Job posts for this role ask most for SQL and Python, with ETL and data pipelines as the core of the work, Java and Scala for the heavier processing, and lakehouse formats such as Delta Lake and Iceberg with query engines like Presto/Trino. The full story of what each skill is used for is on the skills page.

The GCCs are the strongest hiring hotspot for data engineers. Global companies run their data platforms from India, and these centres build the pipelines that feed the parent's reports, risk systems and models.

The banks hire the most data engineers of any employer group outside Accenture. Inside the banks and financial institutions, JPMorganChase, Societe Generale and Commonwealth Bank build new data platforms, and Wells Fargo, NatWest Group and Morgan Stanley run the bank's wider data engineering (who they hire). Inside the retailers and consumer-goods companies, Walmart, Tesco, lululemon and Best Buy India build data pipelines on Spark, often with Kafka and Airflow, for the parent's stores and online shop (who they hire). Inside pharma, medical and healthcare companies, Carelon, Optum, Amgen and Bristol Myers Squibb move claims and clinical data on Spark and Snowflake, and they are among the GCCs most open to a junior data engineer (who they hire).

Inside the manufacturers and carmakers, Saint-Gobain, Ecolab, ADM and Cargill hire data engineers for their own internal systems. Inside the media, entertainment and publishing groups, Warner Bros. Discovery and Warner Music Group are small but hire data engineers heavily. The insurers and logistics firms hire fewer. More on data engineering across the GCCs is in the GCCs' data hiring.

In the services world, data engineers move clients' data to modern platforms such as Databricks and Snowflake, and build the pipelines that keep it flowing. Accenture is by far the largest single employer of data engineers in India, mostly at the mid level (who they hire). The IT services giants, like IBM, Infosys, TCS and Capgemini, hire many data engineers too, almost all experienced.

The data and analytics specialists in the specialist firms built around one skill, like YASH Technologies, Sigmoid, Impetus and Fractal, hire data engineers more heavily than any other services firms. The quiet foreign majors, like CGI, NTT DATA, Sopra Steria and NEC Software Solutions, hire them heavily too, with Spark and older database work for clients in Europe. The services firms that feel like product companies, like EPAM, Luxoft and Ascendion, build data platforms for clients as well. The consulting firms' engineering arms, like PwC India, Deloitte, BCG and KPMG India, are the services firms most open to a junior data engineer (who they hire). The engineering-services firms hire few. More on all of them is in the services world's data hiring.

Among product companies, data engineering is hired most where data is what the customer pays for, or where data decides what each customer sees.

Data platforms and AI is the strongest hiring hotspot, because data is the product. Fivetran, Acceldata, Cognite and DataHub build tools for data integration and governance platforms, the tools other data engineers use, and this is the best place to build data infrastructure as a product. NielsenIQ, Circana and Nielsen, among the market research and market intelligence providers, assemble consumer data at scale and sell it (who they hire). Databricks, Cloudera and Teradata build databases and data warehouses and lakehouses, the platforms data engineers run on. FactSet, Moody's, S&P Global and LSEG sell ratings, filings and market data, financial data, ratings and research, with more SQL and database work than most, and they are more open to juniors.

Where data decides what each customer sees, data engineering is a large part of the work. Epsilon and LiveRamp build customer data platforms (CDP) and identity resolution, matching customer records across companies, and data engineering is much of what they hire for. The apps built for OTT and live streaming platforms, like Roku, JioStar, JioHotstar and Crunchyroll, process streams of viewing and advertising data. Online marketplaces, like eBay, Wayfair, Meesho and Myntra, build the data behind search, recommendations and pricing. DoorDash builds its delivery data in India, and adtech companies like DeepIntent and LG Ad Solutions hire data engineers heavily too.

A few more pockets are worth knowing. Caterpillar builds machine and telemetry data pipelines for its heavy equipment. Alight Solutions and Alegeus run large data operations for benefits administration software. Lytx and Netradyne process dashcam data for fleet management and telematics. The network and security companies, business-process software makers and travel sites hire few data engineers.

In big tech, Microsoft hires data engineers most heavily, for the data platforms behind Azure, Office and its other products, and it is the most open of the three to a junior (who they hire). Amazon hires the most, with far more database engineering than elsewhere (who they hire). Google hires very few data engineers in India.

The staffing companies, like Golden Opportunities, Recro, BairesDev and TekWissen, place data engineers with clients, mostly at senior level. The hiring platforms, like hackajob, Smart Working and Uplers, offer some remote data work.

Data engineers are rarely hired by the network, data-centre and security companies, the software makers for a company's processes and finance, or hospital and lab equipment makers. The GCCs of logistics firms and the engineering-services firms hire few as well.