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Vinicius Fagundes
Vinicius Fagundes

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Tools of the Trade: What Powers Modern Data Engineering

#career #dataengineering #python #datascience

Introduction

You understand what data engineering is. You know how pipelines, ETL, and warehouses work. Now comes the question every beginner asks:

"What tools should I actually learn?"

The data engineering landscape is overwhelming. New frameworks launch every month. Cloud providers release new services constantly. It's easy to get lost.

In this article, I'll cut through the noise. After years of building data systems and training engineers across organizations, I've identified what actually matters — and what you can safely ignore as a beginner.

Let's build your toolkit.

The Core Stack

Every data engineer needs proficiency in four areas:

  1. Languages — How you write logic
  2. Databases & Warehouses — Where data lives
  3. Orchestration — How you schedule and manage pipelines
  4. Cloud Platforms — Where everything runs

Master these, and you can work anywhere.

Programming Languages

SQL: The Non-Negotiable

SQL is the language of data. Period.

Every data engineer writes SQL daily. You'll use it to:

  • Query databases
  • Transform data in warehouses
  • Debug pipeline issues
  • Validate data quality

If you learn only one thing from this article: get very good at SQL.

Not just SELECT statements. Learn:

  • Window functions
  • CTEs (Common Table Expressions)
  • Query optimization
  • DDL (creating and altering tables)

Python: The Swiss Army Knife

Python is the default scripting language for data engineering.

You'll use it for:

  • Writing pipeline logic
  • API integrations
  • Data transformations
  • Automation scripts

Key libraries to know:

Library Purpose
pandas Data manipulation
requests API calls
sqlalchemy Database connections
pyspark Big data processing
boto3 AWS interactions

Other Languages Worth Knowing

Language When It's Used
Scala Spark-heavy environments
Java Legacy systems, Kafka
Bash Scripting, automation

For beginners: focus on SQL and Python. Add others as needed.

Databases and Warehouses

You'll interact with different storage systems depending on the use case.

Relational Databases (OLTP)

Used for transactional workloads:

  • PostgreSQL — Open source, widely used
  • MySQL — Popular in web applications
  • SQL Server — Common in enterprise environments

Cloud Data Warehouses (OLAP)

Used for analytical workloads:

Platform Strengths
Snowflake Ease of use, separation of storage/compute
Google BigQuery Serverless, great for GCP users
Amazon Redshift Tight AWS integration
Databricks SQL Unified lakehouse platform
Microsoft Synapse Azure ecosystem integration

Data Lakes

Used for raw and unstructured data storage:

  • Amazon S3
  • Google Cloud Storage
  • Azure Data Lake Storage

Which Should You Learn First?

Start with PostgreSQL for relational concepts, then pick one cloud warehouse. I recommend Snowflake or BigQuery — both have free tiers and are beginner-friendly.

Orchestration Tools

Orchestration is how you schedule, monitor, and manage pipelines.

Without orchestration, you'd be running scripts manually. That doesn't scale.

Apache Airflow

The industry standard.

  • Open source
  • Python-based
  • Massive community
  • Used by most data teams

Airflow uses DAGs (Directed Acyclic Graphs) to define workflows. If you learn one orchestration tool, make it Airflow.

Alternatives

Tool Notes
Prefect Modern, Python-native, easier than Airflow
Dagster Strong data asset focus
Mage Newer, visual interface
dbt Cloud For transformation orchestration
Azure Data Factory Azure-native, low-code
AWS Step Functions AWS-native workflows

My Recommendation

Learn Airflow first. It's everywhere. Once you understand Airflow, picking up alternatives is straightforward.

Transformation Tools

dbt (Data Build Tool)

dbt has changed how data teams work.

It allows you to:

  • Write transformations in SQL
  • Version control your models
  • Test data quality
  • Document your transformations

dbt follows the ELT pattern — transformations happen inside the warehouse.

If you're working with a modern data stack, dbt is almost certainly part of it.

Cloud Platforms

Almost all data engineering today happens in the cloud. You need to be comfortable with at least one major provider.

The Big Three

Platform Data Services
AWS S3, Redshift, Glue, Lambda, EMR, Kinesis
Google Cloud BigQuery, Cloud Storage, Dataflow, Pub/Sub
Azure Synapse, Data Lake, Data Factory, Event Hubs

Which Cloud Should You Learn?

