Data Scientist
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
A Data Scientist utilizes skills and experience to systematically answer questions using data to provide actionable recommendations. Commonly utilizes advanced statistical analysis and machine learning techniques. Common responsibilities also include data cleaning and data management.
Job Outlook
There were 1446 Data Scientist job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 52469 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Data Scientist industry, which includes the Data Scientist career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2016:
Salary
Many new Data Scientist jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.
National
The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $119,679.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $112,856.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Data Scientist postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $97,278.
Education and Experience
Posted Data Scientist jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.
| Education Level | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Associate's Degree | 0% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 54.02% |
| Master's Degree | 53.14% |
| Doctoral Degree | 29.47% |
| Other | 2.8% |
Posted Data Scientist jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Years of Experience | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 0 to 2 years | 20.48% |
| 3 to 5 years | 47.67% |
| 6 to 8 years | 19.23% |
| 9+ years | 12.62% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Data Scientist positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.
Baseline Skills
A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.
- Communication (43.58%)
- Mathematics (37.37%)
- Research (29.61%)
- Problem Solving (25.03%)
- Innovation (21.81%)
- Leadership (20.95%)
- Management (18.6%)
- Presentations (15.19%)
- Decision Making (15.11%)
- Operations (14.34%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- Artificial Intelligence (29.88%)
- Data Analysis (39.93%)
- Algorithms (26.81%)
- Operations Research (10.36%)
- Computer Science (48.22%)
- Apache Hadoop (9.16%)
- Data Mining (13.21%)
- R (Programming Language) (38.86%)
- Machine Learning Algorithms (9.71%)
- Python (Programming Language) (73.24%)
- Machine Learning (61.7%)
- TensorFlow (13.68%)
- Predictive Modeling (18.18%)
- SQL (Programming Language) (50.72%)
- Natural Language Processing (NLP) (8.11%)
- Statistical Modeling (14.49%)
- Statistics (46.33%)
- Pandas (Python Package) (8.34%)
- Deep Learning (12.76%)
- Unstructured Data (8.1%)
- Scikit-Learn (Python Package) (11.16%)
- Data Science (74.23%)
- PyTorch (Machine Learning Library) (11.18%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Statistical Analysis (13.51%)
- Workflow Management (10.18%)
- Git (Version Control System) (6.55%)
- Agile Methodology (10.36%)
- Data Management (7.56%)
- Java (Programming Language) (6.96%)
- Software Development (8.09%)
- Business Intelligence (7.97%)
- Automation (10.24%)
- Analytics (6.03%)
- Amazon Web Services (18.97%)
- Microsoft Azure (13.15%)
- Version Control (5.47%)
- C++ (Programming Language) (9.61%)
- Data Engineering (10.97%)
- Dashboard (13.62%)
- Data Collection (5.11%)
- Big Data (13.02%)
- Data Quality (8.13%)
- Data Modeling (19.81%)
- Economics (15.64%)
- Data Visualization (24.52%)
- Finance (10.15%)
- Extract Transform Load (ETL) (9.46%)
- MATLAB (7.63%)
- Physics (11.04%)
- Marketing (9.36%)
- Scalability (17.05%)
- SAS (Software) (10.88%)
- Tableau (Business Intelligence Software) (18.67%)
- Project Management (9.4%)
- Scripting (7.94%)
- Power BI (13.29%)
- Software Engineering (9.41%)
- Advanced Analytics (12.65%)
- Data Pipelines (9.57%)
- Apache Spark (14.09%)
- Programming Languages (13.69%)
Distinguishing Skills
A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.
- Time Series Analysis And Forecasting (4.41%)
- AWS SageMaker (3.55%)
- Applied Mathematics (7.91%)
- Data Wrangling (3.32%)
- Causal Inference (3.62%)
- Artificial Neural Networks (5.18%)
- Computer Vision (4.16%)
- Decision Tree Learning (3.27%)
- Econometrics (4.36%)
- NumPy (Python Package) (6.92%)
- Exploratory Data Analysis (5.26%)
- Matplotlib (Python Package) (3.16%)
- Statistical Hypothesis Testing (3.92%)
- Time Series (3.24%)
- Apache Hive (4.31%)
- Statistical Methods (5.99%)
- PySpark (3.93%)
- Keras (Neural Network Library) (2.58%)
- Feature Engineering (4.12%)
- MLOps (Machine Learning Operations) (4.56%)
- Large Language Modeling (2.65%)
Salary Boosting Skills
A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is listed.
- Large Language Modeling (15.53%)
- MLOps (Machine Learning Operations) (26.73%)
- Computer Vision (24.42%)
- Apache Hive (25.26%)
- PySpark (23.08%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Data Scientist skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Data Modeler
- Principal Data Scientist
- Lead Data Scientist
- Data Science Intern
- Applied Scientist
- Modeling and Simulation Engineer
- Data Science Engineer
- Chief Data Scientist
- Marketing Data Scientist
Similar Occupations
If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Data Scientist jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- Amazon (1734)
- CVS Health (936)
- General Motors (773)
- Apple (514)
- Ford (484)
- Humana (475)
- Merck & Co. (436)
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (435)
- Walmart (410)
- Meta (404)
North Carolina
- Truist Financial (67)
- Wells Fargo (38)
- USAA (34)
- US Bank (28)
- TD Bank (27)
- Bank of America (26)
- Randstad (22)
- First Citizens Bank (21)
- CVS Health (18)
- Epic Games (18)
NC State Programs Relevant to this Career
If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!
- Agriculture Data Science Graduate Certificates
- Climate Adaptation Graduate Certificates
- Computer Science Graduate Certificates
- Data Science Foundations Graduate Certificates
- Electrical Engineering Master's Degrees
- Foundations of Data Science Master's Degrees
- Management, Marketing Analytics Master's Degrees
- Management, Risk and Analytics Master's Degrees
- Mathematics Graduate Certificates
- Operations Research Master's Degrees
All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.