Data Jobs Hiring Report — July 2026

Key facts

• As of July 2026, there are 4,389 open data jobs across 1,999 companies tracked directly from company Greenhouse, Lever and Ashby boards.
• Net new roles over the last 28 days: -28 (1,793 opened, 1,821 closed) — essentially flat, tilting slightly negative.
• 349 companies posted their first data role in the last 28 days, so new demand is entering even as the total holds steady.
• Median disclosed pay is $135,000–$174,667/yr, but only 13% of postings (n=126) show a band at all.
• Grafana Labs led net hiring with +11 roles, followed by Salmon Group, BEES and Headway at +9 each.

The headline this month is that the data job market isn't going anywhere — literally. Over the past 28 days companies opened 1,793 roles and closed 1,821, a net of minus 28 out of a 4,389-role pool. That's noise, not a trend. If you'd shown me these numbers without dates I couldn't tell you whether we're in an up month or a down month, and that flatness is the most honest thing I can say about where hiring sits right now.

What's more interesting than the net figure is the churn underneath it. Nearly 1,800 roles opened in a single 28-day window. Postings turn over fast, which means the stock of 4,389 openings you see today is not the same 4,389 you'd have seen a month ago. For a job seeker that's good news: a flat total made of high turnover means fresh listings land every day, and stale boards clear out. You should be checking the data jobs feed weekly, not monthly.

How many data jobs are open right now?

There are 4,389 open data jobs across 1,999 companies as of July 2026. That's a broad base — just over two roles per company on average — which tells you demand is spread across a lot of employers rather than concentrated in a handful of giant hirers. The long tail matters here. Most companies on the list have one or two data openings, not twenty.

The count of companies posting their first data role in the last 28 days — 349 — is the number I'd watch most closely. It means roughly one in six of the employers currently hiring for data weren't in the pool a month ago. New entrants are what keep a flat market from calcifying, and 349 is a healthy figure. These are the boards where you're not competing against a thousand applicants who saw the post three weeks ago.

Is data hiring growing or cooling?

It's holding flat, with a slight downward tilt over the last 28 days. Minus 28 net on a base of 4,389 is a rounding error — call it a hair under one percent. I wouldn't read cooling into that, and I certainly wouldn't read growth into it. The market is treading water at a decent depth.

The thing to understand about a flat-but-churning market is that it rewards timing over patience. Roles are opening and closing at roughly equal rates, so the supply you're looking at is genuinely live. Compare that to a market where a big total masks a pile of ghost listings that never get filled or removed. High turnover against a stable total is the sign of a functioning market, not a stagnant one. If you track month-over-month movement, the data movers page is where the week-to-week shifts show up first.

Which roles and functions dominate?

Engineering and analytics split the market almost evenly — 2,257 engineering roles against 2,020 in data analytics. Everything else is a rounding error: 81 in "other," 10 in product, 9 in operations, and a scatter of single-digit categories. So when we say "data jobs," we really mean two jobs. You're either building the pipelines and infrastructure, or you're analysing what flows through them.

That near-even split is worth sitting with. Analytics roles have historically trailed engineering in these boards, and seeing them within a couple hundred of each other says analytics demand is real and not just a rebrand of BI. If you're an analyst wondering whether the market still wants you as much as it wants engineers, the answer this month is: nearly as much.

What seniority levels are companies hiring for?

Senior is the dominant disclosed level, with 1,750 roles, but the biggest single bucket is "unspecified" at 1,930 — meaning more postings don't state a level than do. Principal roles come in at a substantial 466, which is more than I'd expect and suggests companies are still fighting over people who can operate independently at the top of an individual-contributor track.

Junior openings are scarce: 124, against 1,750 senior. That's the hard truth in this data for early-career folks. Roughly one in every fourteen roles that names a level names junior. The market wants people who already know what they're doing. Director-and-above roles total 119 (104 director, 12 executive, 3 VP), so leadership hiring exists but is a thin slice.

The practical read: if you're senior, you're the target market and you can be selective. If you're junior, you'll need to fish harder, apply to those 349 first-time posters before their listings get crowded, and lean on the many "unspecified" postings — some of those are genuinely open to less experience even if they don't say so.

What do data jobs pay?

