing & query tuning Transactions & ACID MySQL

NoSQL

Redis MongoDB Cassandra DynamoDB

Data Warehousing

Snowflake Star / snowflake schema BigQuery Redshift Kimball dimensional modelling Slowly changing dimensions

ETL / ELT & Transformation

dbt Batch pipelines Pandas Apache Spark Data validation

Orchestration

Apache Airflow DAG design Prefect Dagster

Ingestion & Integration

APIs & connectors Fivetran / Airbyte Webhooks Change data capture (Debezium)

Streaming

Apache Kafka Spark Structured Streaming Flink Kinesis

Storage & File Formats

Data lakes (S3)Parquet / ORC / Avro Delta Lake / Iceberg Partitioning & compaction

Cloud & Infra

AWS core IAM Docker CI/CD for data Terraform basics

Data Quality & Governance

Data tests (dbt)Great Expectations Data lineage Cataloguing GDPR & privacy

Analytics & BI

Metrics / semantic layer Looker / Power BI / Tableau Reverse ETL Stakeholder reporting

Get job-ready

End-to-end pipeline capstone Portfolio Certifications (dbt / AWS)Interview prep

Tools & technologies

SQL Python & pandas dbt Airflow Snowflake / BigQuery Power BI / Looker / Tableau Git Spark (intro)

Free, open learning resources

Every topic and tool above links to our in-depth UstackSchool guide for Data Engineering & Analytics. To go wider for free, these open resources also help:

freeCodeCamp →roadmap.sh (open-source) →YouTube full course →More free resources →

Free resources build knowledge. UstackSchool adds the practical experience, evidence and support that get you hired.

Ready to start the Data Engineering & Analytics path? Get the skills, portfolio and support to actually land the role.

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