As more business executives discover the potential value of proper data analysis, the demand for specialists with expertise in data collection, storage, processing, and structuring will grow exponentially. Among the experts who’ll benefit immensely from this trend are ETL developers.
In today’s article, we’ll focus on the role of ETL developers and explain why your business needs them. We’ll also give an overview of the ETL process, compare ETL vs. ELT, outline key qualifications of competent ETL developers, and discuss why you should hire these professionals from Latin America through DevEngine.
Who Is an ETL Developer?
An ETL developer is a software engineer who designs, deploys, and maintains data storage systems and pipelines for organizations. At its core, their job involves managing the Extraction, Loading, and Transportation of corporate data into different warehouses. As a result, they must have an in-depth understanding of their clients’ data needs and considerable experience in database designing, data manipulation, and programming.
Almost two decades ago, the renowned British data scientist and mathematician Clive Humby coined the phrase Data is the new oil. While the statement primarily referred to the increasing value of data, it also meant that, if unrefined, data cannot really be used. It was true then and is even truer today when the amount of data generated daily has risen to a whopping 328.77 million terabytes — forcing organizations to navigate vast data swamps before they can find any valuable insight.
ETL developers act as a bridge between the disorganized data from disparate sources and your company’s data storage systems and analytics platforms. They streamline data integration and establish coherent data environments by creating structures and formats to ensure your organization only collects and analyzes high-quality data. As data experts always say, garbage in, garbage out. By ensuring you only collect refined data, ETL developers can help you generate more accurate insights, understand your market better, identify opportunities ahead of your competitors, and make more informed decisions.
Understanding the ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) Process
As databases gained popularity in the 1970s, industry specialists invented the ETL processes to turn structured and unstructured data from different sources into a consistent single source of truth (SSOT). At its core, the process involves Extracting raw data from various source systems, Transforming it into a unified format, and Loading it into the organization’s databases or data warehouses (DWHS)
- Extract
This stage involves copying or collecting raw data from multiple sources and exporting it into a staging area. In the early days of ETP, businesses primarily extracted data from Relational Management Database Systems (RDMS) and Excel files as these were the main data sources back then. However, with the recent technological advancements and the emergence of SaaS apps, organizations can now extract valuable data from multiple apps simultaneously using APIs and other web-scraping tools. For instance, if you want to understand customer perceptions of a specific product line, you can easily create a Facebook poll and collect real-time reviews in a few clicks.
There are three primary extraction techniques:
- Full extraction — Involves exporting all the data from a source system into your database at once
- Source-driven extraction — Uses algorithms that monitor data changes in the source system and send signals to the ETL pipeline to extract new information as it arises
- Incremental extraction — Involves extracting data from multiple source systems at regular intervals
- Transform
The second step involves processing the collected data to transform it into a unified format. Raw data from different sources often come in varying shapes and sizes and may have several errors, such as missing parts, duplication, inaccuracy, and irrelevance. While some modern analytics systems can identify and automatically correct these errors, analyzing raw, unsolicited data might not give you the best of insights. Also, it’s often challenging to fit unprocessed data with discordant formats into one database.
The Transform stage typically involves the following processes:
- Basic cleaning to ensure all the data has a similar format
- Merging and joining tables to match the target DWH’s schema
- Data aggregation
- Adding missing data
- Data enriching
- Removing outliers
- Assessing data quality, compliance, and relevance
- Data regrouping
- Removing or encrypting any data that requires extra protection based on applicable government regulations or industry standards
- Load
The final stage entails loading processed data into target databases or warehouses. You can use SQL RDBMS, flat files like CSV and Excel spreadsheets, or Cloud platforms. For most companies, this process is automated and occurs during off-hours to prevent disrupting operations.
ETL Vs ELT
ETL and ELT (Extract, Load, Transfer) are pretty similar. The only difference is the order of operations. While ETL relies on temporary databases or in-memory data structures to hold and process extracted data before loading it into an analytic database, ELT involves adding raw data directly into target data stores.
In an ELT model, data is only processed when it’s needed for analysis. As a result, ELT is a better alternative when dealing with large volumes of unstructured data — it eliminates the need for processing before storage, allowing you to collect a lot of data within a short time. While the approach is still novel and experimental, it’s increasingly becoming popular, especially with the growing need for speed in the data analytics world.
ETL Developer Roles and Responsibilities:
Several people mistakenly think that ETL developers’ roles end immediately after they’ve extracted and loaded data into target data warehouses. While it’s true that data extraction, transformation, and loading are at the core of these specialists’ job descriptions, they actually handle much more than this.
