Data Visualization

Data Visualization Jobs

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Data visualization is an area of expertise that is now in high demand. More businesses find themselves needing experts capable of effectively communicating ideas and insights with their audience. For that reason, data visualization jobs are now some of the fastest-growing and highly stable careers in the market. The compensation packages and flexibility afforded to data visualization specialists are distinctly above-average.

Here, we delve into the state of data visualization jobs in 2021. All the details you could want regarding the career paths, skills, and salary are right here.

Data Visualization for Freshers: In a Nutshell

Data visualization pertains to the systematic mapping between graphic marks and data values. Experts in this field primarily deal with the graphic representation of data. They communicate findings from large, complex datasets clearly and comprehensively using software such as Tableau and Python visualizer.

Key Responsibilities:

Collecting data and analyzing them
Understanding patterns and trends from datasets
Creating static and interactive data visualizations
Visualizing data into clear and attractive graphics
Maintaining data systems
Collaborating with other data scientists to meet business needs

Basic Requirements:

Data visualization job prospects should have a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Management Information Systems, Information Technology, or any related field.

Salary Range:

$88,020 up to $154,500

Data Visualization for Beginners

Data visualization is an interesting career. It belongs to technical, straightforward industries that prioritize facts, measurements, and statistics.

However, the very nature of it is visual, creative, and artistic. A data visualization specialist needs to know how to interpret data, simplify it, and present it via a suitable visual format to make it more accessible and easier to understand.

This is much easier said than done!

Career Caveats

If a data visualization specialist doesn’t understand the data or misinterprets it, the reliability and accuracy of their presentation are compromised.

If they understand it but fail to uncover the patterns or correlations in the data (or even the lack thereof), their presentation will also reveal nothing.

This is why the ability to translate text-based data and create a coherent visual arrangement based on it is in high demand. This is because businesses and corporations have to fight for the audience’s attention every day.

The history of data visualization shows that there’s always data that needs to be presented to a specific audience. That audience will most likely have an easier time consuming data presented visually because the human brain is programmed to process images faster than text.

Career Popularity

In 2019, data visualization and data presentation were considered among the top 25 hottest tech skills that could get you hired. Analysts believe that the rise of digital platforms and social media networks has led to the exponential increase in demand for this expertise. There are more data visualization job openings now than there were 10 to 15 years ago.

But exactly what is a data visualization specialist?

Data Visualization Specialist Job Description

Disclaimer: This is a general job description for this position. Every employer will have different criteria for hiring.

What Is Data Visualization?

As the name suggests, data visualization involves gathering data, interpreting it, and then presenting it via visual media or strategies. This visual presentation makes it so that the data is universally understood and easy to interpret. This also makes it easier to spot linear developments, trends, relationships, patterns, and correlations.

Common Data Visualization Types:

Diagrams
Pictographs
Infographics
Charts
Graphs
Maps

Data Visualization Employment Profiles

Being a certified data visualization specialist isn’t the only career that requires data visualization. In fact, you may be surprised to learn how many jobs require one to be a data visualization specialist on top of their actual title.

Data Officer

This is a strategic job that requires solid analytical, management, and collaboration skills. As a data officer, you’re tasked with overseeing, collecting, and storing all the data that your team pulls. Data visualization training entails analyzing each bit of data that comes in. You must be able to quickly evaluate its usefulness or relevance to your project. You must also be able to discern whether the data is valid using industry-standard metrics applicable to your situation, so attention to detail is crucial.

In most cases, data officers are also expected to find new, reliable sources of data.

Data visualization comes into play when you’re expected to analyze and present data to further illustrate your methods, data roadmaps, or recommended action plans.

Data Engineer

As a data visualization engineer, your job is to translate data into a useful format for others—specifically data analysts and data scientists. You’re expected to somehow make the data as accessible as possible for other people without stripping it down too far. You’ll need to create a robust data filtration system or pipeline that cleans unorganized data and aggregates it into a manageable database.

Data engineer jobs typically focus less on the data and more on how the data can be managed. As a data engineer, your responsibilities may include installing disaster recovery systems and compiling databases. This is where data visualization skills come into play.

There are three areas of specialization for data engineers: generalist, pipeline-centric, and database-centric.

Generalist data engineers are, as the term suggests, the jack-of-all-trades. They retrieve data, review it, clean it, build a pipeline for it (if none exists yet), and then run a final analysis.

This can be quite an overwhelming position for some, since you’re expected to handle the data at all points of the preparation stage. When a data engineer plays a “general” role, they usually end up doing more end-to-end work that has more to do with data science than actual engineering.

Data engineers who possess more knowledge about robust systems architecture than exploratory data analysis are more suited as pipeline-centric data engineers.

