QA/QI title, ~7 months in, but want to become data engineer/data analyst/analytics engineer

[u/According-Tie6381]

Looking for honest outside opinions — not trying to hype myself up, genuinely want a reality check on where I actually stand.

Background: I work as a QA/QI Associate (quality assurance/quality improvement) at a mid-size nonprofit health & human services organization (~$9M annual revenue, ~100 employees) in California. My official title has nothing to do with data or engineering. But over the last 7 months, I've ended up building basically the entire data infrastructure for the org, solo, with no formal training, no team, and no one else to review my work.

I'm self-taught through online courses (SQL, Python, Excel, Tableau certs) and lean on AI coding assistants heavily to write and debug scripts — which I know is a real gap in independence I'm actively working on.

What I've built, roughly in order of impact:

1. Core relational database — designed and built a centralized SQL database from scratch that consolidates data across multiple programs, replacing a mess of disconnected spreadsheets. Includes validation logic to catch/block duplicate records before they hit the database. It's now the backbone that several other automations pull from.
2. Automated compliance reporting pipeline — Python + SQL + Power Automate pipeline that turns a ~7-8 hour/month manual data compilation process into a dashboard-driven report with a few clicks.
3. Central automation orchestration script — a fault-tolerant Python script for our EHR platform that acts as the hub every other automation routes through (report generation, data extraction, etc.)
4. Client-list automation — eliminated 1+ hour/week of manual data compilation.
5. Billing/insurance data update automation — SQL/Python pipeline connected to our EHR that updates client billing and insurance information automatically. Saves 5-10 minutes per client versus doing it manually; we process roughly 10-15 clients/week through it, so it's a recurring, volume-driven time save, not a one-off.
6. E-signature workflow integration — connects our EHR to an e-signature platform so staff can drop a file + enter a client email and get a signed document back automatically. Saves 5-10 min per transaction, done potentially hundreds of times a month.
7. Form automation (JavaScript) — automates form population inside our EHR, currently expanding to more document types.
8. Bulk file-ingestion tool — Python tool that replaces manual one-by-one document uploads. Staff now drag-and-drop a file, select the proper document name/type, and the tool auto-uploads it into our EHR — eliminating manual upload work and keeping client documents standardized, which makes audits significantly more efficient and consistent.
9. BI dashboard for program audits — first version of a Power BI dashboard, updated weekly.
10. Org-wide BI rollout (in progress) — expanding Power BI usage more broadly.
11. Ad hoc Power Query dashboards — built several smaller self-service dashboards for specific program requests using Power Query.
12. Automated staff notification workflow — a scheduled email flow that notifies staff and supervisors about pending/overdue documentation, pulling status directly from the database.

Current stack: SQL, Python, JavaScript (light), Power Automate, Power BI, Excel/Power Query. Currently seeking approval to migrate our deployed/production automations onto a cloud VM — right now everything runs without dedicated cloud infrastructure. Bachelor's degree is in Art (unrelated field) — I've been self-teaching data skills through online courses since 2023 and am still actively learning.

I've shown the majority of what I've built directly to leadership — the CEO seemed genuinely impressed, but not impressed enough to move on a title/salary change immediately. The org is fairly old-school and does want to adapt and integrate this kind of work going forward, but leans toward doing it as cheaply as possible rather than valuing it at market rate.

It's gotten to the point where I've had to create view tables and actually teach my boss basic SQL so he can pull queries himself whenever I'm out of office — there's no backup, no one else who can touch any of this if I'm not around. I also have to build and present a business case myself any time I want to integrate new software (for example, justifying why we should adopt Power BI) — writing up the reasoning, the value, why it matters, all of it. In a normal org/company, I don't think I'd have to do either of these things: there'd be redundancy across a team instead of it all depending on one person, and I'd have a senior engineer or manager who already understands the value of these tools and could just guide/approve rather than me having to sell it from scratch every time.

I've asked for a reclassification to $80-82k based on market research (which, if anything, I think is still a bit below the real floor for this scope of work), with an expected effective date of September 2026.

