Data Engineer Salary in Berlin 2026: Complete Guide

Berlin has quietly become one of Europe's most important data engineering hubs. While the city earned its tech reputation through consumer startups, the maturation of companies like Zalando, Delivery Hero, N26, and Trade Republic has created serious demand for data infrastructure talent - the engineers who build the pipelines, warehouses, and streaming systems that power modern product decisions.

This guide covers exactly what data engineers earn in Berlin in 2026, which companies pay the most, which skills command a premium, and how the city stacks up against Munich and Hamburg.

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Berlin's Tech Market Overview

Berlin's tech ecosystem is now in its third wave. The first wave produced Rocket Internet and its portfolio companies. The second built sustainable businesses at Zalando, HelloFresh, and SoundCloud. The third - and current - wave is producing fintech infrastructure (N26, Trade Republic), food-tech at scale (Delivery Hero), and a constellation of B2B SaaS and AI companies that collectively employ thousands of data engineers.

Zalando operates one of Europe's largest data platforms, with a dedicated Data & Analytics division processing billions of fashion and logistics events daily. Their data engineering teams work on recommendation systems, supply chain optimization, and real-time inventory management - serious infrastructure at scale. Delivery Hero is a streaming-heavy environment. With real-time order tracking, restaurant logistics, and customer demand forecasting across dozens of markets, their data infrastructure teams rely heavily on Kafka, Flink, and Spark. It's one of the best environments in Berlin to develop real-time data engineering skills. N26 and Trade Republic represent the fintech end of Berlin's data market. Both operate under strict German financial regulation, which means data quality, lineage, and governance are first-class concerns alongside raw engineering. Trade Republic in particular has been aggressively hiring senior data engineers as it scales toward profitability and potential IPO. HelloFresh is one of the most data-driven operations companies in Europe. Demand forecasting, ingredient procurement, and delivery logistics all run on data pipelines managed by their Berlin-based engineering teams. SoundCloud and earlier-stage startups round out the picture - offering lower base salaries than the large companies but often more technical breadth and equity upside.

Data Engineer Salary Ranges by Level in Berlin (2026)

The figures below represent gross annual base salary in euros. Total compensation at public companies and well-funded startups will include equity on top of base.

Junior Data Engineer (0-2 years): €50,000-€65,000

Entry-level data engineering in Berlin is accessible but competitive. Most companies expect proficiency in Python and SQL, familiarity with at least one cloud platform, and some hands-on experience with data pipeline tools (Airflow, dbt, or similar). Startups and scale-ups tend to hire juniors more actively than large corporates. At the lower end of this range (€50K-€55K), expect a higher equity component at growth-stage companies.

Mid-Level Data Engineer (2-5 years): €65,000-€85,000

The mid-level band is where Berlin's data engineering market gets most competitive. Engineers at this level are expected to own data pipelines end-to-end, work with streaming infrastructure (Kafka or Kinesis), and have meaningful experience with a cloud data warehouse (BigQuery, Redshift, or Snowflake). At Zalando or Delivery Hero, mid-level engineers with strong Spark experience sit comfortably at €75,000-€85,000. Companies like HelloFresh and N26 pay similarly for engineers with dbt and Airflow depth.

Senior Data Engineer (5-8 years): €85,000-€110,000

Senior data engineers in Berlin are expected to drive architecture decisions, mentor junior engineers, and own the reliability and scalability of data infrastructure. Trade Republic, Delivery Hero, and Zalando all pay at the upper end of this band for engineers with streaming expertise and cloud-native data warehouse experience. Total comp at Trade Republic for seniors - including equity - can reach €120,000-€130,000.

Staff / Principal Data Engineer (8+ years): €105,000-€140,000

Staff and principal roles in Berlin are still less common than in US tech markets, but the largest Berlin companies have begun to formalize these tracks. A staff engineer at Zalando or Delivery Hero typically owns the data platform architecture across multiple teams, defines standards for data quality and pipeline observability, and interfaces with data science and product leadership. Total comp at this level - including RSUs or stock options - can exceed €140,000 at the top companies.

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Top Companies Hiring Data Engineers in Berlin

Beyond these household names, Berlin has a deep bench of Series B and C startups in climate tech, healthcare, and B2B SaaS that are actively hiring data engineers with modern stack experience.

