Data Science

A Data Scientist Job Description: The Roles and Responsibilities in 2024

Written by John Terra
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Updated on January 18, 2024

Data is a great resource, but businesses today are struggling with the concept of “too much of a good thing” regarding information. As of 2021, there are 2.5 quintillion bytes of data generated every day. Data is fantastic, but its sheer volume (and still growing) makes it difficult to generate any actionable insights.

That’s why organizations need data scientists today, and we’re covering that topic today. This article delves into the concept of data science by providing the definitive data scientist job description and moving on to the necessary skills and qualifications for becoming a data scientist, the career outlook, data scientist salaries, and how to get started as a data scientist.

Before we commit ourselves to a specific data science job description, let’s give a definition.

What is a Data Scientist?

Data science is the study of data for the purpose of extracting meaningful business insights. It’s an interdisciplinary field that employs algorithms, statistics, scientific computing, scientific methods, processes, and systems to pull and extrapolate knowledge and insights from structured, unstructured, and noisy data.

Consequently, a data scientist is a professional who finds meaning in the above mentioned data. Data scientists use data to tackle issues and problems, providing solutions to challenges that businesses face today and offering data-driven business strategies to ensure success. A good data scientist can help a company prosper and maintain a competitive edge.

But let’s fine-tune this data science job description and explore specific data scientist responsibilities.

Also Read: Top Data Scientist Skills You Must Have

What Does a Data Scientist Do?

The typical data scientist job responsibilities and duties include:

Collecting data through analyzing business results or developing, initiating, and managing new information studies
Changing data into new formats to make it more conducive for analysis
Processing, cleaning, integrating, and storing data
Developing new, experimental frameworks for data collection
Developing tools to perform automated data collection
Searching through large data sets to find helpful information
Working with data science techniques like machine learning, statistical modeling, and artificial intelligence
Creating and optimizing ML models and algorithms
Generating reports and presentations for the company’s use and benefit
Correlating similar data sets to derive actionable results
Measuring results and improving them
Presenting findings to stakeholders

The exact data scientist job description and responsibilities can vary from one company to another. Not every business expects data scientists to take on all the above roles. It depends on the company size, industry, and even the size of the IT department that handles data processing and analysis.

What is Exploratory Data Analysis?

In the world of statistics, exploratory data analysis, or EDA for short, involves analyzing data sets to summarize their main characteristics. This process often involves using statistical graphics and different data visualization methods.

Exploratory data analysis helps data scientists determine how to manipulate data sources best to get the answers they need, making it easier to discover patterns, test a hypothesis, spot anomalies, or check assumptions.

EDA helps data analysts by offering these advantages:

First, it helps prepare datasets for statistical analysis
Allows machine learning models to predict data sets better
It provides more accurate results
Finally, it enables data analysts to choose better machine learning models

What Does it Take to Become a Data Scientist?

Judging by the data scientist job description, it’s safe to say that data scientists have a demanding, challenging role that requires a particular set of data science skills and qualifications.

Educational Qualifications. The following degree requirements are recommended for data scientists:

A bachelor’s degree in a field such as mathematics, marketing, IT, computer science, or an adjacent field like business information systems, economics, information management, or statistics.
A postgraduate degree in a related discipline, such as business analytics, data science, or big data.
An advanced degree, like a master’s or a Ph.D. in data mining, machine learning, operations research, electrical engineering, etc.

Technical Skills. In addition to a solid educational background, a good data scientist has a diverse collection of “hard” or technical skills, such as:

Computer science. This skill applies the principles of database systems, artificial intelligence, numerical analysis, human/computer interaction, and software engineering.
Data storytelling. This skill entails communicating actionable insights using data, typically for the benefit of a non-technical audience.
Data visualization. This skill encompasses learning Tableau, or several other data visualization tools, to help share data insights through charts, graphs, and other visual aids.
Machine learning. This skill covers implementing algorithms and statistical models to allow a computer to learn from data without human influence or action.
Programming. No self-respecting data scientist is without some programming knowledge, including knowing several languages such as Java, R, Python, and SQL. This knowledge also involves writing computer programs and analyzing large datasets to generate answers to complex problems.
Statistical analysis. This skill involves identifying patterns in data and includes having a sharp sense of pattern detection and anomaly detection.

Soft Skills. Data scientists also need a range of soft skills, such as:

Analytical thinking. This skill covers finding analytical solutions to abstract business issues.
Business intuition. This skill lets you connect with stakeholders to get a complete understanding of the problems they want to solve.
Critical thinking. Critical thinking is a vital skill that applies the objective analysis of the facts before arriving at a conclusion.
Inquisitiveness. This skill is a form of curiosity, looking beyond what’s on the surface and discovering patterns and solutions within the data.
Interpersonal skills. This skill covers communication with a diverse audience throughout all levels of an organization.

Also Read: How to Become a Data Scientist?

What Steps Are Needed For You to Become a Data Scientist?

So the data scientist job description interests and you want to become a data scientist. Great! Here’s how you start, and the subsequent steps you should take on the path to your new career.

Build a strong foundation using statistics and mathematics. Although it’s possible to become a data scientist without first earning a degree, you must have a firm grasp of math and statistics. You can get this through traditional college education, online data science courses.
Expand your skill set. Immerse yourself in the data science field, with some data analytics thrown in for good measure. In addition to courses, you can engage with the data science community via events, summits, and webinars. You should also collaborate with fellow data scientists on open-source projects through camps or independently.
Build your portfolio. Portfolios are the ideal way to showcase your work. Host your portfolio on a personal blog or simple website, demonstrating your skills and expertise in a clean, concise manner. There’s no need to include every project you’ve ever worked on. Instead, point out the real-life benefits of a few of your more effective projects, showing potential recruiters that you can make significant contributions to their organization’s continued success.
Apply for entry-level jobs. Even data scientists must start somewhere; ideally, your first data science job will set the tone for the rest of what will be a rewarding, engaging, and successful career. Make sure your first data science job has the potential to help you add to your portfolio, improve your skillset, and expand your professional network of contacts and colleagues.

Common Data Scientist Job Titles

There’s more to a data science career than a plain data scientist. Here’s a list of typical jobs relating to data science.

Data analyst. Data analysts manipulate vast data sets and use them to spot trends and arrive at meaningful conclusions designed to inform strategic business decisions better.
Data engineer. Data engineers clean, collect, aggregate, and organize raw data from different sources and transfer it to data warehouses.
Business intelligence specialist. These professionals identify trends found in data sets.
Data architect. Data architects design, build and manage the organization’s data architecture.
Data scientist. For the sake of completeness, we’ll mention this one again. Data scientists design data modeling processes to create algorithms and predictive models and perform custom analyses.

The Data Science Career Outlook

Glassdoor.com named data scientists third in their list of the 50 top jobs in the United States in 2022. In addition, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics project a 36 percent growth from 2021 to 2031, and about 13,500 data scientist openings are projected yearly, on average, over that decade.

So yes, the data science career outlook appears rather encouraging!

About Data Scientist Salaries

According to Indeed.com, data scientists in the United States earn an annual average of $132,398, ranging between $82,562 and $212,316. The typical entry-level position pays $111,968 per year, while a mid-range position (approximately five years) pays $152,565 per year.

Start Mastering Data Science Today

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