Transitioning from experienced DBA/Developer to Data Engineering — Advice Needed?

With 18 years of database experience, you already have one of the hardest parts of data engineering (understanding data, performance, modeling, and enterprise constraints...).

The biggest shift is usually moving from managing databases to designing data platforms: ingestion patterns, orchestration, cloud storage, distributed processing, governance, and scalable architectures.

For the Fabric ecosystem, I would focus on:

• Python fundamentals for data engineering workflows
• Spark / PySpark for distributed processing
• Lakehouse concepts (Delta, medallion architecture, OneLake)
• Data pipelines and orchestration patterns
• Security and governance design

Given your SQL and BI background, I would not underestimate semantic modeling and business understanding since many engineering profiles lack that context.

For portfolio projects, I would avoid simple ETL demos and build something closer to an enterprise scenario: ingesting multiple sources, applying transformations, implementing governance/security, and exposing trusted data for analytics or AI use cases.

Your database background is not something to hide on your resume. In fact, it is your differentiator.

Position it as enterprise data platform experience, not only DBA experience.