Data engineering · ETL developers

Hire ETL Developers from Canada, Latin America, and the US

Hire an ETL developer who builds the pipelines that bring data from all your sources into your data warehouse or data lake, structured and ready for analysis and reporting. We find the right person, or build your entire data team, in Canada, Latin America, or the US, on a contract, permanent, or fractional basis.

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ETL developers, screened by senior developers

DevEngine is a Vancouver-based IT recruitment and staffing firm. We recruit ETL developers from Canada, Latin America, and the US for contract, permanent, or fractional roles. Most of these searches are for data loads that keep failing or running late, integrations for a new system, or legacy ETL jobs that have to move to a modern platform. A senior data engineer screens every candidate before you see one. You manage the day-to-day work. We handle contracts, HR, and admin.

The role

An ETL developer gets your data into one place, ready for analysis

An ETL developer designs, implements, and maintains the ETL processes that move data from your source systems, such as ERP, CRM, and operational databases, into a central data warehouse or data lake. They aggregate and organize that data so it arrives structured and accessible for analytics teams, business intelligence, and business users. Day to day, they map fields, handle errors and late data, and tune loads so they finish on schedule.

Typical outputs include ETL and ELT jobs, source-to-target mappings, load schedules and dependencies, error handling and reconciliation reports, and migrations of legacy jobs to new platforms.

The role is often confused with two others, and organizations define all three differently. In general:

ETL developer

What they work on: Moving data from many sources into a central warehouse or data lake
Core question: Is data from every source arriving complete, structured, and ready for analysis?
Typical outputs: ETL jobs, mappings, load schedules
Works most with: BI and analytics teams, data engineers, and source-system owners
Often brought in when: Data from several systems needs to reach the warehouse, or existing loads need fixing or migrating

Data engineer

What they work on: The full data platform: pipelines, storage, and delivery
Core question: Is the right data arriving, clean and on time, where people need it?
Typical outputs: Pipelines, warehouse models, monitoring
Works most with: Analysts, data scientists, and platform teams
Often brought in when: A data platform needs to be built, migrated, or stabilized

Data architect

What they work on: The overall design, standards, and governance of the company's data
Core question: How should our data be structured, secured, and governed?
Typical outputs: Data models, reference architectures, governance standards
Works most with: Leadership, security, and engineering teams
Often brought in when: Data has grown without a plan, or a platform decision is coming

	ETL developer	Data engineer	Data architect
What they work on	Moving data from many sources into a central warehouse or data lake	The full data platform: pipelines, storage, and delivery	The overall design, standards, and governance of the company's data
Core question	Is data from every source arriving complete, structured, and ready for analysis?	Is the right data arriving, clean and on time, where people need it?	How should our data be structured, secured, and governed?
Typical outputs	ETL jobs, mappings, load schedules	Pipelines, warehouse models, monitoring	Data models, reference architectures, governance standards
Works most with	BI and analytics teams, data engineers, and source-system owners	Analysts, data scientists, and platform teams	Leadership, security, and engineering teams
Often brought in when	Data from several systems needs to reach the warehouse, or existing loads need fixing or migrating	A data platform needs to be built, migrated, or stabilized	Data has grown without a plan, or a platform decision is coming

If the work covers the whole data platform, see Hire Data Engineers. If the open question is how the data should be designed and governed, see Hire Data Architects.

When to hire

When you need an ETL developer

The need usually shows up as one of these situations:

Your data is spread across systems, so no one sees the full picture.
Sales, finance, and operations data sit in separate ERP, CRM, and operational systems, including ones you just launched. Reports get stitched together by hand, and your BI tools can't give one view of the business.
Loads fail or run too long, and the business waits.
Jobs break, or slow down as data volumes grow, so operations, finance, and leadership start the day on missing or partial data and make decisions they later have to revisit.
Legacy ETL has become an operational risk.
Jobs built years ago on an aging platform depend on the few people who understand them, and every month they stay in place raises the cost of moving.
Numbers change between systems, and no one knows why.
Duplicate, incomplete, or mismatched records get through between source and target, so reconciliations drag on, audits raise questions, and leadership stops trusting the figures it reports to the board.