You’d work with teams of data scientists to design and create a filtration system to clean piles of data—hence the term, pipeline—and transform them into usable formats for analysis and review. You’d have to have in-depth knowledge of computer science and software architecture.

A database-centric data engineer, on the other hand, is dedicated to creating databases and populating them. They may briefly work with data pipelines, but their forte lies in creating solid, reliable sources for data to stay in and be retrieved easily. They’re usually in charge of creating, maintaining, and updating data warehouses.

Data Analyst

As the name suggests, a data analyst’s job is to analyze data. You’re expected to provide on-going insights and information based on the data that your team has pulled. The primary skill you need for this job is data analysis. Secondary skills involve attention to detail, problem-solving, and critical thinking. You’re expected to identify and interpret trends, correlations, and patterns—both current and potential—in the information presented to you. From there, you must draw insights that are relevant to your current project.

There is a bit of management involved in data analyst jobs too. You may be expected to handle deliverables or draw up realistic timelines/deadlines based on your understanding of the data. You may also need to work closely with other teams or data analysts to work through project issues or concerns.

As a data analyst, the need to visually present your findings in a way that other departments—especially the non-data or non-tech ones—can understand may arise as well.

Daily Responsibilities of a Data Visualization Specialist

Before looking up “data visualization jobs near me,” you need to know what the day-to-day tasks of data visualization specialists look like.

Most careers are constantly gathering data, day in and day out. Even if you aren’t required to present them on the same day, the data still needs to be curated, organized, and prepared for presentation.

In many entry-level data visualization jobs, you may or may not be expected to do the following tasks every day. However, you’ll definitely do them more than once throughout your employment.

Gather requested data or collect data from an assigned team
Translate or improve said data based on specific business/client requirements
Simplify complex data
Determine the most informative indicator from datasets
Make complex data usable and more accessible
Data federation, or combining data or data results across different sources
Deliver data in a visually appealing way
Deliver data in a way that is comprehensive and easily understood
Prepare visual representations for different implementation or research purposes
Review existing data visualizations for inaccuracies, inefficiencies, or misrepresentations
Review existing data visualizations to spot trends and patterns
Collaborate with a team for feedback and review regarding data visualizations
Create data visualization standards or guidelines

Overall, data visualization specialists must know how to interpret data and how to present said data in a universally appealing way. A data visualization specialist can even be referred to as a data visualization designer because of the artistic nature of their work. This includes knowing how to impart messages using colors, images, and other design principles.

Data Visualization: Key Areas of Expertise

To be a data visualization specialist, you need to have excellent analytical skills, math skills, communication skills, and—of course—visualization skills. You need to be able to parse trends and correlations from large amounts of data. You need to be able to work with complex information without getting overwhelmed.

Critical thinking and attention to detail are also valuable areas of expertise that come into play. You must be able to see what no one else sees in large blocks of text-based data to draw all potential conclusions.

There are essentially two stages to data visualization: data analysis and data presentation.

Data Analysis: This is where you interpret and break down data (usually text-based data) to find patterns, draw conclusions, or extract useful information. Data analysts must have a solid grasp of industry-standard database languages (like SQL or Python) and database tools (like Microsoft Excel).

Data Presentation: This is where you translate data into visuals. Data presenters must be familiar with data presentation architecture. They must also know how to operate data visualization tools and software to produce clear, concise, and eye-catching visuals. The creation of the visualization is made using programs such as Tableau, Google Charts, and QlikView.

Data Visualization Jobs Salary

According to ZipRecruiter, the average annual pay for a data visualization specialist in the U.S. is $88,037. That figure is as of March 2020.

Of course, an employee’s level of experience affects their income. An entry-level data visualization jobs salary differs from senior data visualization jobs salary.

As an entry-level data visualization specialist with a year (or less) of experience can expect annual compensation of roughly $61,637. Experienced data visualization specialists with more than 10 years’ worth of experience can earn $97,508.

In general, the salary range for data visualization jobs in US can go as high as $154,500 or as low as $22,500 annually. ZipRecruiter pegged the average hourly salary of a data visualization specialist between $30 and $50 an hour, or $1,183 to $2,019 a week.

Data Visualization Jobs From Home

When it comes to data projects, 80% of the work is in preparing the data. This includes gathering it, cleaning it, and translating it. That being said, data preparation is rarely handled by only one or two people. It often takes a team to get it to a place where it’s usable and accessible. Needless to say, information visualization—without the preparation—is tough to sell as freelance work.

But freelance data visualization jobs are definitely possible. You’ll need to collaborate seamlessly with data engineers or data analysts to review the data in real-time, give your feedback, and then translate the final pile into a visual format. Keep in mind though that many companies would prefer working with data visualization specialists who are in it for the long run.

Management Position Possibility

There are plenty of opportunities for career growth in data visualization. Whether in similar fields such as data engineering or other related fields in data science, you have options to advance your career as you gain more experience and further hone your abilities.

