Six years ago, the Harvard Business Review declared being a data scientist was “The sexiest job of the 21st century.”
Since that time, search volume for the term “data scientist” has soared 675 percent and Glassdoor deemed it “the best job in the U.S.” in 2017 and 2016.
And research indicates that by 2024, the demand for data scientists is projected to outpace supply by 250,000 jobs by 2024.
But what does a data scientist do? What degrees do they need and how much do they make? Further, why is the job of a data scientist in such high demand?
“Smartphones, computers, media streaming services, fitness monitors, smart appliances, social media — our lives are being turned into information that companies use to learn more about us, whether to improve our lives or just sell us stuff,” the team at Business Student .com reports. “By 2020, the average human will generate 1.7 megabytes of data every second of the day. More data was produced in 2017 than in the previous 5,000 years of human history combined. Three-hundred hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, and more than 1 trillion Google searches are done each year. But despite, or perhaps because of, the sheer amount of data out there, less than 1 percent of it will actually be analyzed.”
But companies know that their future success likely lies in their ability to harness and take advantage of this treasure trove of information, so they turn to data scientists to control the flow of information and turn it into profit, the research contends.
Below is a comprehensive report on Data Science that includes 10 viable jobs:
1. Big-Data Engineer
- Responsibilities: Uses AI and machine learning tools to gather and evaluate internal and customer data and develop recommendations or automated systems.
- Salary range: $55,000-$100,000
- Who’s hiring: 23andMe (Mountain View, California), United Health Group (Minnetonka, Minnesota), Jolt Tech (Los Angeles, California)
2. Business Intelligence Analyst
- Responsibilities: Gather and analyze internal and external data to identify trends related to business operations and recommend plans to increase revenue or reduce costs.
- Salary range: $60,000-$104,000
- Who’s hiring: Vidant Health (Greenville, North Carolina), Keurig Dr. Pepper (Plano, Texas), City of Seattle
3. Database Administrator
- Responsibilities: Design, develop, implement, and maintain new and existing organizational databases. Follow or create processes and procedures to maximize performance, quality, and data integrity.
- Salary range: $60,000-$106,000
- Who’s hiring: Sherwin-Williams (Cleveland, Ohio), University of Kentucky (Lexington, Kentucky), Macy’s (Johns Creek, Georgia)
4. Epidemiologist
- Responsibilities: Create, sort, clean, and analyze data to support clinical studies or health initiatives. Ensure integrity of data, including corporate and regulatory compliance.
- Salary range: $50,000-$96,000
- Who’s hiring: Anthem (Wilmington, Delaware), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (San Diego, California), State of Montana
5. Ethical Hacker
- Responsibilities: Devise and perform security assessments of products and organizations, compile and analyze results, and make recommendations about security fixes.
- Salary range: $83,000-$100,000
- Who’s hiring: Oracle (Portland, Oregon), Motorola (Chicago, Illinois), MailChimp (Atlanta, Georgia)
6. Forensic Accountant
- Responsibilities: Compile, sort, and analyze documentation and data surrounding financial accounts and practices for consulting, law-enforcement, arbitration, or general business purposes.
- Salary range: $75,000-$94,000
- Who’s hiring: Federal Bureau of Investigation (Indianapolis), The CSP Group (St. Louis), Walmart (Bentonville, Arkansas)
7. Machine Learning Engineer
- Responsibilities: Develop, test, and improve models and algorithms to sort and automatically analyze datasets and extract organizational insight. Build methods of automating deep learning, including labeling, training, and visualization.
- Salary range: $85,000-$137,000
- Who’s hiring: Zulily (Seattle, Washington), CVS Health (Woonsocket, Rhode Island), Bloomberg (New York)
8. Meteorologist
- Responsibilities: Evaluate modeled data surrounding weather, air-quality, and other related topics to create accurate and timely forecasts that rely on observational data and statistical tools.
- Salary range: $40,000-$92,000
- Who’s hiring: Tribune Media Co. (St. Louis), Iteris (Grand Forks, North Dakota), AccuWeather (State College, Pennsylvania)
9. Social Science Data Analyst
- Responsibilities: Gathers, sorts, and analyzes data related to initiatives to improve human health and extend lifespans and makes recommendations based on conclusions, as well as identifying limitations of data.
- Salary range: $63,000-$120,000
- Who’s hiring: Rescue Agency (San Diego, California), Center for Health Information and Analysis (Boston, Massachusetts), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Woodlawn, Maryland)
10. Statistician
- Responsibilities: Collect, evaluate, and interpret data from inside and outside the organization to provide insight and recommendations about organizational needs. Use data collection and mathematical modeling techniques to arrive at and explain business recommendations to internal and external stakeholders.
- Salary range: $60,000-$108,000
- Who’s hiring: Cook Medical (Bloomington, Indiana), Department of Agriculture (Sacramento, California), IHRC (Atlanta, Georgia)
