ETL Developer

Who is ETL Developer?

An ETL developer is a type of software engineer that manages theExtract, Transform,andLoadprocesses, implementing technical solutions to do so. The process is broken down into three main stages:Extract. Businesses store historical information or stream real-time data into many systems. This information is scattered across different software and is structured in various formats. The extraction phase entails defining required data sources, whether it is an ERP, CRM, or third-party system, and gathering data from them.Transform. When the data is gathered from its sources, it’s usually placed in a temporary storage called aStaging Area. While placed in this area, the data is formatted in accordance with defined standards and models. For example, financial numerics of different formats $34.50, 0.90 cents, 01,65 will be changed into a single coherent format: $34.50, $0.90, $1.65.Load. The final stage of an ETL process is loading the structured and formatted data into a database. If the amount of data is small, any kind of database can be used. A specific type of database used in BI, big data processing, and machine learning is called aData Warehouse.A warehouse is different from a usual database by its structure: It may include several tools to represent data from multiple dimensions and make it accessible for each user.Data representationtoolsare connected to a warehouse so that users can drag it out and manipulate it. The representation tools are the actual BI tools that offer analytical data through interactive dashboards and reporting tools.

The data travels through numerous technical forms before getting to its final destination to be accessed by the user. To move data, we need to build the pipeline, and that is exactly the job of a plumber an ETL developer.Usually, an ETL developer is a part of a data engineering team — the cool kids on the block in charge of data extraction, processing, storing, and maintaining the corresponding infrastructure. The main task of the data engineering team is to obtain raw data, decide how it should look to be consumable, make it consumable, and then store somewhere.The roster of a team depends on the scope of the project, goals, steps of data processing, and required technologies. Thus, the data engineering team may include the following roles:

• Data architect. One can be a part of a data science or data engineering team. The data architect’s role is to project infrastructure that data engineers will develop.
• Data engineer. This is a specific type of software engineer who develops interfaces and the ecosystem to gain access to the information.
• Data analyst. This team member is the one who defines data collection methods, data models, types, and outlines the transformation process.
• Database/Warehouse developer. Data as any other information has to be stored somewhere. It can be a usual SQL database, or a special type of storage, Data Warehouse. The DB/warehouse developer is responsible for the modeling, development, and maintenance of data storages.
• DBA or Database Administrator. This is a person in charge of database management if there are multiple databases, or the structure of a DB/warehouse, as complex as rocket science.
• Data scientists. Projects dealing with machine learning also include a data science specialist or even a dedicated department.
• Business intelligence developer. This is a software engineer that focuses on developing BI interfaces.
• ETL developer is a software engineer that covers the Extract, Transform, and Load stage of data processing by developing/managing the corresponding infrastructure.