Data Engineer Career in 2026: Roles, Specializations, and What Companies Look for
Even though the Data Engineer title has been around for a long time, it can mean different things across companies.
In this episode, we’ll explore the reality of the Data Engineer role in 2026 with Slawomir Tulski, a Data Engineer who spent much of his career at Meta, where he moved between individual contributor and manager roles and conducted hundreds of technical interviews while helping shape the company’s Data Engineering hiring process.
Today, Slawomir works as an independent consultant, advising companies on structuring data teams and maximizing value from their Data Engineering efforts. His recent ebook examines the current Data Engineering landscape and why the role is often misunderstood across the industry.
In this conversation, we will discuss:
Why does the term Data Engineer still create confusion across the industry
The different specializations inside Data Engineering and how they differ in practice
How the same role changes depending on company maturity and team structure
What companies look for when hiring Data Engineers
Common career traps and misleading job descriptions that engineers should watch for
How the role may evolve as AI transforms the data ecosystem
About the Speaker:
Slawomir Tulski is a Data Engineer who spent the bulk of his career at Meta, moving between Individual Contributor and Manager roles. During his time there, he focused on scaling the Data Engineering support for the Meta Ads ranking system. Beyond his direct team, he was also heavily involved in global hiring, conducting hundreds of interviews and helping shape the company's data engineering recruitment process.
Today, he works as an independent consultant, helping businesses get more out of their Data Engineering teams. On the personal side, he’s a dad, a husband, and a failed bass player.
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