What Is Data Engineering? Data engineering is the work of designing, building, and maintaining systems that move, transform, and serve data reliably. In simple terms: If data science asks questions and analytics tells stories, data engineering makes sure the data actually exists, is correct, and is usable. Most people discover data engineering not through theory, but through frustration: dashboards breaking, pipelines failing at 2 AM, queries timing out, schemas changing without warning. That’s where data engineering lives — in the messy middle between raw data and business decisions. ...