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Executive recruiting firm Burtch Works, noticing an unprecedented increase in tech salaries since the post-pandemic economic recovery started, published a new report that sheds light on just how much money data scientists and AI pros make now — and who makes the most.
It clearly pays to be in either camp, though, as top-level managers in both categories can see salaries around $300,000.
“Our data shows that 2022 salaries significantly increased at all job levels for both data scientists and AI professionals,” the company said in announcing the new 2022 Data Science & AI Professional Salary Report. “These salary increases are unlike anything we have seen in the past (it’s our 10th year delivering this report), and these unprecedented times in the job market are still continuing to make a strong impact on candidate compensation.”
In distinguishing between the two jobs, the company said AI pros typically work with very large sets of unstructured data, which requires additional computer science skills, while traditional — or “other” data scientists — usually work with more structured (tabular) data. AI pros are also said to be proficient in tech like relational databases and the major cloud computing platforms, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Microsoft Azure.
That extra skilling for AI pros shows up in a salary comparison, wherein Burtch Works measured three different levels of experience for both individual contributors (ICs) and management personnel. Generally speaking, AI pros make slightly more than other data scientists.
Among individual contributors, for example, both median and mean salaries tend to be higher for AI pros, although the percentage increase in salaries from 2021 to 2022 varies among different levels. In comparing median salaries, AI pro mid-level individual contributors, for example, made more than data scientists ($140,000 vs $115,000), but the latter enjoyed an 11 percent increase from 2021, while AI pros’ median salaries increased by a smaller amount, 8 percent. That’s illustrated in this comparison:
For management, the situation is similar. Top-level AI pro managers and data science managers, for example, both earned a median salary of $275,000 in 2022, up 10 percent from 2021. At the other end of the management spectrum (level 1), the median 2022 salary for AI pro managers was $167,000, up 11 percent from 2021. Data science level 1 managers, by contrast, earned a smaller median salary ($155,000), but those salaries grew more, by 15 percent vs. 11 percent. This graphic tells the story:
“At the IC level, many times AI professionals will have a PhD and command a higher salary, however once these individuals move into management roles the difference between data science and AI salaries shrink as management skills become the focus,” the report said.
The report also breaks down salaries by region, education and other factors.
Burtch Works also noted some generalizations, including:
For the study, Burtch Works interviewed 1,841 data professionals (1,265 data scientists and 576 AI professionals) from the approximately 60,000 quantitative professionals with whom the company maintains contact. 2022 salary data was gathered from May 2021 through April 2022. Changes in compensation were measured by comparing medians (and other percentiles) of current compensation to those reported in last year’s study.
About the Author
David Ramel is an editor and writer for Converge360.
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