A large data visualization company may offer senior positions where you can lead teams of data visualization specialists and collaborate with data analysts. Meanwhile, career advancements offered by small businesses are more limited.

Data Visualization Jobs 2021: A Salary Breakdown

Different variables affect the salary of a data visualization specialist. This includes the hours per week, hours per day, employment level, and employee location.

For instance, according to ZipRecruiter, a data visualization specialist located in Bayside, California can earn $92,982 annually.

However, a data visualization specialist at the same employment level working in Albany, New York earns $96,926 a year.

Best/Worst Paid Cities

Right now, the top locations for data visualization jobs are Seattle, Washington, and Arlington, Virginia. According to Payscale, professionals in these areas are earning 10% more than the national average.

New York, New York, and Houston, Texas are also compensated quite well, with salaries that are 5% and 4% above the national average respectively.

On the other hand, data visualization specialists in Boston, Massachusetts earn a surprising 15% less than the national average.

Close behind Boston is Washington, District of Columbia with 13% below the average.

Freelance Careers in Data Visualization

Most data projects can take three to six months to complete. And when they’re finished, there’s usually another project waiting.

A project manager or business owner is more likely to hire someone long-term. This way, they won’t need to onboard the specialist or explain the standard company procedures every project.

By working in-person with a data team, you eliminate the risk of wasting time or delaying projects due to a lack of real-time communication. What’s more, discussions can become less productive if one party is constantly waiting on the other for a reply.

However, data visualization is definitely a viable option as a freelance career. Remote data visualization jobs are possible considering that most data today is gathered, managed, and maintained digitally. With enough processing power on both ends, your project manager can easily send you the data that needs to be translated and presented.

Data Visualization Education

To be a certified data visualization professional, you’ll need to have gone through some sort of legally recognized program. You can also go undergo a data visualization internship or training courses. These courses guarantee employers that you have the skills and knowledge needed to be a data visualization specialist.

The benefits of studying for a data visualization career is that certification for it can be done both online and offline.

Offline Options

Columbia University, for instance, offers a non-degree Certification of Professional Achievement in Data Sciences course (minimum of 12 credits). This certificate would prove useful for young professionals looking to secure a career in data visualization or other big data jobs.

Meanwhile, the KPI Institute offers a specific course to become a Certified Data Visualization Professional.

Online Options

Popular online academies and online class platforms like Udemy and SkillShare also offer in-depth training courses that cover the essentials. These don’t always come free, of course, but the data visualization certification is well worth the investment.

Free/Low-Cost Courses

For those looking for a more affordable crash course, there are over a dozen nationally recognized online courses and programs. From LinkedIn Learning courses that offer training for data visualization tools like Tableau and Python to MIT Open Courseware classes that offer comprehensive notes, flowcharts, and diagrams on the subject matter.

So what would you need to be a certified data visualization professional?

It truly depends on your employer. Some corporations will probably require a certificate in data visualization on top of a college degree. Others may be happy with just a well-made portfolio and a passing score on a skill test. And still, others could be extremely strict with their standards.

Take note: it’s not uncommon for some employers to expect you to have taken some sort of degree in data science or data analysis. They might also not accept certifications from online academies.

Thankfully, the industry is changing. More and more business owners do recognize and accept that online data visualization courses are just as effective as ones taken in the real world.

As long as you have a legal certificate or degree in the data visualization field, you shouldn’t have to fight too hard for recognition.

Data Visualization Technical Skills

What technical skills do you need to have a career path in data visualization?

As you can imagine, there are quite a few. After all, data visualization roles all have something to do with data, which—in this day and age—is always digital. You need to know certain technical languages and complicated tools to understand data and visually present it.

We managed to summarize these technical skills into five important skillsets.

Data Analysis

When you’re given data to present, you must be able to understand what you’re looking at. You must be able to see the message in the data and critically examine it for anything the data analyst or scientist might have missed.

It’s crucial for you to know how to review the data for potential errors. You are the final point of contact before the data is immortalized into a visual format.

Math Skills

As a data visualization specialist, you’ll need to be comfortable with numbers and percentages. A lot of data involves numbers or figures. And to properly assess and analyze results, you’ll need skills in representation math and descriptive statistics. Even if you don’t do the actual calculations themselves, you still need to know the right functions or equations to input in your database tools.

Python Data Visualization and Other Languages

Database languages are used for database creation and management. To be a data visualization specialist, you must know the answer to: how do you visualize data? You must also be able to work with such databases to access, edit, or return the data you extract. You may, from time to time, also need to create new databases to temporarily store the data before translating it.

SQL and Python are two of the most commonly used database languages in the market.

