Data Engineering. The exact job varies a lot. It can be part of a data science team, doing interesting stuff. It can also be a version of plain 'ol ETL - enterp

Data Engineering. The exact job varies a lot. It can be part of a data science team, doing interesting stuff. It can also be a version of plain 'ol ETL - enterprises increasingly need to take data from one system and move it into another for reporting - which may be better suited to consulting/contracting gigs. Be careful with Data Engineering, it is also one of the first jobs that is outsourced, so use it as a pathway (you get really good business understanding when moving data around). (Microservices) Data Architecture. Deciding where data goes (SQL, NoSQL, data lake). The microservices trend is flippant about storage and sharing of data, so being able to architect data stores is crucial. This may be a good path for full-stack developers that like data - come up with better solutions and take that knowledge to other teams. Small dev teams put in PostgreSQL and seldom consider queues, time-series databases, search services, and other places to put data. Data Governance. The interception between crud data, data engineering, and security. There is an increasing need to know where data is, who has accessed it, what it is used for. You'll get good visibility at the exec level and related career prospects if you ask awkward security, compliance, ownership related questions about data - and find answers and solutions to them