Data science is a broad field with many applications to the space industry – like helping improve crop yields, looking for business opportunities, or tracking climate change data. Learn more about the career pathway of data scientists and analysts.

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The Rundown

What do data scientists and analysts do? 

Data scientists and analysts collect, organise, interpret and report on data to gain insights and information for organisations.

Data science is a very broad field, with many applications to the space industry. Data scientists might help improve crop yields, look for business opportunities, track climate change data or streamline production processes.

Data scientists and analysts work with all kinds of stakeholders, from contractors, customers and international governments to senior executives. All of these people need improvements to their products and processes. Data scientists and analysts use data collected from planning, design, testing, missions and more to discover new insights.

What you’ll need to know and do

Data scientists and analysts have experience in statistical models and computational algorithms. They also develop and advance new ways of interpreting and interacting with data.

Your study pathway

There is no minimum study requirement to work as a data scientist or analyst. There are, however, many study options available.

Degrees in the following study areas may be relevant to becoming a machine learning or AI engineer:

  • mathematics
  • statistics
  • data science
  • computer science
  • information technology
  • engineering (software engineering).

Almost all universities in Australia offer degrees in computer science. Visit individual university websites for more information.

Key resources

Our key space career job roles and study pathways information is packaged up into downloadable PDFs that students, teachers or parents can easily browse through and keep as a handy reference.

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Careers in space booklet

Our space career booklet covers all the space careers we talk about online, and can be downloaded by students, teachers or parents to read, share or use in the classroom.

Download

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