The median disclosed band sits at $135,000–$174,667/yr, but the honest caveat is that only 13% of postings — 126 of them — disclose pay at all. So treat that figure as a signal from a self-selecting minority of employers, not gospel for the whole market. Companies that post pay bands tend to be the ones legally required to or the ones confident enough to compete on it, and both skew the number.

Broken out by role, the two that dominate the market also pay clearly:

• Data Scientist: $150,000–$185,000/yr (n=27)
• Data Engineer: $140,000–$170,000/yr (n=43)

Data scientists edge out data engineers at both ends of the band — about $10K higher at the floor and $15K at the top. The sample sizes are small (27 and 43), so I wouldn't stake a negotiation on the exact dollar, but the direction is consistent with what these boards have shown before: scientist titles carry a modest premium over engineer titles when pay is disclosed. If you want the fuller picture as the sample grows, the data salaries page tracks these bands over time.

One thing I won't do is pretend 126 disclosed bands tells you what the other 87% pay. It might be higher, it might be lower. Roles that don't post a band skew toward larger companies and toward markets without disclosure laws, and there's no clean way to infer their pay from the ones that do disclose. When a report gives you a confident all-market salary figure off a 13% disclosure rate, be suspicious.

Which companies are hiring data fastest?

Grafana Labs led net data hiring over the last 28 days at +11 roles, and it's also carrying the largest active pool among the fast movers at 23 open roles. That combination — top of the net-new list and the deepest active board — makes it the single most active employer in the data this month. Worth a look at the Grafana Labs board if infrastructure and observability tooling is your thing.

Behind Grafana, three companies tied at +9 net: Salmon Group, BEES and Headway. What stands out is that all three show 9 active roles against +9 net — meaning essentially their entire current data footprint is new in the last 28 days. These aren't companies with a big standing board that grew a bit; they're companies that stood up a data team's worth of openings from a near-standing start this month. If you want to join something at the moment it's building out, those three are the clearest examples in the data.

The rest of the fast-hiring list:

• Tripadvisor: +8 net, 10 active
• Air: +7 net, 7 active
• Coherentsolutions: +6 net, 6 active
• Waymo: +6 net, 16 active
• Planday: +5 net, 6 active
• BILL: +5 net, 5 active

Waymo is the other one to note alongside Grafana: 16 active roles and still adding, so it's a deep board that's also growing rather than a burst of new listings. Tripadvisor sits in a similar spot with 10 active and +8. Between those and Grafana, the companies with both scale and momentum are the ones where you're likely to find more than one role that fits, which matters if you'd rather apply to a company than to a single posting.

Where are the remote data jobs?

Remote roles make up 31% of the data jobs in the pool — so just under a third. That's a meaningful share but it means roughly seven in ten roles still expect you somewhere specific, whether that's fully on-site or hybrid. If remote is non-negotiable for you, you're competing for a smaller slice, and I'd filter for it early rather than getting attached to a role that turns out to be office-bound.

Thirty-one percent is neither the remote-heavy market of a few years back nor a full return to the office. It's a settled middle, and it's been sitting in that band across recent editions. Plan your search around the assumption that location still matters for most listings.

Is this a good time to look for a data job?

It's a fine time — steady, not surging. A flat total with high turnover and 349 first-time posting companies means there's live, fresh demand every week, and the near-even engineering/analytics split means the market isn't lopsided toward one skill set. The catch is seniority: with 1,750 senior roles to 124 junior, this is a market built for people with a track record.

If you're senior in data engineering or data science, you're in the strongest position the data shows — high demand, disclosed bands in the $140K–$185K range where companies bother to post them, and multiple deep-board employers actively adding roles. Move deliberately, not desperately.

If you're earlier in your career, don't let the junior scarcity discourage you, but do adjust tactics. Target the 349 companies that just opened their first data role, since their listings are the least saturated. Apply into "unspecified"-level postings, which outnumber every named level and are often more flexible than they read. And prioritise the companies building a team from scratch this month — Salmon Group, BEES and Headway each stood up their entire current data footprint in 28 days, and teams in that phase tend to hire for potential more than a big established board does.

One practical note to close on: with only 13% of postings disclosing pay, do your own homework on compensation before you interview, because the listing usually won't tell you. Use the disclosed bands as a floor-check, not a target, and ask early. The market's steady enough that you can afford to be choosy — just don't wait around, because the role you like today may well be closed and replaced by month's end.