Data Scientist Jobs: What the Work Is, What Degree Fits, and How to Get Hired

Data scientists find patterns in data, build models that test them, and tell a business what to do next. BLS puts their May 2025 median pay at $120,230 a year and projects 35 percent job growth through 2035. The typical entry degree is a bachelor’s, and an online AI degree is one of several ways to get there.

What Does a Data Scientist Do All Day?

A data scientist turns a vague business question into a number someone can act on. Will this customer cancel? Which shipments will run late? Is the new checkout page working? Someone has to find the data, check it, and build something that answers the question honestly.

BLS describes the work in five parts.

• Determine which data are available and useful for the project.
• Collect, categorize and analyze data.
• Create, validate, test and update algorithms and models.
• Use data visualization software to present findings.
• Make business recommendations to stakeholders based on the analysis.

Notice how much of that is not modeling. Finding and cleaning data takes a big share of most weeks, and the last step, explaining results to people who will not read your code, is often what gets a project used.

If you like puzzles but dislike meetings, know that the job includes plenty of both.

Why Is a Data Scientist Not the Same as an AI Researcher?

“AI career” covers several jobs, and data scientist is the analysis end of that family. Our page on artificial intelligence careers sorts the others.

Research scientists invent new methods and publish papers. Software developers and machine learning engineers build systems that run in production. Data scientists sit nearer the business, using established methods on real data and reporting what they find.

The lines blur at work. A small company may ask one person to do all three. BLS counts machine learning engineers with data scientists, so the pay figures on this page cover that wider group, and our machine learning engineer salary page looks at the building side.

What Degree Do Data Scientist Jobs Expect?

BLS lists a bachelor’s degree as the typical entry education for data scientists. It does not list a master’s as the entry requirement, which is different from computer and information research scientists, where it does.

That tells you the floor, not what every employer wants. Postings differ. The practical advice is to read ten postings for the job you want and note the pattern.

What our program data can tell you is which degrees line up with the work, and at which level.

Which AI Degree Level Fits a Data Scientist?

Think of it as three starting points.

You are starting from nothing. An online bachelor’s is the level BLS names. The least expensive online AI bachelor’s on our list, Dakota State University’s, totals $44,856 for 120 credits before fees. Compare options on our list of online bachelor’s degrees in artificial intelligence.

You have a bachelor’s in another field. This is where a master’s makes sense, because several online AI master’s accept applicants from any major. The University of Bridgeport’s online MS in Artificial Intelligence takes learners from any academic field and offers a Data Sciences and Data Analytics concentration. The University of Cincinnati’s MS in Artificial Intelligence Management takes a bachelor’s in any field and offers a Data Analytics concentration.

You already work with data. A master’s matters less. A certificate or a few targeted courses may close a specific gap, and your own projects count for more.

Which Types of AI Programs Match This Job?

Four of our rankings map to the work. Each one fits a different type of data scientist.

• Machine learning programs fit people who want to build and tune models. See the online machine learning degrees.
• Broad AI master’s programs cover machine learning, deep learning and natural language processing, a good base if you want options. See the online master’s in artificial intelligence.
• Applied AI programs stress using AI on real decisions, which is close to the day-to-day job. See the online applied AI degrees.
• Business-focused AI programs suit people who want to be the one who turns models into strategy. See the online AI degrees for business.

Our rankings explain how each list is built and what each program is like, so use them to compare instead of relying on a name.

What Do Applied and Business Programs Look Like?

Applied programs tend to end in a project you can show an employer. Saint Louis University’s MS in Applied AI and Decision Analytics does not require a prior STEM degree, teaches the technical foundations in the curriculum and ends with a capstone that deploys and validates a real-world AI application.

Business-minded programs lean toward decisions. Oregon State University’s MS in Business Analytics and Applied AI is offered through an AACSB-accredited College of Business and builds in hands-on projects with industry partners.

When you have no job history in the field, a project you can show carries weight with hiring managers, so pick a program that makes you build something real.

Which Technical Programs Ask the Most of You?

Purdue’s online MS in Artificial Intelligence has two majors. The AI and Machine Learning major requires programming experience and coursework in algorithms, calculus, linear algebra and probability. The AI Management and Policy major requires at least 24 months of work experience.

That split is useful as a self-check. If the math list makes you nervous, start with a program that teaches the foundations or take prerequisite courses first.

At the other end, the University of Colorado Boulder’s online MS in Artificial Intelligence uses performance-based admission. You pass a three-course pathway with a B or better in each course, and no bachelor’s degree is required. It totals $15,750.

