Annual Salary
£32,000 to £82,500
Average UK salary in 2023 was £34,963
(source Office for National Statistics)
Swap to Maths or Science or go back to all job sectors or go to green jobs
Swap to Maths or Science or go back to all job sectors or go to green jobs
Data scientists use software, artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyse and interpret large amounts of data.
Average UK salary in 2023 was £34,963
(source Office for National Statistics)
You could work: between 8am and 6pm; flexibly
There will be
2.4% more Data scientist jobs in 2027.
As a data scientist, you could:
Possible green job
This job could help the environment.
For a data scientist to be a green job, you could:
Find out more about green careers
You could work in an office or remotely.
You can get into this job through:
You can begin your career in data science by studying for a relevant degree or postgraduate qualification, such as:
Subjects that include a lot of statistics, like physics, engineering or psychology may also be useful.
Graduates of other subjects can do a postgraduate master's conversion course to get into AI and data science.
Funding is also available to encourage people from under-represented groups to come into the profession.
Doing an internship or industry work placement as part of your course can give you an advantage when looking for jobs.
You'll usually need:
You may be able to get into this job through an apprenticeship, for example:
These can take between 2 and 3 years to complete.
You'll usually need:
You could apply directly to companies and organisations if you have the right skills and experience from working with data. You may be able to find roles with:
You could register for a place on the Civil Service Fast Stream scheme to work in data. You'll need a degree, postgraduate award or have completed a degree apprenticeship to apply.
Look out for intensive training courses in computing and data science.
You can also find free computer science and coding courses through The Skills Toolkit.
It will be useful to build up your knowledge of coding, analysis and data manipulation software packages like:R; SQL; Python; Power BI; Excel
You could join the Institute of Analytics (IoA) or The Royal Statistical Society for training and development opportunities, and to make contacts in the industry.
You can find out more about a career as a data scientist from The Royal Statistical Society and The Chartered Institute for IT.
With experience, you could specialise in:artificial intelligence; machine learning; database management
You might also:move up to senior or principal data scientist; become a departmental strategy manager; go into academic research and university teaching; work as a freelance data consultant
For other roles linked to Data Scientist, employers such as SSE have roles as a Data Analyst Apprentice.
Data Scientists are needed to use data to identify, manage and solve environmental issues for businesses including those related to pollution, emissions, carbon capture and energy generation.
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Click here to search for a local apprenticeship
Click here to search for other university courses
For more information on the different routes you can take to get into working as a data scientist, take a look at the 'Routes into this job' section above.
Click here for an explanation of the different course and apprenticeship levels.
For more local employment opportunities see the 'Live job vacancies by region' section above.
Data scientists use data from multiple sources including space data to understand threats to national security.
Examples of post-16 courses you could study at a local school or college
Examples of post-18 courses you could study at a local provider
Apprenticeships you may be able to take with local employers
Search for apprenticeship vacancies
Employers in the South West
You'll need: