If "technical stuff" is your primary interest, you should probably consider changing jobs.
If technical proficiency was all that important to your employer, you probably wouldn't be in position you're in.
If technical proficiency was all that important to your employer, you probably wouldn't be in position you're in.
YMMV, though. Some data engineers are writing basic SQL or playing with Azure Data Factory and there isn't too much complexity. Read Designing Data Intensive Applications. If that sort of thing resonates with you then find someone to work with who has experience with those kinds of problems!
[Edit: no disrespect to ADF! Just pointing out that the data engineering discipline is broad and different practitioners will have different expectations of complexity]
This 100%. It seems that you're doing things proficiently enough to keep your job, but just want to improve your capabilities as a coder. It's going to be difficult without a proper structure or mentors around you. So you've to make a decision whether you'd prefer to stick with the role and get slowly better over time using blog posts and AI reviews, or jump in the deep end and get another role in a more tech industry aligned company. And if you decide to jump to another role, just be aware that you're going to spend 3 to 6 months panicking about whether you're in over you head, and probably won't get "comfortable" in the role for a year.