California · 2025 pay · 50 people
How much does a data scientist make in California?
$121,445typical pay for a data scientist in 2025
$83,943 – $145,890what most people earned
Includes everyone paid during 2025, including part-year workers. Typical pay rose 19.5% from 2024.
✓ Official data from 5 agencies · Matches each agency's latest release · Show sourcesHide sources
- LA County Auditor-Controller · lacounty.gov ↗
- California State Controller's Office · sco.ca.gov ↗
- California State Controller's Office · sco.ca.gov ↗
- California State Controller's Office · sco.ca.gov ↗
- California State Controller's Office · sco.ca.gov ↗
Where data scientists work
Typical pay at each employer, 2025 (everyone paid).
- Los Angeles County20 people$130,335
- San Diego Association of Governments8 people$84,569
- Orange County5 people$116,957
- Inland Empire Health Plan5 people$139,345
- Orange County Superior Court4 people$122,788
- Riverside County2 people$122,863
- Clean Power Alliance of Southern California1 person$253,706
- San Diego Community Power1 person$125,791
- Stanislaus County1 person$92,030
- Silicon Valley Clean Energy Authority1 person$130,060
- Public Risk Innovation Solutions and Management (PRISM)1 person$235,050
- Judicial Council of California1 person$146,447
No employers match.
Pay by level
Levels with 5 or more people.
- Data Scientist I6 people$84,151
- Data Scientist II9 people$118,714
- Data Scientist33 people$126,539
Related jobs and the next step up
Same line of work at a different rank, by typical pay (full-year employees where we can tell).
- Associate Data Scientist$106,089 (everyone)
- Data Scientist (this page)$121,445 (everyone)
- Senior Data Scientist$140,532 (everyone)
- Data Scientist Supervisor$158,300 (everyone)
Highest-paid data scientists, 2025
- 1Wei LiaoData Scientist · Los Angeles County$165,018
- 2Choiyuk Cary ChiangData Scientist · Los Angeles County$159,542
- 3Nan ZhangData Scientist · Los Angeles County$153,644
- 4Yechan LewData Scientist · Los Angeles County$150,083
- 5Patricia Wai LieuData Scientist · Los Angeles County$149,057
Common questions
How much does a data scientist make in California?
The typical data scientist was paid $121,445 in 2025; most earned between $83,943 and $145,890. This counts all 50 people paid, including part-year workers.
How much of the pay is overtime?
Overtime made up 0.2% of all pay for data scientists in 2025.
Which job titles are included?
Everyone whose payroll title is Data Scientist, at any level (for example "Data Scientist I"). Part-time-schedule titles (such as "20 hours") are left out. Senior, supervising and trainee titles have their own pages.
Job titles are written out in full from the payroll's abbreviations (for example "SR CRRECTNL POLC OFCR" → "Senior Correctional Police Officer"). "Typical pay" is the median; "most earned" is the middle half. How we calculate this