The number of job postings for data scientist is growing at a fast pace and it’s still outpaced by the amount of people searching for data scientists.

But there is one problem with job post data. And that is “data scientist” is a loosey-goosey term. Generally speaking, practitioners are in demand for applying statistical tools for analysis , predictive modeling and programming. Oh, and having a certain artistic flair to guide how results are visualized is a definite plus. But ask a dozen hiring managers and you may get a dozen different views. We’ve tried to cater to all those views to come up with this article.

The companies highlighted in the chart below employ maximum data scientists and together they employ close to 8% of all data scientists in the world between them as per our analysis of linkedin data. Keep in mind that this is not a statistical analysis and is based on user-generated content, which, in many cases isn’t very accurate. But at the same time it gives you a fair idea about the top players in the industry and will help you to plan your career moves.

Company Industry Microsoft Corporation Technology IBM Technology and Consulting Facebook Online Social Networking Google Internet-related services and products GSK Pharmaceutical Apple Consumer Electronics, Computer software and Online Services Capital One Bank holding company Booz Allen Hamilton Management Consulting Novartis Pharmaceutical HP Information Technology Linkedin Business-oriented Social Networking Amazon Electronic Commerce and Cloud Computing Nielsen N.V. Information and Measurement Oracle Technology Accenture Consulting Intel Technology Roche Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics SAS Analytics Software Uber Online Taxi Dispatch Stanford University Education and Research Twitter Online Social Networking SAP Enterprise Software Pfizer Pharmaceutical Cognizant Information Technology, Consulting Capgemini Information Technology, Consulting Quintiles Pharmaceutical Terradata Technology Airbnb Online Lodging Provider AT&T Telecommunications PayPal Online Payments System Netflix Online Streaming Cisco Technology Deloitte Professional Services EMC Technology American Express Financial services Yahoo Internet, Search Engine eBay e-commerce Ford Motor company Automaker Groupon e-commerce Marketplace Dell Technology Citi Investment Banking and Financial Services Intuit Technology (Software) Walmart Retail Bank of America Banking and Financial Services Adobe Computer Software Merck Pharmaceutical Civis Analytics Consulting Karvy Analytics Consulting Salesforce Cloud Computing Allstate Personal Lines Insurer PWC Professional Services Tata Consultancy Services Information Technology

You might have noticed that most of the companies listed here are technology companies with a B2B business model or internet companies. One may wonder as to why traditional companies with huge data and large workforce don’t have as many data scientists. There can be many reason for companies to hire lesser number of data scientists and that doesn’t mean missing out on the big data analytics action. The reasons can be 1. They outsource many of the data management to information technology companies or consulting companies 2. Many of them don’t use the data scientist designation as the work that they perform involve more of business knowledge and less of tools and algorithms. You may also refer to our analysis comparing the number of data scientists with the number of business analytics professionals in various companies which will explain why some companies famous for their analytics oriented business models have lesser data scientists on their payroll:

The business analytics professionals are more in number in conventional businesses like banks, retail etc. These companies emphasize more on having people who can understand their business better and can also apply the analytical models to improve their business when needed. They’ll probably prefer outsourcing their hardcore data analytics jobs to some outside vendor. The various designations in these companies are Research analyst, Business Analytics Consultant, Business analytics manager, business analytics lead etc.

Please feel free to suggest other companies that are hiring lots of data scientists by commenting on this post.