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AI Career Compass · role
Uses data, statistics and models to answer questions and improve products. Experiments, analysis, forecasting and applied modelling.
Measured In our tracked sample, roles for data scientists and applied scientists make up 54 of 1,694 AI postings, about 3%.1
Measured The skills these postings ask for most are SQL, asked for in 41 of 54, and Python, asked for in 40 of 54.12
Written by an AI analyst (claude-opus-5-5) and checked by code against the numbers it cites.
What these postings say the work involves, counted from their lists of duties. A posting can list several.
Out of these 54 postings. “Asked for” adds required, one of several options, and listed; preferred is counted apart.
Programming, data, maths and statistics, and domain knowledge
| Skill | Asked for | Required | One of several | Listed | Preferred |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SQL | 41 of 54 | 9 | 5 | 27 | 4 |
| Python | 40 of 54 | 7 | 9 | 24 | 7 |
| Statistics and probability | 29 of 54 | 5 | 0 | 24 | 6 |
| Data analysis | 24 of 54 | 8 | 0 | 16 | 6 |
| Software engineering practice | 16 of 54 | 5 | 0 | 11 | 3 |
| Mathematics | 13 of 54 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 4 |
| R | 13 of 54 | 1 | 5 | 7 | 3 |
| Science (biology, chemistry, physics) | 10 of 54 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 3 |
Modelling, training, retrieval, agents, evaluation and other methods
| Skill | Asked for | Required | One of several | Listed | Preferred |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Machine learning | 26 of 54 | 7 | 0 | 19 | 10 |
| Experiments and A/B tests | 25 of 54 | 9 | 0 | 16 | 3 |
| Large language models | 17 of 54 | 4 | 2 | 11 | 5 |
| Time series and forecasting | 9 of 54 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| Evaluation (evals) | 6 of 54 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 3 |
| Natural language processing | 5 of 54 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| AI agents | 4 of 54 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Building AI-powered products | 3 of 54 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
Deployment, infrastructure, reliability, security, monitoring and cost
| Skill | Asked for | Required | One of several | Listed | Preferred |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MLOps and ML platforms | 8 of 54 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 |
| Data pipelines (Spark, Airflow, Kafka) | 7 of 54 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
| Monitoring and observability | 6 of 54 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| Databases and data warehouses | 3 of 54 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| System design and architecture | 3 of 54 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Reliability and incident response | 3 of 54 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Backend services and APIs | 2 of 54 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) | 2 of 54 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Publishing and leading research
| Skill | Asked for | Required | One of several | Listed | Preferred |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Research publications | 4 of 54 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Leading research | 2 of 54 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Open-source contributions | 0 of 54 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Customers, communication, product thinking and leadership
| Skill | Asked for | Required | One of several | Listed | Preferred |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Communication | 25 of 54 | 7 | 0 | 18 | 4 |
| Leading and mentoring | 8 of 54 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 3 |
| Product thinking | 4 of 54 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Technical writing | 2 of 54 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Working with customers | 1 of 54 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
AI rules, policy and trust and safety
| Skill | Asked for | Required | One of several | Listed | Preferred |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Risk and compliance | 2 of 54 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| AI governance and regulation | 2 of 54 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Trust and safety | 2 of 54 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
Measured Machine learning is listed as preferred, meaning nice to have, in 10 of 54 postings we track for this role.1
Measured Building data pipelines, the systems that move and prepare data, is listed as preferred in 6 of 54 postings we track for this role.1
Employers list these as preferred. That they ask does not show that these skills decide who is hired.
The systems these postings expect people to build, run or work within.
Only what the postings state. Most do not say everything, so each number has its own count of postings.
27 of 54 postings state a minimum; the median is 5 years.
26 of 54 postings state a degree; 9 of them accept equivalent experience instead.
4 more postings list a PhD as preferred.
10 postings are remote. Of these, 10 name where you must live or work from, 0 do not say, and 0 say anywhere.
What employers advertise, grouped only when the ranges are comparable. Not a prediction of what you would earn.
Measured In the postings we track, the median of advertised range midpoints for full-time base pay in the US is 307,500 USD per year, from 15 comparable disclosures; the middle half of these midpoints runs from 266,250 to 377,500 USD.1234
46 of 54 postings (85%) advertise a pay range. Employers that publish ranges may differ from those that do not, and some places require it by law, so these ranges do not describe all pay.
| Group of alike ranges | Postings | Median of range midpoints | Middle half of midpoints |
|---|---|---|---|
| USD, a year, base pay, United States, full-time5 employers | 15 | $307,500 | $266,250 to $377,500 |
This is advertised pay, not what anyone earns. We pool ranges only when currency, pay period, pay type, country and employment type are the same, and only with at least 10 of them. Nothing is converted. 31 other ranges could not be pooled (period not stated, several countries, or too few alike).
Advice built from what these 54 postings ask for. Tick what you can already do; we suggest up to three steps and one portfolio project, each with the requirement behind it and a way to show the result.
Analysis Tracking began on 6 October 2026, so the 54 postings here come from one reading and cannot show a trend yet.1
Measured The postings we track for this role come from 20 employers with public job feeds, not the whole job market; employers that run their own job systems are not included.1
Measured Many open listings are not new: only 6 of 54 were first published in the 30 days up to the data cutoff, and 9 of 54 more than a year before it.12
How everything is counted: our method. All roles: AI Career Compass.