Data Scientist Resume Examples: 5 Best Samples & Why They Work

Are you a data scientist or nearly graduated from a data scientist program and are eager to enter the field? Are you trying to upgrade from your current position and need help with how to update your resume?

If any of this sounds like you, you have come to the right place. Resumes can be tough to write in a way that casts you and your skills in the best light.

This article will dive deeply into how to update your resume for a great data scientist job, from a beginner to a senior role. Keep reading if you need to update your resume for a data scientist job.

Data Scientist Resume Examples

In the following sections, we will give an example of data scientists’ resumes at nearly every level.

We’ll provide an example of a data science resume for entry-level, senior-level, internship, project, and director.

With this range of positions, even if we don’t match your situation exactly, you will be able to adjust our examples to suit your need.

Without further adieu, let’s get into the first example.

Entry-Level Data Scientist Resume Example

An entry-level data scientist is usually fresh out of their education of choice and ready to start their new career.

This can either be from a computer science background from a university or self-taught from a combination of books and online resources.

You likely will have little data science work experience in your career. However, you can leverage other work experience if you can place a data science spin on it.

For our work experience number 2, we’ll give an example of using a non-data science job to bolster your resume.

Work Experience 1:

Assistant Data Scientist

University of Waterloo

Waterloo, Ontario

January 2020 – June 2020

• Gathered data for a research project
• Ran tests on data with the R program
• Named member of a peer-reviewed paper.

Work Experience 2:

Assisstant Museum Curator

Waterloo History of Trains

Waterloo, Ontario

June 2019 – September 2019

• Gathered data on the museum collection.
• Organized data within an Excel spreadsheet.
• Regularly updated database as the group changed.
• Collaborated with several higher-level data scientists.

Project Experience:

Senior Project – Fake News Detection Program

University of Waterloo

Waterloo, Ontario

January 2020 – April 2020

• Senior project for data science major
• Build a fake news detection program using Python.
• Used Jupyter Lab to test and execute the program.

Skills:

• R
• Python
• Excel
• Jupyter Lab
• Machine Learning
• Data Visualization
• Data Science
• Communication

Education:

Bachelor of Computer Science – Data Science

University of Waterloo

Waterloo, Ontario

September 2016 – April 2020

GPA 3.9

Licenses & Accreditations:

In “Big Data and Its Use in Advancing Psychological Study” by Harper et al., Named writer.

June 2020

Why This Resume Works:

This resume shows someone fresh out of university but with a bit of experience. While they never had a full-time job in data science, they did help their professor on a research project which led to them being a named contributor to a peer-reviewed paper.

This position also helps to highlight their ability to work with those who have been in the field longer and able to learn from them. Since this was their only data science experience, they bolstered their resume by using a summer job as an assistant curator and highlighting their work with organizing and managing data.

Where they lack work experience, they make up for it in projects, skills, and impressive GPAs. While every resume does not need to mention your GPA, it is good to mention if you are an intern or entry-level, especially if it is high. If you have a low GPA, you can leave it out.

While this example has someone who graduated from a university, if you were self-taught, you could use that in the education section instead. Instead of listing a school, list any courses you may have used to learn and mention any certificates you earned. One such example would be Google’s certificate for data science.

If you wanted to make an even strong resume for an entry-level position, we would recommend working on a side project that you can add in place of work experience. It will show that you can think and work independently without a lot of oversight.

Senior Data Scientist Resume Example

In the following example, we’ll look at an example resume of a data scientist who has been working in the field for a little longer.

They have several positions and several notable projects under their belt. For this particular resume, we are looking at someone who specializes in the business field.

Their resume may also work as a business analyst position. However, the position they are applying for is specifically for a data scientist.

Once you’re at this level, you don’t need to list everything you have accomplished. Unlike the entry-level position, you don’t need to make an old summer job sound good.

Work Experience 1:

Business Intelligence Specialist

SE Health

Remote – Toronto, Ontario

June 2020 – Ongoing

• Used Python to create predictive analytics.
• Supported businesses with data visualization
• Used tools such as SSIS, SSRS, SSAS, MicroStrategy, and Power BI regularly.

