Field

Data

Move, store, and make sense of information at scale.

Data work runs from answering a business question with a query, through building the pipelines that make the question answerable, to training models on the result. It overlaps with security more than people expect — a SIEM is a data platform, and detection engineering is data engineering with adversaries.

Inside data

Databases

Keeping the system of record fast, correct, and recoverable.

Database Administrator Systems Engineer

Data Engineering

Building the pipelines that get data from where it is made to where it is used.

Data Engineer DevOps Engineer

Data Analytics

Turning a messy extract into an answer somebody can act on.

Data Analyst GRC Analyst

AI / Machine Learning

Training and running models — and increasingly, running the infrastructure they need.

Data Engineer Platform Engineer

All 5 roles in this field

Each page covers what you actually do, the technologies, where the work happens, the honest downside, and only then the certifications.

Data Analyst

Turn a messy pile of information into an answer someone can act on.

Data

Reachable as a first job

Data Engineer

Get data reliably from where it is created to where it can be used.

Data Software & Automation

Usually a second role

Database Administrator

Keep the system of record correct, fast, and recoverable.

Data Systems & Infrastructure

Usually a second role

Detection Engineer

Write the rule that catches it next time — without crying wolf.

Cybersecurity Data Software & Automation

Usually a second role

Threat Hunter

Go looking for the intruder nobody has raised an alert about.

Cybersecurity Data

A senior destination

Roles that live here and somewhere else

These are listed under data because a real part of the job is data work — but their centre of gravity is in another field. If one of them keeps catching your eye, that tells you something.

Technologies you’ll meet here

Click any of them for a plain-English explanation.

Python A general-purpose language used across automation, security tooling, data work and applications.
Splunk Collects logs from everything in one place and lets you search across all of it at once.
Microsoft Sentinel / Elastic Cloud-native log and detection platforms — the same job as Splunk, priced and queried differently.
SQL The language for asking a database a precise question.
Power BI / Tableau Turns query results into dashboards people who do not write queries can use.
See the full technology map →