Data Engineer Salary in Hamburg (2026)
Data engineers in Hamburg earn €52,000–€90,000 per year, with a median of €68,000. Hamburg's data engineering market is driven by massive e-commerce data volumes at Otto Group and About You, professional network data at XING, and global logistics data at Hapag-Lloyd — creating some of Germany's most interesting data pipeline challenges.
Key Facts
- Data engineers earn €52K–€90K/year with median of €68K
- Otto Group generates petabytes of e-commerce data — massive pipeline challenges
- XING offers graph-data and matching problems at German-LinkedIn scale
- Logistics data at Hapag-Lloyd spans global shipping operations
- AWS is the dominant cloud platform for data engineering in Hamburg
Salary by Experience Level
- Junior (0–2 years): €40,000–€52,000
- Mid-level (3–5 years): €52,000–€72,000
- Senior (6+ years): €72,000–€90,000
E-Commerce Data at Scale
Otto Group generates petabytes of e-commerce data: product catalogs, customer interactions, transaction logs, search queries, and recommendation feedback loops. Data engineers here build the pipelines that turn this raw data into real-time analytics, ML features, and business intelligence. About You's rapid growth creates similar high-throughput data challenges.
XING's Professional Network Data
XING's 20+ million user profiles create unique data engineering challenges: graph data at scale, real-time job matching, content ranking pipelines, and privacy-compliant analytics. This is among Germany's most technically demanding data engineering work.
Logistics Data Pipelines
Hapag-Lloyd tracks thousands of ships and millions of containers globally. Kühne+Nagel coordinates supply chains across continents. Data engineers build real-time tracking pipelines, ETL for customs and regulatory data, and analytics platforms for route optimization.
Technology Stack
AWS dominates (S3, Redshift, Glue, Kinesis). Apache Kafka for streaming. Spark for batch processing. dbt is gaining adoption for transformation. Snowflake appears at some companies. Python and SQL are universal requirements.
Top Hiring Companies
Career Advice
Master AWS data services (Kinesis, Glue, Redshift) and Apache Kafka — they're the core Hamburg data stack. Build expertise in high-throughput e-commerce pipelines for the most transferable skills. XING offers uniquely challenging graph-data problems. Hapag-Lloyd is an underrated option for data engineers interested in global logistics and real-time tracking. dbt and Snowflake skills are increasingly valued.
Data Engineer Insights — Hamburg
Data Engineer salaries in Hamburg range from €52,000 to €90,000, a 56% spread that reflects significant variation based on experience level, specialization, and company size. The median of €68,000 sits below the midpoint, suggesting more positions cluster toward the entry-to-mid-level end of the range.
Hamburg's cost of living index of 77/100 makes it one of the more expensive locations for tech professionals. While the €68,000 median is competitive, housing and daily expenses consume a larger share of income compared to lower-cost cities.
The hiring landscape for data engineer in Hamburg is anchored by employers like Otto Group, XING/New Work SE, and About You, along with 2 other notable employers. Larger employers in this market typically offer compensation at the upper end of the range, often supplemented with equity, signing bonuses, and comprehensive benefits.
Demand for data engineer in Hamburg centers around expertise in Apache Kafka, SQL, Python, plus 2 other core competencies. Candidates with strong proficiency across these areas tend to command offers closer to the €90,000 ceiling, and have natural transition paths into roles like Senior Data Engineer or Data Scientist.
Related Roles in Hamburg
Explore salary information for similar positions and compare compensation across different roles.
| Role | Location | Salary Range | Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | Hamburg | €55,000 - €92,000 | €72,000 |
| Senior Data Engineer | Hamburg | €72,000 - €108,000 | €83,000 |
| Senior Data Scientist | Hamburg | €75,000 - €110,000 | €85,000 |
| ML Engineer | Hamburg | €58,000 - €100,000 | €76,000 |
| DevOps Engineer | Hamburg | €55,000 - €95,000 | €72,000 |
| Senior Product Manager |
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average data engineer salary in Hamburg?
Data engineers earn €52,000–€90,000/year with a median of €68,000. Junior roles start at €40,000–€52,000, mid-level pays €52,000–€72,000, and senior data engineers earn €72,000–€90,000.
What tools do data engineers use in Hamburg?
Core stack: AWS services (S3, Redshift, Glue, Kinesis, EMR), Apache Kafka (streaming), Apache Spark (batch processing), Python (orchestration, transformation), SQL (universal). dbt is gaining traction for transformation layers. Snowflake appears at some companies. Airflow is the standard orchestrator.
How does Hamburg compare to Berlin for data engineering?
Hamburg pays slightly more at median (€68K vs €65K) and offers larger-scale data challenges at established companies (Otto Group, XING). Berlin has more total roles, more startup data engineering positions, and greater variety. Hamburg is ideal for e-commerce or logistics data specialization; Berlin for breadth.
Is data engineering at a logistics company interesting?
Absolutely. Hapag-Lloyd tracks ships and containers globally in real-time. Kühne+Nagel coordinates multi-modal supply chains. These companies process customs data, weather/route optimization inputs, and real-time GPS data. The problems are geographically distributed, real-time, and have direct business impact. It's a fascinating domain that many data engineers overlook.
What certifications help data engineers in Hamburg?
AWS Data Analytics Specialty and AWS Solutions Architect are most valued (given AWS dominance). Snowflake SnowPro and Databricks certifications are growing. Confluent Kafka certification signals streaming expertise. Practical portfolio projects showing real data pipeline work matter more than certifications at most Hamburg employers.
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