Salaries for data science and machine learning in London finance, revealed
Finance is becoming increasingly data-driven, but there's much more to financial data teams than just data analysts. In fact, analysts are some of the worst paid people in the field as top firms instead offer big salaries to machine learning talent.
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A new salary report by recruitment firm McGregor Boyall has broken down London salaries in financial services for a number of tech roles. On average, the top paying role looks to be a machine learning manager.
Machine learning managers can earn up to £150k ($190k) a year on average, compared to £120k for lead data scientists and just £70k for data analysts. This might be because the explainability of AI models to stakeholders is a pivotal part of AI in large corporations like banks and, since they have a tendency to hire specialists from outside finance, having a manager with the right domain knowledge warrants the higher pay.
As banks continue with their technology infrastructure transformations, data architects appear better paid than the data scientists utilizing that infrastructure. They can earn up to £130k on average.
Machine learning scientists with niche specialisms can expect to make "top dollar" at the likes of hedge funds, but their average pay across financial services is a bit more underwhelming. Machine learning, deep learning and computer vision scientists all make up to £110k on average, according to the report.
Salaries, of course, are only one aspect of compensation. When bonuses are added in, a report from the CQF Program last year revealed that total compensation for director level data scientists could reach up to £237k on average.
Pay also varies greatly depending on which firm you work for. A Selby Jennings report last year showed that entry level data scientist total compensation in London was just $37.7k at the lower end on the sell side but over $100k in prop trading.
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