2012

Data Professional Salary Survey

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Executive Summary
This survey was undertaken by SiSense to help data
professionals worldwide understand what drives
compensation and job security in the data analytics
field.
The results published in this summary are based on
responses from over 400 data professionals collected
online in July 2012.
Highlights of the results include:
Data professionals are highly educated. 85% of
the respondents have some college degree, and
97% have done some college work. As many as
39% of the respondents have a Masters degree,
and 5% are Ph.D.s.
The data profession is male-dominated: 85% of
the respondents are males. At the same time,
while in most professions men earn more than
women, women in the data field earn virtually
the same or more than their male counterparts.

The annual earnings of a data professional can

range from an average of 55,000 USD for a Data
Analyst to an average of 132,000 USD for VP
Analytics.
On average, Data Scientists earn more than Data
and Business Analysts. As the survey shows,
35% of Data Scientists hold a Ph.D. degree
(compared to 4% or less for other job titles),
which could explain their higher salaries.
On average, American data professionals earn
three times as much as those in Asia and twice
as much as those located in Africa.
Significant differences can also be found
between US regions. On average, data
professionals in the West earn over 60% more
than those in the Northeast and Midwest, and
over 30% more than their counterparts in the
South. Beyond regional variations in cost of
living, some of the difference can be explained
by the higher percentage of Data Scientists in
the West, where they account for 18% of the
respondents, compared to 6-13% in other
regions.
SiSense, 2012

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As many as 61% of the survey respondents
reported higher earnings in 2012 compared to
2011. These higher earnings corresponded with
added responsibilities and the need to do more
with fewer resources.
Forward expectations are even rosier. As many
as 78% of the respondents expect higher
earnings in 2013 compared to 2012, while only
7% expect lower earnings.
At the same time, close to half of the
respondents (47%) express at least some
concern about their job security.
According to survey respondents, dashboard,
data visualization, business intelligence, and
data warehousing skills are most valuable for
securing pay increases and more job options.

SiSense, 2012

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with your data. To find out, visit www.sisense.com.

Contents
Survey Respondents: Job Title ................................................................................................................................................................ 5
Survey Respondents: Experience .......................................................................................................................................................... 6
Survey Respondents: Education ............................................................................................................................................................ 7
Survey Respondents: Company and Job Location .......................................................................................................................... 8
Survey Respondents: Company and Team Size .............................................................................................................................. 9
Data Relationships and Systems ......................................................................................................................................................... 10
Salaries and Gender .................................................................................................................................................................................. 11
Salaries by Title .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 12
Salaries by Education and Experience ............................................................................................................................................. 13
Salaries by Location .................................................................................................................................................................................. 14
Salary Trends .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 15
Forward Expectations ............................................................................................................................................................................. 16
Increasing Your Value: Product and Technical Skills ................................................................................................................ 17
Increasing Your Value: General Skills ............................................................................................................................................... 18
Increasing Your Value: Final Words of Wisdom .......................................................................................................................... 19
Learn More ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 20

SiSense, 2012

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Survey Respondents: Job Title

Over half of the survey respondents
(61%) have the title of Data or
Business Analyst.
15% of the respondents are either
Data Scientists or Functional Data
Scientists / Specialists.
19% of the respondents are at the
Director (15%) or VP level (4%).

Director of
Analy7cs
15%

VP Analy7cs
Analy7cs
4%
Associate
5%

Func7onal Data
Scien7st/
Specialist
8%
Data Scien7st
7%

Business Analyst
34%

Food for thought
Despite the buzz around Big Data, few
Data Professionals have decided to
choose "Data Scientist" as their title.

This could be due to the fact that there
is no clear definition of what a "Data
Scientist" really is.

Data Analyst
27%

SiSense, 2012

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Survey Respondents: Experience

While a third of the survey
respondents are just getting started
in the data profession, 41% have
over 7 years of experience and 29%
have over ten.

33%

29%
26%

12%

1-3 years

Food
for thought

4-6 years

7-9 years

10+ years

The data profession could be missing a

proper career track. It seems that many
professionals choose to exit the field at or
around the 6-year mark, moving on to other
opportunities.
If data careers continue to follow this
pattern, deployment success rates are likely
to remain low.

SiSense, 2012

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with your data. To find out, visit www.sisense.com.

Survey Respondents: Education

Data professionals are an educated
bunch: 85% of the respondents have
some college degree, and 97% have
done some college work.
Moreover, as many as 39% of the
respondents have a Masters degree,
and 5% are Ph.D.s.

32%

12%

16%
9%

10%

13%
5%

3%

Food for thought

The data professional of the future could be
a business guy.

Better software solutions have opened the
opportunity for data professionals to take
advantage of their business know-how
before developing more technical savvy.

