data annotation jobs in 2026 — demand, top roles hiring, and related skills
As of 2026-09-28, data annotation appears in 602 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the past 90 days — AI Trainer has the most postings mentioning data annotation, with demand up 4% vs the prior 4 weeks.
Last updated · 90d ending 2026-09-28
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Frequently asked questions about data annotation
+Is data annotation in demand in 2026?
Yes. data annotation appears in 602 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the 90 days ending 2026-09-28, with demand up 4% vs the prior 4 weeks. AI Trainer accounts for the most postings mentioning data annotation (5.5% of all postings mentioning data annotation).
+What jobs require data annotation?
According to the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-09-28, among roles with at least 20 postings, the highest shares mentioning data annotation are AI Quality Analyst (91.7% of that role’s postings mention data annotation), Data Labeling Analyst (72.4% of that role’s postings mention data annotation), AI Response Evaluator (70.4% of that role’s postings mention data annotation).
+What skills are commonly paired with data annotation?
Across job postings indexed by Skillenai (90 days ending 2026-09-28), data annotation most often appears alongside quality assurance, data labeling, Python, model evaluation, machine learning.
+Where is data annotation most in demand?
As of 2026-09-28, the metro areas posting the most jobs requiring data annotation are Leisure World, Mountain View, Bucharest, San Francisco, London, 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
Roles most likely to require data annotation
Among roles with at least 20 postings in the same period.
| Role | Postings mentioning skill | % of role postings mentioning skill |
|---|---|---|
| AI Quality Analyst | 22 | 91.7% |
| Data Labeling Analyst | 21 | 72.4% |
| AI Response Evaluator | 19 | 70.4% |
| Generative AI Analyst | 14 | 66.7% |
| AI Training Specialist | 8 | 20.5% |
| AI Evaluation Expert | 5 | 14.3% |
| Quality Assurance Lead | 12 | 13.5% |
| AI Evaluator | 3 | 11.1% |
| AI Training Expert | 6 | 9.7% |
| AI Trainer | 33 | 8.3% |
Roles with the most data annotation postings
| Role | Postings mentioning skill | Share of skill postings |
|---|---|---|
| AI Trainer | 33 | 5.5% |
| AI Quality Analyst | 22 | 3.7% |
| Data Labeling Analyst | 21 | 3.5% |
| AI Response Evaluator | 19 | 3.2% |
| Software Engineer | 18 | 3.0% |
| Generative AI Analyst | 14 | 2.3% |
| Quality Assurance Lead | 12 | 2.0% |
| Technical Program Manager | 10 | 1.7% |
| AI Evaluation Specialist | 9 | 1.5% |
| Data Quality Assurance Analyst | 9 | 1.5% |
Top metros hiring for data annotation
| Name | Postings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Leisure World | 19 | 3.2% |
| Mountain View | 19 | 3.2% |
| Bucharest | 16 | 2.7% |
| San Francisco | 13 | 2.2% |
| London | 10 | 1.7% |
| New York City | 8 | 1.3% |
| Sunnyvale | 8 | 1.3% |
| San Jose | 7 | 1.2% |
| Las Vegas | 6 | 1.0% |
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 2026-09-28. Skills are resolved against the Skillenai canonical taxonomy, so the same entity is counted whether a posting writes 'Python', 'Python 3', or 'python'. Role prevalence divides postings mentioning data annotation by all postings for each role in the same window, ranking roles with at least 20 postings. Role distribution divides each role’s data annotation postings by all data annotation postings, including postings without a role. Shares need not sum to 100% for the displayed roles. Pages refresh weekly (or daily for the top-50 most-requested skills).
- source
- Skillenai jobs index, deduplicated daily
- entity_id
- a7ccce47304a1548
- data_as_of
- 2026-09-28
- 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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