How big are data teams?

A couple of weeks ago I ran a survey on Linkedin asking “how big is your data team?”

Over 100+ responses gave me a perspective on the industry I found fascinating.

I’ll unpack the results more here in the future. Here’s a common growth pattern for many data teams:

0-75 employees - Often the first data hire is made around this point. Sometimes it’s an outside hire, other times a technical business user, or data savvy Software Dev steps into this role. As the company grows, the need for operational reports and some basic analytics becomes essential. Data is now someone’s primary role.

75-250 Employees - The data needs to grow beyond one employee. Two or three people are needed to maintain databases, build some core reports, and try to respond to business needs. This might be a combination of IT staff and dedicated data people.

250-1,000 Employees - A formal data team often develops at this stage. A data manager or director is hired for promotion and 2-5 individual contributors fill roles ranging from data analyst, data engineer, business intelligence analyst, and data scientist.

1,000-10,000+ Employees - Multiple data teams form at this point with different focus areas. Data teams could be broken out across data science, data infrastructure, data analytics, or business intelligence. Often each team has its own manager, reporting up to a CDO or similar executive-level role. Total data staff could range from 10-30+ employees.

While Tech and software companies tend to have a higher data team percentage than traditional industries, they will fall into the same ranges but skew to the bottom end of the range. Some industries will skew to the high end of these numbers. Hospitals, for example, will have a very high number of non-tech staff.

This is based on my experience and some general surveying of the industry. How does it line up with your company and experience? I'd love to hear from you.

I'm here,

Sawyer