DataTalks.Club Data Engineer Career in 2026: Roles, Specializations, and What Companies Look for - Slawomir Tulski
Mar 27, 2026
Slawomir Tulski, data leadership consultant and former Meta data engineering manager, shares his path from geoscience to scaling ads infra. He explains platform versus product specializations. He warns against over-engineering, highlights cloud cost awareness, and discusses which roles are safe from AI. Short, practical takes on hiring, portfolios, and when real-time systems actually matter.
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From Glacier Research To Meta And Consulting
- Slawomir moved from academia (remote sensing, glacier measurement) into software and then data engineering to earn more and relocated to London.
- He later joined Meta as a founding data engineer and transitioned into management before consulting from Poland.
Big Tech Often Builds Internal Data Tooling
- At Meta, Slawomir worked with internal equivalents to popular tools (e.g., Data Swarm for dbt) showing big companies often reinvent or internalize platforms.
- He notes tools differ in syntax but share the same core purposes across companies.
Real Time Is Overused And Often Unnecessary
- Real-time is niche: it's critical for fraud, per-transaction checks, or dynamic recommendations but unnecessary for most analytics.
- Many teams push real-time for FOMO rather than clear business need.