Data Scientist jobs: skills and pay (October 2026)
1,537 open Data Scientist postings (11.7% of data & AI postings) as of October 18, 2026. Median published US pay: $190K (n=567).
Data Scientist pay by level
| Level (from title) | Median pay | Postings with pay (n) |
|---|---|---|
| Intern | — | 5 |
| Entry / junior | — | 6 |
| Mid (II) | $155K | 12 |
| Senior | $188K | 199 |
| Staff / lead | $225K | 108 |
| Principal | $215K | 25 |
| Manager | — | 6 |
| Director+ | $232K | 16 |
| Level not stated | $168K | 190 |
Median of the published range midpoint, US postings in USD, annualized. Shown only when n ≥ 10; “—” means fewer.
The weekly Data Skills Index
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Top skills in Data Scientist postings
Share of Data Scientist postings that mention each skill.
| # | Skill | Share of Data Scientist postings | Postings | Companies | Week over week | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Python language | 85.6% | 1,315 | 2,580 | needs more history | |
| 2 | Statistics analytics | 72.2% | 1,109 | 1,449 | needs more history | |
| 3 | SQL language | 66.2% | 1,018 | 1,953 | needs more history | |
| 4 | A/B testing & experimentation analytics | 44.6% | 686 | 1,076 | needs more history | |
| 5 | LLMs genai | 27.1% | 417 | 1,791 | needs more history | |
| 6 | Forecasting / time series ml | 23.8% | 366 | 605 | needs more history | |
| 7 | AI agents genai | 20.2% | 310 | 1,583 | needs more history | |
| 8 | AWS cloud | 18.8% | 289 | 1,452 | needs more history | |
| 9 | Streaming / real-time concept | 18.0% | 277 | 1,077 | needs more history | |
| 10 | MLOps mlops | 16.8% | 258 | 851 | needs more history | |
| 11 | scikit-learn ml | 15.2% | 234 | 363 | needs more history | |
| 12 | pandas processing | 14.5% | 223 | 363 | needs more history | |
| 13 | Deep learning ml | 14.3% | 220 | 594 | needs more history | |
| 14 | R language | 14.0% | 215 | 252 | needs more history | |
| 15 | PyTorch ml | 13.9% | 214 | 850 | needs more history | |
| 16 | Apache Spark processing | 13.7% | 211 | 699 | needs more history | |
| 17 | Generative AI genai | 13.5% | 208 | 720 | needs more history | |
| 18 | APIs / REST infra | 13.3% | 204 | 1,554 | needs more history | |
| 19 | Data quality governance | 13.1% | 202 | 1,200 | needs more history | |
| 20 | Google Cloud cloud | 12.5% | 192 | 931 | needs more history | |
| 21 | Databricks platform | 12.2% | 187 | 601 | needs more history | |
| 22 | TensorFlow ml | 11.1% | 170 | 555 | needs more history | |
| 23 | NLP ml | 10.7% | 165 | 421 | needs more history | |
| 24 | Snowflake platform | 10.6% | 163 | 882 | needs more history | |
| 25 | dbt transformation | 10.5% | 162 | 890 | needs more history |