What does a normal workday for an ETL Developer include?

ETL Developers typically start with a stand-up meeting, followed by coding or reviewing data pipelines, debugging issues, optimizing queries, handling data validation, and writing documentation.

Do ETL Developers spend time in meetings?

Yes. Agile environments include sprint planning, retrospectives, and syncs with analysts, engineers, or product owners. These meetings ensure alignment and clarify data needs.

How much time is spent coding vs. monitoring pipelines?

About 50?70% is spent coding and maintaining data workflows. The remainder is monitoring for failures, investigating data anomalies, and writing test scripts or documentation.

Do ETL Developers interact with data analysts?

Frequently. They ensure that analysts receive clean, well-structured data. Collaboration involves defining data models, troubleshooting report discrepancies, and implementing new data sources.

Is documentation part of a typical day?

Yes. Developers maintain pipeline docs, data dictionaries, and transformation logic explanations. Clear documentation is essential for team collaboration and long-term pipeline reliability.

How does the finance sector use ETL pipelines?

Financial firms use ETL to process transaction data, customer analytics, fraud detection, and regulatory compliance. Speed and accuracy are vital, making ETL Developers essential in this field.

What role does an ETL Developer play in product development?

ETL Developers ensure accurate, clean, and accessible data for product features such as dashboards, analytics, personalization, and machine learning models. They are essential to data-driven product decisions.

What a typical day looks like for a ETL Developer

ETL Developers are the architects of data flow, ensuring that information moves efficiently and accurately from source systems to target platforms. While the tools and environments may vary—from cloud-based warehouses to traditional data centers—the core responsibilities remain the same: build, maintain, and optimize ETL pipelines. So, what does a typical day in the life of an ETL Developer really look like? Here's a detailed look at how ETL Developers spend their time, collaborate with teams, and manage the data lifecycle.

8:30 AM ? Start the Day with Pipeline Monitoring

Most ETL Developers begin the day by checking the status of automated overnight jobs. This involves:

Reviewing alerts and job failure notifications from orchestration tools like Airflow, Azure Data Factory, or AWS Glue
Inspecting logs for timeouts, connection errors, or failed transformations
Re-running failed tasks or escalating issues to DevOps or source system owners

This initial step ensures that business stakeholders receive timely and accurate data for decision-making.

9:30 AM ? Daily Standup and Team Sync

In agile environments, ETL Developers participate in daily standups with other engineers, analysts, and product stakeholders. In these quick meetings, they:

Share what they accomplished yesterday
Outline today’s focus (e.g., new pipeline development or data issue resolution)
Raise blockers such as delayed data sources or unclear transformation requirements

Effective communication at this stage keeps the entire team aligned on sprint priorities and delivery timelines.

10:00 AM ? Development Time: Building or Updating Pipelines

This is the core of an ETL Developer’s role—creating new data pipelines or improving existing ones. This work includes:

Writing SQL or Python code to extract data from APIs, databases, or flat files
Implementing transformation logic using dbt, Spark, or stored procedures
Testing pipelines in development and staging environments
Pushing code via Git and initiating pull requests for peer review

This focused work often involves collaboration with data analysts or product managers to align pipeline logic with business needs.

12:30 PM ? Lunch Break and Informal Check-ins

Lunch provides a much-needed mental reset. Some ETL Developers also use this time to:

Review Slack or Teams messages
Respond to Jira tickets from stakeholders with data requests
Catch up on new data engineering blogs or community updates

1:30 PM ? Data Validation and Quality Assurance

After new code is deployed, validating that data is accurate is critical. ETL Developers:

Run QA scripts or automated data tests (e.g., using Great Expectations)
Compare source and target row counts
Check for anomalies in metrics or missing fields
Coordinate with QA engineers or analysts for UAT (User Acceptance Testing)

Maintaining data quality helps build trust across teams and reduces incidents in production.

3:00 PM ? Ad Hoc Requests and Troubleshooting

Stakeholders may request custom data pulls or clarification on pipeline logic. ETL Developers often:

Write temporary queries for data analysts or business teams
Investigate unexpected data behaviors or gaps
Update transformation rules based on feedback

This flexibility is key in fast-paced, data-driven organizations.

4:30 PM ? Documentation and Planning

To support maintainability and collaboration, ETL Developers document their work:

Updating Confluence pages, README files, or dbt Docs
Recording schema changes or adding comments in Git commits
Planning the next sprint’s pipeline enhancements or technical debt cleanup

Well-documented pipelines make onboarding easier and improve long-term system stability.

5:30 PM ? Wrap Up and Monitor Final Batch Jobs

Before signing off, ETL Developers often:

Check that end-of-day batch jobs are queued properly
Leave notes or Slack updates for team members in other time zones
Log any unresolved issues for follow-up in the next workday

This ensures a smooth handoff to overnight processes and keeps projects moving forward efficiently.

Conclusion: A Balanced Blend of Code, Communication, and Data Care

A typical day for an ETL Developer blends deep technical work with constant collaboration, troubleshooting, and planning. From ensuring pipelines run on time to transforming messy data into clean, usable formats, these professionals are at the core of every successful data operation. With strong habits and the right tools, ETL Developers can thrive in both in-office and remote environments—powering the data that drives today’s products and insights.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a normal workday for an ETL Developer include?: ETL Developers typically start with a stand-up meeting, followed by coding or reviewing data pipelines, debugging issues, optimizing queries, handling data validation, and writing documentation.
Do ETL Developers spend time in meetings?: Yes. Agile environments include sprint planning, retrospectives, and syncs with analysts, engineers, or product owners. These meetings ensure alignment and clarify data needs.
How much time is spent coding vs. monitoring pipelines?: About 50?70% is spent coding and maintaining data workflows. The remainder is monitoring for failures, investigating data anomalies, and writing test scripts or documentation.
How does the finance sector use ETL pipelines?: Financial firms use ETL to process transaction data, customer analytics, fraud detection, and regulatory compliance. Speed and accuracy are vital, making ETL Developers essential in this field. Learn more on our Industries Actively Hiring ETL Developers page.
What role does an ETL Developer play in product development?: ETL Developers ensure accurate, clean, and accessible data for product features such as dashboards, analytics, personalization, and machine learning models. They are essential to data-driven product decisions. Learn more on our How ETL Developers Power Data Workflows page.