Data Science Career Opportunities – Top Profiles for 2024

Data is the fuel for the economy these days. Almost every industry harnesses data’s power to improve its business performance. Data Science has emerged as one of the most attractive job profiles in the past few years, with immense data science career opportunities. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests that data science skills will drive a hike of around 28% in employment through 2026. There is a huge demand for skilled data professionals and a shortage of skilled data scientists and related professionals. The article talks about data science career opportunities, top job profiles, skills required, and salaries for every profile.

The article talks about data science career opportunities and the top profiles in the job segment. We have covered the job profiles, skills required for those positions, and their respective salaries. Let’s dig in.

Top Data Science Career Opportunities

1. Data Scientist
2. Data Analyst
3. Data Engineer
4. Data Architect
5. Business Intelligence Analyst
6. Statistician
7. Machine Learning Engineer

Data Scientist 

A data scientist collects, analyzes, and interprets large volumes of data to extract relevant information. They apply skills like mathematics, statistics, and programming to analyze and interpret the data available to companies. Data scientists can provide valuable information on consumer behavior and their actions. They help the organization design strategies and business plans. 

The functions of a data scientist may differ from one organization to another, but broadly, their job role includes – 

Extraction of Data – Obtain all the useful information from various sources. 

Cleaning of data – Eliminate all information that is not relevant and prepare the data for processing (normalizing values, modifying variables, etc.).

Processing of data – Process the data by applying statistical approaches, analytics, machine learning, predictive models, etc., to get valuable information.

Visualization – Represent data in an easy-to-understand format.

Salary of Data Scientists

A data scientist in India receives an average salary of Rs. 14.4 LPA.

Skills Required

• Programming languages ​​like R and Python
• Statistics and math
• Raw data preparation techniques
• Big data and advanced data analysis 
• Artificial Intelligence, Machine learning, deep learning 
• data visualization techniques and tools
• Algorithms to create predictive and automation models
• Excellent oral and written communication skills

Data Analyst

A data analyst is responsible for carrying out data analysis. They examine and interpret the data extracted from the data analysis to conclude. Their primary job roles include –

• Data collection
• Data preparation for analysis (sampling, cleaning, classification)
• Search for patterns in data sets
• Data visualization to present results 
• Formulate hypotheses to improve specific business metrics by modifying other indicators.

Data Analyst Salary 

The average salary of a data analyst in India is Rs. 6.4 LPA, suggests Ambitionbox.

Data Analyst Skills

• Data warehousing and business intelligence 
• Database design
• Data mining
• Data visualization and reporting 
• Machine learning 
• Programming (e.g. XML, Javascript, or ETL frameworks)
• R and/or SAS languages
• SQL databases
• Data cleaning and munging
• Quality management, project management, and business process analysis methods (SWOT, ABC, PDCA, IDEF, EPC, BPMN, etc.).

Data Engineers

These professionals extract and process the information that data scientists and data analysts later use. Data engineers manage database infrastructures, automate fetch and cleanup processes, and develop maintenance algorithms. In short, they ensure that analyzing and interpreting the information is more effective, safe, and useful. Their job roles mainly include – 

• Data acquisition 
• Identify ways to improve data reliability, efficiency, and quality 
• Use large data sets to address business problems
• Implement sophisticated analytics, machine learning, and statistical methods.
• Prepare data for predictive and prescriptive models
• Find hidden patterns using data
• Use data to discover tasks that can be automated
• Deliver updates to stakeholders based on analytics

Data Engineer Salary

Data engineers receive an average compensation of Rs. 10.7 Lakh per annum in India, as suggested by Ambitionbox.

Data Engineer Skills

• Cloud Computing
• Networks and data transmission
• Schemes and Models
• Data Analysis
• Databases such as PL / SQL or SQL
• Data mining
• Machine Learning and Deep Learning
• Neural networks
• Data Warehousing Solutions like MarkLogic, Oracle, Amazon RedShift, etc.
• ETL Tools
• Machine Learning Algorithms 
• Programming languages like Python, Java, and Scala  
• Data structures and algorithms 

Data Architect

A data architect builds and designs platforms for massive data processing to transform data into information that supports business decision-making. Their job involves -.

