Who is a Data Scientist? Key Responsibilities, Skills & Salary 2024

Who is a Data Scientist?
Key Job Responsibilities of Data Scientist
Required Qualification/Education
What makes you qualified for this job?
In-demand Certifications
Top Companies/Organizations Hiring Data Scientist
Data Scientist Salary Statistics

Who is a Data Scientist?

Data scientists are known to be individuals who possess the technical skills for solving complex problems. They are the analytical data experts who work with multiple elements which are relevant to mathematics, computer science, and statistics. They first have to collect then analyze and interpret a large amount of data. Similarly, data scientists have to provide insights that are beyond statistical analyses. If you wish to become a data scientist then know that this job role is highly transferable and both private and public sectors offer a variety of data scientist jobs. These sectors include;

Consulting
Finance
Education
Pharmaceuticals
Manufacturing
And Government

This article contains detailed information on who a data scientist is, what he does, and other details relevant to this job role.

Key Responsibilities of a Data Scientist

A data scientist has to work closely with the business heads and sometimes with stakeholders as well. This is to help him understand the goal of the business easily thereby making it easier to determine how businesses can use the data for achieving their desired goal. We have listed down some of the very important key responsibilities of a data scientists:

Collect, analyze, and then sift all the relevant data.
Use tools like SAS, R programming, Python, etc for extracting insights that can be used for improving the organization’s efficiency and output.
Build a blueprint or model of a project using the extracted insights.
Create a variety of data visualizations for stakeholders and make them understand data better than anyone.
Maintain and analyze the data and gather all the relevant insights.
Create data dashboards and graphs and visualizations.
Use the machine learning frameworks for numerical computations.
Create automated anomaly detection systems and track performance.
Extend the company’s data with third-party sources of information whenever required.
Improve all the data collection procedures for building analytic systems.
Measure and improve the overall results.

Required Qualification/Education:

To become a data scientist, the first thing you need to do is get a bachelor’s degree in data science. A degree in computer science or any other related field would also be perfect. But note that this degree would help you get your foot in the door as an entry-level data scientist.
To land a high-level job, you would eventually have to earn a Master’s degree.

Recommended Courses:

Harvard’s Data Science Professional Certificate

Harvard University via edX
17 months (1-3 hours/weekly)
Course Type: Self Paced

Applied Data Science with Python Specialization

University of Michigan via Coursera
336,896+ already enrolled!
4.5 ★★★★★ (24,513 Ratings)

IBM Data Science Professional Certificate

IBM via Coursera
107,653+ already enrolled!
4.6 ★★★★★ (55,391 Ratings)

What makes you qualified for this job?

Not all data scientists are the same, what makes them unique are the skills they possess. As a data scientist, there are some hard and soft skills that you should possess.

Maths & Statistics
- Statistical Modeling
- Clustering
- Exploratory Analysis
- Machine Learning
- Regression Analysis

Visualizing and Communication
- Storytelling
- Keen to work with Data
- Knowledge of BI Tools
- Data Insights & Decisions

Explore our comprehensive guide on “Data Storytelling Courses with Certificates” to elevate your data storytelling skills and earn valuable certifications.

Programming & Database
- CS Basics
- DBMS
- Data Visualization
- Python / R
- Big Data

Soft/Human Skills
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Leadership / Team Building
- Understanding of Business Operations
- Persuasive Communication

In-demand Certifications:

Below we have listed some of the available certifications for you to consider;

Top Companies/Organizations Hiring Data Scientists

Data scientist according to LinkedIn and Best job in America is “The most promising career” and so there are tremendous job opportunities out there for individuals who are into this field.

Companies like Google, VMare, Sisense, Walmart, Amazon, and Microsoft offer high scale salary to data scientists along with a promising career.

Top industries to offer best data scientist job include media and entertainment, automotive, BFSI, healthcare, retail, and telecommunications.

Data Scientist Salary Statistics

This section is the most important one as it gives our readers an idea of how much a data scientist can earn on average. We have listed down the salary details of a data scientist working in five major countries. So let’s see the salary statistics of these individuals working in different major countries.