Work Experience 2:

Data Scientist

Tiger Analytics

Remote – Toronto, Ontario

October 2015 – June 2020

• Collaborated with a team of data scientists to deliver analytics to businesses.
• Data visualization in Tableau
• Educated businesses on the importance of data lead strategies.

Project Experience:

Market Prediction Software

June 2020

• Created a program that could give accurate predictions of market trends based on past data.

Customer Segmentation

February 2019

• Used machine learning to create a program that current analysis customers of a business to serve those customers better.

Skills:

• Machine Learning
• Economics
• Business Knowledge
• R
• Python
• SQL
• Tableau
• Azure AI
• Data Analytics
• Predictive Modeling
• Data-Driven Decision Making
• Communication

Education:

Masters of Data Science

The University of Britsh Columbia

Vancouver, British Columbia

September 2014 – July 2015

Licenses & Accreditations:

SAS Certified AI and Machine Learning Professional

July 2015 – October 2015

Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Fundamentals

July 2013 – September 2013

Why This Resume Works

This resume highlights data scientist jobs in significant positions, showing that this person is qualified for a senior position. Through their business experience, skills, and certification, we can also see a soft specialization in business data analytics and machine learning.

Aside from their impressive work experience and skills, we also see two projects that this person made, perhaps in their spare time. One was predictive software using machine learning for stock markets.

The other was a program to help businesses understand their customers better. Both of these, yet again, look at this soft specialization of a business niche and machine learning.

This is likely a resume of someone looking for a new position as a business analyst or something where they can continue to use machine learning and predictive code.

You’ll also notice that this person did a couple of extra certifications in between their bachelor’s degree and their master’s.

These extra certifications help to show that they have a curious mind and are willing to learn to improve their skills constantly.

This is an essential aspect in IT as technology continuously changes, and to remain as relevant in the field as this person has, you do need to continue to hone your skills.

Data Science Internship Resume Example

Those who are either fresh out of their education or still in the middle of it might be looking for an internship position to sharpen their skills before they take an actual job.

Internships can be either paid or unpaid, depending on the employer, though it is slowly becoming more common for internships to be paid positions.

For this resume, we’ll assume that the applicant is in their third year out of four of a computer science course at a university.

This internship will be their first computer science work experience, so they will need to do the same as the entry-level applicant above and use other past jobs to highlight skills that would be useful for a data science position.

Work Experience 1:

Front Desk Agent

Marriott Hotel

New York City, New York

Summers 2021, 2022

• Acted as liaison between hotel services and guests
• Maintained a database of available rooms and amenities
• Troubleshoot Computer system as needed

Work Experience 2:

Server

Boston Pizza

New York City, New York

July 2019 – September 2020

• Collected data via orders from customers and entered it into the restaurant database.
• Organized orders by customer request.

Project Experience:

Chatbot

September 2022 – December 2022

• Used Python to create a chatbot for a local business.
• Chatbot designed to answer customer questions based on order status, website navigation, and product information.

Speech Emotion Recognition

January 2023 – Ongoing

• Prototype created in Python using a RAVDESS data set that is able to recognize the emotion used in speech.
• Currently able to correctly name the emotion 75% of the time.

Skills:

• Microsoft Excel
• Python
• Customer Relations
• Business Intelligence
• Risk Analysis
• Communication
• Data-Driven Decision Making

Education:

Bachelor of Computer Science – Data Science

University of Waterloo

Waterloo, Ontario

September 2020 – Ongoing

Expected to Graduate in April 2024

GPA 4.0

Licenses & Accreditations:

Google Data Analytics Certificate

January 2020 – July 2020

Why This Resume Works

This person has a limited amount of data science work experience to leverage. Instead, they have worked purely in service jobs, including hotels and restaurants. This applicant did not let that stop them and opted to highlight their use of data management in their past jobs.

This person is in the third year of their data analytics course at a university. They can leverage that impressive GPA to land themselves an internship and a substantial project that was completed while still in school.

Additionally, we can see in this resume that they good the Google certification course online before they started school. They may have chosen to take the course to get their feet wet with data analytics or to decide if it was what they wanted to do before committing to a university program.

