--- title: What is the right level of specialization? For data... description: Erik Bernhardsson argues that the growing fragmentation of data teams into highly specialized roles (data scientist, data engineer, ML engineer, etc.) is... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/what-is-the-right-level-of-specialization-for-data-teams-and-anyone-else--nmj1ogugm twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: What is the right level of specialization? For data teams and anyone else. | daily.dev og:description: Erik Bernhardsson argues that the growing fragmentation of data teams into highly specialized roles (data scientist, data engineer, ML engineer, etc.) is... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/what-is-the-right-level-of-specialization-for-data-teams-and-anyone-else--nmj1ogugm og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/NMj1ogUGm.png og:image:alt: What is the right level of specialization? For data teams and anyone else. og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # What is the right level of specialization? For data teams and anyone else. **[Erik Bernhardsson](https://daily.dev/sources/erikbernhardsson)** · 6 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Erik Bernhardsson argues that the growing fragmentation of data teams into highly specialized roles (data scientist, data engineer, ML engineer, etc.) is largely a symptom of poor tooling rather than an inherent organizational need. He frames the debate not as pro- or anti-specialization, but as a question of finding the right level. Key drawbacks of over-specialization include resource underutilization, high coordination costs, and information silos between product lifecycle stages. He contends that better, easier-to-use tools would reduce the need for narrow specialists, and that goal-oriented generalists often deliver more end-to-end value than tools-oriented experts who may bias decisions toward their own skill set. The post ends with a call to build tools that empower individuals to own the full lifecycle of their work. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Range Over Depth: A Reflection on the Role of the Data Generalist](https://daily.dev/posts/range-over-depth-a-reflection-on-the-role-of-the-data-generalist-9msgarrqo) · Towards Data Science · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [Data Science in 2026: Is It Still Worth It?](https://daily.dev/posts/data-science-in-2026-is-it-still-worth-it--4fl4dwcng) · Towards Data Science · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Specialization Is For Insects](https://daily.dev/posts/specialization-is-for-insects-msxkxpcgr) · Stay SaaSy · 3 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#machine-learning](https://daily.dev/tags/machine-learning), [#devtools](https://daily.dev/tags/devtools), [#kubernetes](https://daily.dev/tags/kubernetes), [#data-engineering](https://daily.dev/tags/data-engineering) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/what-is-the-right-level-of-specialization-for-data-teams-and-anyone-else--nmj1ogugm) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"What is the right level of specialization? 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