With over 2.7 billion active monthly users, Facebook is an endless source of big data. From your personal information, like name and location, to the pages you like and visit and which ads you click on, data on you and your habits is constantly being created and collected.
To transform this data into actionable and valuable insights, Facebook Data Engineers build tools, infrastructure, and frameworks. The individuals working in these roles help influence things like product decisions that can impact millions of people across the world.
Here’s what you can expect as a Facebook Data Engineer.
Career Opportunities as a Facebook Data Engineer
With so much data to be mined and transformed, Facebook Data Engineers have an in-demand skillset that offers an opportunity to be innovative and make an impact.
Offering a salary range of $72,000 to $158,000 and a median of $103,000 in the U.S., it’s easy to understand why people are willing to invest in the education required to secure one of these well-compensated careers.
In addition to multiple locations across the U.S., Facebook has offices around the world — from Canada and Europe to India and Japan. These global offices represent even more potential opportunities for those interested in working for the company.
Required Background and Education
If you’re looking to start your career as an entry-level data engineer, you’ll need a solid educational foundation that includes a Bachelor’s or Master’s in Computer Science or a related technical field. The number of years of experience required will vary by the role.
For a career as a Facebook Data Engineer desired skills may include:
- SQL and other relational databases (Oracle, MySQL).
- Structure or custom ETL design, implementation, and maintenance.
- Applying data engineering best practices.
- Java and/or Python development.
- Big data stack environments (Hadoop, MapReduce, Hive).
Roles and Responsibilities of Facebook Data Engineers
Facebook Data Engineers interact with teams across their organization, so their position can cover a broad range of roles and responsibilities.
Possible responsibilities include:
- Addressing data, scaling, and product challenges and designing, building, and launching large and small reliable data pipelines.
- Facilitating the intelligent design of data models to optimize data storage and retrieval and securely sourcing external data from multiple sources.
- Optimizing and maintaining existing data pipelines and executing quality checks to ensure the integrity of the data.
- Identifying emerging trends and opportunities for implementing end-to-end data engineering solutions.
Secure Your Future as a Facebook Data Engineer
If you’re looking to pursue a career as a Facebook Data Engineer, there are many opportunities in the workforce. Big data is growing year-over-year, so with the right combination of skills and education, you can position yourself for a long-term career in the field.
Interested in gaining the skills you need to become a Facebook Data Engineer?
The Udacity Data Engineering Nanodegree gives you the opportunity to build production-ready data infrastructure, which is an essential skill for advancing your data career. You’ll learn to design data models, build data warehouses and data lakes, automate data pipelines, and work with massive datasets. Plus, you’ll finish out the program by putting your new skills to the test with a capstone project.
