I work as an (data) analyst, and I'll echo that many data engineers just end up in the engineering role after having worked as a traditional analyst. You start

I work as an (data) analyst, and I'll echo that many data engineers just end up in the engineering role after having worked as a traditional analyst. You start doing the traditional analysis work, and then slowly get more involved on the tooling and pipeline side. Then you become to "go-to" guy on some specific tech, and slowly find yourself doing more and more engineering work, than writing traditional reports. You get offered more money to do the engineering work, due to engineering positions having higher salary caps than the analyst positions. But it is a natural evolution. When you work with analysis, you obviously work very close with the data. You work close with the engineers (if your org / company has them), or become the engineer if there aren't any.