Hiring a generative AI data scientist on your own can take 14 to 20 weeks or more
Weeks from opening the job to an accepted offer when a company recruits on its own, by level. Staffing-firm estimates for 2026.
Show the numbers as a table
| Category | Low end | High end |
|---|---|---|
| Junior (0 to 2 years) | 5 weeks | 7 weeks |
| Mid-level (2 to 5 years) | 7 weeks | 9 weeks |
| Senior (5 to 8 years) | 9 weeks | 13 weeks |
| Staff or principal (8+ years) | 13 weeks | 18 weeks |
| Generative AI or applied research | 14 weeks | 20 weeks |
About the data
- Source
- KORE1, Time to fill a data scientist role in 2026 (opens in a new tab)Table "How long a data scientist search runs in 2026, by level", Internal Search column
- Method
- KORE1, a technology staffing firm, blends published benchmarks with the searches it sees close in several US metro areas. These are its ranges for a company recruiting without an agency. The firm sells recruiting services, which it says on the page.
- Published
- Updated
Free to share and embed with credit to Kent Applied (CC BY 4.0). The source data keeps its own terms.
A fact from this chart
Sources for the figures above: KORE1, Time to fill a data scientist role in 2026 (opens in a new tab).
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