The Middle East's growing demand for data scientists

New reports show rising demand for and rising cost of data professionals

As highlighted by Linkedin's 'Jobs on the rise' report last month, there is a growing demand for data scientists across the Middle East. One only has to take a look at the number of data science jobs being posted in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE to see how much the job market has changed. Pre-Covid data science was an exclusive club indeed, but the region's drive to accelerate digital transformation across public and private sectors has naturally fuelled demand for more data workers.

Employers typically look for data science, machine learning and data modeling skills, with advertising and marketing, ecommerce, financial services, ICT companies, management consultancy firms and big industrial players being some of the key recruiters of data workers across the region. 

There also appears to be demand across the spectrum of data analysis, data engineering and data science jobs, at both junior and senior levels. Global recruitment firm Michael Page, this week, published its 2022 salary guide, showing just how competitive packages are for UAE-based data professionals.

According to the report, top CDO jobs in the UAE seem to be able to command the equivalent $395-460k per annum, with heads of analytics and data science typically landing packages of $180k to $200k per annum and non-managerial data scientists earning between $82k and $148k per annum.

However, despite the growth in data jobs and the demand for data professionals, the Middle East still has a long way to go in its data journey. A recent survey by data analytics software vendor Alteryx and global research firm YouGov points out that a relative few employers of data teams are using them to the best affect and having reliable access to clean, trustworthy data is a primary concern. Of the data workers surveyed in the region, 27% reported that they spend more than six hours per week simply assessing whether their data sources can be trusted.

The roadblocks can be frustrating, but the latent economic potential of the region's data means that government departments, public services and big commercial enterprises are now moving quickly to organise both their data and their data teams. As KPMG's head of data science for Saudi Arabia puts it, the economic benefits of harnessing data analytics are vast.

Find out more about the data science job market:

• See Linkedin's 'Jobs on the rise' report.

• Download Michael Page's 2022 UAE salary guide.

• See the infographic from Alteryx/YouGov's 2021 data survey.

• Read KPMG's Mazhar Hussain's opinion piece in the Arab News.