Data Scientist Salary in Florida: Pay by Experience, City & Take-Home

A data scientist in Florida earns a median salary of $115,820 a year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025). Most of the field falls between $63,080 at the 10th percentile and $174,140 at the 90th, with a median hourly wage of $55.69. Because Florida has no state income tax, that gross translates into one of the better take-home figures in the country.

How Florida compares to the national median

The national median for data scientists is $120,230 a year, according to the BLS. Florida’s median of $115,820 sits $4,410 below that, or about 3.7 percent under the U.S. figure. That’s a small gap on paper, and it shrinks to nothing once you account for the missing state income tax. A California data scientist on the national median hands a slice of every paycheck to Sacramento. A Florida data scientist on $115,820 keeps the whole gross minus federal and FICA.

The spread inside Florida matters more than the comparison to the U.S. number. The 25th percentile is $84,070 and the 75th is $140,210, so the middle half of the field covers a $56,140 band. The jump from median to 90th percentile is even larger: a senior data scientist at $174,140 earns $58,320 more than the typical worker in the same state. Where you land depends mostly on experience, metro, and whether you’re at a bank, a defense contractor, or a startup.

Data scientist salary in Florida by experience

BLS percentiles are the cleanest proxy for experience. Entry-level and early-career roles cluster around the 10th and 25th percentiles, mid-career sits at the median, and the 75th and 90th reflect experienced and senior staff with a track record of shipping models into production.

The early-career-to-median step is the steepest in percentage terms. Moving from $84,070 to $115,820 is a $31,750 raise, about 38 percent, and it usually happens in the first three to five years as you go from cleaning data and building dashboards to owning a model end to end. The mean wage statewide is $119,150, slightly above the median, which tells you a cluster of high earners at the top pulls the average up. Most people will track the median more closely than the mean.

The entry figure of $63,080 is worth a reality check. That number includes junior analysts who carry the title without yet doing heavy modeling work. A new graduate with a strong portfolio, a relevant master’s, or a feeder internship at a Florida employer often starts above it. The 25th percentile of $84,070 is a more realistic floor for someone hired specifically as a data scientist rather than a data analyst who got the better title.

At the top end, the climb keeps paying. Going from the median at $115,820 to the experienced 75th percentile at $140,210 is a $24,390 raise, and the step from there to the senior 90th at $174,140 adds another $33,930. In hourly terms that’s the difference between $55.69 and $83.72 an hour for the same job title in the same state. The people clearing $174,140 are typically staff or principal data scientists, team leads, or specialists in a high-demand niche like fraud modeling, recommendation systems, or clinical analytics. Florida’s senior pay doesn’t reach the heights of the Bay Area, but the no-tax math narrows the real-dollar gap considerably once you compare net pay rather than gross.

One thing the percentile table won’t tell you is industry. Two data scientists at the same experience level can sit a full quartile apart depending on whether they work for a bank, a hospital network, a defense contractor, or a small marketing agency. Finance and defense anchor the top of the range in Florida, healthcare and insurance sit in the middle, and agency or in-house retail analytics tends toward the lower percentiles. When you read your own offer against this table, weight it for the sector you’re in.

Data scientist salary by Florida metro

Pay varies sharply by metro, and this is where a national average hides the most. Miami pays the highest median in the state, well above Tampa, Orlando, and the smaller Space Coast market. Here are the five largest Florida metros by data scientist employment.

Miami’s median of $127,450 runs $11,630 above the statewide median and $21,860 above the lowest metro on this list. The Miami market is large and finance-heavy, with banks, fintech firms, and trading shops bidding for modeling talent, and that competition shows up in the pay. Jacksonville is the surprise at $122,680, second highest in the state on the back of its banking and insurance employers despite a much smaller headcount of 880.

Tampa is the second largest market by employment with 1,730 data scientists, but its median of $109,990 sits below the state line, reflecting a mix of health systems, insurers, and back-office tech that pays a bit under the Miami premium. Orlando at $106,590 and Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville at $105,400 round out the list. Palm Bay’s Space Coast market is small at 280 jobs, but it’s anchored by aerospace and defense work that often requires clearances, which can change the compensation math beyond the base figure shown here.

There’s a pattern worth naming. The two highest-paying metros, Miami at $127,450 and Jacksonville at $122,680, are both finance and insurance towns. The three that pay below the state median, Tampa at $109,990, Orlando at $106,590, and Palm Bay at $105,400, lean on a broader mix of healthcare, tourism tech, aerospace, and back-office work. Industry concentration drives the metro spread more than cost of living does. Jacksonville is not an expensive city, yet it pays second-highest in the state because of who employs data scientists there.

Employment density tells its own story. Miami’s 3,040 roles make it the obvious place to start a search if you want options, and its median is the highest in Florida, a rare combination of depth and pay. Tampa offers the second-deepest market at 1,730 jobs but at a lower median, so it’s a volume play rather than a pay play. Orlando’s 1,440 roles cluster around theme-park analytics, simulation, and a growing health-tech scene. If you’re early in your career and want the most interviews, Miami and Tampa give you the widest funnel; if you’re senior and chasing the top number, Miami and Jacksonville are where the money is.

