The demand for data scientists or data science professionals is quite high in the job market. Before applying for a job, we are always curious about the salary that the job has to offer. Different factors like skills, qualifications, and location impact the salary of a data scientist.
Apart from technical skills, an aspiring data scientist must also have non-technical skills like analytical skills, a problem-solving mindset, the ability to communicate effectively, and teamwork skills to get paid better.
If you are an aspiring data science professional, you may be interested in finding out the average salaries of data scientists. In this article, we will shed light on how much a typical data scientist gets paid on the basis of different parameters. So, let's get started.
What is it Like to Be a Data Scientist?
Being a data scientist is challenging; organizations rely hugely upon the business insights provided by data scientists. Apart from the qualifications, data scientists also need various skills and tools to analyze data and provide system-related advice for their organization.
Along with other IT professionals, data scientists work as a team to create different models and manage statistical data based on a company's business needs. Through their findings and thoughtful insights, data scientists process research information for consumption and transform it into an actionable plan, thus providing value to the business.
Data scientists also observe data privacy rights to ensure client satisfaction and avoid legal issues. They usually work in teams using different methods such as collaborative filtering, k-nearest neighbors, market-based analysis, and market factorization. Also, data scientists know how to use various data mining techniques like clustering, regression analysis , decision trees, and support vector machines.
How Much Does a Data Scientist Make?
The key thing that influences the high salaries of data scientists is that many organizations understand the power of big data and thus hire qualified data science professionals who know how to process the raw data to produce optimized business results.
Also, because there's an increase in the demand for data scientists and the number of professionals who can deal with data science is limited, there's competition among businesses to hire the most proficient data scientists. This has ultimately resulted in companies paying handsome salaries to retain data scientists.
The graph below shows there has been a 6.43% increase in the salary of data scientists in less than a year between 2017 and 2018.
Source: Forbes
Following are the key factors that influence the earnings of a data scientist:
- Experience
- Job Title
- Industry
- Company Size
- Region
- Education
Let us study these factors in detail:
1. Experience
Experience is the most important factor in determining the salary of data scientists. For every one year of experience, there is an increment of $2000-$2500 in the salary of the data scientist. The table lists the median salary per annum of data scientists according to various studies:
| Experience | India | United States |
| Entry Level | Rs 507,269 | $95,000 |
| Mid-Level | Rs 9,21,957 | $185,000 |
| Experienced | Rs 1,821,795 | $250,000 |
Source: O’Reilly and Indeed
The graphs below depict the salary range of data scientists in India and the United States:
Source: Glassdoor
2. Job Title
As per O’Reilly’s report, it has been observed that the more a data scientist is engaged in managerial tasks, such as leading team projects, communicating with clients, or identifying business problems, the higher their salary. The table shows the range of salaries for different job titles.
| Job Title | Salary Range |
| Data Scientist | $85,000 - $170,000 |
| Data Analyst | Entry-level: $50,000 - $ 70,000 Experienced: $65,000 - $110,000 |
| Data Science Manager | $90,000 - $140,000 |
| Big Data Engineer | Junior: $70,000 - $115,000 Domain Expert: $100,000 - $165,000 |
Source: O’Reilly
3. Industry and Company Size
The salary of data science professionals depends on the industry of employment as well. Cloud services, hosting and CDN, search and social networking, and banking and finance are the industries that offer the highest median data scientist salaries. Whereas if company size is concerned, the larger the organization, the more the salary. The table shows the highest salaries of data science professionals in the leading tech companies:
| Company | Salary |
| $152,856 | |
| Apple | $145,974 |
| PayPal | $132,909 |
| Microsoft | $123,328 |
| $135,360 | |
| $134,715 | |
| Airbnb | $127,852 |
Source: O’Reilly
The data for India specifically is also shown in the tables below:
Industry
| Company | Highest Salary |
| Consumer Goods | Rs 1.3 M |
| Finance | Rs 1.2 M |
| Energy and Mining | Rs 1.2 M |
| Media and Communications | Rs 1.0 M |
| Cooperate Services | Rs 1.0 M |
Source: LinkedIn
Companies
Source: data-flair
4. Education and Qualification
There exist very few and rare data scientists with appropriate skills and education. The most important skill is the ability to code. The salary varies highly amongst data scientists who are great coders and those who don’t code at all.
As per LinkedIn, a Ph.D. degree holder can earn the highest package in data science, followed by a Master's degree. Further, expertise in particular skills and tools also plays an important role. The table below mentions the skills that affect the salary of a data scientist.
| Skills | Percentage |
| Apache Hadoop | 8% |
| Hadoop | 7% |
| Python | 5% |
| Machine Learning | 4% |
| Big Data Analytics | 3% |
| Data Mining/Warehouse | 2% |
| SAS | 2% |
| Data Analysis | 1% |
| Data Modelling | 1% |
| SQL | 0% |
| Average | $92,000 |
Source: O’Reilly
The image below shows the figures specifically for data scientists working in India:
Source: LinkedIn
5. Region and Location
The data scientist's salary largely depends upon the region they live in. Metropolitan cities have a high concentration of data science companies as well as thriving tech companies.
Big cities like Banglore, Mumbai, and Delhi in India and California in the USA are considered the cities that offer the most salaries to data science professionals. Images below show the salaries for different regions in India and the United States.
Source: LinkedIn and O’Reilly
Summing it Up
With data scientists being one of the best and most high-paying jobs of the century, many individuals are looking to pursue a career in the field of data science. However, various factors govern how much an aspiring candidate or a professional gets paid.
We hope that this post provided you with all the useful information about the data scientist's salary. If you have any doubts or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment below.
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