Head of Data Science
UK

The median Head of Data Science salary in the UK is £122,500 per year according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months to 4 December 2023.

The first table below provides salary benchmarking and summary statistics including a comparison to same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
4 Dec 2023
Same period 2022 Same period 2021
Rank 731 1044 1062
Rank change year-on-year +313 +18 -328
Permanent jobs requiring a Head of Data Science 10 32 36
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.019% 0.026% 0.028%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.020% 0.027% 0.030%
Number of salaries quoted 9 25 20
10th Percentile £97,500 £84,250 £94,750
25th Percentile £98,750 £88,750 £97,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £122,500 £97,500 £105,000
Median % change year-on-year +25.64% -7.14% -4.55%
75th Percentile £142,500 £115,000 £113,125
90th Percentile £165,750 £134,500 £115,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £122,500 £95,000 £105,000
% change year-on-year +28.95% -9.52% -4.55%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
UK

The following table is for comparison with the above and includes summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 50,797 118,142 122,028
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 95.42% 95.32% 95.15%
Number of salaries quoted 37,144 73,821 84,079
10th Percentile £31,250 £32,750 £32,000
25th Percentile £42,500 £45,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £60,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year - +4.35% +4.55%
75th Percentile £80,000 £81,250 £77,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £98,750 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year - +5.00% +5.26%

Head of Data Science
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Head of Data Science in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Head of Data Science in the UK

Head of Data Science
Salary Trend

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing Head of Data Science.

Salary trend for Head of Data Science in the UK

Head of Data Science
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Head of Data Science over the 6 months to 4 December 2023.

Salary histogram for Head of Data Science in the UK

Head of Data Science
Top 7 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Head of Data Science within the UK over the 6 months to 4 December 2023. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +313 10 £122,500 +25.64% 2
London +250 7 £135,000 +38.46% 2
UK excluding London +240 2 £122,500 +28.95%
North of England +151 2 £122,500 +28.95%
Work from Home +227 1 £122,500 +28.95% 2
North West +105 1 - -
Yorkshire +93 1 £122,500 -

Head of Data Science Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 4 December 2023, Head of Data Science job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads featuring Head of Data Science in the job title.

1 10 (100.00%) Data Science
2 9 (90.00%) Machine Learning
2 9 (90.00%) Python
3 8 (80.00%) Degree
3 8 (80.00%) R
4 7 (70.00%) AWS
4 7 (70.00%) SQL
5 6 (60.00%) Azure
5 6 (60.00%) Analytics
6 5 (50.00%) Master's Degree
6 5 (50.00%) GCP
7 4 (40.00%) Power BI
7 4 (40.00%) Decision-Making
7 4 (40.00%) Visualisation
7 4 (40.00%) Computer Science
7 4 (40.00%) Marketing
7 4 (40.00%) Power Platform
8 3 (30.00%) Google
8 3 (30.00%) Statistical Analysis
8 3 (30.00%) Mathematics
8 3 (30.00%) PhD
8 3 (30.00%) Business Intelligence
8 3 (30.00%) Data Analysis
8 3 (30.00%) Natural Language Processing
8 3 (30.00%) Tableau
9 2 (20.00%) Data Transformation
9 2 (20.00%) Data Visualisation
9 2 (20.00%) Predictive Modelling
9 2 (20.00%) Data-Driven Decision Making
9 2 (20.00%) Actionable Insight

Head of Data Science Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 1 (10.00%) Apache Airflow
1 1 (10.00%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 2 (20.00%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 7 (70.00%) AWS
2 6 (60.00%) Azure
3 5 (50.00%) GCP
4 4 (40.00%) Power Platform
5 2 (20.00%) Google Analytics
6 1 (10.00%) Adobe Analytics
6 1 (10.00%) Azure Cognitive Services
6 1 (10.00%) Cloud Computing
6 1 (10.00%) dbt
6 1 (10.00%) GitHub
6 1 (10.00%) Google Data Studio
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (40.00%) Power BI
2 3 (30.00%) Tableau
3 1 (10.00%) Big Data
3 1 (10.00%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 1 (10.00%) Git
General
1 4 (40.00%) Marketing
2 2 (20.00%) Finance
3 1 (10.00%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (10.00%) Automotive
3 1 (10.00%) Social Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (20.00%) PyTorch
1 2 (20.00%) scikit-learn
2 1 (10.00%) Kafka
2 1 (10.00%) XGBoost
Miscellaneous
1 1 (10.00%) Algorithms
1 1 (10.00%) Taxonomies
Processes & Methodologies
1 10 (100.00%) Data Science
2 9 (90.00%) Machine Learning
3 6 (60.00%) Analytics
4 4 (40.00%) Computer Science
4 4 (40.00%) Decision-Making
4 4 (40.00%) Visualisation
5 3 (30.00%) Business Intelligence
5 3 (30.00%) Data Analysis
5 3 (30.00%) Mathematics
5 3 (30.00%) Natural Language Processing
5 3 (30.00%) Statistical Analysis
6 2 (20.00%) Artificial Intelligence
6 2 (20.00%) Data Interpretation
6 2 (20.00%) Data Transformation
6 2 (20.00%) Data Visualisation
6 2 (20.00%) Data-Driven Decision Making
6 2 (20.00%) ETL
6 2 (20.00%) Logistics
6 2 (20.00%) Predictive Modelling
6 2 (20.00%) Statistics
Programming Languages
1 9 (90.00%) Python
2 8 (80.00%) R
3 7 (70.00%) SQL
4 1 (10.00%) C
4 1 (10.00%) C++
4 1 (10.00%) Scala
Qualifications
1 8 (80.00%) Degree
2 5 (50.00%) Master's Degree
3 3 (30.00%) PhD
4 1 (10.00%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (20.00%) Actionable Recommendations
Vendors
1 3 (30.00%) Google
2 1 (10.00%) Adobe
2 1 (10.00%) DataRobot