The practical takeaway: a Miami offer and an Orlando offer for the same title can differ by more than $20,000 at the median. Before you weigh a relocation inside the state, check what the higher number actually buys after Miami’s housing costs, which we get into below.

Take-home pay after tax in Florida

Florida charges no state income tax, so your deductions are federal income tax and FICA only. That’s the entire reason a Florida paycheck stretches further than the same gross in a high-tax state. Here’s the breakdown at four points on the percentile curve, using single-filer 2026 estimates.

At the median, a Florida data scientist keeps $89,865 of a $115,820 gross, an effective rate of 22.4 percent and a monthly take-home of $7,489. The senior figure clears $10,815 a month. Notice the effective rate climbs with income, from 16.4 percent at entry to 25.5 percent at the 90th percentile, because federal brackets are progressive even when the state takes nothing.

Here’s the comparison that a national average can’t give you. Take the Florida median of $115,820 and run the same gross through California’s tax code. In Florida the net is $89,865. In California it’s $83,067. That’s a gap of $6,798 a year, money a Florida data scientist keeps and a California one does not, on identical pay. Over a five-year stretch that’s roughly $34,000, enough for a car or a down-payment cushion, purely from where you live.

The contrast widens as pay climbs, because high-tax states tax top brackets hardest. At the experienced level a Florida data scientist nets $106,587 of a $140,210 gross, an effective rate of 24.0 percent, and at the senior level the net is $129,778 on $174,140, a 25.5 percent rate. In a state with its own income tax on top of federal and FICA, both of those net numbers would be several thousand dollars lower. The higher you earn, the more the Florida no-tax advantage is worth in absolute dollars, which is one reason senior tech talent keeps relocating to metros like Miami.

The number that actually matters is net pay minus local housing. A Miami median offer looks great until you subtract Miami rent, which is among the highest in the state. A slightly lower Tampa or Jacksonville number can leave you with more in the bank each month once housing comes out. Before you accept anything, model your own situation. Plug the gross into the Florida paycheck calculator to see your exact net, then run the tax side with TurboTax if you have stock comp, freelance income, or a working spouse that complicates the picture.

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How to earn more as a data scientist in Florida

The gap between the median and the 90th percentile is $58,320. Closing it is mostly about specialization, scope, and where you point your job search. Concrete moves that work in this state:

• Target Miami or Jacksonville finance. Both metros pay well above the state median, $127,450 and $122,680 respectively. A move into a bank, insurer, or fintech model team in either city is one of the fastest ways to jump from the median toward the 75th percentile.
• Specialize in production ML, not dashboards. The pay premium goes to people who deploy and monitor models, not just analyze data. Skills in MLOps, cloud platforms, and large-scale pipelines move you up the percentile curve. Structured courses in machine learning engineering or cloud certification on Coursera map directly to the higher-paying job descriptions.
• Get a clearance for Space Coast and defense work. Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville is small, but aerospace and defense roles that require a security clearance often pay above their public base figures and have far less competition.
• Move from data analyst to data scientist in title and scope. The 25th-to-median step is worth $31,750. Owning a model end to end, rather than feeding someone else’s, is what unlocks it.
• Negotiate against the metro median, not the state one. If you’re in Miami, anchor on $127,450, not $115,820. Walking into a negotiation with the right local number is worth thousands.
• Build a public portfolio. Florida’s market is smaller than California’s or New York’s, so a visible track record of shipped projects carries more weight with the limited pool of senior-paying employers.

Job outlook for data scientists in Florida

Florida employs about 10,240 data scientists statewide, according to the BLS. The work is concentrated in the big three metros: Miami at 3,040, Tampa at 1,730, and Orlando at 1,440 together account for the bulk of the state’s roles, with Jacksonville adding another 880. Data science is one of the faster-growing occupations nationally, and Florida’s finance, healthcare, insurance, and aerospace sectors all generate steady demand for modeling talent.

The headcount also tells you where the jobs are. If you want the most listings to choose from, Miami and Tampa give you the deepest markets. Smaller metros like Palm Bay mean fewer openings but also fewer applicants per role. To see what’s hiring right now and at what pay, search current data scientist openings on ZipRecruiter and compare the posted ranges against the metro medians above.

Related and higher-paying roles in Florida

Data science isn’t the top of the tech pay ladder in Florida, and it’s not the bottom either. Compared against the same-state medians, here’s how two adjacent roles stack up against a data scientist’s $115,820.

A software developer in Florida earns a median of $130,980, which is $15,160 MORE than a data scientist in the state. If your strength leans toward building software rather than building models, that’s a meaningful raise for a lateral skill set. A computer systems analyst earns a median of $101,900, which is $13,920 LESS than a data scientist here, so moving the other direction would mean a pay cut.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) 2025; ThePayGuide 2026 federal and FICA tax estimates. Last updated 2026. See our methodology.