Data scientists and analysts answer business questions with data, from reporting and dashboards to experiments and forecasting. SQL tends to matter more here than any single modeling technique.
We analyzed 284 U.S. job descriptions from 122 employers for Data Science & Analytics roles. The most requested skills were SQL (61%), Python (57%) and Statistics (43%).
1,576open U.S. roles tracked
4 yearstypical experience asked for
$187,700median advertised pay, from 246 roles that state it
Languages
SQL61%
Python57%
R19%
Data
Statistics43%
Tableau30%
Power BI23%
Data modeling13%
Snowflake13%
Spark7%
Databricks7%
AI & machine learning
Machine learning27%
Generative AI13%
LLMs13%
Business tools
Excel27%
PowerPoint9%
CRM systems6%
SAP6%
Product & design
Agile13%
Project management12%
Cloud & infrastructure
AWS12%
Google Cloud6%
CI/CD6%
Azure5%
Operations
Root cause analysis5%
Finance & legal
Stakeholder management5%
Updated November 7, 2026, using job descriptions collected since September 25, 2026. Shares show how many of the sampled descriptions mention a skill, so a low share can still be a firm requirement in the roles that list it. We sample a limited number of descriptions per employer so that no single company dominates, and we only report figures backed by several employers. Advertised pay comes from a different group of roles than H1B filings, so the two are not directly comparable.
