By 2020, every human being will generate 1.7 megabytes of data every second. Due to this, the growth of data will be immense, and this is where data scientists come to the rescue by helping analyze and organize this data to provide business solutions. Before delving into the data scientist job and salary trends, we will start by understanding the term ‘data science‘ and who a data scientist is.
What is Data Science?
Data science is a blend of various algorithms, tools, and machine learning principles that operate with the goal of discovering hidden patterns from raw data. It is used to make decisions and predictions by using prescriptive analysis, predictive causal analysis, and machine learning. It is used to scope out the right questions from the dataset. Data science experts work in the realm of the unknown. Some of the data science techniques are regression analysis, classification analysis, clustering analysis, association analysis, and anomaly detection.
Who Are Data Scientists?
Data scientists are responsible for gathering, analyzing, and interpreting large amounts of data. He needs large amounts of data to make inferences, develop hypotheses, and analyze customer and market trends. So, what would be the salary range offered by a data scientist in the United States? How much can a data scientist expect to earn?
We will now analyze the general data scientist job trends and the salary trends for a data scientist’s role in the United States.
Data Scientist Job Trends
According to the Harvard Business Review, “a data scientist is defined as “a high-ranking professional with the training and curiosity to make discoveries in the world of Big Data.” Data scientists are in huge demand today as each and every business in almost every industry across the globe needs an expert to process their large sets of data. Data science is a broad domain, and a data scientist must have a versatile skill set to get hold of lucrative jobs and shine in this field. Some of the must-have skills for any data scientist are thorough knowledge in SQL Database/Coding, R programming, Python coding, machine learning and artificial intelligence, data visualization, Apache Spark, Hadoop, etc. A data scientist must also have non-technical skills such as business acumen, intellectual curiosity, and teamwork, and communication skills.
The table below illustrates the number of data scientist jobs available across various cities in the United States.
| STATE | NO. OF JOBS |
| New York, NY | 1813 |
| Seattle, WA | 1544 |
| San Francisco, CA | 1487 |
| Cambridge, MA | 936 |
| Boston, MA | 733 |
This is proof enough to show that data science opportunities in the U.S. are shooting through the roof! With the whole world turning towards data for all kinds of decision-making, both start-ups and established firms such as Dell, Cisco, and VMWare are constantly on the lookout for skilled data scientists and are ready to offer lucrative salaries. According to Forbes, the number of data analytics and data science job listings are expected to grow by almost 364,000 listings by 2020.
Data Scientist Salary Trends
Data scientists are in high demand as they bring immense value to the table. But finding that one perfect candidate is a challenging task for organizations. Competition over hiring these professionals is becoming fierce. Hence, employers are willing to pay high salaries to data scientists.
According to pay scale, the median salary offered to a data scientist in the United States ranges from $91,470. According to ZipRecruiter, the annual salaries can even be as high as $180,000 or as low as $37,000. But a majority of the salaries are between $91,500 to $138,000. The average pay range for a data scientist varies roughly by about $46,500. These salaries are based purely on skillset and experience. As of November 2019, ZipRecruiter states that the average pay per annum for a data scientist is to $118,344.
Data scientists are responsible for many tasks, such as building data products using programming languages, analytics, and developing machine learning algorithms and visualizations in languages such as R and Python.
The salary of a data scientist can be analyzed based on several factors, such as:
1. Company
The salaries offered by the major companies that are actively looking for data scientists are:
- Facebook- $135,000 per annum.
- Capital One- $106,000 per annum.
- Airbnb- $130,000 per annum.
2. Geography
Salaries will also differ in each city. Some of those are:
- San Francisco- $117,256 per annum.
- Seattle- $116,898 per annum.
- Mountain View- $124,882 per annum.
3. Experience
The salary of an entry-level data scientist in the U.S. is:
- Salary- $61,598-$122,827.
- Profit-Sharing- $503-$16,638.
- Bonus- $1,010-$15,019.
- Total Pay- $60,894-$127,894.
The salary offered to a mid-level data scientist is:
- Salary- $74,623 – $140,210.
- Profit-Sharing- $2,007 – $20,608.
- Bonus- $1,973 – $19,998.
- Total Pay- $77,215 – $158,409.
The salary offered to an experienced data scientist is:
- Salary- $78,424 – $157,653.
- Profit-Sharing- $11,000.
- Bonus- $2,449 – $22,400.
- Total Pay- $79,321 – $167,947.
I hope this article gave you a fair idea of the salaries offered for a data scientist in the U.S.
Conclusion
If you wish to be part of an interesting industry, now is the perfect time to upskill and grab the right data science opportunities that come your way. To become proficient in data science, check out the data science certifications offered by Global Tech Council.