Just an additional note on this topic. Whether you are a data engineering or data scientist the ability to work from home or remotely is typically determined by your management.

Several projects will ask data engineers to work from office to maintain data security protocol and ensure that data is not leaked.

The demand for data engineers is ever growing and so is remote working culture. No matter 50% of future jobs in data engineering will be remote-friendly.

I'm a big data engineer working from home since last 4 years for an Indian MNC. The work from home is very common in my domain.

I'm a project manager, but I worked as a team leader in my previous company. As a team lead, I worked with 6 junior data engineers who all were working remotely. This was pre-COVID; none of us ever faced any problem.

If anyone has doubts about remote working as data engineers, let me know.

Thank you, Rohit. Data engineers can work remotely. However, I do not see many companies recruiting remote data engineers.

Do you think this is a temporary phase as we are going through a recession?

Update: I showed this discussion to my friend who's a data engineer with ~4 years of experience and has been working from home for a while. I'm offering his response below.

Yes, data engineers can often work from home, provided they have a strong internet connection and the necessary software tools.

The nature of their work, which involves creating, managing, and optimizing data architectures, pipelines, and databases, can typically be conducted remotely.

Let me list a few pointers for data engineers to work from home:

• Technology Infrastructure: Modern cloud-based platforms and collaborative tools can enable data engineers to access and work with data remotely. Tools like VPNs, remote desktop software, and secure cloud services are crucial for remote data engineering work.

• Communication: Efficient communication channels among team members, and between data engineers and other stakeholders, are vital. Tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Zoom can facilitate this communication.

• Security: Data engineering often involves handling sensitive or proprietary data. Adequate security measures need to be in place to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of the data when working remotely.

• Company Policy: Companies have different policies regarding remote work. Some might have the necessary infrastructure and policies in place to support remote work, while others might require on-site presence for better collaboration or other reasons.

• Self-Discipline and Time Management: Working from home requires a high degree of self-discipline and time management skills to maintain productivity.

• Access to Resources: Sometimes, the work might require access to certain physical resources or hardware that are only available on-site.

I've worked as a data engineer for almost a decade. I can say with confidence - data engineers can work from home.

When I started, the data engineers had to be on-premise to handle data processes. However, in the recent times companies like Microsoft, AWS and Google have popularized cloud. I see most of the SMEs and even the enterprises are looking to migrate to cloud to save costs.

As long as you have a stable and solid Internet connection - you can get 100% of the data-engineering work done remotely.