How to hire an etl developer

How to hire an etl developer, step by step

Here's a step-by-step etl developer hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write an etl developer job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new etl developer
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does an etl developer do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the etl developer you need to hire. Certain etl developer roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   Hiring the perfect etl developer also involves considering the ideal background you'd like them to have. Depending on what industry or field they have experience in, they'll bring different skills to the job. It's also important to consider what levels of seniority and education the job requires and what kind of salary such a candidate would likely demand.

   This list shows salaries for various types of etl developers.

   Type of ETL Developer	Description	Hourly rate
   ETL Developer	Software developers are the creative minds behind computer programs. Some develop the applications that allow people to do specific tasks on a computer or another device... Show more	$34-56
   Business Intelligence Developer	A business intelligence developer is primarily responsible for organizing and developing systems that will inform the company of essential data and solutions as a basis for decision-making. They are also responsible for coordinating with stakeholders and other high-ranking personnel to determine specific goals, develop models, conduct research and analysis, and gather data through various processes, ensuring accuracy and productivity... Show more	$33-58
   Data Warehouse Developer	Data Warehouse Developers are information technology (IT) professionals assigned to manage company-related information or data. They are responsible for creating the company's data warehouse, where the company's data will be stored... Show more	$34-57

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • SQL Server
   • Data Warehouse
   • Unix
   • Data Analysis
   • BI
   • Data Quality
   • Informatica Powercenter
   • Load Data
   • Java
   • Data Warehousing
   • Informatica Workflow
   • Extraction
   • PL/SQL
   • Data Lake

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Support and maintain production Cognos web portal to manage the OLAP cube and folders.
   • Implement Perl scripts to load the financial information and to automate frequent reports for the users.
   • Coordinate with DBA in creating and managing table, indexes, table spaces, triggers, dB links and privileges.
   • Migrate the jobs from DataStage 8.1 to 8.7 and the environment from AIX to LINUX.
   • Export data from HDFS environment into RDBMS using Sqoop for report generation and visualization purpose.
   • Develop PL/SQL package for conversion of legacy notes associate with a service request using service request API.

   More etl developer duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the etl developer job description is a good way to get more applicants. An etl developer salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

   For example, the average salary for an etl developer in Oklahoma may be lower than in Washington, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level etl developer. Additionally, an etl developer with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average etl developer salary

   $92,419yearly

   $44.43 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level etl developer salary

   $72,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 14, 2025

   Average etl developer salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$112,841	$54
   2	Oregon	$101,199	$49
   3	Utah	$97,850	$47
   4	Delaware	$96,183	$46
   5	New York	$94,744	$46
   6	District of Columbia	$94,666	$46
   7	New Jersey	$93,621	$45
   8	Massachusetts	$92,637	$45
   9	Texas	$91,836	$44
   10	Arizona	$90,224	$43
   11	Virginia	$90,138	$43
   12	Minnesota	$88,784	$43
   13	Pennsylvania	$88,616	$43
   14	North Carolina	$87,053	$42
   15	Florida	$85,548	$41
   16	Ohio	$85,495	$41
   17	Illinois	$85,166	$41
   18	Georgia	$85,042	$41
   19	Michigan	$84,116	$40
   20	Alabama	$83,845	$40

   Average etl developer salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Meta	$141,143	$67.86	9
   2	PlayStation	$128,297	$61.68
   3	Costco Wholesale	$126,243	$60.69
   4	Everyday Health	$122,864	$59.07
   5	Bank of the West	$121,620	$58.47
   6	Barclays	$120,404	$57.89	2
   7	SiriusXM	$119,702	$57.55
   8	Food City	$118,548	$56.99
   9	Macy's	$118,465	$56.95	2
   10	Fresh Direct Holdings Inc	$118,232	$56.84	1
   11	Bed Bath & Beyond	$116,282	$55.90
   12	Slalom	$116,025	$55.78	190
   13	JPMorgan Chase & Co.	$114,776	$55.18	26
   14	Wyndham Hotels & Resorts	$114,740	$55.16
   15	The Travelers Companies	$114,515	$55.06
   16	Move	$114,435	$55.02
   17	BNY Mellon	$113,718	$54.67	2
   18	Mercury Insurance	$113,344	$54.49
   19	LendingClub	$113,112	$54.38	1
   20	Trinity Health	$112,939	$54.30	1

4. Writing an etl developer job description

   A good etl developer job description should include a few things:

   • Summary of the role
   • List of responsibilities
   • Required skills and experience

   Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of an etl developer job description:

   Etl developer job description example

   6+ Months

   Requirements:

   • Over 8-10 years of experience in the field of Information Technology with proficiency in ETL design/development and Data Warehouse Implementation/development.

