Data Science Vs Data Engineering

Gunjan Gohain
Geek Culture
Published in
8 min readAug 5, 2021

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What do They do

Photo by Christina Morillo from Pexels

People often confuse data science and data engineering, although this is not the case. Let us have a better understanding of this.

A little background on Data Science

Data science is a multi-disciplinary. It uses scientific techniques, procedures, algorithms, and technologies to extract information and insights from structured and unstructured figures. It then applies that knowledge and valuable insights across a variety of application areas. It is the process of obtaining useful business information from data. It is in charge of improving the ML model’s performance. Computer Programming, Statistics and Linear Algebra, Big Analytics, Machine Learning, and Information collection are the pillars of Data Science. A data product is the result of data science. An example is an email filter that distinguishes spam and non-spam emails or a recommendation engine like YouTube’s suggested video list.

Who is a Data Scientist?

A data scientist analyses massive figures using statistical tools and methodologies, particularly AI and ML. They typically create visual or graphical representations of the underlying information. This job is critical to modern technology businesses, whether it’s determining which advertising to display you on Facebook or advising Netflix on which films and TV shows to recommend.

A little background on Data Engineering

Data engineering is the branch of data science concerned with the real-world applications of information gathering and processing. In other words, it is the discipline in charge of creating the foundation for processing, storing, and retrieving information from various information sources. There have to be methods for gathering and evaluating information for all of the work. The data scientists perform to answer problems using massive quantities of data. There should also be procedures in place to apply it to real-world activities in some manner. Both of these are engineering jobs involving the application of science to functional and practical systems. Data Engineering is in charge of identifying the best techniques for information gathering and identifying optimal solutions and toolkits. It focuses on developing and constructing data pipelines capable of collecting, preparing, and transforming statistics (both structured and unstructured) into usable formats for Data Scientists to review. The foundations of Data Engineering include ample data storage and processing, data pipelines, and model ETL (Extract, Transform, Load).

Who is a Data Engineer?

A data engineer is responsible for establishing and maintaining the data infrastructure and architecture that support an organization’s IT systems and environments. In other words, they concentrate on creating a scalable and robust set of statistical analysis techniques. They are familiar with SQL/NoSQL database wrangling and building/maintaining ETL pipelines. They should be knowledgeable in coding, data storage, system implementation, and database management.

In reality, the area of data engineering comprises numerous related subfields and jobs, including:

  • Engineers: They collaborate closely with data architects and DBAs to develop a solid, mature data infrastructure for the whole company.
  • Architects: They are in charge of creating a data management system or systems. The distinction between data architects and engineers is analogous to the difference between architects and engineers in physical construction. Architects focus on conceiving data frameworks, while engineers focus on execution issues.
  • DBA (Database Administrators): They are in charge of creating and managing an organization’s databases, ensuring that they function smoothly and that information is constantly available to all employees who require it.

Data Scientist’s Duties:

They are usually given figures that have already been cleaned and manipulated. They can then enter into advanced analytics tools, ML models, and statistical approaches to prepare statistics for data-driven modelling. To develop models, they must do industry research and then utilize vast amounts of content from primary and secondary sources to address company requirements. This may also include database exploration and analysis to uncover hidden patterns.

After the data scientists have completed the evaluation, they must provide a compelling story to the relevant authorities or stakeholders. Once the findings have been agreed upon, they must ensure that the process is automated so that the insights can be delivered to corporate stakeholders on a daily, monthly, or yearly basis. They must also understand cloud applications since they will require access to information processed by the data engineering team. They must also communicate the facts to the company stakeholders. As a result, an emphasis on storytelling and graphical representation is critical.

Data Engineer’s Duties:

Their duties include creating, building, analysing, and maintaining databases and large-scale processing systems. They work with raw statistics that contain mistakes caused by humans, machines, or gadgets. The figures might not be verified and may contain suspicious records since it is likely to be unformatted and might even contain system-specific codes.

