Career Perspectives

There is a serious demand for people with data analytics skills, and it's projected to climb even higher in the coming years. Canada's Big Data Consortium estimated that in 2018, the overall national shortage of professionals with deep analytical skills was in the range of 14,000 to 19,000—and the shortage of data literate managers and analysts was about 150,000. The shortfall has not been fulfilled yet and the demand gap continues to grow.

Employment opportunities

• Data scientists in large private or public organizations
• Data analyst positions in:
  • Software development
  • Business intelligence
  • Medical/health research
  • Data management
• Strategic analysis manager positions of policy-making bodies of government and organizations
• Data architect designers of social networks and communication networks

Data science continues to evolve as one of the most promising and in-demand career paths for skilled professionals. Today, successful data professionals understand that they must advance past the traditional skills of analyzing large amounts of data, data mining, and programming skills. In order to uncover useful intelligence for their organizations, data science professionals must master the full spectrum of the data science life cycle and possess a level of flexibility and understanding to maximize returns at each phase of the process.

Different roles and different responsibilities

Data Scientist

Data scientists examine which questions need answering and where to find the related data. They have business acumen and analytical skills as well as the ability to mine, clean, and present data. Businesses use data scientists to source, manage, and analyze large amounts of unstructured data. Results are then synthesized and communicated to key stakeholders to drive strategic decision-making in the organization.

Skills needed: Programming skills (SAS, R, Python), statistical and mathematical skills, storytelling and data visualization, Hadoop, SQL, machine learning

According to Talent.com data science professionals’ salary:

Data Scientist Salary

• The average data scientist salary in Canada is $95,022 per year
• Salary ranges from entry-level positions start at $77,000 per year to more experienced ones at $130,000 per year.

Data Analyst

Data analysts bridge the gap between data scientists and business analysts. They are provided with the questions that need answering from an organization and then organize and analyze data to find results that align with high-level business strategy. Data analysts are responsible for translating technical analysis to qualitative action items and effectively communicating their findings to diverse stakeholders.

Data Analyst: Programming skills (SAS, R, Python), statistical and mathematical skills, data wrangling, data visualization

According to Talent.com data analyst professionals’ salary:

Data Analyst Salary

• The average data analyst salary in Canada is $67,752 per year
• Salary ranges from entry-level positions start at $51,526 per year to more experienced ones at $91,607 per year.