Methods, systems, and computer program products for generating code from a data flow associated with an extract, transform, and load (ETL) process. In one implementation, the method includes identifying a data exchange requirement between a first operator and a second operator in the data flow. The first operator is a graphical object that represents a first data transformation step in the data flow and is associated with a first type of runtime engine, and the second operator is a graphical object that represents a second data transformation step in the data flow and is associated with a second type of runtime engine. The method further includes generating code to manage data staging between the first operator and the second operator in the data flow. The code exchanges data from a format associated with the first type of runtime engine to a format associated with the second type of runtime engine.