[R] The “Data Scientist” title is the worst paying title in ML (EMEA).

I’ve been recruiting in tech for 12 years, mostly ML/Data roles across Europe. After watching hundreds of talented Data Scientists over the last year get systematically lowballed in negotiations, I started to dig.

So I spent the last few months scraping 350K+ tech salaries across Europe live tech jobs to see if there are any patterns.

What I found shocked me….”Data Scientist” is the worst-paying title in ML/Data:

Average salaries across all European cities (386k salary datapoints):

• MLOps Engineer: €160K
• ML Platform Engineer: €155K
• Machine Learning Engineer: €152K
• Data Scientist: €127K

Why is this? – in my opinion a “Data Scientist” became a catch-all term, im even hearing of a ‘Full Stack Data Scientist’. Every company has dilluted the Data Scientist role responsibilities whilsts others are fragmenting the role out more.

Here are the top hiring cities for Tech in EMEA and the Location comparison (Senior Data Scientist salaries + COL):

• London: €142K salary | Cost of Living baseline (100%)
• Amsterdam: €135K salary | 25% cheaper Cost of Living = best value after rent
• Paris: €116K salary | only 5% cheaper Cost of Living = worst deal
• Berlin: €92K salary | 40% cheaper Cost of Living

Amsterdam pays 95% of London with 25% lower cost of living. That’s €10K+ more in your pocket annually.

My advice:

• If you are a Data Scientist with MLOps or MLE experience, maybe switch up your title.
• If you’re a Data Scientist negotiating your next role, know as much as you can about the current market rate.