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 1299 Data Scientist job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 54923 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 2015:
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 $123,464.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $109,801.
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 $98,612.
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 | 1.37% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 53.93% |
| Master's Degree | 53.76% |
| Doctoral Degree | 33.14% |
| Other | 2.04% |
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 | 22.15% |
| 3 to 5 years | 50.23% |
| 6 to 8 years | 16.77% |
| 9+ years | 10.85% |
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 (36.72%)
- Mathematics (32.32%)
- Research (31.58%)
- Leadership (17.19%)
- Problem Solving (16.89%)
- Innovation (16.63%)
- Management (14.81%)
- Presentations (14.08%)
- Operations (13.13%)
- Forecasting (12.73%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- Python (Programming Language) (64.35%)
- Machine Learning Algorithms (10.05%)
- Machine Learning (70.42%)
- Applied Mathematics (7.17%)
- Data Mining (13.28%)
- Predictive Modeling (15.47%)
- Artificial Intelligence (32.32%)
- Data Analysis (33.4%)
- Pandas (Python Package) (7.34%)
- Statistics (29.27%)
- Deep Learning (19.42%)
- Data Science (79.98%)
- Unstructured Data (8.79%)
- Predictive Analytics (6.47%)
- SQL (Programming Language) (36.79%)
- PyTorch (Machine Learning Library) (14.99%)
- TensorFlow (16.96%)
- Computer Science (49.67%)
- R (Programming Language) (33.77%)
- Statistical Modeling (11.37%)
- Algorithms (29.77%)
- Scikit-Learn (Python Package) (10.1%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Scalability (11.93%)
- Advanced Analytics (9.5%)
- Business Intelligence (5.59%)
- Software Engineering (14.38%)
- Workflow Management (7.66%)
- Dashboard (9.28%)
- SAS (Software) (8.01%)
- Agile Methodology (10.51%)
- Tableau (Business Intelligence Software) (14.02%)
- Data Pipelines (8.06%)
- Microsoft Azure (11.27%)
- Amazon Web Services (17.54%)
- Software Development (10.2%)
- Physics (8.31%)
- Big Data (13.16%)
- Statistical Analysis (12.84%)
- Java (Programming Language) (13.47%)
- Git (Version Control System) (6.79%)
- Automation (10.09%)
- Data Visualization (18.19%)
- Apache Spark (13.83%)
- Operations Research (7.18%)
- Power BI (9.47%)
- Scala (Programming Language) (7.49%)
- C++ (Programming Language) (9.49%)
- Economics (10.35%)
- Data Modeling (12.35%)
- Data Engineering (11.88%)
- Marketing (7.42%)
- Project Management (7.46%)
Distinguishing Skills
A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.
- Statistical Hypothesis Testing (3.56%)
- Artificial Neural Networks (6.36%)
- Databricks (4.79%)
- Decision Tree Learning (3.24%)
- Computer Vision (6.67%)
- Keras (Neural Network Library) (4.23%)
- NumPy (Python Package) (5.55%)
- Information Retrieval (1.58%)
- Data Wrangling (3.68%)
- MLOps (Machine Learning Operations) (6.01%)
- Pyspark (3.81%)
- Reinforcement Learning (3.66%)
- Exploratory Data Analysis (4.24%)
- Generative Artificial Intelligence (5.83%)
- Time Series (3.38%)
- Feature Engineering (3.94%)
- Large Language Modeling (4.01%)
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 (5.19%)
- MLOps (Machine Learning Operations) (7.77%)
- Generative Artificial Intelligence (7.55%)
- Artificial Neural Networks (8.23%)
- Computer Vision (8.64%)
- Exploratory Data Analysis (5.48%)
- Machine Learning Algorithms (13.01%)
- Machine Learning (91.13%)
- NumPy (Python Package) (7.18%)
- Predictive Modeling (20.02%)
- TensorFlow (21.95%)
- Reinforcement Learning (4.73%)
- Feature Engineering (5.1%)
- Deep Learning (25.13%)
- Keras (Neural Network Library) (5.47%)
- Pandas (Python Package) (9.5%)
- Scikit-Learn (Python Package) (13.08%)
- Databricks (6.2%)
- PyTorch (Machine Learning Library) (19.4%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Data Scientist skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Machine Learning Engineer
- Lead Data Scientist
- Machine Learning Software Engineer
- Data Science Intern
- Principal Data Scientist
- Data Analytics Scientist
- Machine Learning Scientist
- Machine Learning Data Scientist
- Data Scientist Consultant
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.
- Computer Scientist
- Data Analyst
- Statistician
- Bioinformatics Engineer
- Business Analysis Manager
- Data Engineer
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
- Guidehouse (1072)
- Capital One (785)
- Meta (784)
- Humana (692)
- Apple (675)
- Tiktok (553)
- Amazon (538)
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (533)
- Booz Allen Hamilton (515)
- The College Board (467)
North Carolina
- Randstad (25)
- Truist Financial (24)
- Wells Fargo (23)
- Lowe's (21)
- Relx (21)
- Eliassen Group (19)
- Humana (18)
- Labcorp Drug Development (14)
- North Carolina State University (14)
- University of North Carolina (13)
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!
- Applied Statistics and Data Management Graduate Certificates
- Data Science Foundations Graduate Certificates
- Geographic Information Systems Graduate Certificates
- Geospatial Information Science and Technology Master's Degrees
- Mathematics Graduate Certificates
- Statistics 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.