Data Curator
Impact: Data integrity and decision support
Organize, maintain, and validate data to ensure its quality, accessibility, and usability for analysis and research.
What the day looks like
- People interaction
- Moderate
- Team vs solo
- 60% Team / 40% Solo
- Client facing
- Sometimes
- Impact visibility
- High
- Travel
- Minimal
- Schedule flexibility
- Flexible
- Remote work
- Hybrid
- Typical work hours
- 40-45 hours/week
- Stress level
- Moderate
At a glance
- Median salary
- $90,000
- Entry-level
- $60,000 - $75,000
- Senior
- $110,000 - $130,000
- Growth by 2033
- 10% (faster than average)
- Demand
- Growing
- Freelance potential
- Low
- Salary growth potential
- High to 80-120% growth from entry to senior
- Typical student debt
- $30,000 - $60,000
Skills you'll use
Hard skills
- Data Governance
- Metadata Management
- SQL
- Python
- Data Modeling
- ETL
- Data Quality Tools
Soft skills
- Attention to Detail
- Problem Solving
- Communication
- Collaboration
- Critical Thinking
- Adaptability
Technical complexity: High
How to get there
- Minimum education
- Bachelor's Degree
- Licensing
- No
- Years to mid-career
- 3-5 years
- Years to senior
- 7-10 years
- Career switching
- Moderate
Where this career leads
How people arrive here
Where you can go from here
Typical progression
- Junior Data Curator
- Data Curator
- Senior Data Curator
- Lead Data Curator
- Data Governance Manager
Future outlook
- Automation probability
- 15% to low risk due to critical thinking and complex problem-solving
- AI disruption risk
- Low
- Demand trend
- Growing
How people feel about it
- Overall satisfaction
- 3.6/10
- Meaning
- 3.8/10
- Work-life balance
- 3.5/10
- Prestige
- 6.5/10
- Social perception
- Moderate