Database Tools

Database tools refer to platforms, programs, and software that you can use to perform common database administrative tasks (like data entry, data management, organization, etc.). Common database tools include Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, MySQL, and Microsoft Access. As a data visualization developer, you need to know how to use these tools to further manage and organize the data you receive.

Data Visualization Tools/Programs

What are data visualization tools? Fundamentally, these are used by data visualization specialists to create visual presentations. From charts to videos, infographics to interactive mediums, big data visualization tools like Tableau and Google Charts are the cutting-edge solutions to visual data communication.

To be a successful data visualization specialist, you must know how to work with such platforms.

Data Visualization Non-Technical Skills

What soft skills should a data visualization specialist have?

General Analytical Skills

It’s good to be able to analyze information in general—not just data, but situations and circumstances too. Being analytical will help you make better choices when it comes to deciding how to visually represent the information you have.

Ability to “See the Bigger Picture”

Your visual perception and data visualization will depend heavily on how you understand the data. Being able to see the bigger picture gives you a better chance of noticing trends and patterns in certain datasets.

Mental Compartmentalization

As a data visualization specialist, you’re expected to juggle a lot of tasks: analyzing data, reviewing it, translating it, creating visual presentations, among others. There’s a lot to do, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed if you don’t know how to compartmentalize and focus on different tasks at a time.

Critical Thinking

This will prove to be useful when you need to decide which areas of the data (even clean data) are worth presenting.

Communication Skills

Visually representing data requires a solid grasp of communication. The whole point of data visualization is to make the data widely accessible and understandable. Having the skill to communicate will help you better translate your insights into images.

Conclusion

Just as there will always be a demand for data, so will there be a demand for data visualization specialists. Data visualization jobs are now widespread. Nearly every industry needs professionals capable of understanding data and sharing said data to the community. This age of connectivity has placed a high premium on communication. People who can successfully share information with the average consumer are widely sought after.

Needless to say, there’s no better time to be a data visualization specialist!

But if you want to be seen in a rapidly growing market, you must make sure that you meet the necessary data visualization skills and requirements. Data visualization roles can be quite rewarding, as long as you’re working for reputable companies and employers. What’s more, it requires a fairly exciting blend of both technical and soft skills, making it one of those rare data-centric jobs that aren’t too linear or too repetitive.

This also makes it fairly flexible, with plenty of opportunities for remote work. And given its digital nature, offering freelance data visualization services is a viable option.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is data visualization a growing field?

Yes, definitely!

Before the age of technology—and the internet—there wasn’t as much need for people to translate highly technical data into user-friendly visual formats. There was a disconnect between data and the average consumer. If they couldn’t understand the data, then it probably didn’t concern them.

All that is changing now. Corporations understand the importance of data visualization—of sharing data with their audience, and it’s their responsibility to ensure the audience understands. This kind of shift in sharing information leads people to regard data visualization career options as attractive and highly ideal.

Which programming language is best for data visualization?

There are several programming languages that you can use for big data visualization. Some of the best and widely used languages are Python, JavaScript, and R.

A Python statistics library is ideal for novices because it offers a quick and simple generation of informative and visually appealing statistical graphics. It’s beginner-friendly and convenient for processing data and importing datasets. It’s also used in extensive data analyses. Familiarity with this programming language comes in handy if you choose to get into specific Python jobs in the future.

With JavaScript, there’s quite a huge selection of libraries to choose from that will help simplify data processing. Many of them are free to use and intuitive, making it easier for you to build powerful and effective graphical displays.

Lastly, there’s the R language. Made specifically for statistical analysis, R is open-source and typically used to uncover trends and patterns from complex datasets.

What does a data visualization specialist do?

Data visualization specialists use specific programs and software to create graphics based on data collection, analysis, and interpretation. It’s all about placing data in a visual context. Recent advancements in 3D and VR technology are paving the way for more intuitive and more interactive data visualizations.

Plus, the industry is currently testing out new and improved visual representation mediums that are more intuitive and more interactive. AI is slowly becoming a part of data visualization. Unlike machine learning jobs though, you won’t necessarily need to know how to build or create artificially intelligent media just yet.

Why pursue a career in data visualization?

A career in data visualization helps you make invaluable contributions to your field and community. The best thing about it is that it’s not limited to only one field. Data visualization is essential for every organization. Powerful and comprehensible graphics are needed in healthcare, finance, and disaster recovery, among others.

Aside from this, there’s also substantial pay for data visualization jobs. Depending on where you are and your level of experience, you can earn roughly $80,000 to $90,000 a year with plenty of opportunities for promotion and bonuses. Specifically, the salary for data visualization jobs in Washington, DC is $92,829 or $45 an hour. Meanwhile, the salary for data visualization jobs in Seattle is a bit higher at $95,638 annually. Lastly, data visualization jobs in New York can earn you an average income of $96,296.