Hi, I’m Patrick, I write about the job search. After graduating from Cornell, I became a content lead at UBS where I helped professionals at Fortune 500 companies understand their stock options, salary, and benefits. When I’m not writing about the hiring process, I write novels for teens.
The field of data science has boomed in the past 10 years as the tech industry continues to grow. According to the 2019 LinkedIn Emerging Jobs Report, data scientist roles have grown by 37% and AI specialist positions have increased by 74% annually. As more and more companies look to hire data scientists, machine learning specialists, and AI experts, the compensation rates continue to increase as well.
New York City is one of the most expensive cities in the country. Between the cost of living and the lucrative roles offered by some of the largest companies in the world, the average data scientist salary in NYC is fairly high. In addition, data scientists often have graduate and sometimes even doctoral degrees in the subject, which also generally contributes to increases their compensation.
If you are looking for data science roles and wondering how you can increase your data scientist salary in NYC, we can help. We have helped hundreds of people navigate their job search and negotiate 10-20% increases in salaries.
Average data scientist salary in NYC
The first step towards a successful negotiation is research. Learning about the average salary for your role can help you figure out a good starting point. However, even though you might know this information, never tell a recruiter or hiring manager a number or even a range. When you give them a number, then you put yourself in a box and it makes negotiations during the offer stage next to impossible. Let them know that you want to do some research so that you can understand the average compensation for the role.
Let’s take a look at some average salaries for data science roles in New York City. All of these numbers come from Glassdoor.
- Data analyst – $67,000
- Data scientist – $113,156
- Senior data scientist – $34,000
How to negotiate your data scientist salary in NYC
Once you have a sense of the average salary, you can start planning your negotiation. Don’t forget: recruiters expect that you will negotiate. Therefore, if you just take the first offer, you are almost certainly leaving money on the table. Plus, a higher starting salary can increase your net worth by hundreds of thousands of dollars as you move through your career. So, make sure you are confident and ready in your negotiations.
Most of the time, the offer stage starts with a verbal offer over the phone. While you might be really excited, try to stay calm and don’t agree to anything on the phone. Instead, thank them, let them know that you are happy about the opportunity, and then hang up! If the recruiter is trying to push you into accepting the offer over the phone, just tell them you need to look at the written offer and do some research.
Then, they should send you a written offer over email. Now that you have it written out, you can take your time a bit. Read the offer on your own and try to get feedback from mentors, family, and friends if you can. Make sure that you understand all of the points. Remember, compensation is not just your salary. It also includes perks like PTO, benefits, and equity. If you have questions about equity or any other element of the offer, ask someone or do some research online. A third party person would be better, like a mentor or family member, but you can also ask the recruiter directly so that you make sure you have the right information when you plan your negotiation.
Planning your negotiations
Once you understand the offer, you can plan what you will negotiate on. Your requests should depend on the type of company. For example, if you are negotiating with big tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon, you might see results on equity, relocation, signing bonuses, and other benefits. This is because they are generally known for giving high salaries and good benefits in the starting offer.
However, smaller startups might offer a lower salary to start. So, unless they explicitly mentioned that they cannot go higher, your first negotiation with them should be on salary. If they cannot increase it, turn your attention to bonuses, equity, and benefits, which all add to your total compensation. For more info on how to increase your salary, check out our guide.
With this background knowledge on the average data scientist salary in NYC and these tips, you should be able to successfully navigate offers for these roles and negotiate to increase your compensation.
Pathrise is a career accelerator that works with students and professionals 1-on-1 so they can land their dream job in tech. With our guidance, we’ve seen a 10-20% increase in salary from our fellows in the program.
If you want to work with our mentors 1-on-1 to get help with negotiation or with any other aspect of the job search, join Pathrise.
Apply today.
