Data Science (M.S.)

Careers

Careers in Data Science

Employment of data scientists is projected to grow 36 percent from 2021 to 2031, much faster than the average for all occupations. About 13,500 openings for data scientists are projected each year, on average, over the decade.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Career Prospects

#1 Most Promising
Job in America

$130,000
Median Salary

Data scientists are the number 1 most promising job in America for 2019, according to a report from LinkedIn.
Salary, career advancement, number of job openings in the US, year-over-year growth in job openings, and widespread regional availability. They note the median base salary as $130,000. Career advancement is noted as a 9 out of 10 and the top skills are data science, data mining, data analysis, Python, and machine learning. This comes as no surprise given data scientists continue to top Glassdoor’s list of Best Jobs in America for four years running (2017-2020), with professionals in the field reporting high demand, high salaries, and high job satisfaction.

Other indicators of significant growth come from forecasts related to the actual activities undertaken by data scientists. Gartner predicts the following on their home page for their Data & Analytics Summit:

  • Through 2023, computational resources used in AI will increase 5x from 2018, making AI the top category of workloads driving infrastructure decisions.
  • Through 2022, only 15% of use cases leveraging AI techniques (such as ML and DNNs) will be successful.
  • By 2023, 40% of I&O teams will use AI-augmented automation in large enterprises, resulting in higher IT productivity with greater agility and scalability.

The Data Science program goes much deeper into algorithms, data integration practices, and methodologies. Students in the program will acquire a varied set of skills to succeed in Data Analyst, Data Engineer, and Data Scientist career tracks.

Data Analyst

Graduates will be prepared to conduct situational analysis and needs assessments and select and assess applied research methods, mathematical, statistical and modeling techniques to support organizations with day-to-day reporting and analytical capacity for decision-making.

Data Engineer

Graduates will learn how to collect and coalesce specifications and design, build, and maintain the data and analytical infrastructure critical for decision-support efforts within an organization.

Data Scientist

Graduates will create and test a variety of analytical models to predict, model, score data sets, and derive new insights to move an organization forward