Builds and runs the plumbing that moves data from source systems into a place analysts can query.
How to get here
Salary (US) as of 2026-11
Median$175K
Typical range$137K–$262K
Senior / manager$280K
Sources:
- BLS OES, Computer and Information Systems Managers (11-3021), May 2025median $175,140; 10th $107,550, 90th $297,510
- Glassdoor, Data Engineering Manager, US, 2026total pay median $223K; base $137K-200K; likely range $180K-280K
- DraftKings, Data Engineering Manager posting, Boston, 2026$174,400-261,600 base plus bonus and equity
Tech and public companies pay at the Glassdoor/DraftKings end; BLS median reflects all IS managers across industries.
Experience to get here
Entry level6-8 years total
Typical title8-12 years, incl. 3+ years technical management
Bachelor's in CS or engineering is typical but DraftKings' posting lists none; a data engineering background plus management track record is what is screened.
Typical prior roles
Senior / Staff Data EngineerData Platform EngineerAnalytics Engineering leadSoftware Engineering Manager
Must have
- Hands-on SQL and Python for ingestion and delivery
- Airflow (or similar), Terraform, monitoring (Datadog)
- AWS (or another cloud) and Snowflake/Databricks
- Mentoring and developing engineers
- Communicating with technical and non-technical audiences
Milestones people hit first
- Ran on-call and incident reviews for pipelines that feed the company dashboard
- Designed a batch-vs-streaming or tool decision and wrote the rationale
- Hired and ramped at least two engineers
- Cut warehouse or cloud spend measurably
Certifications
Nice to havein postings: sometimes
| Exam fee | $150 |
| Training | AWS Skill Builder free tier; paid practice exams optional |
| Renewal | pass latest exam every 3 years |
| Typical total | $150-300 |
Time: 130-minute exam, 65 questions; 2-3 months prep
Prerequisites: 2-3 yrs data engineering and 1-2 yrs hands-on AWS recommended
AWS is the cloud named in the manager and senior DE postings cited; certs are preferred, never required.
Nice to havein postings: sometimes
| Exam fee | $200 |
| Training | self-study on Delta Lake, Spark, Unity Catalog; Academy courses optional |
| Renewal | $200 retake of current exam every 2 years |
| Typical total | $200-400 |
Time: 120-minute exam, 59 questions
Prerequisites: none formal; Associate-level knowledge and hands-on experience expected
Managers in lakehouse shops are expected to review Delta/Spark designs; the Professional tier signals depth.
Nice to havein postings: sometimes
| Exam fee | $175 |
| Training | free Snowflake Hands-On Essentials badges |
| Renewal | validity period not stated on vendor page |
| Typical total | $175 (third-party figure; vendor page does not list fees) |
Time: 115-minute exam, 100 questions; 4-6 weeks of prep
Prerequisites: 6+ months of Snowflake use (candidate profile)
Snowflake is listed as required experience in the DraftKings posting; the cert is the shorthand for it.
Nice to havein postings: rarely
| Exam fee | $200 |
| Training | Google Cloud Skills Boost paths (some labs need credits) |
| Renewal | retake every 2 years |
| Typical total | $200-400 |
Time: 2-hour exam; ~8 weeks prep
Prerequisites: 3+ yrs industry incl. 1+ yr designing on Google Cloud recommended
Relevant only at BigQuery-based companies.
Training & learning
- Fundamentals of Data Engineering
O'Reilly (Reis & Housley) · book · book purchase (price not shown) · 2-4 weeksThe standard overview of the data engineering lifecycle, from ingestion to serving; widely cited by practitioners.
- Leading People and Teams Specialization
University of Michigan / Coursera · course · paid for certificate; included in Coursera Plus ($239/yr) · 4 weeks at 10 hrs/wkFirst-time managers are hired on people-leadership evidence: motivating, coaching, managing conflict.
- Airflow 101 (Airflow 3) FREE
Astronomer Academy · learning path · free · about 2.5 hoursFree modules on core concepts, the UI and building a first DAG; Airflow is the most-listed orchestrator.
- Terraform Get Started tutorials (AWS, Azure, GCP) FREE
HashiCorp · learning path · free · 6-8 tutorials per cloudInfrastructure as code is a required skill in platform postings; vendor tutorials include certification prep.
- Data Engineering Zoomcamp FREE
DataTalks.Club · bootcamp · free · 9 weeksFree, open-source course covering Docker, Terraform, orchestration, BigQuery, dbt, Spark and Kafka with a project.
- Google Project Management Professional Certificate
Google / Coursera · learning path · $49/month; most finish under $300 · 6 months at 10 hrs/wkManager postings ask for cross-functional delivery and stakeholder management; this is the cheapest structured path.
Sources & notes
- BLS OOH, Computer and Information Systems Managers (11-3021), May 2025 wages
- Glassdoor, Data Engineering Manager salaries, US, Pay Trends 2026
- DraftKings, Data Engineering Manager posting ($174,400-261,600 base)
- Insight Global, Data Engineer / Data Analyst posting, Bellevue WA (AWS, Databricks, Snowflake, Terraform)
- Qode, AWS Data Engineer posting ($150-180K; AWS certs preferred)
- AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate
- Databricks Certified Data Engineer Professional
- Snowflake, SnowPro Core Certification
- The Data School, How to pass SnowPro Core ($175, 115 min, 100 questions)
- Google Cloud Professional Data Engineer
- O'Reilly, Fundamentals of Data Engineering (Reis & Housley, 2022)
- Coursera, Leading People and Teams Specialization (Michigan)
- Astronomer Academy, Airflow 101 learning path
- HashiCorp Terraform tutorials
- DataTalks.Club Data Engineering Zoomcamp (GitHub)
- Coursera, Google Project Management Professional Certificate
No certification was named in the DraftKings posting; frequencies rest on senior DE postings (Qode: AWS certs preferred) and are therefore 'sometimes' at most. senior_or_manager uses the top of Glassdoor's likely range, not a Director figure.
Figures are US, from the sources listed, and change often; verify before deciding.