Need a different role?

If you need someone to build and run your whole data platform, including storage and streaming, hire a data engineer. If you need someone to decide how your data should be designed and governed, hire a data architect. We recruit for both roles.

Our screen

What our senior data engineers look for

Most candidates can build a load job. Fewer can show pipelines that fed a warehouse the business relied on for years, through new sources, audits, and growing volumes. A senior data engineer screens every candidate on the systems, the volumes, the transformation logic, and what happened when something failed.

Loads the business can depend on
We ask about a critical load they optimized to cut run time, what they changed, such as queries, indexing, partitioning, or parallel runs, and which reports depended on it arriving on time.
Clean data finance and audit can trust
We ask how they cleaned, validated, and standardized data from different sources, how their checks caught missing, duplicate, or late records, and how they reconciled source and target so finance and audit teams could trust the numbers.
Migrations without business disruption
We ask how they moved legacy jobs to a new platform while the reports and operations that depended on them kept running, with no gap the business noticed.
Hands-on depth in your stack
We test depth in the integration tools you run, such as SSIS, Informatica PowerCenter, or IBM DataStage, plus SQL and Python or Java for custom transformations, on warehouses like Amazon Redshift or Oracle. Experience with your source systems, volumes, and regulations counts just as much.

Candidates who can't explain how their jobs handled failures, have never reconciled data the business had to sign off on, or know one tool but not the logic behind it are screened out. Your interviews focus on fit, not filtering.

Where we source

Hire from Canada, Latin America, or the US

One search can cover all three talent pools. Brief the role once, and compare candidates from each market side by side before you decide.

Canada

Where candidates are based: Across Canada
Working hours: Canadian time zones, Pacific to Atlantic
Cost: Canadian market rates. See the Canada salary guide below.
Fits when: The role needs knowledge of the North American market, regular in-person time in Canada, or a Canadian base

Latin America

Where candidates are based: Across Latin America, including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Costa Rica
Working hours: Within 2 hours of US Eastern time, year-round. Up to 4 hours ahead of Pacific time.
Cost: Typically 35–40% below comparable North American cost. See the Latin America salary guide below.
Fits when: You want a wider candidate pool or more seniority for the budget, or the ETL developer will work with a nearshore team

United States

Where candidates are based: Across the United States
Working hours: US time zones, Pacific to Eastern
Cost: US market rates.
Fits when: The role needs knowledge of the US market, regular in-person time at a US site, or a US base

	Canada	Latin America	United States
Where candidates are based	Across Canada	Across Latin America, including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Costa Rica	Across the United States
Working hours	Canadian time zones, Pacific to Atlantic	Within 2 hours of US Eastern time, year-round. Up to 4 hours ahead of Pacific time.	US time zones, Pacific to Eastern
Cost	Canadian market rates. See the Canada salary guide below.	Typically 35–40% below comparable North American cost. See the Latin America salary guide below.	US market rates.
Fits when	The role needs knowledge of the North American market, regular in-person time in Canada, or a Canadian base	You want a wider candidate pool or more seniority for the budget, or the ETL developer will work with a nearshore team	The role needs knowledge of the US market, regular in-person time at a US site, or a US base

Not sure which market fits? Tell us about the role, and we'll scope it in each market and show you candidates and cost side by side.

Technology salaries in Canada and Latin America

Benchmark salaries by role and seniority before you set a budget.

