Which Data Roles Are in Demand?

Bar chart showing percentage of companies hiring for each data role: Any Data Role 31%, Data Scientist 15%, Data Engineer 12%, ML Engineer 12%, Data Analyst 8%, Analytics Engineer 6%, Other 2%

Key Takeaways

Nearly a third of tech companies have at least one open data role
Data Scientist remains the most in-demand title
Data Engineer and ML Engineer are similar in demand
Analytics Engineer trails Data Analyst, despite growing buzz in the modern data stack community

Methodology

Analysis of ~25,000 US job postings from 858 tech startups and public companies, scraped weekly from Dec 2025 – Jan 2026. Roles identified by job title pattern matching. Shows % of companies with at least one active posting. Other includes BI, Applied Scientist, Decision Scientist.

James Riso

Founder, Riso Group

James is a data and AI strategy consultant who helps companies build scalable analytics infrastructure and data-driven growth strategies. Connect on LinkedIn.