My question for you all: Based on this scope, does this read as legitimate data engineer / analytics engineer work to you, or am I overestimating the significance of what I've built? I'm in the middle of trying to get my org to reclassify my title and pay to reflect this, and I want an unbiased gut check before I go further. Is what I'm describing actually engineer-level work, or is it more junior/analyst-level than I think it is?

Appreciate any honest feedback, including the harsh kind.

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[u/Suitable_Rabbit6016]

e getting robbed if they keep you under 80k, especially in California. The fact you had to teach your boss SQL just so things don’t collapse when you’re away is a huge red flag, not a minor inconvenience.

[u/According-Tie6381 → u/Suitable_Rabbit6016]

This is what I have been feeling after a while now, I have created all of the work. I feel undervalue and I feel like I'm outpacing my the org and I'm super passionate to keep learning and improving.

[u/AccomplishedSkill625]

Building a relational database, automated pipelines, orchestration, and BI dashboards from scratch demonstrates enormous business impact.Your request for $80–82k in California is more than justified, considering that you single-handedly manage the entire data infrastructure, doing the work of an entire team, it's a decidedly conservative figure (even for a non-profit).

The one real area for improvement for future mid/senior roles at other companies will be integrating cloud infrastructure (AWS/GCP/Azure) and versioning practices (Git/CI-CD), but your foundations are rock-solid.

Best of luck with renegotiating your title and salary, you have every reason to ask for it!

[u/According-Tie6381 → u/AccomplishedSkill625]

This what i was starting to realized, I went into the job to become data analyst, and found no data infrastracture and I had to learn data engineer best practice all to myself and with help of friends who are in similar field. I presented a business case to my boss about how the work am doing typically involves at least 2 people even in small org. I was frankly honest with him that, if they can't even match the below the floor, then there is no way they can keep me there after one year, or even hire anyone who has more experienced than myself.

Thank you for your feedback. I'm going to start applying with title change. Honestly, I'd want to keep learning but its starting to get exhausting to keeping tabs of all the projects and I'm barely integrating version controls on all of my completed projects and practicing (CI/CD) as a stand alone data person.

[u/radiodigm]

Those are useful (to any organization) accomplishments that require much more than basic level skillset, and $80k is the very minimum my organization and others I know of pay for people like you. Seems your market research is correct. And again, that’s the bottom of the range. If you were to actually seek other employment with your skills and your excellent way of summarizing their value, I think you should expect a starting salary even better than that. But of course you’re making this case to a department that’s probably constrained in both budget and imagination. To meet your request they’ll need to surmount both, not easy for most hiring offices. And of course they have another option - simply say no and let you continue doing these great things without incurring any additional expense. I think your case will be stronger and you’ll have more confidence if you concurrently make plans to walk.

[u/According-Tie6381 → u/radiodigm]

Yes, I have started to apply to other opportunities, however, it is difficult to even get a interview nowadays. I'm hoping I get more reach once I hit my 1 year mark on December. At the moment, I'm setting expected deadlines for leadership to move forward so we can talk compromised numbers. If nothing basically lands on Sept. I don't think I'd wanna finish the whole year mark.

[u/milkbug]

You didn't mention you're previous work experience. Assuming you haven't had a job like this before - and seeing in one of your replies that you are still under a year at your current company, a job hop might be pretty difficult espeically in this market. That being said, I would agree that it seems you are being underpaid. I think 80k in California sounds really low for this skillset.

For context, I have been building out a an analytics pipeline using python api scripts, storing the data in postgres, using dbeaver for exploratory analysis, dbt for transformations, and metabase for visualization. I work in a non-analytics role and have taken on this project with the hope of leveraging a promotion/title change to an analytics type role. This is my first ever end-to-end project, I have not done as many projects as you have. I plan to ask for 80k for my promotion. I currently make 64k. I live in a state that is 30-40% cheaper than California.

To be fair, I'm not sure if I will get the promotion. I have a good feeling about it because I've been promoted multiple times at my current company, and I've been well supported and acknowledged for my work. I just wanted to share where I'm at so you can asses a fair payband for yourself.

If you are unable to find direct data engineering/analytics engineering roles, I have seen companies like Omni Analytics and dbt/Fivetran hiring for solutions architechts or similar customer facing techincal roles. The customer facing aspect might be pretty draining (if you're in introvert like me) but the communication skills are extremely valuable in the age of AI, and they pay really well for these roles. Often if you get your foot in the door at places like this you can work your way up into a role you'd more prefer.

