| Role | Owns | Typical tools |
|---|---|---|
| Data engineer | Pipelines and storage | SQL, Python, Spark 129 , Kafka 129 |
| Analytics engineer | Models for analysts | SQL, dbt 37,942 , BI tools |
| Data platform engineer | Shared infrastructure | Kubernetes 5,150 , Terraform 4,548 |
| Streaming engineer | Real-time pipelines | Kafka, Flink 129 |
| ML or AI data engineer | Features, LLM data | Spark, vector stores |
In a small company, such as BookNest, one person covers most of the table; in a large one the roles split. People arrive from software engineering, analytics or database administration, each with a strength and a gap.