I have a director level position at a < 500 person company. I manage a small team of data scientists, analysts, and engineers. I’m trying to plan out my next 18 months to make myself as marketable as possible. I am looking at Head of Data roles at companies like Affirm, Twitch, DoorDash, Twitter, etc. Can you even get TC over $500k in Data Science, or will I have to switch back to eng/PM to get that? What skills do I need to have to get a job with $500k+ TC in data science? TC: $330k
Rare
Maybe for IC but you think in management too?
Until you get to the high levels, management in big tech isn’t better off than ic. As it should be, usually.
How big is the team that you manage?
5 now, maybe 10 by the end of the year
I would venture with amazon l5 or maybe l6 if you really kill it during the interview. L5 SDM would definitely not hit 500k. L6 SDM would be a stretch too.
It’s not about what skills you have - it’s about how much $ you saved using data for these companies in various use cases - fraud, personalization for customers, predictive stuff...etc. The more $ you save or make for them, the bigger your TC gets. MHO.
Its very common for ML PhDs from ivy to get more then 800k.
Good point. Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be getting an ivy PhD.
I assume the only alternative to having those credentials (and get 800k+) is to publish some important ML paper right?
What kind of data science? Focus on delivering models to production? Can have TC equal or greater than swe
Possible at Twitch but you have to kill it. I know only about one L6 manager who is 500+. For head of data at Twitch, even as a director at a startup it is unlikely. It is Amazon leveling. You are looking at L6, maybe, just maybe L7. But for L7 you need to have a great growth story. managing people of 10+ and preferably grooming at least 1 IC into management.
Thanks, this is super helpful.
L7 is impossible at Amazon for this experience
staff ds or mle can easily get 500k in competitive company
Really??
Rare DS for most companies are future investment science project and what I have seen get max cut when things turn belly up.
L6 data scientists at G make over $500k. A friend is a director of data science at a ride sharing company and makes $600k+
Didn’t realize data science was as high as SWE at G
It’s slightly lower but close