Key Skills That Drive Higher Pay in Berlin

Data engineering is a broad discipline, and in Berlin, certain technical specializations command a significant pay premium:

Python is the lingua franca. Every Berlin data engineer role expects strong Python skills - from scripting ETL jobs to building production-grade pipeline frameworks. SQL and data modeling remain foundational. Engineers who can write performant SQL and reason about dimensional modeling, slowly changing dimensions, and query optimization are more valuable than pure Python practitioners. Apache Spark is in high demand at companies running large-scale batch processing (Zalando, Delivery Hero). Engineers with deep Spark optimization experience - partitioning, broadcast joins, memory management - command a €5K-€15K premium. Apache Kafka is essential for real-time roles. Delivery Hero and Trade Republic in particular are heavy Kafka environments. Kafka expertise (consumer groups, partition tuning, exactly-once semantics) is one of the most differentiated skills in the Berlin market. dbt (data build tool) has become the de-facto standard for data transformation at modern data stacks. Every Berlin company running Snowflake, BigQuery, or Redshift is either using dbt or evaluating it. Fluency here is increasingly required, not optional. Airflow (and increasingly Prefect and Dagster) remains the dominant workflow orchestration tool. Engineers who can build reliable, observable DAGs and debug production Airflow failures are valued at every seniority level. Cloud data warehouses - BigQuery (Google Cloud), Redshift (AWS), and Snowflake - are the storage layer at every modern Berlin data stack. Understanding cost optimization, clustering, and schema design for these platforms is expected at senior level.

Berlin vs Munich vs Hamburg: City Comparison

Munich pays 10-15% more in absolute base salary terms and is home to BMW, Siemens, and MAN - large enterprises with mature data engineering teams. However, Berlin's startup density means faster career progression, more technical breadth, and significantly more equity upside. Housing in Berlin remains substantially cheaper than Munich, narrowing the real purchasing power gap.

Hamburg has a strong e-commerce and logistics data scene (Otto Group, About You) but fewer companies at Delivery Hero / Zalando scale.

For data engineers who want to maximize equity potential and technical growth, Berlin wins. For those prioritizing raw base salary and stability, Munich is the stronger choice.

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German Benefits: What Comes With the Package

German employment law provides a strong benefits floor that supplements headline salary:

Public health insurance (Gesetzliche Krankenversicherung): Automatically covered for employees earning below the Versicherungspflichtgrenze (~€69,300/year). Both employer and employee contribute ~7.3% each. Above that threshold, employees can opt into private health insurance. 30 days vacation: The German minimum is 20 days, but the tech industry standard in Berlin is 28-30 days. Most Zalando, Delivery Hero, and N26 job postings list 30 days as standard. Pension contributions (Rentenversicherung): Employer and employee each contribute ~9.3% of gross salary to the statutory pension fund - a meaningful benefit not reflected in headline salary numbers. Parental leave: Germany offers up to 14 months of Elterngeld (parental pay), with flexible usage between partners. Berlin tech companies generally support this without career penalty. Remote flexibility: Berlin's tech companies have largely settled into hybrid models - 2-3 days in office - post-pandemic. Fully remote arrangements exist but are more common at international companies or for senior engineers with established track records. Pure remote roles at Berlin-headquartered companies remain the exception rather than the rule. Relocation support: Most large Berlin tech companies offer relocation packages for candidates moving from outside Germany, including visa sponsorship (Blue Card is standard for engineers meeting the salary threshold).

How to Negotiate Your Data Engineer Salary in Berlin

Berlin's tech culture is more reserved about salary negotiation than US markets, but negotiation is entirely expected and normal. A few principles that work in this market:

Use data. German employers respond well to market data. Reference CareerCheck's Berlin data engineer salary data or comparable sources when making your case. "The market for senior data engineers with Kafka experience in Berlin is €95K-€110K" lands better than "I think I deserve more." Negotiate the full package. Beyond base, push on equity vesting schedule, signing bonus, and remote days. German companies often have more flexibility on these components than on base salary, which may be constrained by internal bands. Counter the first offer. In Berlin, first offers are typically 5-10% below the top of the hiring manager's budget. A polite counter with market justification rarely damages the offer and frequently results in €3,000-€8,000 additional base. Timing matters. The best time to negotiate is after receiving a written offer, not during the interview process. German hiring processes tend to be more formal, and raising salary requirements too early can complicate things.

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Berlin's combination of scale-up density, serious data infrastructure challenges at companies like Zalando and Delivery Hero, and a quality of life that punches well above its salary level makes it one of the most compelling data engineering markets in Europe in 2026. For engineers earlier in their career, the growth opportunities and technical breadth available in Berlin are difficult to match anywhere in the continent.