   • Experienced in Design, Development and Implementation of large - scale projects in Financial, Shipping and Retail industries using Data Warehousing ETL tools (Pentaho) and Business Intelligence tool.

   • Knowledge about Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Agile, Application Maintenance Change Process (AMCP).

   • Excellent data analysis skills.

   • Experience in Architecting and building Data Warehouse systems and Business Intelligence systems including ETL using Pentaho BI Suite (Pentaho Data Integration Designer / Kettle).

   • Hands-on experience on Data warehouse Star Schema Modeling, Snow-Flake Modeling, FACT Dimension Tables, Physical and Logical Data Modeling.

   • Installed and configured Pentaho BI Server on different operating systems like Red Hat, Linux and Windows Server.

   • Hands on experience on the whole ETL (Extract Transformation Load) process.

   • Experience in creating ETL transformations and jobs using Pentaho Kettle Spoon designer and Pentaho Data Integration Designer and scheduling them on Pentaho BI Server.

   • Used bunch of steps in Pentaho transformations including Row Normalizer, Row Demoralizer, Database Lookup, Database Join, Calculator, Add Sequence, Add Constants and various types of inputs and outputs for various data sources including Tables, Access, Text File, Excel and CSV file.

   • Integrating Kettle (ETL) with Hadoop and other various NoSQL data stores can be found in the Pentaho Big Data Plugin. This is a Kettle plugin and provides connectors to HDFS, MapReduce, HBase, Cassandra, MongoDB, CouchDB that work across Pentaho Data Integration.

   • Loaded unstructured data into Hadoop File System (HDFS)

   • Experience in performing Data Masking/Protection using Pentaho Data Integration (Kettle).

   • Experience in writing shell scripting for various ETL needs.

   • Deep knowledge of RDBMS (SQL Server, MySQL, DB2 etc) and NoSQL databases such as MongoDB, DynamoDB and Cassandra.

   • Proficient in writing Confidential - SQL Statements, Complex Stored Procedures, Dynamic SQL queries, Batches, Scripts, Functions, Triggers, Views, Cursors and Query Optimization.

   • Quick understanding of Relational Source Database Systems and data models for building accurate transformation logic that can be used in Data Migration and Data Integration.

   • Good to have Supply Chain Knowledge.

   • Motivated team player with excellent communication, interpersonal, analytical and problem-solving skills.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find etl developers for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any etl developers they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level etl developers with the right educational background.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your etl developer job on Zippia to find and recruit etl developer candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites such as dice, engineering.com, stack overflow, it job pro.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting etl developers requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match your ideal candidate profile. If you think a candidate is good enough for the next step, you can move on to the technical interview.

   If your interviews with etl developer applicants aren't enough to make a decision, you should also consider including a test project. These are often the best, most straightforward, and least bias-prone ways of determining who will likely succeed in the role. If you don't know how to design an appropriate test, you can ask someone else on the team to create it or take a look at these websites to get a few ideas:

   • TestDome
   • CodeSignal
   • Testlify
   • BarRaiser
   • Coderbyte

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new etl developer

   Once you have selected a candidate for the etl developer position, it is time to create an offer letter. In addition to salary, the offer letter should include details about benefits and perks that are available to the employee. Ensuring your offer is competitive is vital, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and it is important to be open to discussion and reach a mutually beneficial agreement. After the offer has been accepted, it is a good idea to formalize the agreement with a contract.

   It's also good etiquette to follow up with applicants who don't get the job by sending them an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new etl developer. Human Resources and the hiring manager should complete Employee Action Forms. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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