Data Specialist
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
A Data Specialist uses software to store and organize data, such as an organization's records or financial information. Facilitates user and client access to information stored in databases. Ensures accuracy and efficient maintenance of data.
Job Outlook
There were 657 Data Specialist job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 21910 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Data Warehousing Specialist industry, which includes the Data Specialist career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:
Salary
Many new Data Specialist jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.
National
The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $92,798.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $97,561.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Data Specialist postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $65,633.
Education and Experience
Posted Data Specialist jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.
| Education Level | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Associate's Degree | 0% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 48.13% |
| Master's Degree | 11.82% |
| Doctoral Degree | 2.7% |
| Other | 18.05% |
Posted Data Specialist jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Years of Experience | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 0 to 2 years | 38.16% |
| 3 to 5 years | 41.37% |
| 6 to 8 years | 12.58% |
| 9+ years | 7.89% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Data Specialist positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.
Baseline Skills
A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.
- Communication (44.47%)
- Management (33.79%)
- Detail Oriented (26.49%)
- Problem Solving (22.87%)
- Microsoft Excel (22.14%)
- Research (19.95%)
- Operations (19.84%)
- Writing (17.21%)
- Microsoft Office (16.94%)
- Leadership (16.77%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- Data Management (30.08%)
- Data Analysis (29.56%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Workflow Management (13.62%)
- Agile Methodology (6.72%)
- Auditing (16.95%)
- Automation (7.91%)
- Dashboard (10.94%)
- Microsoft Azure (3.8%)
- Business Intelligence (5.76%)
- Data Integrity (13.35%)
- Python (Programming Language) (10.25%)
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) (5.73%)
- Extract Transform Load (ETL) (8.72%)
- Data Governance (16.74%)
- Data Modeling (7.99%)
- Data Collection (12.47%)
- Data Quality (21.61%)
- Data Visualization (9.23%)
- Computer Science (15.74%)
- Data Entry (16.85%)
- Data Warehousing (6.01%)
- Finance (9.55%)
- Project Management (18.08%)
- Process Improvement (11.05%)
- SAP Applications (7.47%)
- SQL (Programming Language) (23.1%)
- Power BI (9.75%)
- Data Science (7.38%)
- Tableau (Business Intelligence Software) (10.06%)
Salary Boosting Skills
A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is listed.
- Data Analysis (93.6%)
- Metadata Management (9.46%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Data Specialist skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Data Steward
- Research Data Specialist
- Data Management Specialist
- Data Integrity Specialist
- Master Data Specialist
- Database Specialist
- Knowledge Management Specialist
- Data Migration Specialist
- Oncology Data Specialist
Similar Occupations
If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.
- Data Manager
- Data Quality Analyst
- Data Analyst
- Financial Data Analyst
- Business Analysis Manager
- Healthcare Analyst
- Operations Analyst (General)
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Data Specialist jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- Accenture (283)
- Sedgwick (198)
- Elevance Health (194)
- Deloitte (164)
- Contact Government Services (141)
- Computer Services (140)
- UnitedHealth Group (139)
- Humana (117)
- Insight Global (114)
- Apple (112)
North Carolina
- Truist Financial (31)
- Accenture (15)
- HCL Technologies (9)
- IQVIA (9)
- Duke University (8)
- University of North Carolina (7)
- Wells Fargo (7)
- Insight Global (6)
- Institute For Medical Research (6)
- Elevance Health (6)
NC State Programs Relevant to this Career
If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!
All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.