Big Data: market
A Big Data Engineer processes data that does not fit on one machine: distributed batch and streaming computation, data lakes and platforms on Spark, Kafka and the Hadoop ecosystem. We currently track 620 open positions for this role, 597 of them fresh. The core is Spark (PySpark or Scala), Kafka and streaming, storage formats (Parquet, Delta, Iceberg), orchestration, SQL and cloud data-processing services. By co-occurrence in requirements, Spark, Python, Java and Hadoop appear most often. 41% of the postings allow fully remote work. Below is a live slice of the Big Data Engineer market: geography, seniority, adjacent stack and sources.
The Big Data market currently has 620 open roles, 597 of them freshly observed. Median salary $5,750/mo.
41% of Big Data Engineer postings allow fully remote work; the share counts only postings that state the format.
⚠ salary known for 84 of 620 jobs; remote share from 439 with a stated format; 597 counted as fresh observations; trend and hiring difficulty are not shown
Timeline: postings and sources
How many Big Data postings appeared each week since 4 May, and from how many sources. The second line separates market growth from coverage growth: a jump in the week new sources were connected means we started seeing more, not that the market grew.
New postings and active sources per week
Sources over the period: 119
New sources connected: 11 May +4 · 18 May +4 · 25 May +1 · 1 Jun +6 · 8 Jun +2 · 15 Jun +3 · 22 Jun +12 · 29 Jun +13 · 6 Jul +17 · 13 Jul +7 · 20 Jul +5 · 27 Jul +6 · 3 Aug +6 · 10 Aug +1 · 17 Aug +2 · 31 Aug +3 · 7 Sept +1 · 14 Sept +1 · 21 Sept +3 · 28 Sept +3 · 5 Oct +1 · 12 Oct +6
Week = posting first-seen date, all statuses; postings are selected by the same rule as this page's counter. Sources are distinct collection channels; their names are not published.
Salaries over time
Median Big Data salary per week, USD per month.
Median salary, USD per month
Only postings with a USD salary and a known period (month or year), $500–$50,000 per month. Weeks with fewer than 10 such postings are left blank — that means no data, not zero.
Remote work over time
Share of Big Data postings offering fully remote work, per week.
Remote postings, %
The share is among postings that state a format (remote, hybrid, office). Weeks with fewer than 10 such postings are left blank.
Technologies over time
How the share of Big Data postings mentioning each of the top technologies changed.
Postings mentioning the technology, %
Share among postings with a tagged stack; the series starts on 10 Aug: earlier stack tags were assigned differently. Weeks with fewer than 20 tagged postings are left blank.
Countries over time
How the share of Big Data postings in each of the top countries changed, per week.
Postings in the country, %
Share among postings with a known country; the chart shows the five countries with the most postings over six months. Weeks with fewer than 20 postings with a known country are left blank. A rising share can mean a newly connected source in that country rather than market growth.
Demand and observed supply: Big Data
| Open demand | 620 |
| Observed supply | — not published |
⚠ candidates matching a vacancy are not counted yet: demand and the observed pool are shown
Salary distribution: Big Data
One in ten earns under $3,464, one in ten over $10,781. Half the market falls between $5,012 and $6,793. Sample: 84.
The range histogram for Big Data Engineer uses only postings with an explicit compensation range; the median is computed over the same sample.
Demand geography: Big Data
| country | jobs |
|---|---|
| PL | 153 |
| US | 117 |
| IN | 41 |
| SG | 32 |
| RU | 17 |
| ZA | 17 |
| FR | 17 |
| ES | 16 |
| CA | 10 |
| MX | 9 |
The top country for Big Data Engineer demand is Poland (153 positions).
⚠ job counts only: salary by country is not published
Used together with
In Big Data Engineer requirements the most frequently named skills and technologies are Spark, Python, Java and Hadoop.
Demand by grade: Big Data
| grade | jobs |
|---|---|
| senior | 164 |
| lead | 51 |
| middle | 45 |
| principal | 20 |
| junior | 8 |
Senior-and-above is about 82% of 288 Big Data Engineer postings with an explicit grade.
⚠ demand side only: the grade of the observed pool is unknown for most of it
Employers: Big Data
Demand is spread across 263 employers. The largest accounts for 10.0%, the top ten for 29.9%; the remaining 70.0% is long tail.
| share | value |
|---|---|
| top-1 | 10.0% |
| top-3 | 18.4% |
| top-10 | 29.9% |
| long tail | 70.0% |
Big Data Engineer openings come from 263 distinct employers.
⚠ names are not shown: staffing agencies and end employers are not yet told apart by the classifier
Where Zorky sees this market
Observed across 60 sources; the largest accounts for 22.1% — this market does not rest on a single channel.
Big Data Engineer postings arrive mostly from job boards & aggregators and ATS & career sites.
Recent openings: Big Data
- System Engineer Middleware/Big Data · IT
- Senior Project Manager – Hadoop / Cloudera Migration · PL
- Data Engineer (Spark) · PL · $4,515
- Senior Data Engineer (Spark) · PL · $6,195
- Senior Data Engineer / Tech Lead (Spark) · PL · $6,195
- Data Engineer (Python, Apache Spark, Hadoop) (m/n/k) · PL
- Big Data Infrastructure Engineer - Jordan · JO
- Data Engineer (Python, Apache Spark, Hadoop) (m/n/k) · PL
Adjacent markets
⚠ adjacent markets for comparison are not defined yet
How this is measured
- Vacancy
- an open job that cleared the quality gate and lists at least two technologies
- Observed candidate
- a candidate whose stack contains this technology; an aggregate — not a single record leaves the perimeter
- Matchable candidate
- not counted yet
- Window
- jobs open at the moment the snapshot was built
About the data
- Some breakdowns are hidden: their data coverage is not yet sufficient.
- Statistics are shown only where the sample clears a quality gate.
- A missing block does not mean a value of zero.
Breakdowns currently hidden: 8.
Data as of 2026-10-23
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about the Big Data Engineer role — short answers from the same data slice.
What does a Big Data Engineer do?
A Big Data Engineer processes data that does not fit on one machine: distributed batch and streaming computation, data lakes and platforms on Spark, Kafka and the Hadoop ecosystem.
Which skills do Big Data Engineer postings require?
The core is Spark (PySpark or Scala), Kafka and streaming, storage formats (Parquet, Delta, Iceberg), orchestration, SQL and cloud data-processing services. In the current slice, Spark, Python, Java and Hadoop appear in requirements most often.
Is Hadoop still needed?
As a classic stack — less and less: cloud storage and lakehouses took its place. The understanding of distributed processing it built remains the foundation of the role.
How remote-friendly are Big Data Engineer jobs?
41% of postings with an explicit format allow fully remote work; the slice tracks 620 open positions.
Get the full Big Data market details
Full role analytics — salary bands, employers, trends and available candidates. Leave a contact and we'll send the details.