What Skills and Tools Do You Need?

Employers vary, but the core is stable across most postings for this job.

• Statistics and probability. You need to know when a result is real and when it is noise.
• Programming. Python is the usual choice. R also comes up often, especially in research and health settings.
• SQL. Most company data lives in databases, and you will query it every day.
• Machine learning basics. Regression, classification, tree-based models and how to test whether a model works on new data.
• Visualization. Charts that make a point without a long explanation.
• Communication. Writing a clear summary for a manager who has five minutes.

Programs show these in course lists. The University of Bridgeport lists Python Programming, Data Mining and Deep Learning among its notable courses, and the University of Texas at Austin lists Machine Learning, Deep Learning and Natural Language Processing.

How Do You Get Hired as a Data Scientist?

There is no single path, but this order works for most people.

1. Pick your starting point honestly. Do you already have a bachelor’s, and is it quantitative? That decides whether you need a degree or just skills.
2. Learn Python, SQL and statistics. Do this through a degree, a certificate or on your own.
3. Build three projects on messy, real data. Public datasets are fine. Write up the question, the method, what went wrong and what you would do differently.
4. Put the projects in front of people. A short portfolio page and a clean resume beat a long list of course names.
5. Apply to analyst and data roles as well as scientist titles. Titles vary by employer, and an analyst job that uses models is a common way in.
6. Prepare for the technical screen. Expect SQL questions, a statistics question and a short case about a business problem.
7. Ask about the work in interviews. Find out whether the team has clean data and a person who will use your results.

That last step matters because a data scientist at a company with no usable data spends a year on plumbing.

What Do Data Scientists Earn?

BLS reports a May 2025 national median of $120,230 a year, which is $57.80 an hour. The mean is $126,800. The lowest tenth earned $67,240 or less, the lowest quarter $85,660 or less, the highest quarter $158,880 or more, and the highest tenth $199,130 or more.

BLS counted 262,440 data scientists in May 2025. The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is large, so your own pay depends on the employer, the state and how far along you are.

Experience is not broken out in the BLS tables. The percentiles are the honest way to read it, since newer workers cluster lower and experienced ones higher, but the survey does not label them.

Which States Pay Data Scientists the Most?

Washington has the highest median at $163,350, with 9,600 data scientists. California is next at $141,590 and has by far the most workers, 39,310. Maryland’s median is $136,370, New Jersey’s is $135,280 and Massachusetts’s is $131,750.

The biggest job markets by headcount are California, Texas with 25,860, New York with 23,970, Pennsylvania with 13,810 and North Carolina with 11,430.

Texas has a median of $122,090, close to the national figure. Mississippi has the lowest median, $69,490.

For every state, plus percentile ranges, see our data scientist salary page.

How Fast Is the Job Growing?

BLS projects data scientist employment to grow 35 percent from 2025 to 2035, which it calls much faster than the average for all occupations. That means about 95,400 more jobs on a base of 275,600 in 2025, and about 24,800 openings a year.

Openings include people replacing workers who retire or change jobs, so 24,800 is not a count of brand-new positions.

A projection is not a promise that every graduate lands a job. Entry-level roles can draw many applicants, which is one more reason to build a portfolio before you apply.

Can You Do This Job Remotely?

Some employers hire data scientists in any state, and many do hybrid work. BLS does not track remote work, so we will not give you a share.

What the wage data does show is that pay is reported by where the job is. A remote role may pay by your location, by the company’s headquarters or by a national band. Ask before you accept.

Can You Earn the Degree Online?

Yes. Every program linked above is delivered fully online. Our data covers online degrees at every level from associate through doctorate, and the programs mentioned here are master’s and bachelor’s degrees.

Some details are worth checking. The University of Colorado Boulder says graduates receive the same diploma as on-campus students, with no online or Coursera designation. Several programs also have no GRE requirement. Look at the program’s page for the schedule and admission steps before you apply.

For cost, our cheapest online AI degrees list sorts programs by per-credit price. The University of Texas at Austin’s online MS in Artificial Intelligence totals $9,990 for 30 credits and does not require the GRE.

Is a Data Scientist Career Right for You?

It fits people who like questions with no known answer and can live with half-finished work. It suits you less if you want a job where every task has a clear end, or if you dislike explaining your work to others.

The honest downsides are real. The entry-level market is crowded, data is rarely as clean as a course makes it look, and some of your best work will never ship.

If that sounds fine, start with one small project this week, not a degree application. The project will tell you whether you like the work before you spend any tuition.