How to Choose a Data Engineering Company
A technical buyer's guide to evaluating vendors, avoiding mistakes, and negotiating contracts.
Executive Summary
Key finding: 64% of data platform migrations fail or significantly overrun budget due to poor vendor selection—not technical complexity.
The problem: Most evaluation processes optimize for sales polish, not delivery capability. Technical teams get 30-min demos, procurement gets 90-page proposals that all say the same thing.
This guide covers: Technical evaluation criteria that matter, red flags to watch for, contract gotchas, and questions that separate real expertise from slides.
1. Pre-RFP: Defining What You Actually Need
⚠️ Most Common Mistake
Starting with "We need a Snowflake migration" instead of "We need to reduce time-to-insight from 3 weeks to 3 hours." The platform is a means, not the goal.
📝 Need a Template?
Don't start from scratch. Use our comprehensive Data Engineering RFP Template to structure your requirements.
Define Success Metrics First
Before talking to vendors, document:
| Metric Type | Current State | Target State | Business Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Performance | Daily batch runs take 8+ hours | Complete in <2 hours | Enable same-day decision making |
| Cost | $45K/month infrastructure | <$30K/month all-in | ROI in 18 months |
| Reliability | 12 pipeline failures/month | <2 failures/month | Reduce on-call burden |
| Team Velocity | 3 weeks to add new data source | <3 days | Accelerate product launches |
✅ Pro Tip: The Constraint Theory Approach
Rank your constraints: Cost, Timeline, Quality/Scope. You can only optimize for 2. Be explicit about which one is flexible before vendor conversations start.
2. Technical Evaluation Framework
Architecture Deep Dive Session
Skip the sales deck. Request a 2-hour technical session with actual engineers who will work on your project. Bring your team.
Technical Questions That Separate Pretenders
On Data Modeling:
"Walk me through how you'd model our [specific business entity]. Dimensional? Data Vault? Wide tables? Why?"
🎯 Looking for: Awareness of trade-offs. Skepticism of one-size-fits-all approaches.
On Orchestration:
"How do you handle dependencies between 50+ DAGs with different SLAs?"
🎯 Looking for: Idempotency, backfilling strategies, SLA monitoring, circuit breakers.
On Cost Optimization:
"Show me a cost breakdown from a similar project. What were the top 3 cost drivers?"
🎯 Looking for: Actual numbers. Awareness of compute vs. storage trade-offs.
⚠️ Certification Theater
"We have 47 Snowflake certifications!" means nothing if those certified engineers aren't on your project. Ask: "Which specific engineers on my team have which certs? Can I interview them?"
3. Team Assessment: Beyond Resumes
Team Composition Red Flags
| Scenario | Why It's a Problem | What to Ask |
|---|---|---|
| All Senior Engineers (10+ yrs each) | Overpriced. Seniors get bored with implementation work. | "What's your typical senior:mid:junior ratio?" |
| Unnamed Engineers ("TBD") | Bait and switch. You'll get whoever is available. | "I need named engineers with resumes before signing." |
| Offshore Team, No Overlap Hours | Communication lag kills velocity. 24hr feedback loops. | "What's the timezone overlap?" |
✅ Chemistry Check
Include your actual engineers in interviews. If your team doesn't respect their team technically, the engagement is doomed.
4. Commercial & Contract Evaluation
Contract Red Flags
🚨 IP Ownership Traps
"Vendor retains ownership of all frameworks, accelerators, and IP created during engagement."
Fix: "All work product created for Client is owned by Client. Vendor retains ownership of pre-existing tools only."
🚨 No Performance SLAs
"Vendor will use commercially reasonable efforts to meet timeline."
Fix: "Milestone dates are binding. Delays beyond 2 weeks trigger 5% fee reduction per week."
🚨 Weak Termination Clauses
90 days notice + undefined wind-down costs.
Fix: "30 days for convenience. Immediate for cause. Wind-down capped at 10% of remaining value."
Payment Terms That Protect You
❌ Dangerous: 50% Upfront, 50% on "Completion"
Problem: You've paid 50% before seeing working code. "Completion" is subjective.
✅ Better: Milestone-Based Payments
20% signature → 20% architecture → 20% dev environment → 20% UAT → 20% production go-live
✅ Best: Milestone + Holdback
Milestone payments as above, but hold back 10% until 90 days post-launch.
5. Red Flags & Deal Breakers
🚩 Sales vs. Delivery Gap
Sales promises are vague/unrealistic. They defer to "the team will figure it out."
Action: Walk away. This will not improve.
🚩 No Relevant Case Studies
Can't show projects in your industry, at your scale, with your tech stack.
Action: You're the guinea pig. Expect pain.
🚩 Resistance to References
Can't provide 3+ recent references. Or references are from 2+ years ago.
Action: Demand recent references. Call them, don't email.
🚩 Overpromising on Timeline
Everyone else quoted 6 months. They say 3 months with same scope.
Action: They're either lying or cutting corners.
6. Reference Checks That Actually Work
Questions to Ask References
- • "If you could do it over, what would you change about the engagement?"
- • "How did they handle unexpected issues? Give me a specific example."
- • "Did the team that started finish the project, or was there turnover?"
- • "What did knowledge transfer look like? Can your team maintain the solution?"
- • "On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to use them again? Why that number?"
💡 The LinkedIn Backchannel
Find former employees of the vendor on LinkedIn. They'll tell you what references won't. Look for patterns in why people left.
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