Download the Canada Salary Guide Download the Latin America Salary Guide

Engagement models

Contract, permanent, or fractional

Contract

Who employs the ETL developer: DevEngine
Time commitment: Full-time, for a defined period
Fits when: A legacy ETL migration, a new system integration, or a backlog of jobs with a defined end
Placement protection: Two-week guarantee

Permanent

Who employs the ETL developer: You
Time commitment: Full-time, ongoing
Fits when: Your integrations need a standing owner
Placement protection: 180-day prorated guarantee from the start date: full refund in the first 30 days, then partial refunds on a sliding scale

Fractional

Who employs the ETL developer: DevEngine
Time commitment: Part-time, hourly or monthly
Fits when: Job troubleshooting, a load-performance review, or ongoing support for a few integrations, without a full-time seat
Placement protection: Tailored to the scope of work

	Contract	Permanent	Fractional
Who employs the ETL developer	DevEngine	You	DevEngine
Time commitment	Full-time, for a defined period	Full-time, ongoing	Part-time, hourly or monthly
Fits when	A legacy ETL migration, a new system integration, or a backlog of jobs with a defined end	Your integrations need a standing owner	Job troubleshooting, a load-performance review, or ongoing support for a few integrations, without a full-time seat
Placement protection	Two-week guarantee	180-day prorated guarantee from the start date: full refund in the first 30 days, then partial refunds on a sliding scale	Tailored to the scope of work

Each model works a little differently depending on whether you hire in Canada, Latin America, or the US. Compare the options by market to find the engagement that fits your team.

Explore services by market

How it works

How an ETL developer search runs

You brief us on the scope and goals of the project, your current source and target systems and integration platform, and what's failing today.
We source for your role in Canada, Latin America, or the US, not from a bench.
A senior data engineer screens each candidate. Someone who builds and runs data pipelines, not a recruiter matching keywords.
You choose who to interview and who to hire.
You direct the work. On contract and fractional engagements, DevEngine holds the contract and handles payroll and compliance. On a permanent hire, the ETL developer joins your payroll.
If the placement isn't working, we replace the candidate: within two weeks on contract, or under the 180-day prorated guarantee on a permanent hire.

FAQ

ETL developer hiring questions

How much does it cost to hire an ETL developer?

Cost depends on four things: seniority, integration platform experience, the market you hire from, and the engagement model. Hiring in Latin America typically costs 35–40% less than comparable North American hires. For salary benchmarks across technology roles, download the Canada Salary Guide or the Latin America Salary Guide. DevEngine quotes against your actual brief on the first call.

Which skills and certifications do ETL developers bring?

ETL developers build data integration solutions in tools such as SSIS (SQL Server Integration Services), IBM DataStage, and Informatica PowerCenter, and use SQL plus Python or Java for custom data processing. They also need working knowledge of data warehouses such as Amazon Redshift and Oracle, and of databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MongoDB. Common certifications come from integration platform vendors and from cloud providers, such as the AWS Certified Data Engineer – Associate. Skills and certifications show familiarity, but not whether someone's pipelines run reliably. That's what the senior data engineer screen tests.

Can an ETL developer work with our existing integration platform?

Yes. Tell us which platform your jobs run on, and we'll match candidates with hands-on experience in it. If you're moving to a new platform, we look for candidates who have run that kind of migration.

Can I hire a fractional ETL developer?

Yes. A fractional ETL developer works part-time, on an hourly or monthly cadence, inside your team and tools. Companies often use one to troubleshoot failing jobs, review load performance, or support a few integrations without a full-time seat. DevEngine places fractional ETL developers from Canada, Latin America, and the US.

Should I hire an ETL developer from Canada, Latin America, or the US?

Companies often choose Canada or the US when the role needs local market knowledge, regular in-person time, or a base in that country. Latin America offers a wider pool and more seniority for the budget, with working hours within 2 hours of US Eastern. DevEngine can run the search across all three markets so you can compare candidates.

Can an ETL developer work with a DevEngine Engineering POD?

Yes. An ETL developer can sit inside an Engineering POD or work alongside one. You choose the POD's composition and direct the work. The ETL developer owns the integrations, and the rest of the POD builds on the data they deliver, on your sprint cadence, in your tools.

What's your interest?

Choose the path that aligns with how you want to build and scale your team.

Tell us which systems need to connect.

We'll tell you which market and model fit, and how long the search should take.

Not ready to talk yet? Compare technology salaries in the Canada Salary Guide or the Latin America Salary Guide.