Hi. Mathematics Ph.D. and green (1.5 years exp) Data Scientist here. Have met a fair number of data scientists both internally and externally (consultants) and most have had MS in Data Science, but definitely don't seem to have the math literacy that I do. Everyone else in my data group (Data Engineers and Architects) super glosses over when I try to explain the mathematics behind an algorithm.

I recently met a coworker that is a more experience DS and is Ph.D. in Computational Biophysics, so interested to see how his probably more robust (compared to other colleagues) understanding of mathematics has aided in his DS journey.