Data Specialist
Career Area: Information Technology
Occupation Group: Database Specialists
Salary
Percentile wages tell how much a certain percentage of an overall population in a geographic area or within a given industry or field makes. The percentile wage estimate is the value of a wage below which a certain percent of workers fall.
An example would be the 25th percentile, 25 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 75 percent earn more than the estimated wage value. At the 75th percentile, 75 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 25 percent earn more than the estimated wage value.
A typical Data Specialist earns the following wages (national and state):
State
The average salary in North Carolina for those pursuing this career is $80,368
National
The average salary in the United States for those pursuing this career is $73,414
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
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.
Employment Trends
The job demand and job growth statistics shown here were derived from job posts over the past year. Expected job growth projections are extrapolated from year-over-year job post listing history.
Job demand and job growth is expected at the following rates:
| Location | Growth | |
|---|---|---|
| North Carolina | 480 | +10.7% |
| Nationwide | 10479 | +10.2% |
Skills
A professional in this position typically utilizes the following skills in the course of everyday work in this exciting and challenging field:
Baseline Skills
The following are baseline skills every Data Specialist is expected to have in order to experience success in this field:
- Communication Skills: The ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently.
- Teamwork / Collaboration: Experience working in collaborative efforts with a team to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in the most effective and efficient way.
- Microsoft Excel: Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet developed by Microsoft for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications.
- Problem Solving: Problem solving consists of using generic or ad hoc methods, in an orderly manner, for finding solutions to problems.
- Detail-Oriented: A detail oriented person is someone who pays attention to the details and can make a conscious effort to understand causes instead of just the effects, and that does this in a second nature type of way.
Specialized Skills
These skills are specific to working in this career:
- Data Management: Data management comprises all the disciplines related to managing data as a valuable resource.
- SQL: SQL ( ESS-kew-EL or SEE-kwl, Structured Query Language) is a domain-specific language used in programming and designed for managing data held in a relational database management system (RDBMS), or for stream processing in a relational data stream management system (RDSMS).
- Data Quality: Data quality refers to the condition of a set of values of qualitative or quantitative variables.
- Data Governance: Working experience of Data Governance, which is the data management of all the data which an organization has to ensure that high data quality exists throughout the complete lifecycle of the data. The key focus areas of data governance include availability, usability, consistency, data integrity and data security and includes establishing processes to ensure effective data management throughout the enterprise such as accountability for the adverse effects of poor data quality and ensuring that the data which an enterprise has can be used by the entire organization.
- Data Analysis: Data analysis, also known as analysis of data or data analytics, is a process of inspecting, cleansing, transforming, and modeling data with the goal of discovering useful information, suggesting conclusions, and supporting decision-making.
Distinguishing Skills
Any Data Specialist that possesses the following skills will stand out against the competition:
- Business Intelligence: Business Intelligence (BI) comprises the set of strategies, processes, applications, data, technologies and technical architectures which are used by enterprises to support the collection, data analysis, presentation and dissemination of business information.
- Informatica: Informatica is a software development company founded in 1993.
- Data Integration: Data integration involves combining data residing in different sources and providing users with a unified view of them.
- Data Validation: In computer science, data validation is the process of ensuring that a program operates on clean, correct and useful data.
- Data Mapping: Working experience of Data Mapping. In computing and data management, data mapping is the process of creating data element mappings between two distinct data models.
Experience
This position typically requires the following level of experience. The numbers presented in the pie charts below were derived from actual job posts over the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Experience Required | % |
| 0 to 2 years | 27% |
| 3 to 5 years | 34% |
| 6 to 8 years | 20% |
Many of the programs offered through NC State are designed for working professionals who need additional credentials to enhance existing work experience.
Students who do not have the expected level of experience may wish to look into internship and employment opportunities.
Common Job Titles
It is possible to find work in this field in positions commonly listed as the following job titles:
- Data Management Specialist
- Master Data Specialist
- Data Migration Specialist
- Manager, Data Management
- Senior Health Data Migration Engineer
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