Data Science vs Data Engineering: Breaking the Wall
Dec 18, 2025
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Jelena Grujic & Kris Peeters
Breaking the wall between data science and data engineering with practical lessons on testing, notebooks, and production-ready data work.
🎙️ Breaking the Wall Between Data Scientists and Data Engineers
In this episode of The Data Playbook, we’re joined by Jelena Grujic (Dataminded) to tackle one of the most persistent tensions in data teams: the divide between data science and data engineering.
From unit tests and data quality checks to notebooks in production, access to production data, and why functional programming beats OOP in data pipelines - this is a deeply practical and opinionated conversation.
What you’ll learn:
Why classic unit tests don’t solve data problems
How dbt-style data testing bridges the gap
When notebooks help and when they hurt
Why denying production data access slows teams down
How simplicity beats overengineering in data platforms
🎧 Listen to more episodes of The Data Playbook for real-world stories on data platforms, GenAI, data products and cloud independence from Europe’s leading data practitioners and leaders.
🌐 More at https://www.dataminded.com/resources and subscribe to our channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxi05zIoV9bm69OAUmRoUDQ?sub_confirmation=1
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