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The 3 Roles of a Data Scientist

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infby Angela Guess

Ed Jones recently wrote in InfoQ, “Already crowned as the best job in America for 2016, the definition and skill set required to be a data scientist is in a constant state of flux… Dave Holtz writes that the title ‘data scientist’ is often used as a blanket title to describe a set of jobs that are drastically different. He attributes this to the fact that the field of data science is still in its infancy and so is ill-defined. Adopting the all-encompassing sub-title of being part of an ‘interdisciplinary field’, a data scientist works to extract knowledge or insights from large volumes of data in various forms… The [above] diagram shows the skillsets required for a Data Scientist. As we can see, this responsibility is a combination of multiple skillsets and expertise compared to a typical Big Data Developer or Business Analyst.”

Jones continues, “Rivera and Haverson suggest that, whilst previous data professionals were concerned with focusing on past movements and interpretation of data, a data scientist tends to be more mathematically focused- concentrating on providing an insight into future patterns identified from past and current data. If one takes the two words literally – ‘science’ implying knowledge gained through systematic study; ‘data’ being an information set of qualitative or quantitative variables – a data scientist can therefore be defined literally as one who systematically studies the organisation and property of information. Notwithstanding the crucial role of statisticians and others who study data analytics, the role of a data scientist, described by Anjul Bhambari as part analyst, part artist, is set to revolutionise the way that traditional data is analysed and used.”

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Photo credit: InfoQ

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