Is Data, Analytics & AI a Good Job Market in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL?

Executive Verdict

Market rating: competitive | Confidence: Medium

This is a workable but selective market for Data, Analytics & AI job seekers. Florida's data, analytics & AI postings were up 5.1% year over year in July 2026 while category employment was essentially flat statewide, and Tampa saw more than 75 postings across more than 40 companies over the last 90 days.[16][17][26] Most local opportunities skew enterprise, on-site or hybrid, and mid-to-senior, with about 65% of postings from enterprise employers, about 60% on-site, and only about 15% entry-level.[8][12][1] Pay is solid, with Tampa data scientists at a $109,990 median annual wage and local posted ranges centering on about $99k to $158k, but metro unemployment reached 4.7% in June 2026, so landing a role still takes a targeted search.[24][28][11]

Best positioned: The best odds right now belong to a Tampa-based mid or senior candidate with Python, SQL, visualization, and data-mapping skills who can work hybrid or on-site for consulting, public-sector, defense, or finance employers.[2][7][3][12][1]

Main caution: The biggest mistake is assuming this is a remote-first, entry-level-friendly AI boom; only about 10% of sampled roles were remote, about 15% were entry-level, and postings that disclosed sponsorship almost never offered it.[12][1][25]

What Changed Recently

• Florida data, analytics & AI postings were up 5.1% year over year in July 2026 even though category employment was essentially flat statewide.[16][17]: That usually means more replacement and backfill openings than broad headcount expansion, so there are roles to pursue but fewer easy wins.
• Haystack showed 23 live Data Scientist roles in Tampa on August 9, with 8 added in the past week.[9]: The data-science slice of the market still has short-term activity, especially for candidates who can move quickly on fresh listings.
• Tampa metro unemployment reached 4.7% in June 2026 and was up 17.5% year over year, while metro employment was down 0.6705% year over year.[11][32]: A softer local backdrop gives employers more leverage and can lengthen interview cycles.
• National job openings were 7,359 thousand in June 2026, while quits were 3,232 thousand and down 0.6761% year over year.[33][34]: Employers are still posting roles, but workers are moving less freely, which usually signals a more cautious hiring environment for Tampa candidates.

What This Means for You

Entry-Level Candidates

Difficulty: High. Only about 15% of sampled local postings were entry-level, while most were mid or senior and employers most often asked for Python, SQL, and visualization skills.[1][2]

Best target: Aim for analyst roles attached to finance, healthcare, public policy, or consulting teams, especially hybrid roles that emphasize SQL, dashboards, and business-facing analysis rather than pure AI branding.[3][4][5][6]

Biggest mistake: Applying only to remote AI titles is the wrong bet in this metro.

Next step: Build two portfolio projects that show Python and SQL analysis plus a dashboard in Tableau or Power BI, and add one artifact with data cleaning or mapping because a recent St. Petersburg role emphasized data mapping work.[2][4][7]

Mid-Career Candidates

Difficulty: Moderate to high. The market is better for you than for entry-level candidates because about 50% of sampled roles were mid-level and about 25% were senior.[1]

Best target: Target enterprise employers, consulting firms, defense or public-sector contractors, and finance teams where the work is embedded in operations rather than a standalone AI lab.[8][3][9][5]

Biggest mistake: Leading with generic dashboard experience when employers are asking for hands-on transformation, mapping, Python, and SQL work.[2][7]

Next step: Rework your resume around measurable business outcomes, data modeling or mapping, and stakeholder delivery, then pursue both permanent roles and contract openings such as the recent $60-$90/hr senior analyst posting in Tampa.[7][10]

Career Switchers

Difficulty: High unless you can prove domain overlap. Tampa's broader labor market is softer, with metro unemployment at 4.7% in June 2026, so employers can be selective.[11]

Best target: Switch through adjacent analyst paths in finance, healthcare operations, public policy research, or GIS-flavored work where your prior domain knowledge matters as much as code depth.[4][5][6]

Biggest mistake: Trying to jump straight into senior data scientist titles without a portfolio or domain story.

Next step: Package one domain case study, one SQL and Python project, and one visualization sample, and be open to hybrid schedules because about 60% of sampled roles were on-site and about 30% were hybrid.[12][2]

Salary Reality

high pay highly concentrated

Observed local wage data is strongest for data scientists: the metro median was $109,990, the mean was $116,600, and the 25th-75th percentile band ran from $82,960 to $132,290 in May 2025.[24] Broader category signals are more directional: recent local posted ranges centered on about $99k to $158k, Florida's mean offered salary on new openings was about $106,765 in July 2026 on a sample of 2,429 postings, and one Tampa senior analyst contract posting paid $60-$90/hr.[28][35][10]

