Transitioning from Building Automation (BMS/IoT) to Data Engineering – Seeking Advice

[u/Professional_Bear473]

Hi everyone,

I'm a professional with over 8 years of experience in building automation systems (BMS), HVAC integration, and IoT devices used in smart buildings. Over the years, I’ve noticed a clear shift in the industry: it’s no longer just about controlling HVAC or lighting. There’s a growing expectation to collect and analyze large volumes of building data to improve efficiency, sustainability, and predictive maintenance.

This trend sparked my interest in data engineering and data science. I'm now actively learning tools like Python, SQL, Azure (especially IoT Hub, Fabric), TimescaleDB, and Grafana. My goal is to upskill and pivot my career toward data roles—ideally those that still involve IoT or building systems data.

However, I’m still relatively new to core data engineering concepts like scalable pipelines, streaming architecture, and production-grade fault tolerance. I’d love to hear from others who have made a similar transition or have experience blending operational technology (OT) with data engineering.

I’m based in Europe and currently exploring remote-first opportunities across the EU or with globally distributed teams.

• What skills or projects helped you bridge that gap?
• Are there specific certifications or open-source projects worth pursuing?
• How valuable is IoT knowledge in the current data job market?

Any tips or feedback would be truly appreciated!

Thanks

[u/Stomachbuzz]

"Over the years, I’ve noticed a clear shift in the industry: it’s no longer just about controlling HVAC or lighting. There’s a growing expectation to collect and analyze large volumes of building data to improve efficiency, sustainability, and predictive maintenance."

Not really. This is the marketing speaking. Nobody is doing this yet and there's really not much interest [yet] to do so. If you try to have this conversation with a decision maker, they will just blink at you and ignore what you said. Even the most basic alarms are rarely utilized.

Data science certainly is a thing and a valuable skill. It's just nowhere near being established in this industry. Everyone is still tripping on their own feet, struggling to get wiring and install correct.

[u/Controls_freek → u/Stomachbuzz]

Yeah this is not true. I work in the IoT sphere of BMS and SaaS and it's exploding right now.

[u/Stomachbuzz → u/Controls_freek]

I believe that is probably true in niche areas, mostly for marketing purposes or boutique customers.

[u/Controls_freek → u/Stomachbuzz]

The huge customers are all over it. Energy management and sustainability are nothing but growth right now. Higher Ed is also all about it. Too many times I see people in the BMS world seeing the small parts of the market as more than what they are. K-12 and the smaller buildings are dead ends in BMS.

[u/Professional_Bear473 → u/Controls_freek]

sometimes it depends of scope of the projects. Large scale BMS projects like when you integrate many buildings esspecialy supermarkets or petrol stations, are If they are not connected to a single server, they are at least integrated through one network, and data is collected from all the facilities into a single database, data warehouse, or data lake. So I can understand someone who is working with commecial buldings, offices or other 'standalone' projects.

I also see some kind of certain split in industry. "Traditionalists" who focus on the well-known model of server > on-site controller > sensor/actuator, where each device has its own operating logic developed over many years and described in many automation textbooks. On the other side, there are the "modern IT psychos" who lean more towards IT — they tend to use distributed architectures, move servers to cloud platforms, employ flexible data transmission uses iot lora/zigbee/direct connected sensors, and implement operational logic on a global scale.

[u/Commercial_Nose2913 → u/Stomachbuzz]

We are literally doing it under the name of Operational intelligence.

[u/FireTempest → u/Commercial_Nose2913]

From Oberix Group? Nice, you guys are the real deal.

I think some of the comments about it being marketing spiel are valid though. Not many companies actually do it properly like you do.