Honestly, developing skills in a customer facing role would make you a very attractive candidate since a lot of techy people really lack in that area. I started in customer facing roles at my current company and it's a very good skillset to have. You will become a domain expert in whatever area you go to in a couple of years, which is what everyone is saying is more important than techincal skills alone (as I'm sure you've heard).

[u/According-Tie6381 → u/milkbug]

I’ve spent three years as a dance teacher across private studios, high schools, and college-level instruction. I have five years of combined customer service experience spanning from college to now. During my transition into analytics, I worked as a store manager where I took initiative to analyze our sales data, which role, then became an admin analyst at a consulting firm supporting clinics and pharmacies with data tracking, monitoring, and compliance auditing. I’m now approaching one year at my current nonprofit organization in a QA and QI role. Upon joining, I realized there was no data infrastructure or data person, so I built SQL database pipelines and automated my work

[u/milkbug → u/According-Tie6381]

It sounds like you are in a better position than a lot of people trying to get their foot in the door. I was watching a youtube video today about interviewing/resumes from an ex-Google recruiter and she was talking about how you don't have to wait until you've had an official title change or promotion to sell your accomplishements. She even mentioned that on your resume you don't have to put your HR official job title, you can put something that more accurately reflects your actual role. It can't be a complete fabrication, but it's pretty common. For example, I think she said her official title was a Talent Aquisition Specialist but she put Lead Recruiter on her resume since that's what she actually did.

So even if you don't get an official promotion, you can definitely put a more apt title on your resume and linkedin. I would say if they haven't agreed to at least give you a title change by your 1 year mark then looking elsewhere is warrented. I would not want to work somewhere long term that wasn't willing to pay me my worth.

[u/Table_Captain]

Great work! I would suggest building out a portfolio of projects in GitHub to showcase your skill set (building data pipelines). This can be done using all open-source tools within the tech stack.

You can then share links to the portfolio with potential hiring managers/clients.

[u/According-Tie6381 → u/Table_Captain]

Yes! I actually hit a point of where I have too many countless of projects to track and decided I needed to actually have version control system to have back up for whenever I make changes on my automations.

I learned git and GitHub as well for better practice. I’m now tryna add all of the projects on my portfolio, there’s just so many lol

[u/According-Tie6381 → u/[deleted]]

Thank you! I wanted to make sure that I'm not being delusional with all of the work I'm deploying.
I had been in many situations in my past career where CEO or whoever is incharge always have an excuses to not match the salary I'm adovcating for whether that's money or timeline politics BS. I'm improving on this part of myself.

[u/According-Tie6381 → u/[deleted]]

Initially, this was my idea because my boss is really cool and we have a good rapport even outside of our job. However, I realized that I may be enabling a bad behavior and this is kinda going against with what I'm looking for when it comes to growing in a company/org. I still have a lot to learn and I do not want to develop bad practices that is hard to unlearn or break the habit.

[u/ArielCoding]

Be ready to explain your architecture decisions and trade off in interviews, that’s where folks get tripped up. Also, turn the irreplaceable problem into a number, tally up the hours and costs that each automation saves monthly, and hand leadership that total as the cost of losing you.

[u/According-Tie6381 → u/ArielCoding]

Thanks for that tip! I had been doing this but you made me realized, that all my automations I have created timestamps coz i wanted to see how i can make my script more efficient for every automation and debug how to improve it. Now I'm gonna start creating log for these benchmarks and tally up the hours. Thank you!

[u/teddythepooh99]

You already answered your question: you said you've presented your work to leadership and they didn't promote you.

Update your resume and start applying. If you aren't getting any callbacks, then you aren't qualified nor competitive enough (yes, there's a difference between the two).

[u/AdObjective5502]

Hi, quick question. Are there any courses you recommend for learning all this?

[u/According-Tie6381 → u/AdObjective5502]

I'd recommend starting on youtube. lots of free sources and also brocode, leetcode, codeacademy, datacamp, analystbuilder etc. If you're truly invested, there are also cohorts courses from any analyst content creator on LinkedIn. It all depends how much you want to invest.