Since this intern really has no work experience in the field, they have decided to use an ongoing project as an extra part of their resume. Normally you wouldn’t include a project that you haven’t completed yet, but as the intern feels that this project is well on its way to being complete, they chose to include it.

If you have less work experience, you could look back at possible volunteer opportunities or work on a solo project or two to further bolster your resume.

Data Science Project Resume Example

Occasionally a data scientist is not looking to enter a new job but rather join an exciting project within data science. A data scientist may join a project on the side of their regular job or enter a full-time position for however long the project lasts.

We will assume that the project is ecology based, such as building a model for predicting vegetation overgrowth or salmon migration. For this reason, you will see a lot of specialized knowledge and positions that best suit this particular need.

Work Experience 1:

Random Forest Modelling in R

Model Forest Inc.

Remote – New York City, New York

July 2020 – September 2021

• Used R and machine learning to create forest models
• Forest models are used to aid ecology researchers.

Work Experience 2:

Data Scientist

Queen’s University

Kingston, Ontario

September 2021 – Ongoing

• Interpreted, analyzed, and presented educational data.
• Worked with a team of data scientists on shared projects.
• Automated workflows using Python and R
• Kept accurate records of work done toward current projects.

Project Experience:

User Segmentation Analysis

July 2022 – October 2022

Performed data analysis for a local business.

• Defined TAM for customer personas

Skills:

• Machine Learning
• Python
• R
• Tam
• Organizational Structure
• Business Intelligence
• Ecology
• Data Management
• Data Visualization
• Statistics
• Deep Learning

Education:

Masters of Data Analytics

University of Waterloo

Waterloo, Ontario

September 2018 – April 2020

Bachelor of Science – Ecology

Concordia University

Montreal, Quebec

September 2014 – April 2018

Licenses & Accreditations:

Earth & Environmental Data Science Certificate

University of Houston

Houston, Texas

Why This Resume Works

This resume is for someone trying to gain a position in an environmental-based data science project. For this reason, they opted to highlight any experience they have working with combining the sciences and computer sciences.

This is why they opted to include their bachelor’s degree in the education section, to show their cross experience in two fields. They also highlighted their certificate that further marries their two areas.

When applying for a project, consider your background and the type of project you are trying to use. How can you combine parts of your experience to cover the field covered by the project?

Director of Data Science Resume Example

For this final resume example, we’ll look at a director position. This is generally someone who has been working in the field for a while and has some impressive projects and positions under their belt.

Work Experience 1:

Machine Learning Engineer

FPT Software

Seattle, Washington

June 2018 – Ongoing

• Oversaw the refactoring and creation of prototypes of predictive models.
• Worked closely with fellow data engineers, data scientists, and neighboring departments.
• Built reusable code to be utilized in company-wide APIs and Libraries.

Work Experience 2:

Data Scientist

Gradient

Remote – Toronto, Ontario

January 2010 – July 2018

• Developed, ran, and validated code with Python used to run Google Cloud services.
• Created and stored data visualizations.
• Maintained robust methodology.

Project Experience:

Human Face Detection

Garmin Security

August 2018

• Used deep learning algorithms to create software capable of detecting human faces for the use of a prominent security company.

Arrow AI Art

Personal Project

February 2020 – August 2021

• Used machine learning to create an AI art generator.

Skills:

• Machine Learning
• C++
• C
• Python
• R
• HTML
• CSS
• Javascript
• Management
• Customer/Client Relations

Education:

Masters of Computer Science

University of Waterloo

Waterloo, Ontario

Sept 2008 – April 2010

Licenses & Accreditations:

Machine Learning Certificate

Cornell University

Ithaca, New York

July 2010

Holds top secret level clearance with the Government of the United States.

Why This Resume Works

This resume highlights not only some great professional achievements and projects but also the applicant’s ability to work within an organization and with clients with a high level of discretion.

We can see this with their current job, where they oversee operations within the data engineering department, and with one of their projects, working with a security company to create facial recognition software.

This resume also shows a wide level of skills, including some code languages that are uncommon to see in Data analysts but can help to create a more robust resume overall. This particular applicant they are looking to get a director position within a machine learning department.

You will see that they have several types of experience with machine learning, including an auxiliary certificate that they got after completing their master a da personal protection working on an AL art generator.

