Data Scientist Salary in South African Rands
In South Africa, data science has become one of the fastest-growing fields as the industrial sector is expanding day by day. In such circumstances, pursuing data science as a career is a wise decision because the field has more scope than all others and one gets a respectable job. But a question arises here: how much does a data scientist earn per month?
The earnings and allowances of a data scientist depend upon a list of factors such as the type of job and years of experience. But it is certain that a data scientist earns more than a teacher or lawyer in South Africa. Let’s break down the financial details of data scientists and explore their incomes.
Data Scientist Salary In South Africa
Data science is a newly developed field in which people deal with different kinds of data; gathering or analyzing it. There are more job opportunities available for data scientists as compared to other careers because every year a few graduates come out of universities. The reason behind the shortage of data scientists is because of ambiguous and conservative educational trends in South Africa.
Moving on further, the average salary of a data scientist is about R47,694 per month in which allowances are not included. According to an estimation, the average data scientist gets R286 per hour and R12,342 per week. The per year salary of a data scientist is R673,621 depending on the conditions and currency rate.
If you are unable to understand salaries without comparisons, the average data scientist in the United States gets $8790 per month which is far better than the SA. The per hour salary of a data scientist in the USA is $53.18 whereas the average per year salary is $124,156. You may question the huge difference between SA and USA data scientist salaries but there is a valid reason behind the discrimination; first, the USA has better currency and second, the inflation in the USA is more than SA.
What Are the Responsibilities Of Data Scientists?
The income is more than our expectations but here another question arises what are the responsibilities of a data scientist? As the name suggests, a data scientist deals with data gathering, filtering, and so on. I have mentioned the responsibilities of a data scientist, see below!
1. Collecting & Cleaning Data
The first step is to collect data from different sources such as social media posts or different websites. For example, if a company wants to target the audience more effectively for advertisement then the data scientist will collect information from all the possible sources to understand which age or gender audience purchases the product more than others.
Then he cleans the data such as identifying missing links, removing the value, correcting errors, and avoiding duplicate values. He uses different methods in which statistical analysis is more famous while he also uses a few advanced software.
2. Analysing Data
Then comes the second phase in which he analyses the data by making charts, and graphs and sharing them with other counterparts. He also develops visuals for other people so that they can understand statistics effortlessly and use different smart platforms to analyze the data. If you are familiar with the statics terms descriptive analysis and inferential statistical approaches, they are used to analyze the data in different ways.
3. Develop Models & Results
At the end of the research, the data scientist develops a few models so the company can target the desired audience effectively. These results are tested and then implemented on a small scale. As the results show an optimistic indication, the models are implemented on a larger audience.
What Determines The Salary Of A Data Scientist?
Basically, there are different factors that influence the salary of the data scientists such as their experience level, their qualification, and validity of the degree. In all these, government policies and inflation plays a major role in their salaries. But it is true that the salary is divided into a few levels, the entry-level data scientist earns less than the experienced and senior ones.
| Experience Level | Salary Range In Rand |
| Entry-Level | R325,503 |
| Experienced | R718,734 |
| Senior-Level | R988,409 |
- Experience: The salary depends upon experience, the higher experience one has regarding data science, the better salary one will get.
- Location: If you are living in a city, then the chances are high that you will get more salary than average people but in small districts the salary is low.
- Government Policies: According to the authors, data scientists cannot get more pay than a certain limit. On the other hand, the salaries in government sectors are less than the private firms.
- Inflation: If the prices go up, there are chances that the salary will follow the inflation rate.
What do you need to be a data scientist in South Africa?
The applicants are required to complete a graduation degree in Data Science.
What does a data scientist do in South Africa?
A data scientist deals with different data problems such as managing data, filtering and cleaning, or developing models according to the existing data.
How many years does it take to become a data scientist in South Africa?
It takes 3 to 4 years to complete graduation and become a data scientist.
What is the biggest challenge for a data scientist?
The biggest challenge for a data scientist is handling processing and managing data sheets.
Where do data scientists work in South Africa?
Data scientists work in different fields such as IT, advertising companies, or in the fields of technicians.
A data scientist is one of the most respected positions in a firm as he deals with the entire data of the company and develops models. An average data scientist’s job is based on multiple responsibilities such as handling the models or sharing the results or using the relevant tools. Anyhow, I have explained how much a data scientist earns per month and what are his responsibilities, I hope this information will help you in the future.
