6 Data Visualization Roles & How to Get Started

Data is critical to an organization’s operations. It reveals important insights and helps them better understand their customers. However, raw data can be complex, so organizations need a way to digest and share this data in a more comprehensible way. Data visualization is the process of representing data graphically, making it easier to understand. To better visualize data, you may use flowcharts, graphs, pie charts, bar charts, infographics, scatterplots, dashboards, and more. 

A key component of data science, data visualization allows organizations to convey key insights to both internal and external stakeholders. Several industries, data analysts, data scientists, and others rely on data visualization to make their findings more digestible. Learn more about data visualization, including industries that use it and common data visualization roles.

What is data visualization?

Data visualization transforms data into easy-to-consume graphics, helping you explore patterns and trends for your organization, or explain findings to your audience. These graphic representations of data help organizations brainstorm, outline workflows, and discover important insights. Essentially, data visualization is a form of storytelling that helps data analysts, clients, and even customers understand the data that’s most relevant to them.

Effective graphics showcase data using various colors, shapes, and designs. These graphics can use comparison to set the context for the data to aid in a viewer’s understanding. For example, data on a company’s profits may be more useful if the graphic compares these figures to leading competitors’ profits or business profits from previous years. Finally, you want to tailor the graphics for your particular audience, ensuring that the graphics are clear and share the data that best suits their needs. 

Industries that use data visualization

Much like data is key for businesses, so too is data visualization in various sectors of the economy. In fact, individuals across industries can benefit from data visualizations. Consider these industries and how data visualization can boost efficiency and streamline operations:

• Transportation and logistics: Graphical representations of data can help organizations in this industry track driver or flight routes and design new routes as needed.

• Health care: Health care providers can improve their understanding and analysis of a patient’s medical records through various graphics and charts. They can also use data visualization to identify and better understand patterns and trends in community health.

• Retail: Retailers can use data visualization to evaluate sales data. As a result, they can track patterns in their customers’ purchases, analyze how customers use the store’s website or app, and forecast their inventory based on previous years’ sales.

• Education: Educators can implement data visualization to track and evaluate student progress, monitor enrollment trends, and identify where to allocate resources.

Data visualization extends into other sectors as well, helping environmental organizations, government agencies, and insurance companies track trends, identify patterns, and better understand and utilize their data.

6 data visualization roles

Clearly, data visualization is important across various industries, which means different roles will use these basic principles to better digest data. Discover these data visualization jobs and how they incorporate data visualization techniques into their work.

Data visualization specialist

As the name suggests, a data visualization specialist’s primary responsibility is to develop data visualizations for an organization. You’ll work with the organization’s data team, including data analysts and data scientists, to collect and interpret data. Using digital tools and software, such as Tableau and Power BI, you’ll develop easily digestible visualizations. Your organization can then effectively convey this key information to internal and external stakeholders.

Average annual salary: $91,372 [1]

Marketing specialist

As a marketing specialist, you help promote your organization’s brand, product, or service through various channels, including digital media, email campaigns, print advertisements, and television. Part of your strategic marketing efforts may include gathering and analyzing data about your market or potential customer base. Data visualization techniques are useful as you complete this task. They allow you to better assess insights about your customers and share your findings with colleagues in an easily digestible format.  

Average annual salary: $62,321 [2]

Data visualization engineer

A data visualization engineer’s primary responsibility is to operate as the link between data and interpretation with the goal of improving decision making. In this role, your duties may entail analyzing the data before displaying it graphically. You’ll most likely collaborate on a team to analyze the data and identify the findings before sharing them with your organization or clients. Understanding programming languages, such as Python, R, and JavaScript, as well as tools to create visualizations can assist as you develop charts, maps, and graphs to showcase your findings. 

Average annual salary: $107,194 [3]

Climate change analyst 

A climate change analyst, also known as a climatologist, collects and analyzes scientific data about the environment. In this role, you’ll use the gathered data to develop statistical models to track climate trends. You’ll also use this data to forecast future climate changes. Throughout this process, representing the collected data using graphics can assist in explaining complex topics more clearly.

Average annual salary: $91,662 [4]

Data visualization developer

A data visualization developer specializes in developing graphics to showcase an organization’s data. In this role, you’ll use various types of software to develop dashboards and other visualizations that represent the organization’s data. Your work may include developing various types of graphics, including charts, graphs, maps, and infographics.

Average annual salary: $78,087 [5]

Business intelligence analyst

Business intelligence analysts collect and analyze internal and external data to help an organization make informed business decisions. By evaluating a company’s data patterns, you can make recommendations to improve efficiency, or boost profits. After gathering and analyzing data, you’ll develop business reports and data visualizations to showcase your findings. 

Average annual salary: $101,210 [6]

How to get started

To launch your career in data visualization, consider your desired industry. Then, acquire the education, certifications, and skills needed for the role. Consider these tips as you prepare to work in data visualization.

Education and training

Data visualization is an interdisciplinary field, which means you can study various subjects, and because of this, many individuals working in data visualization earn a bachelor’s degree in computer science, statistics, or data science. Some data visualization bachelor’s degree programs are available as well. Depending on your industry of interest, you may also choose to earn your degree in marketing analytics or environmental data science to guide your career path. 

Certifications and Professional Certificates

Earning a certification in the broader field of data analytics or a Professional Certificate in data visualization can help you develop your skills and showcase them to employers. Consider these educational options as you prepare for data visualization positions:

• CompTIA Data+ Certification: By earning this certification, you’ll learn about data visualization, analytics, and mining. 

• Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate: Consider developing your data analysis skills with this Professional Certificate program. It highlights essential data visualization tools to use and best practices for developing effective visualizations.

• IBM Data Analyst Professional Certificate: This 11-course program introduces key topics in data analysis and visualization, including using Python for data visualization projects. 

Skills

You can develop job-ready skills for your data visualization role through online courses, certification programs, or hands-on training. Focus on developing these key skills to prepare for a career in data visualization:

• Critical thinking skills

• Analytical and statistical skills

• Data storytelling and communication skills

• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel, R, and Python

• Design skills 

• Proficiency in design tools such as Tableau

Start a career in data visualization on Coursera

A career in data visualization allows you to use your data analysis, design, and critical-thinking skills to help your organization communicate key data and make informed business decisions. Prepare for your data visualization role on Coursera. In IBM’s Data Visualization With Python course on Coursera, you can learn how to create cutting-edge visualizations, such as word clouds and waffle charts. Additionally, the University of Illinois’ Data Visualization course includes five models and allows you to learn how to visualize numerical and non-numerical data.