For organizations that work with large amounts of data, hiring a solid Data ops engineer is key. Let’s take a look at what a data ops engineer does, and what you should ask potential hires during the interview process.
Key Characteristics of a Data Ops Engineer
A data and analytical product's production line is owned by a data operations engineer. Data operations are a set of pipeline methods that take raw data, process and convert it, and then provide finished goods in the form of dashboards, forecasts, data warehouses, or other formats as needed by the company.
Most organizations employ hands-on labor to manage their large data factories. The bulk of the time that an organization’s data scientists and other data professionals are employed, they are conducting processes that enable data operations.
This could be expensive and ineffective. In order to make the data team more productive, creative, and error-free, Data Ops establishes a processing center that automates the procedures for producing data and developing analytics. Since a Data Ops Engineer is at the center of this process, firms that work with large amounts of data should highly value their services.
Even though the term "Data Ops Engineer" is relatively new, some people think the jobs of "Data Engineer" and "Data Ops Engineer" are interchangeable. Making data accessible for usage by data scientists, data analysts, and others is the common thread between the two. People who see the Data Ops position as being significantly different frequently compare it to an architect function.
What to Ask Your Potential Data Ops Engineer
Understanding your organization's goals, any limitations, and how the Data Ops engineer job fits with other members of the data team can help you choose the appropriate data operations engineer. It's crucial to ask other data team members what unique abilities a Data Ops engineer has to have in order to operate with your pipeline.
With that in mind, let’s look at some key interview questions to ask a potential data ops engineer during the interview process.
Can you describe agile development?
DataOps has to manage cooperation and innovation in order to be successful. To do this, DataOps integrates Agile Development with data analytics to improve communication and collaboration between data teams and users. An effective data operations engineer should be knowledgeable about agile development.
Should our organization be skeptical about the hype involved in Data Ops?
The answer you receive should be somewhat similar to this: “Probably. But Data Ops is built on a strong foundation that consists of lean manufacturing, agile development, and Dev Ops. For many years, these established approaches have benefited organizations and businesses.”
Can you tell me about yourself?
This is quite a broad question. However, it is still valuable. You’re basically asking the prospect why they are a good fit for this job. It’s about the prospect’s relationship with data engineering, especially in the context of data ops engineering.
What is lead manufacturing, and is it important for data analytics?
The goal of lean manufacturing is to reduce waste as much as possible within a system without compromising efficiency. Data analytics also organizes and orchestrates a data pipeline, in contrast to Agile and DevOps, which are related to analytics creation and implementation. On one side of the pipeline, data is continually entering, moving through a sequence of stages, and then leaving as reports, models, and views.
The "operations" aspect of data analytics is represented by the data pipeline. Data operations engineers need to be aware of this procedure and the advantages it offers to businesses that need to manage their data flow.
What led to the growth of data ops?
This is very important to ask, as your data ops engineer needs to know the background of the data ops sector and the importance of data in the modern age. Specifically, they should be able to describe, even briefly, how the last decade has been the decade of data, how data is now needed in the modern age to scale, the importance of managing large volumes of complex data, and the development of digital transformation in the world of business.
What problems does Data Ops solve?
This is a very basic question, but it’s absolutely vital that your data ops engineer knows the answer. By exerting control over your workflow and procedures, DataOps removes the multiple barriers that hold back the high levels of productivity and quality your data organization deserves.
The ideal scenario is for data teams and users to collaborate seamlessly, fielding fresh idea suggestions, adopting them swiftly, and iterating quickly toward higher-quality models and insights. Your prospect should also be able to describe data democratization and the importance of compliance and governance.
How could you prove that implementing Data ops actually adds value to the organization?
A previously unheard-of degree of transparency into your operations and analytics development will be provided by DataOps. Metrics on all analytics-related operations may be gathered and displayed thanks to DataOps automated orchestration.
The ability to create a standard DataOps dashboard with metrics for team cooperation, mistake rates, productivity, deployments, testing, and delivery time should be possessed by a data operations engineer. These fundamental metrics illustrate how to evaluate the worth of data operations.
Hire the Best Data Ops Engineer Today
A superb Data Ops Engineer for your company might be difficult to find at first. But it will be a lot simpler for you to identify someone who is qualified and will be a fantastic addition to your team if you know what to look for and ask the proper interview questions.
Don't forget that your Data Ops Engineer's ability to perform their duties will depend much on the BI software you choose. Visit our self-serve business intelligence platform, Yurbi, right away to find out more about how it may benefit your company and simplify life for you and your new report writer.