Here’s a summary of the key roles and responsibilities of ETL developers:
- Oversight of the ETL process
- Designing the process and defining its borders
- Testing data pipelines and required tools
- Developing the project’s system architecture
- Documenting the ETL system’s requirements
- Data modeling
- Identifying the best format for transferring data from the pipeline to the DWH
- Defining a unified database structure
- Analyzing and presenting the relationship between various datasets
- Identifying data storage needs
- Researching and defining the type and amount of data storage required
- Identifying potential usages of an organization’s data
- Determining security and compliance requirements for a company’s databases
- Creating accessibility protocols
- Data warehouse architecture
- Designing and building the organization’s data warehouse
- Ensuring the DWH is easily accessible, scalable, and adaptable
- Defining the tools necessary for loading data into a DWH
- Creating a data pipeline
- Developing data pipeline tools for extracting data from source systems, uploading it to staging areas, and formatting it before loading it into target DWHS
- Ensuring the pipeline can move data efficiently to different destinations, within and outside the organization
- ETL testing
- Data flow validation
- DWH architecture assessment
- General ETL system performance audits
- Data model testing
- Downloads and uploads peed testing
- Quality assurance
- ETL troubleshooting
The Benefits of ETL Developers to Modern Businesses: Why Do You Need These Specialists?
The continuous increase in the amount of data generated daily has made it more essential for organizations to be extra careful with the quality of the data they use to derive business insights. That’s why it’s critical to build reliable ETL systems that can screen out “garbage” and only admit high-quality, consistent data. Besides helping you create and maintain such systems, ETL developers come with the following benefits:
- Time-efficiency: Building a functional ETL system typically takes several months, and sometimes even years. As a result, handling such projects personally or assigning them to your existing data engineers might not be the best decision — it can sway your focus from other core tasks. Comparatively, hiring dedicated ETL developers frees you and your team to continue working on regular duties as the developers assemble the system behind the scenes.
- Better insight for more informed business decisions: ETL developers can help you gain real-time access to high-quality, consolidated data, derive more accurate insights, and generate data-backed forecasts. By gleaning and standardizing data before it enters your internal databases, they eliminate potential data errors that might lead to inaccurate decisions.
- Identifying market opportunities as they emerge: Integrating ETL systems into your business processes can help you streamline data collection, screening, and analysis. The faster you access and analyze market data, the more you’re likely to identify emerging opportunities ahead of your competitors, giving you a competitive edge.
- Enhancing data security and compliance: Another crucial role of ETL developers is identifying and enforcing security and compliance requirements for a company’s databases. Whether you’re subject to CCPA, GDPR, GLBA, COPPA, or HIPPA, these specialists can help you create and deploy relevant compliance protocols — safeguarding you from data breaches and hefty lawsuits.
ETL Developers Qualifications
Now that you understand who ETL developers are and their potential contributions to your business, below are a few factors to consider when hiring these professionals:
Educational qualifications
ETL developers are typically data engineers who specialize in handling data storage systems. Therefore, like the latter, they require a firm grasp of software engineering, data analytics, and computer science. At the bare minimum, these professionals should have at least a bachelor’s degree in these three fields or related programs.
Top degrees for ETL developers include:
- Bachelor of Science in Data Engineering
- Bachelor of Science – Computer and Data Sciences
- Bachelor in Software and Data Engineering
- Bachelor of Data Science and Big Data Technology
- Bachelor of Science – Data Analytics
- Bachelor in Data Engineering
ETL Developers Certifications
Besides degrees, ETL developers also require certifications to demonstrate their expertise in specific concepts. Most certification programs have refresher courses, so they can show you that prospective candidates are familiar with the latest industry trends.
Here are a few common certifications for ETL developers:
- IBM Data Engineering Professional Certificate – Demonstrates holders’ abilities to handle big data engines, use Python in the ETL process, query data through SQL, and operate relational databases
- Data Science Council of America (DASCA) Associate Big Data Engineer (ABDE) – Proves ETL developers’ expertise in using cross-platform and vendor-neutral languages, tools, and techniques to build and deploy big data analytics software programs
- Google’s Cloud Engineer Professional Certificate – Shows candidates’ base-level understanding of Google Cloud’s ML and big data products
- Meta Database Engineer Professional Certificate – Prepares holders for developing, managing, and manipulating databases using different software programs and programming languages
- IBM Data Warehouse Engineer Professional Certificate – Shows ability to design, build, deploy, and maintain enterprise-level data warehouses
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Engineer Associate – Demonstrates expertise in extracting and consolidating structured and unstructured data from multiple source systems into unified databases and warehouses
ETL Developers Skills
The third qualification you should assess when vetting ETL Developers is their skill sets. While the requisite expertise varies from one project to another, the following skills apply to most ETL projects:
- SQL proficiency: SQL is the most popular database query language for ETL processes. As a result, you should ensure prospective candidates have a considerable understanding of SQL and experience in applying it to real-life scenarios.