SiSense, 2012

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Survey Respondents: Company and Job Location

Close to half of the respondents
(48%) work for companies based in
the US and Canada.
Europe provides the second largest
representation, with 24% of the jobs
located in Europe and 22% working
for companies based on the continent.

Company Location
Australia/New Zealand
Mexico/Central/South America
Middle East
Other
Africa

In the US, the Northeast and West

regions are Data Hot Beds.

Asia
Europe
United States/Canada
0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

Job Location
Northeast

13%
26%

Southeast
Midwest

26%
13%
21%

West
Southwest

SiSense, 2012

Think this data is useful? Imagine the type of analysis you can do
with your data. To find out, visit www.sisense.com.

Survey Respondents: Company and Team Size

While over a third of respondents
(34%) work for companies with
less than $50M in revenues, 26%
work for companies of over $1B.
The number of data professionals in a
company is highly correlated with the
company size.
However, a few smaller companies
have very large data teams. These
startups and smaller businesses have
already identified that Data was key to
their success.

Data Team Size

20%
14%

15%

19%

16%
12%
4%

4-5

6-10

11-50

Team vs. Company Size

100%

Data Team Size

90%

> 50

80%

> 50

11-50

70%

Food for thought

60%

6-10

Most Data Professionals work in teams

of less than 6 people.

50%

4-5

40%

30%

20%

Are data professional teams over-

powered by other departments such as
development or test?

10%
0%
< $50M

$50-200M

$200M-1B

> $1B

Company Revenues

SiSense, 2012

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Data Relationships and Systems

While just over half of the
respondents use packaged
solutions to work with data, many
companies rely on internally
developed solutions and third-party
services.
When it comes to the number of
BI/DW systems, 60% of the
respondents have three or more and
35% have five or more interfaces.

How is data managed? (Respondents could select more than one answer)

Third-party Service or Consulta7on

19%
51%

Packaged Solu7ons

64%

In-house Solu7ons

Number of BI/DW system interfaces
20%

Food for thought

The vast majority of data
professionals still interact with too
many systems.

35%

1
2
3-4
5 or more

Data software needs to be better

at integrating what they already
have, rather than building new
platforms

20%

25%

SiSense, 2012

10

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with your data. To find out, visit www.sisense.com.

Salaries and Gender

The data profession is male-
dominated: 85% of the respondents
are men.

Survey Respondents

Female
15%

Women who are reluctant to join

the data analytics field clearly miss
out.
While in most professional fields men
earn more than women, women in the
data field appear to earn on par with
their male counterparts.

Male
85%

Average Compensation (in $US 1,000)

73

72

Food for thought

Although men dominate the data
profession, women are better
recognized.
What systemic changes are necessary to
establish a gender balance in this field?

Female

Male
SiSense, 2012

11

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Salaries by Title
The annual earnings of a data
professional can range from an
average of 55,000 USD for a Data
Analyst to an average of 132,000
USD for VP Analytics.

Average Compensation ($US 1,000) by Job Title

132
118

While higher salaries are expected for

director and VP levels, the justification
for the higher salaries earned by Data
Scientists is a bit less obvious.
Besides, 35% of Data Scientists hold
a Ph.D. degree (compared to 4% or
less for other job titles), which could
explain a higher average salary.

89

55

Data Analyst

65

68

Business
Analyst

Analy7cs
Associate

69

Func7onal Data Scien7st Director of VP Analy7cs

Data
Analy7cs
Scien7st/
Specialist

SiSense, 2012

12

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with your data. To find out, visit www.sisense.com.

Salaries by Education and Experience

Investing in education does pay off
for data professionals.

Average 2011 Compensation ($US 1,000) by Education Level

High School

Clearly, the top levels of education

earn top dollars.
What is interesting to note is that
classes matter as must as a formal
degree. Those who have attended
bachelor and masters classes but have
not graduated earn just as much as
those who have.
At the same time, on the job
experience is just as important.
On average, professionals with ten
or more years of experience earn
80% more than those with 3 years
or less.

61

Bachelor's Degree or
Classes
Master's Degree or Classes

127

Doctoral Degree
66

77

Average 2011 Compensation ($US 1,000) by Years of Experience

102

56

1-3 years

64

4-6 years

74

7-9 years

10+ years

SiSense, 2012

13

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with your data. To find out, visit www.sisense.com.

Salaries by Location
As can be expected, job location has
a significant impact on
compensation levels.
On average, American data
professionals earn three times as
much as those in Asia and twice as
much as those located in Africa.
Significant differences can also be
found among US regions. On average,
data professionals in the West earn
over 60% more than those in the
Northeast and Midwest, and over 30%
more than their counterparts in the
South.
Beyond regional variations in cost of
living, some of the difference can be
explained by the higher percentage of
Data Scientists in the West, where they
account for 18% of the respondents
compared to 6-13% in other regions.