Data engineers must advocate and, in some instances, execute methods to enhance data dependability, productivity, and quality. To accomplish so, they will need to use various languages and tools to search for ways to obtain additional information from other networks, such as system-specific codes, which data scientists can then process.

A vital responsibility of a data engineer is to ensure that the infrastructure in place meets the needs of the data scientists and the company’s stakeholders. They will also have to create data set workflows for statistical modelling, information extraction, and production.

Languages, Methodologies, and Software

The disparities in these two professions’ skill set translate into variations in the languages, tools, and software they both employ. Although the technologies used by both sides are highly dependent on how the position is envisioned in the organizational setting. The data engineers are frequently seen working with tools such as Cassandra, Redis, MongoDB, Sqoop, SAP, MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, neo4j, Hive, and Riak.

Data scientists utilize languages such as JavaScript, R, Python, Stata, C, and Julia to create models. Python and R widely used programming languages. They should have an in-depth understanding of those two programming languages and strong command of visualization and extraction tools. When utilizing those two languages, you’ll most likely use packages like ggplot2 to create stunning graphical illustrations in R or Python’s numerous libraries, such as Pandas, that help with data manipulation. There are several more packages available that will be useful while working on data science projects, such as Matplotlib, NumPy, Scikit-Learn, and so on. Data scientists also use programs like Tableau, MATLAB, RapidMiner, and Excel. They should also have a thorough understanding of Machine Learning and Deep Learning. This will enable them to make high-value forecasts, which will eventually lead to improved and smarter decision-making. Not only that, but communication, leadership, and presentation skills are required to present and explain the outcomes of their analysis to upper management and other stakeholders.

The Data Engineer role expects one to have a thorough grasp of several programming languages, such as SQL, SAS, Python. A mastery of frameworks such as MapReduce, Hadoop, Apache Spark, NoSQL, Hive, and others. One must also have logical ability, organizational and managerial skills, and leadership abilities.

If you’re wondering what languages both sides have in common, they’re Scala, Java, and C#. However, Scala is more prevalent among data engineers since the connection with Spark is especially useful for setting up big ETL (Extract, Transfer, Load) processes. Its popularity among data scientists is growing at present, although it is not extensively used regularly by experts. The same is true for the Java programming language. Its popularity among data scientists is growing at present, although it is not extensively used regularly by experts. However, Java is required while seeking employment vacancies in both professions. The same is also true for both parties’ tools, such as Hadoop, Spark, and Storm.

Educational Background

There is one thing that both professions share: a background in computer science. This field of study is quite popular among both professions.

Most data scientists believe in having studied econometrics, mathematics, statistics, and operations research. They frequently are more business-oriented than data engineers. On the other hand, most data engineers have a background in engineering and prior expertise in computer engineering.

However, it is worth noting that, in general, the professional services industry is made up of experts from various backgrounds. It is not uncommon for physicists or biologists to make their way into the field.

Salary and Scope

Since statistics is expanding rapidly, it has provided a vast space and prospects for data-related professions. According to Forbes, Data Engineer and Data Scientist occupations are becoming the highest-paying in the world.

Organizations such as Facebook, Microsoft, Intel, S&P Global, and Amazon are interest in recruiting data scientists. On the other hand, major corporations such as Google, Apple, Walmart, and others are hiring data engineers at high salaries.

Source: Indeed
Source: Data Engineer

Which Profession Is Better?

When comparing both roles, we must remember how both the roles have their importance in the field of Analytics. It is also observed how the distinction between these two roles has no bearing on their collaborative impact on the field of data because both are required to achieve the common goal of processing information in an efficient and effective manner.

What Should You Become?

While there is some overlap in required skills and position responsibilities, these are not swappable jobs. As a result, you’ll have to choose between the two and invest heavily in one or the other. In either case, both positions have a very positive job outlook and are very profitable.

However, if you want to work at the intersection of both these professions, you could pursue a career in machine learning. Machine learning engineers are experts in data engineering and data science, with the background and expertise to work in both fields. Machine learning engineers are experts in data engineering and data science, with the knowledge and expertise to work in both areas.

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