The demand for qualified data scientists is at an all time high. The irony in this is few people actually know what a data scientist actually does. DATAVERSITY brought this interesting information to us in their article, “The Life of a Data Scientist.”

The most important thing to remember about a data scientist’s role is that expert applications of statistics, computer science, or mathematics alone will not solve business problems. The data scientist’s job is to first understand existing business processes, then identify the underlying problems, and then attempt solutions through data-driven technologies.

A data scientist’s role is actually the cross-functionality of project execution. A large amount of work time must be invested in aligning business goals with technology goals when it comes to data science. In a large enterprise with competing team agendas, the job of aligning teams across business groups, analytics teams, and technology experts can be a real challenge. This is where data scientist come in. As the automation process of data tasks such data cleansing, data governance, and data compliance continues to evolve, the hope is that data scientists will be left to focus more on unraveling patterns and proposing effective data solutions.

Melody K. Smith

Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.