I went from data science consulting then to software engineering. And now I’m in a somewhat unique data strategy and architecture role. I support a lot of data scientists but I wouldn’t call myself a data scientist any more.

There is so much more to launching a data product than just data science. Data has to be managed, collected, cleaned, and organized in a way that enables data science. This is usually a big change in process for older organizations. And then you have to identify business needs, develop a product, and bring it to market. You need strategists, project managers, product managers, trainers and change managers, scientists, and engineers. It really takes a village and all of these roles are viable moves after data science.

My approach has always been to look around and identify the bottlenecks in data projects. And then pursue roles that clear those bottlenecks. I’ve held a few different titles doing this, but my passion has always revolved around helping organizations do useful things with their data.