Jobriver Jobriver
Post a job

Big Data Engineer: salary 2026 at a glance

Salary at a glance: this is what Big Data Engineer earn in Germany – from 33 job ads with a stated salary and 65 salary data sets.

Median, gross

€62,194

€45,005 lower 10 % €85,273 upper 10 %

How salaries are distributed

Each column = number of salary figures per €5,000 band · basis 98

  • Between lower and upper 10 % (€45,005 – €85,273)
  • Edges

Salary rises with experience

Median and middle 50 % per level · jobs + data sets

€48,000

Junior

44,500 – 52,000

15 values

€61,000

Mid-level

55,000 – 74,500

+27 % · 40 values

€65,000

Senior

59,500 – 68,500

+35 % · 28 values

€70,000

Lead/Principal

65,000 – 76,000

+46 % · 15 values

Salary by federal state

Median of the salary data sets for Big Data Engineer per federal state. The samples are small here – read the figures as a trend, not a guarantee.

  1. Hamburg €67,000 n = 8
  2. Baden-Württemberg €65,000 n = 5
  3. Hesse €64,500 n = 4
  4. North Rhine-Westphalia €63,500 n = 5
  5. Bavaria €63,000 n = 8
  6. Berlin €58,500 n = 4
  7. Rhineland-Palatinate €56,000 n = 4
  8. Lower Saxony €55,500 n = 4
  9. Schleswig-Holstein €55,000 n = 5
  10. Saarland €54,000 n = 4
  11. Brandenburg €54,000 n = 4
  12. Thuringia €52,500 n = 6
  13. Saxony €51,500 n = 4

Remote, hybrid or on site?

Median from job ads for Big Data Engineer per work model

On site

€68,500

€58,500 – €78,000

21 jobs

View jobs

Open positions as Big Data Engineer

All in the job search
Senior Data Engineer (m/w/d) - Data Platform & Integration Gelsenkirchen · On site €57,000 – €81,000 above median
Data Platform Engineer (m/w/d) Freiburg im Breisgau · On site €57,000 – €78,000 above median
Senior Data Platform Engineer (m/w/d) Freiburg im Breisgau · Hybrid €84,000 – €85,000 above median
Data Platform Engineer – PostgreSQL / Citus / Stackable Data (w/m/d) Trier · Hybrid €65,000 – €90,000 above median
Data Platform Engineer – Snowflake Salzgitter · Hybrid €67,000 – €89,000 above median
Data Platform Architect (w|m|d) Darmstadt · On site €75,000 – €100,000 above median

Big Data Engineer: job profile and outlook

Big data engineers design and operate systems for processing massive amounts of data that push traditional database solutions to their limits. They work with distributed systems and technologies that make it possible to process petabytes of data in real time or in batches and make it available for analyses. The technical requirements for big data engineers are demanding: experience with the Hadoop ecosystem, Apache Spark, Apache Kafka and Flink is part of the standard repertoire. Knowledge of cloud-based big data services such as AWS EMR, Google BigQuery or Azure HDInsight is also required. Programming in Python, Scala or Java, experience with NoSQL databases and a deep understanding of distributed systems are further important qualifications. Salaries for Big Data Engineers are above average and reflect the complexity of the tasks and the shortage of skilled labour. Particularly attractive salaries are offered by technology groups, telecommunications companies and financial service providers who work with enormous volumes of data on a daily basis. Career paths lead from Junior Big Data Engineer to Senior Engineer to Data Platform Architect or Head of Data Engineering. Specialisations in real-time streaming, data lake architecture or data mesh open up further career opportunities. The constantly growing demand for data processing in IoT, streaming and AI training guarantees excellent prospects for the future.

Similarly paid roles

Same axis – directly comparable

€40,000 – €100,000 · bar = lower to upper 10 %, line = median

How we calculate

  • Sources: job ads with a stated salary that are assigned to a role, plus recorded salary data sets. Currently 6,380 active IT jobs state their salary.
  • Range: lower 10 % to upper 10 % (P10–P90), so that individual outliers do not shift the limits. The median splits the values into two equal halves.
  • Plausible: only gross annual salaries between €15,000 and €250,000; placeholders and monthly values are excluded.
  • Calculator: role median × experience factor × federal state factor. The factors come from 4,290 salary data sets – each as a ratio to the median of its role, so the mix of roles does not distort them.
  • Minimum size: breakdowns by skill, city and work model only appear from 20 values; every figure states its basis.

Earning more starts with the right job.

Open positions as Big Data Engineer – with salary at a glance.

View jobs with salary All IT salaries