What does the US data science job market look like in 2026?

766 (58%) roles are senior and above (senior, staff, lead, principal, manager, director or head in the title, or a senior level tag), against 80 (6%) entry level. Most of the rest name no level.

95 (7%) roles are remote. The board counts a role as remote only when its location says so.

752 (57%) roles are at employers with approved H-1B workers on the USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub (FY2023 to FY2026, data as of 30 June 2026), and 859 (65%) at employers with either that record or data scientist LCAs in the DOL LCA disclosure data.

In their own text, 19 (1.4%) postings say they sponsor and 113 (8.6%) say they will not. 641 (49%) roles are at employers found on the E-Verify employer search (data as of 6 November 2026), which matters for STEM OPT.

Across 2,361 employers, 7,410 certified H-1B LCAs with a data scientist title in FY2025 had a median offered wage of $137,500, with the middle half from $108,000 to $171,500 (DOL LCA disclosure data, downloaded 6 November 2026).

• Filter by the employer's record first if you need sponsorship: the data science board shows each role's USCIS record and the posting's own words.
• Entry-level data science roles are scarce; data analyst and analytics roles are a common way in, and the analyst board lists them separately.
• For STEM OPT, the employer must use E-Verify. Check the employer on the E-Verify list before accepting an offer.
• Use the LCA median as a reference for offered H-1B pay, not as the pay for a specific role.

• Sample: every live US role on realanalystjobs.com on 7 November 2026 whose title is in a data science family (data scientist, applied scientist, decision scientist, product or analytics data scientist, research scientist for data), with engineering titles, internships and postdocs left out. These roles are listed only on the data science pages, never on the analyst board. Reposting sites (Jobgether and Weekday) are left out.
• Seniority: entry level uses the board's entry-level rule; senior and above means senior, staff, lead, principal, manager, director or head in the title, or a senior or lead level tag; a role that is both counts as entry level. Remote means the location says remote.
• USCIS: the employer has at least one approved H-1B petition in FY2023 to FY2026, any occupation, matched by name. DOL: the employer is among the top filers of certified data scientist LCAs in FY2025, matched by name with no fuzzy matching.
• Posting statements: the board's posting classifier, read from each posting's own text.
• Every number is recomputed from the live data science list each time the page loads; the JSON download carries the same numbers.

• One board's live roles on one day. realanalystjobs.com reads a large set of company careers sites, not every US employer.
• USCIS records cover every occupation and are history, not a promise to sponsor a given role.
• A company outside the DOL export, or filing under an unusual legal name, shows as not in the export even if it filed LCAs.
• Data science titles are defined narrowly on purpose; machine learning engineer and data engineer roles are not counted.

• Salary of the open roles. Most postings state no pay, and the ones that do mix ranges and periods. The LCA wage is the offered wage on H-1B filings, reported as such.
• Hiring trend over time. The data science list started on 6 November 2026 and closed postings are not archived, so there is no history yet.

1. realanalystjobs.com data science list: Open US data science roles on 7 November 2026.
2. USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub: Approved H-1B petitions by employer, FY2023 to FY2026, data as of 30 June 2026.
3. DOL OFLC LCA Disclosure Data: Certified data scientist LCAs and offered wages, FY2025, downloaded 6 November 2026.
4. E-Verify employer search: Employers enrolled in E-Verify, data as of 6 November 2026.