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Home / Compensation / Databricks / Data Engineer
Total compensation for a Databricks Data Engineer ranges from about $230K at the entry level to $1.7M+ at the most senior bands, with a typical mid-level package around $510K. Below is the full breakdown by level - base salary, annual equity, and bonus - from public-source data.
Public-source estimates (Beta). Last updated 2026-05. Figures are annualized USD.
| Level | Years | Base (p50) | Equity/yr (p50) | Bonus (p50) | Total (p25-p90) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IC2Data Engineer (Junior) | 1-3 YOE | $180K | $68K | $22K | $230K - $380K |
| IC3Data Engineer | 3-6 YOE | $220K | $128K | $32K | $310K - $555K |
| IC4Senior Data Engineer | 6-10 YOE | $265K | $205K | $42K | $410K - $795K |
| IC5Staff Data Engineer | 9-14 YOE | $310K | $335K | $55K | $555K - $1.1M |
| IC6Distinguished Data Engineer | 13+ YOE | $360K | $545K | $80K | $760K - $1.7M |
Junior DE. Delta Lake / pipeline focus.
Mid-level. Common entry from FAANG data orgs.
Senior IC. Data-platform internals premium.
Staff IC. Cross-platform data leadership.
Distinguished IC. Limited population.
Databricks data engineering is unusually well-paid given the company's data-platform focus. Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, and analytics-pipeline tooling are major hiring areas. Bands match SWE within ~2%; data-platform internals roles negotiate above the band.
6 rounds. 5 of them can be practised here - each one below links the rep that trains it.
Recruiter screen
30 minutes. Background, team alignment (Spark runtime, Delta Lake, MLflow, platform), level calibration. Databricks engineers often specialize - ask about the team's system and tech stack.
Technical phone screen
60 minutes. One to two coding problems. Algorithms and data structures, Medium difficulty. Some interviewers include a data-systems question to gauge background.
Free rep: Coding challenges with a real sandbox →Onsite: Coding round 1
60 minutes. Algorithmic problems, Medium-to-Hard. Correctness, edge cases, and clean code all evaluated. Graph, tree, and sliding window problems are common.
Free rep: Coding challenges with a real sandbox →Onsite: Coding round 2
60 minutes. Often more applied - may involve simulating a simplified distributed operation, designing a data structure for a specific access pattern, or implementing a core algorithm from data systems (e.g., merge logic for log-structured files).
Free rep: Coding challenges with a real sandbox →Onsite: System design
60-75 minutes. Distributed data systems design: build a distributed key-value store, design a write-ahead log, architect a streaming pipeline, or design a simplified query execution engine. Depth on distributed storage, consistency, and fault tolerance is expected.
Free rep: Design walkthrough: Design a Distributed Cache (Memcached / Redis Cluster) →Onsite: Behavioral / technical discussion
45 minutes. Technical depth probe - they may ask you to walk through a complex system you've built, discuss how you'd debug a distributed performance issue, or reason through an open-ended data systems problem. Lighter than Amazon's LP round but still substantive.
Free rep: STAR answers: Dive Deep (Amazon Leadership Principle) →The full Databricks prep pack → what they value, topic emphasis, and the questions candidates ask.
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