data preparation jobs in 2026 — demand, top roles hiring, and related skills
As of 2026-09-17, data preparation appears in 335 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the past 90 days — most often required for Data Scientist roles, with demand down 7% vs the prior 4 weeks.
Last updated · 90d ending 2026-09-17
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Frequently asked questions about data preparation
+Is data preparation in demand in 2026?
Yes. data preparation appears in 335 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the 90 days ending 2026-09-17, with demand down 7% vs the prior 4 weeks. It is most often required for Data Scientist roles (20% of Data Scientist postings list it).
+What jobs require data preparation?
According to the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-09-17, the job titles most likely to require data preparation are Data Scientist (20% of postings list data preparation), Data Analyst (8% of postings list data preparation), Machine Learning Engineer (6% of postings list data preparation).
+What skills are commonly paired with data preparation?
Across job postings indexed by Skillenai (90 days ending 2026-09-17), data preparation most often appears alongside Python, SQL, machine learning, data visualization, model evaluation.
+Where is data preparation most in demand?
As of 2026-09-17, the metro areas posting the most jobs requiring data preparation are New York City, San Francisco, Hyderabad, London, Mountain View, according to the Skillenai jobs index.
+How can I keep up with new data preparation content and jobs?
Skillenai indexes news, blog posts, and research papers mentioning data preparation alongside the jobs index. You can subscribe to a daily email digest of new data preparation content from your Skillenai account.
Weekly job postings requiring data preparation — last 90 days
Salary distribution
Box = 25th–75th percentile · tick = median · whisker = 10th–90th · USD, annualized
Job titles most likely to require data preparation
| Role | Postings mentioning | % requiring |
|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | 67 | 20.0% |
| Data Analyst | 28 | 8.4% |
| Machine Learning Engineer | 20 | 6.0% |
| Data Engineer | 14 | 4.2% |
| Software Engineer | 12 | 3.6% |
| AI Engineer | 8 | 2.4% |
| Power BI Developer | 7 | 2.1% |
| Software Quality Operations Specialist | 6 | 1.8% |
| ML Engineer | 5 | 1.5% |
| Product Manager | 5 | 1.5% |
Top metros hiring for data preparation
| Name | Postings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| New York City | 11 | 3.3% |
| San Francisco | 10 | 3.0% |
| Hyderabad | 7 | 2.1% |
| London | 6 | 1.8% |
| Mountain View | 6 | 1.8% |
| Pittsburgh | 5 | 1.5% |
| Toronto | 5 | 1.5% |
| Bengaluru | 4 | 1.2% |
| Boston | 4 | 1.2% |
Skills commonly paired with data preparation
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How this was computed
Counts derive from the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-09-17. 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
- e1cf67d9c2c5d761
- data_as_of
- 2026-09-17
- 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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