- ETL tools: Popular ETL tools like Informatica, Talend, and Pentaho enable developers to create mappings and streamline workflows without coding everything from scratch. Besides simplifying the building of ETL pipelines and systems, they can save you time and money.
- Basic scripting languages: ETL is a relatively new concept that’s still in the development stage. Therefore, the available tools may not be able to do everything needed to create a complete ETL system. Sometimes, developers might have code programs for themselves — making it essential to understand basic ETL scripting languages like Python, Bash, and Perl.
- Parameterization: Instead of creating a new ETL system for every project, parameterization allows developers to duplicate previous projects and change parameters based on the new environment. This skill can expedite the process of building ETL systems, saving you time and money.
- Problem-solving skills: Like in any other coding-intensive project, ETL development requires a lot of trial and error, continuous debugging, and surmounting endless challenges. Because of this, it’s crucial for ETL developers to have a keen eye for detail and the ability to analyze problems and devise solutions as promptly as possible.
How Much Does It Cost To Hire ETL Developers
ETL developers are generally expert-level data specialists with considerable industry experience. While their salaries vary depending on their education and experience levels, you’ll typically spend more than you would for an entry or intermediate-level data engineer. For example, while an entry-level data engineer in the US earns about $98,037 per year, an ETL developer makes over $103235 annually.
So, is investing in ETL developers really worth the cost? The simple answer is — yes, it’s more than worth it.
We live in the information age where data is every organization’s most valuable asset. Unlike a couple of decades ago, investing in data collection and analysis is not a luxury — it’s a must-have for any business that wants to survive and grow. ETL developers play a crucial role in this process; they help you collect and analyze the most recent and accurate data to derive valuable insights. They can enable you to identify profitable market opportunities and leverage them ahead of your competitors, understand your target audience better, and make more accurate forecasts.
Hire The Best ETL Developers From LATAM Via DevEngine
As the demand for ETL developers in Canada and the US grows beyond the available talent, more business owners in these regions are turning to Latin America as an alternative hiring destination. According to Statista, LATAM’s IT outsourcing market will record a steady annual growth rate of about 12.40% until 2028, cloaking $9.21 billion by the end of this year.
While several experts attribute the region’s new-found glory to the global shift in supply chains, the truth is that LATAM has also rightfully earned its top spot in the IT world. Here’s why:
- It has several highly qualified ETL developers (and other tech staff in general) thanks to the availability of several universities churning thousands of graduates annually
- It enjoys several cultural similarities with North America and Canada because of their proximity
- Unlike other popular outsourcing destinations, most of its residents have a decent grasp of written and spoken English
- Its geographical proximity to the US and Canada means several shared timezones
The truth is that North America and Canada didn’t start outsourcing ETL developers from Latin yesterday. These regions have a strong nearshoring history. In fact, popular American tech giants like Google and IBM already have research and development centers in LATAM.
Hire Pre-vetted ETL Developers With DevEngine
ETL is a practical field. Therefore, before hiring a developer, it’s crucial to thoroughly verify their skills and vet them through practical tests. Unless you’re a data specialist, you might not have the expertise necessary to conduct such in-depth assessments. Even if you do, you may not have the luxury of time to go back and forth with candidates.
Fortunately, you don’t have to go through all this hassle to get competent ETL developers from LATAM. When you enlist our services, we will handle everything and only ask for your input in approving our selected talent. We have an experienced team of senior data engineers and software developers who thoroughly vet all our talents to ensure they have the necessary subject matter expertise. A typical vetting process involves both theoretical and practical assessments covering technical skills, educational background and certifications, and cultural fit.
To give every client unwavering attention, we only work with a few organizations at a time. Also, when we recommend an ETL developer, they’ll work exclusively with your company to deliver personalized solutions for your unique data storage needs. The best part is that while working with us, you don’t have to worry about overpricing or hidden charges — all our service bills are quoted upfront.
Are you ready to tap LATAM’s vast potential? Make a smart business choice — hire competent ETL developers from the region with DevEngine. Chat with Us today and we’ll be more than glad to help you out.