• Design, creation, supervision, administration, implementation, and management of data structures 
• Design systems and models to handle large and different data types, depending on their volume, speed, or accuracy.
• Organize information and data at all levels.
• Design of both relational and non-relational databases that support business applications.
• Develop and improve data architecture strategies.
• Integration of new systems with storage structures.
• Maintain data governance and ensure system scalability, security, and performance.

Salary of Data Architect

Data Architects are highly paid professionals. Their average annual salary in India is reported to be Rs. 27.3 LPA by Ambitionbox.

Skills of Data Architect

• Knowledge of new technologies and tools and the ability to implement and integrate them into an organization’s data architecture systems
• Ability to design systems for collecting, storing, and processing data 
• Ability to analyze and create a situation and evaluation reports
• Knowledge of programming languages, such as R or Python 
• Knowledge of ERP and CRM systems
• Ability to design and structure SQL and NoSQL databases

Business Intelligence Analyst

Business Intelligence Analysts are responsible for providing businesses with reliable information from varying data sources. They determine the critical priorities of the business. They create visibility of the information through database management processes. Business Intelligence Analyst job role includes –

• Design and implement dashboards and business reports 
• Support and Maintenance of Business Intelligence applications
• Health, availability & performance measurement, monitoring, diagnostics, and operational support 
• Automation of release and operational tasks  
• Provide advisory services on improving and modernizing analytics processes
• Leveraging big data technologies, including integration with existing data and analytics platforms and tools

Business Intelligence Analyst Salary

As per Ambitionbox, the average salary of Business Intelligence Analysts is Rs. 6.9 LPA.

Business Intelligence Analyst Skills

• Demonstrating knowledge of data modeling, harmonization, data visualization, inner and outer join, delete, truncate, and union
• Hands-on testing experience to test specific trends on dashboards and data errors
• Data Governance 
• Data integration & BI platforms 
• Deep understanding and working knowledge of data and analytics

Statistician

As per BIS, the job market for statisticians and mathematicians is expected to grow by 30% from 2018 to 2028. 

Statisticians are responsible for applying statistical methods to solve real-world issues and discover valuable information from the available data. They gather, analyze, and interpret data and make predictions based on data. Statisticians help organizations make the right business decisions.

Statistician Salary

Statisticians receive an average compensation of Rs. 5.9 LPA, as suggested by Ambitionbox.

Statistician Skills

• Strong statistical skills enabling the provision of statistical advice and document review across a broad range of statistical applications 
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Office, SAS, and experience with other statistical software
• Experience with modeling and simulation and other innovative methodologies    
• Descriptive Statistics  
• Exploratory Data Analysis
• Data science programming languages like R, Java, SQL, Python, etc. 
• Working experience with Machine Learning models, Multivariable Calculus & Linear Algebra
• Ability to write codes and manage big data chunks
• Hands-on working experience with real-time data and cloud computing
• Ability to use automated tools and open-source software
• Ability to communicate complex statistical issues to non-statisticians

Statistics Resources

Machine Learning Engineer

Machine learning is a niche and specialized skill. You would need to work on some more advanced skills other than data science to work as a machine learning engineer. Machine Learning Engineers create efficient self-learning applications, models, and systems. 

To work as a machine learning engineer, you must have sound knowledge of statistics and programming. Their job mainly involves –

• Understanding business objectives and developing ML models to achieve the defined goals 
• Research and implement appropriate ML algorithms and tools
• Verifying data quality and/or ensuring it via data cleaning
• Finding available datasets online that could be used for training 
• Defining data augmentation pipelines
• Training models and tuning their hyperparameters 
• Deploying models to production
• Study and transform data science prototypes
• Design machine learning systems

Machine Learning Engineer Salary 

Machine learning engineers get an average annual salary of Rs.10.4 LPA, as reported by Ambitionbox.

Machine Learning Engineer Skills

• Programming Languages like Python, R, Java, C++, etc.
• Big Data 
• Business Intelligence 
• Cloud Computing
• Data Acquisition
• Data Visualization
• Databases
• Deep Learning
• Math & Statistics
• Model Deployment
• Natural Language Processing

Conclusion

We hope this career-education article helped you understand the career opportunities for data science professionals. The job market for skilled data science experts is swelling; almost every industry now seeks skilled professionals. 

We recommend determining which career path is best for you and choosing the right course to make yourself job-ready.

Keep learning!

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