Principal Recruiter
Data, Insight & Analytics
View profileAnalytics engineering bridges the gap between data engineering and data analysis. By transforming raw data into clean, reliable, well-documented datasets, analytics engineers make data more accessible and usable for business intelligence, reporting, and decision-making. It ensures that stakeholders (technical or otherwise) can trust and act upon high-quality, well-structured data.
For more about Analytics Engineering, please review our blogs on this topic:
Part one: Analytics Engineering: Modern Data Teams
Part two: The Rise of Analytics Engineers: The Modern Data Stack
Part three: Key Skills and Tools for Analytics Engineers: Building the Future of Data
Part four: The Power Trio: DBT, Looker, and Snowflake in Analytics Engineering
Part five: Here’s Why Companies Should Hire Analytics Engineers
Why consider a career in Analytics engineering ?
With the increasing demand for data-driven decision-making, analytics engineering has emerged as a crucial role within modern data teams – they’re becoming more and more popular, with many companies adopting new AE teams or individuals.
It offers exciting opportunities to work across both technical and strategic areas, combining engineering practices with analytical insight. For those passionate about data quality, modelling, and enabling data use at scale, it’s a rewarding and fast-evolving career path.
What are typical Analytics engineering job titles?
Analytics Engineering: Career Progression Example
Analytics Engineering Salary Benchmarks
View our Data, Insight and Analytics within Engineering and Development Salary Guide
Analytics Engineering: Is It Right for Me? The Skills It Takes…
Analytics engineers require a blend of engineering acumen, data modelling capability, and strong communication skills. Key skill areas include:
Engineering & Technical Skills: Data Modelling (Star and Snowflake Schemas) | Snowflake | Looker | dbt | Airflow | ELT Pipelines | Fivetran | Advanced SQL | Cloud Data Warehouses including BigQuery, Snowflake, and Redshift | Git and Version Control | CI/CD for Data Workflows | Testing and Documentation of Data Pipelines | Data Lineage and Metadata Management
Analytical & Communication Skills: Translating Business Logic into Data Models | Collaboration with Analysts and Stakeholders | Clear and Concise Documentation, including Data Dictionaries | Strong Data Literacy and Identification of Data Quality Issues | Communicating Insights and Trade-offs to Non-Technical Audiences
Tooling & Platform Knowledge: dbt (Data Build Tool) | Looker, Tableau, and Power BI (for validation and collaboration) | SQL-based Transformation Tools | GitHub and GitLab for Workflow and Collaboration | Cloud Platforms including GCP, AWS, and Azure
What qualifications do you need for a career in Analytics engineering?
Most employers look for a Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) in a technical or analytical subject such as Computer Science, Data Science, Mathematics, or Statistics. However, due to the emerging nature of the role, individuals with relevant experience in data analysis, data warehousing, or data engineering – especially those who’ve gained hands-on experience with the modern data stack (dbt, Looker, Snowflake) – are also well-placed to move into analytics engineering roles.
This guide maps out the progression of roles in Analytics Engineering, from entry-level positions through to senior leadership, including job descriptions, salary bands, and key skills for the UK market.
Junior Analytics Engineer / Data Engineer (Entry-Level)
Salary: £28k – £38k
What They Do:
Supports the design and maintenance of data pipelines and analytics infrastructure, transforming raw data into usable datasets for analysts and data scientists.
Skills Needed:
Analytics Engineer
Salary: £38k – £50k
What They Do:
Builds robust data models, ensures data quality, and collaborates with analysts and engineers to improve reporting and analytics capabilities.
Skills Needed:
Senior Analytics Engineer
Salary: £50k – £65k
What They Do:
Designs and scales data infrastructure, implements advanced analytics solutions, and mentors junior engineers.
Skills Needed:
Analytics Engineering Lead / Data Engineering Lead
Salary: £65k – £80k
What They Do:
Manages analytics engineering teams, sets best practices, and ensures data systems support business decision-making.
Skills Needed:
Head of Analytics Engineering / Director of Data Engineering
Salary: £80k – £110k
What They Do:
Leads the organisation’s analytics engineering strategy, ensuring scalable, reliable, and secure data systems.
Skills Needed:
Chief Data Officer / VP of Data & Analytics
Salary: £120k – £150k+
What They Do:
Defines the data and analytics vision at the board level, drives digital transformation through data, and ensures analytics are embedded in business operations.
Skills Needed:
We connect ambitious organisations with their greatest assets, equally ambitious talent.
Own strategic modelling across a diversifying product and channel mix.
Manage and mentor a growing team of analysts.
Full details
14th Oct
Lead the evolution of modelling from reactive to strategic and commercially impactful.
Create models to influence marketing investment decisions across a diversifying product suite.
Full details
14th Oct
Data, Insight & Analytics case study
Working with ADLIB has been an absolute pleasure. They are professional, transparent and clear. They listened to our preferences and passion for diversity and truly delivered. We are proud to work with them.
It is incredibly rare to find a recruiter who instantly understands the company-wide needs and culture, Biohm’s unique philosophy and approach, and the radical first-of-their-kind biotechnologies that we develop. We were very privileged to find Zoe, who has single-handedly, with her expansive network, had a transformational impact on our team and company by recruiting unique, perfectly aligned, highly sought after, and difficult to find niche talent. It is an absolute joy to have worked with Zoe on the big recruitment push we experienced this year and look forward to many more in the future.
“ADLIB took the time to understand our unusually ‘human’ company culture, as well as the skills, experience and location requirements of the roles. We worked with 2 recruiters, from different teams within ADLIB, and care was taken to find an extremely good fit in each case. Both new starters settled in seamlessly and very quickly became valued members in their respective teams. I’m genuinely looking forward to working with ADLIB again.”
"As a content design lead with a rapidly scaling team, I recently needed 3 experienced senior content designers asap - and luckily I got to work with Sam. He took the time to understand my team, and how we work as content designers and ux writers in our specific working environment. Sam quickly found outstanding candidates, and made my busy days easy by organising interviews, setting up calls, ensuring I had information and details quickly and without hassle. Especially helpful was that Sam had clearly taken the time to get to know each candidate - he understands all the UX skillsets including all the various aspects of content design, and could also help me understand each candidates’ background, a bit about their character and preferences. That meant I was able to have meaningful conversations with him about fit and capability, which helped me make hiring decisions. I was able to hire 3 amazing content designers in about 3 weeks."
By choosing ADLIB as their Outsourced Recruitment Partner, TFSL ensured a timely and effective solution to their recruitment needs, securing a highly capable Marketing Manager in less than a month.
“From finding me my current role to helping place two fantastic hires, ADLIB has been a pivotal role in the development of our team here at Bristol. The guys are easy to work with, friendly and most importantly inspire trust. I look forward to working with them in the future.”
They needed to build the team. We worked with them to truly understand their style of working and management. This resulted in the team’s first 2 hires, followed by another 5 hires across data engineering and machine learning over an 18-month period.
"ADLIB took the time to really get to know Outlaw, coming to meet us and getting under the skin of what we’re about. This meant we were able to meet great candidates and make a fantastic hire really swiftly."
We provided salary bandings plus information about motivations for moving and skills that are in demand, leading to the placement of 3 Cloud Data Engineers including a lead after approving salaries and agency budget.
It was a real pleasure to work with Charlotte, who recently placed a new BDM Manager with us. Charlotte took time to get to know us and who we were looking for, really understanding our needs and the unique position we hold as a B Corp, which she had lots of insight on. I'm really looking forward to working with Charlotte again.