It is very likely that this applicant has many other projects and skills that they have acquired over their career, but some were omitted for the sake of creating a streamlined resume that highlighted best what would make them perfect for the potential director position.

Common Skills & Actions Verbs to Include On a Data Scientist Resume

In the next couple of sections, we’ll give you lists of useful action verbs and skills you can use in your resume as a data scientist.

These verbs and skills and be used throughout your resume when describing duties within a previous role, projects, or even your list of skills.

Common Skills for Data Scientist Resumes

Here is a list of skills you can use in your resume as a data scientist. Use as many as you feel you need for the job you are trying to get.

• Big Data
• C++
• Java
• Python
• R
• Tableau
• Data Analytics
• Data Management
• Data Visualization
• Deep Learning
• Predictive Modeling
• Process Improvement
• Statistics
• Business Intelligence
• Communication
• Data Architecture
• Data Science
•  Data-Driven Decision Making
• Hadoop
• Machine Learning
• Power BI
• Risk Analysis

Common Action Verbs for Data Scientist Resumes

In this section, you will find adjectives to include in your resume. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it will help you get noticed when employers are skimming a resume for highlights.

• Analyzed
• Conducted
• Collaborated
• Designed
• Diagnosed
• Enhanced
• Built
• Coordinated
• Created
• Developed
• Drove
• Evaluated
• Executed
• Identified
• Improved
• Led
• Oversaw
• Performed
• Generated
• Implemented
• Integrated
• Managed
• Partnered
• Supported

Tips for Writing a Better Data Scientist Resume

In this section, we’ll give you a few tips that you can take to make your resume stronger. All of these tips may not apply to everyone, but everyone should be able to use at least one.

• Highlight Communication and Leadership Skills – This tip is fairly straightforward. If you have ever been in a position where you needed to talk to other people, then mention it somewhere in your resume. This will really apply to everyone, even if you have never been in a management position. You can include things like collaborating with a team on a project or being the head of a department and anything in between.
• Highlight Your Expertise as a Data Scientist – It is recommended that you do not sell yourself short on your resume. Look back on your career and think of all of the great things you have done. This can be anything from completing a challenging project or being in a leadership position. If you have impressive achievements, then by all means, mention them. If you’re entry-level or intern-level, mention if you have a high GPA or have been a part of something prestigious within your school of choice.
• Make Use of Action Verbs: There is a reason why action verbs got their section. When someone is reading hundreds of resumes a day, there is a chance they may be skimming through. The finer details of your achievements may get lost during the first read-through. For this reason, using action words will help you stand out among other applicants and give a potential employer a reason to read in more depth.
• Make Your Resume Streamlined – No, you do not need to mention your high school summer job or that you volunteer at a soccer club. Resumes are best left condensed, maxing out at a page or two. Again, an employer will read through a resume quickly and want the highlights of your past career. They do not want to read twenty pages about every minor project and role you have ever had. Long resumes will not get read. For this reason, try to tailor your work experience, projects, and skills to work the job or field you are applying for.

Frequently Asked Questions

In this final section, we’ll review a few of the most commonly asked questions about resumes for data scientists.

Similar Resume Types to Reference

In this final section, we’ll give a few other resume types you can consider. Some of these are very similar to a data scientist, and depending on your skills, you may be suited for one of these positions as well.

• Data Analyst Resume: Data analysts analyze existing data, though they may not have the same vast skills and approach as data scientists to transform and capture data. A great data analyst resume will help you get into such a position.
• Software Engineer Resume: A software engineer uses coding languages such as Python and C++ like a data scientist, but instead of focusing on data, they create interactive software that can range from Microsoft Suite to a computer game. A software engineer resume will help a software engineer get into the specific field they want, depending on their known coding languages and skill sets.
• Business Analyst Resume: A business analyst and a data analyst are extremely similar. Business analysts, however, have a specialization in business and may have extra education in that field. A business analyst’s resume needs to highlight the combination of business and analyst experience to land the job.

Wrapping Up

We hope that this article on data scientist resumes gives you plenty to think about and even more to act on.

Everyone deserves to be in a position that challenges them and can enrich their lives. If you have any further comments on data scientist resumes, be sure to let us know in the comments.