Check job postings in your target market. In my experience:

  • AWS — Most job listings, largest market share
  • GCP — Strong in startups and data-heavy companies
  • Azure — Dominant in enterprise, especially Microsoft shops

Pick one and go deep. The concepts transfer across platforms.

Big Data Processing

When data exceeds what a single machine can handle, you need distributed processing.

Apache Spark

Spark is the dominant big data framework.

Use cases:

  • Processing billions of rows
  • Complex transformations at scale
  • Machine learning on large datasets

You can write Spark jobs in Python (PySpark), Scala, or SQL.

When Do You Need Spark?

Honestly? Not as often as people think.

Many teams reach for Spark too early. Modern warehouses (Snowflake, BigQuery) handle most workloads without needing Spark.

Learn the basics, but don't obsess over it until you're dealing with truly massive datasets.

Streaming Tools

For real-time data processing:

Tool Purpose
Apache Kafka Message streaming, event backbone
Apache Flink Real-time stream processing
Spark Streaming Micro-batch streaming
Amazon Kinesis AWS-native streaming
Google Pub/Sub GCP-native messaging

Should Beginners Learn Streaming?

Not immediately. Most entry-level roles focus on batch processing. Streaming is an intermediate to advanced skill.

Understand the concepts, but prioritize batch pipelines first.

DevOps and Infrastructure

Modern data engineers don't just write pipelines. They deploy and maintain them.

Essential Skills

Tool Purpose
Git Version control — absolutely essential
Docker Containerization — run anywhere
Terraform Infrastructure as code
CI/CD Automated testing and deployment

How Deep Should You Go?

You don't need to become a DevOps engineer. But you should be able to:

  • Use Git confidently
  • Write a basic Dockerfile
  • Understand CI/CD pipelines
  • Read infrastructure code

The Modern Data Stack

You'll hear this term often. It refers to a common combination of tools:

Ingestion:    Fivetran, Airbyte, Stitch
Storage:      Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks
Transform:    dbt
Orchestrate:  Airflow, Prefect, dbt Cloud
Visualize:    Looker, Tableau, Metabase
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This stack emphasizes:

  • Cloud-native tools
  • ELT over ETL
  • SQL-first transformations
  • Managed services over self-hosted

What to Learn First: A Priority List

If I were starting over today, here's my order:

  1. SQL — Master it
  2. Python — Get comfortable
  3. Git — Learn the basics
  4. One cloud warehouse — Snowflake or BigQuery
  5. Airflow — Understand orchestration
  6. dbt — Modern transformation
  7. One cloud platform — AWS, GCP, or Azure
  8. Docker — Containerization basics
  9. Spark — When you need scale

Don't try to learn everything at once. Build depth, then breadth.

Tools I Tell Beginners to Ignore (For Now)

  • Kubernetes — Overkill for most starting out
  • Hadoop — Legacy, rarely used in new projects
  • Every new framework that launches — Wait for adoption
  • No-code tools — Learn the fundamentals first

What's Next?

You now have a map of the data engineering toolkit. In the next article, we'll cover something often overlooked:

The mathematics behind data engineering — what you actually need to know, without the academic fluff.

Series Overview

  1. Data Engineering Uncovered: What It Is and Why It Matters
  2. Pipelines, ETL, and Warehouses: The DNA of Data Engineering
  3. Tools of the Trade: What Powers Modern Data Engineering (You are here)
  4. The Math You Actually Need as a Data Engineer
  5. Building Your First Pipeline: From Concept to Execution
  6. Charting Your Path: Courses and Resources to Accelerate Your Journey

Have questions about which tools to prioritize? Drop them in the comments.

Top comments (1)

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mazinocodes profile image
Jessica Aki •

Well, My journey is just beginning🫠 I knew there was a lot to learn but I didn't know it was this much. Thank you for helping me streamline it.

In your opinion tho, what's the best way to learn? A bootcamp that teaches all of these? Picking and patching from youtube? Udemy or coursera courses? datacamp?

I'm currently learning on my own, I've started with tackling SQL, not everything but enough to be somewhat confident in writing queries. I started with freecodecamp's postgres course. I will say that's why I'm confident in writing some types of queries and in database designs but not all as the course didn't cover window functions, Common table expressions, query optimization and some other functions I learnt on my own like case, stored procedures, even rollup and cube. So I know I have to find ways of supplementing these gaps.

I also recently got an opportunity to learn through datacamp for free and I know they're very well known for their data courses , so to some extent I can say it's a good choice but can I get your opinion on this.