data annotation jobs in 2026 — demand, top roles hiring, and related skills
As of 2026-09-02, data annotation appears in 589 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the past 90 days — most often required for Generative AI Analyst roles, with demand down 27% vs the prior 4 weeks.
Last updated · 90d ending 2026-09-02
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Frequently asked questions about data annotation
+Is data annotation in demand in 2026?
Yes. data annotation appears in 589 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the 90 days ending 2026-09-02, with demand down 27% vs the prior 4 weeks. It is most often required for Generative AI Analyst roles (7% of Generative AI Analyst postings list it).
+What jobs require data annotation?
According to the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-09-02, the job titles most likely to require data annotation are Generative AI Analyst (7% of postings list data annotation), AI Trainer (6% of postings list data annotation), AI Evaluation Specialist (4% of postings list data annotation).
+What skills are commonly paired with data annotation?
Across job postings indexed by Skillenai (90 days ending 2026-09-02), data annotation most often appears alongside quality assurance, data labeling, Python, machine learning, data collection.
+Where is data annotation most in demand?
As of 2026-09-02, the metro areas posting the most jobs requiring data annotation are Leisure World, Mountain View, Bucharest, New York City, San Francisco, according to the Skillenai jobs index.
+How can I keep up with new data annotation content and jobs?
Skillenai indexes news, blog posts, and research papers mentioning data annotation alongside the jobs index. You can subscribe to a daily email digest of new data annotation content from your Skillenai account.
Weekly job postings requiring data annotation — last 90 days
Salary distribution
Box = 25th–75th percentile · tick = median · whisker = 10th–90th · USD, annualized
Job titles most likely to require data annotation
| Role | Postings mentioning | % requiring |
|---|---|---|
| Generative AI Analyst | 43 | 7.3% |
| AI Trainer | 34 | 5.8% |
| AI Evaluation Specialist | 24 | 4.1% |
| Data Labeling Analyst | 22 | 3.7% |
| AI Quality Analyst | 20 | 3.4% |
| AI Data Contributor | 19 | 3.2% |
| Software Engineer | 18 | 3.1% |
| AI Response Evaluator | 13 | 2.2% |
| Data Annotator | 12 | 2.0% |
| Quality Assurance Lead | 11 | 1.9% |
Top metros hiring for data annotation
| Name | Postings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Leisure World | 19 | 3.2% |
| Mountain View | 19 | 3.2% |
| Bucharest | 10 | 1.7% |
| New York City | 8 | 1.4% |
| San Francisco | 8 | 1.4% |
| San Jose | 8 | 1.4% |
| Delhi | 7 | 1.2% |
| Palo Alto | 6 | 1.0% |
| Bangkok | 5 | 0.8% |
Skills commonly paired with data annotation
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How this was computed
Counts derive from the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-09-02. Skills are resolved against the Skillenai canonical taxonomy, so the same entity is counted whether a posting writes 'Python', 'Python 3', or 'python'. Pages refresh weekly (or daily for the top-50 most-requested skills).
- source
- Skillenai jobs index, deduplicated daily
- entity_id
- a7ccce47304a1548
- data_as_of
- 2026-09-02
- window_days
- 90
The demand, skills, and geo numbers on this page come from the same Skillenai labor market index that powers our API. Use it for compensation benchmarking, hiring-competition analysis, and skill-adoption tracking.
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