Average Compensation ($US 1,000) by Job Location

48

52

79

64

60

82

32

Average Compensation ($US 1,000) by US Region

127
78

79

Midwest

Northeast

93

96

Southeast

Southwest

SiSense, 2012

96

90

West

14

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with your data. To find out, visit www.sisense.com.

Salary Trends
As many as 61% of the survey
respondents reported higher
earnings in 2012 compared to 2011.
Only 12% reported lower earnings.
While most salary increases were in
the 1-10% range, 14% reported even
higher increases.
At the same time, these higher
earnings correspond to higher
expectations from data
professionals.
More than half of the respondents
reported they have more
responsibilities (66%) and are
expected to do more with less (53%),
but only 30% reported they work
longer hours.

2012 vs. 2011 Compensation

20% higher than last year

7%

10-20% higher than last

year

7%
22%

5-10% higher than last year

25%

< 5% higher than last year

27%

Same as last year

< 5% lower than last year

3%

5-10% lower than last year

3%

10-20% lower than last year

3%

20% lower than last year

3%

Top Challenges (respondents could select two)
66%

More responsibili7es

53%

Do more with less

34%

Tighter budget

30%

Longer hours
More compe77on

16%
SiSense, 2012

15

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with your data. To find out, visit www.sisense.com.

Forward Expectations
As many as 78% of the respondents
expect higher earnings in 2013
compared to 2012, while only 7%
expect lower earnings.

2013 Expectations vs. 2012 Compensation

14%

10-20% higher than this year

31%

5-10% higher than this year

As many as 25% of respondents

expect 2013 earnings to be over 10%
higher than 2012 earnings.
At the same time, close to half of the
respondents (47%) express at least
some concern about their job
security. The most concerned are
Business and Data Analysts, while the
least concerned are Data Scientists
and VP Analytics.

11%

20% higher than this year

23%

< 5% higher than this year

15%

Same as this year

< 5% lower than this year

1%

5-10% lower than this year

1%

10-20% lower than this year

20% lower than this year

3%
2%

Concern about Job Security

100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%

Very concerned
Somewhat
concerned
Not concerned

SiSense, 2012

16

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with your data. To find out, visit www.sisense.com.

Increasing Your Value: Product and Technical Skills

According to survey respondents,
some skills are exceptionally
valuable for securing pay increases
and job options.
When asked what product skills would
be most valuable, the most common
answer was BI and Data Warehouse
skills (65%).
As for technical skills, clear value
boosters are dashboard and data
visualization skills (74%).

Product Skills that Add Most Value

65%

BI and Datawarehouse

46%

Math and Sta7s7cal

44%

Visualiza7on and Designer

42%

Enterprise Architecture/Integra7on

31%

Developer and Web Services

Technical Skills that Add Most Value
74%

Dashboard and data visualiza7on

Food for thought

While Data Heroes are moving
away from infrastructure skills such
DBAs and Cloud, they think that a
knowledge gap still exists in very
fundamental areas such as data
warehousing and dashboarding.

46%

Database programming

41%

Cloud deployment and virtualiza7on

38%

Enterprise collabora7on tools

Tes7ng tools

15%

SiSense, 2012

17

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with your data. To find out, visit www.sisense.com.

Increasing Your Value: General Skills

Its not only about products and
technology.
Project management and general
business skills all play an important
role in increasing the potential
earnings and job opportunities of data
professionals.

www.sisense.com

General Skills that Add Most Value

44%

Project management

31%

General business skills

Business func7on exper7se
Industry-specic exper7se
Communica7on
People management

29%
28%
27%
25%

SiSense, 2012

18

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with your data. To find out, visit www.sisense.com.

Increasing Your Value: Final Words of Wisdom

Lastly, respondents were asked to
part their advice for an aspiring
Data Analyst or Business
Intelligence professional that is
looking to increase his/her job
opportunities and earnings in this
field.
Here are some of the insights provided
by our survey respondents.

Become a specialist on Big Data.
Most organizations have analytics & BI problems they're not even aware
of because they don't know what's possible. Find a few of these
opportunities and address them, starting with the easiest.
Don't be afraid to work your way up. Gain experience using different
data types, software & find a good mentor.
Understand the business needs for this data as much as you understand
the technology that drives it.
Make yourself more valuable by being able to speak and respond in
terms of the "care-abouts" of your audience.

Always try and gain as much commercial knowledge as you can about
the company/industry you work in. You need to understand your data, so
that you can provide the correct BI to fit the business requirements.

SiSense, 2012

19

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Learn More

About SiSense

SiSense is the fastest way to go from

data to insights. SiSense delivers an
end-to-end Business Intelligence (BI)
solution that allows non-technical users
to turn mountains of data into
actionable intelligence in hours, not
days.
Gain insights without having to set up
complex data warehouse systems, OLAP
cubes, or programming. Download a
free trial version of the software at
www.sisense.com

SiSense, 2012

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