According to Glassdoor, being a data scientist is the No. 2 best job in America in 2021. Out of the millions of different jobs available, coming in second is not bad at all. The ranking is for a good reason too. Data scientists are well paid, have tons of options when job hunting, and are widely considered to be critical by businesses trying to sift through the massive amounts of data that are generated every day.
Along with the steadily rising data, open roles continue to increase for data scientists. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, job demand is expected to rise 29% in the next five years. That’s more than 20% faster than average job growth. Keep reading to learn about the top data science jobs of 2021.
Roles for Data Science Professionals
As the field of data science grows, more new roles are added that budding data scientists can grow into. Here is a list of common job titles in data science:
Data Analyst — Analyze and interpret results of collected data to solve business problems.
Data Scientist — Gather, organize, and analyze data, spanning the worlds between tech and business.
Data Engineer — Build data pipelines to collect data for data analysts and data scientists.
Machine Learning Engineer — Design and build programs and algorithms that enable machine learning.
Machine Learning Scientist — Create datasets and design algorithms to train machines.
While the amount of different specialties within the field of data can seem overwhelming, don’t worry. Most people start off by building a foundation of basic data science fundamentals and then choose a specialization as they gain more experience.
Expected Salary for Data Science Engineers
The overall average pay for data scientists around the US is $115,000 according to Glassdoor. Entry-level data scientists report making six figure salaries right off the bat, and data scientists with more experience (10+ years) report making almost $130,000 annually.
Company size does not seem to vary the pay so much, but changing location does. Data scientists in San Francisco make an average of $143,000, while Seattle data scientists make $125,000 and Austin data scientists make $113,000.
Who is Hiring Data Science Experts?
Right now, there are tons of open roles for all different kinds of data scientists. A quick search on Glassdoor found over 23,000 open roles at the time of writing this article, including job titles ranging from data science intern to senior lead data scientist. A search on Indeed brought up over 18,000 jobs, many of them remote-friendly. ZipRecruiter found over 588,000 jobs for data scientists.
If that’s not enough to prove there are plenty of open roles for data scientists out there, check out information on data science from some of the big tech companies out there, like Facebook and Uber. They have entire pages on their website dedicated to their data science strategy and the role it plays in their business.
Landing a New Job as a Data Science Specialist in 2021
One of the best things about learning data science is that it’s totally possible to do it from home and on your own schedule. All you need is a computer and an internet connection and you’re ready to go.
Udacity’s School of Data Science has more than 10 free data science courses to get you started, from Intro to Data Science to Data Visualization. Once you’re ready to go more deeply into the subject, check out the list of Nanodegree programs, including Programming for Data Science with Python, Data Architecture, and Data Product Management.
Sign up today to get started on your new career in data science.
