Making use of its experience to extract value from data by adding value to the business, Alaya launched a new business unit focused on recruiting the data specialists that each company needs to develop their projects.
What is a data scientist
The title "data scientist" has been around for a little over a decade: it was coined in 2008 by DJ Patil and Jeff Hammerbacher, then leaders of the data and analytics efforts at LinkedIn and Facebook, respectively.
Today's data scientists come from many backgrounds and have a variety of skills, experiences, and training. His background ranges from computer science and applied physics to bioinformatics, explains Kjell Carlsson, Domino Data Lab's Head of Data Science Strategy and Evangelism, in Information Week. “They are the crucial ingredient in turning raw data into innovative new products and services, and in data-driven business transformation,” he adds.
Data scientists must be experts in three areas: business -know the processes where companies can make profit-, technology -beyond programming, they must know how to capture information and analyze it- and mathematics/statistics -which allows them to develop algorithms to predict future behaviors.
"In the area of data science or data science, there are many disciplines such as artificial intelligence, data analytics, business intelligence, machine learning, deep learning and many others," explains Luis Sepúlveda, General Manager of Alaya.
Data Scientists in Today's Job Market
Luis Sepúlveda comments that data is called the oil of the 21st century. There has been a great need to use and interpret all this information and be able to use it to make predictions, which has increased the demand for professionals capable of carrying out this analysis.
For the year 2021, LinkedIn ranked data science specialists as one of the highest-rated jobs in 2021, noting that hiring for roles such as data scientist, data visualization expert, and data management analyst has grown nearly 46 % since 2019. Similarly, the hiring of machine learning engineers and artificial intelligence specialists increased 32% between 2019 and 2020.
For its part, the Glassdoor job portal indicates that job offers for data scientists increased 480% between 2016 and 2022.
Data Science Talent: Alaya's new business unit
In this context, Alaya decided to create a new business unit in 2022 called Data Science Talent. The goal is to leverage their expertise in analytics, data, and business knowledge to help companies find the data scientist or group of specialists (cells) they need to develop their specific projects.
“Alaya has been asked in previous times specifically 'I need a data scientist with such or such characteristics'. In some cases, Alaya has removed it from its own structure and in others it has had to search for these people to place them in a specific client”, explains Luis Sepúlveda. “Alaya is a company specialized in analytics, and just as it offers customized solutions, it now also offers human capital, backed by its 20-year history,” he adds.
In addition, he points out that not every data scientist is trained for every project. “We, who are in this niche, see that the market needs it. We are looking for professionals with the skills and experience determined for each specific project and company”, he indicates.