This is good pay for established candidates, but it is not automatically outsized relative to local costs. Tampa Bay's household cost threshold was estimated at $106,000 a year, which puts the local data scientist median only slightly above that bar.[23][24]

The upside is offset by selectivity: only about 15% of sampled roles were entry-level, about 60% were on-site, and the metro unemployment rate was 4.7% in June 2026.[1][12][11]

Best-paying path: The strongest pay tends to sit in data scientist and AI-adjacent work, especially senior roles in consulting or contractor settings; Robert Half puts U.S. data scientist pay at $121,750-$182,500, and Tampa has recent senior analyst contract postings at $60-$90/hr.[30][10]

Caution: Do not overread top-end numbers. The cleanest local government benchmark is only for data scientists, while broader salary bands mix multiple titles and come from a partial posting sample rather than a metro wage census.[24][28]

Where the Opportunities Are Concentrated

Opportunity is concentrated less in pure tech startups and more in enterprise and institutional employers. In the local sample, about 65% of postings came from enterprise employers, hiring was fragmented across more than 40 companies, and the most-active industries were government and public sector at about 30%, IT services and IT consulting at about 25%, healthcare at about 10%, and professional-services buckets at about 20% combined.[8][26][3] That lines up with the employer names appearing now: Booz Allen Hamilton, Redhorse Corporation, PwC, MANTECH, SAIC, Deloitte, and Raymond James show up in local snapshots, while a recent St. Petersburg opening emphasized data analysis and data mapping and a Raymond James role required hybrid office time.[9][20][7][5] For most job seekers, this means the fastest path is not to apply to every AI-branded role but to target analytics work attached to consulting, defense or public-sector contracts, finance, and healthcare operations.[3][9][6]

• Defense, government, and public-sector contractors (high): This is the clearest concentration of demand, with government and public sector making up about 30% of the local sample and employers such as Booz Allen Hamilton, MANTECH, SAIC, and Redhorse Corporation appearing in current hiring snapshots.[3][9]
• IT services and consulting (high): IT services and IT consulting account for about 25% of local postings, and Deloitte and PwC appear among the active employer names, which favors candidates who can solve client-facing data problems and work across business units.[3][20][9]
• Finance and wealth management analytics (moderate): A Raymond James Analyst, Data Analytics role in St. Petersburg and broader sector signals around finance suggest a steady adjacent lane for analytics candidates who can work in hybrid enterprise settings.[5][6]
• Healthcare and applied research (moderate): Healthcare represents about 10% of the local sample, and Tampa Bay Partnership's research-focused analyst opening shows that some opportunities combine analytics with policy, reporting, and regional research rather than pure model building.[3][4]

Where to focus: Focus first on mid-to-senior Python and SQL roles inside consulting, public-sector, and finance organizations that allow hybrid work rather than holding out for fully remote AI titles.[3][12][2]

Skills and Credentials Worth Pursuing

• Python (table stakes): Python showed up in about 70% of sampled local postings, making it the clearest baseline skill across analyst, data science, and AI-adjacent work.[2]
• SQL (table stakes): SQL appeared in about 45% of sampled postings and is the common denominator across finance, consulting, healthcare, and public-sector analytics roles.[2]
• Tableau / Power BI and data visualization (differentiator): Data visualization showed up in about 25% of sampled postings, Tableau in about 20%, and a local research analyst posting explicitly named Tableau or Power BI.[2][4]
• Data mapping and transformation (differentiator): A recent St. Petersburg senior analyst role explicitly centered on data analysis and data mapping, which is a stronger local signal than generic dashboard-only work.[7]
• Machine learning and TensorFlow (premium): Machine learning appeared in about 20% of sampled postings and TensorFlow in about 15%, which suggests premium demand but not universal demand across the whole category.[2]
• R (differentiator): R showed up in about 25% of sampled local postings and was named alongside Python, SQL, Tableau, Power BI, and ArcGIS in a Tampa Bay research analyst opening.[2][4]
• TS/SCI clearance (premium): TS/SCI clearance was the most frequently mentioned certification in the local sample, appearing in about 5% of postings, which is meaningful in a market with visible contractor demand.[22][3]

Adjacent Roles to Consider

• Business Systems Analyst / Data Conversion Analyst (bridge): A recent St. Petersburg senior opening centered on data analysis and data mapping for a conversion project, which is very close to systems-analysis work with heavier migration ownership.[7]
• Research or Policy Analyst (bridge): The Tampa Bay Partnership is hiring a Research & Data Analyst to support public policy, analytics, and the Regional Competitiveness Report, showing a local path that mixes research, writing, and analysis.[4]
• Finance / Risk Analyst (both): A Raymond James Analyst, Data Analytics role in St. Petersburg and broader sector signals around finance show a realistic adjacent path for candidates who can pair SQL and reporting with business controls.[5][6]
• GIS / Spatial Analyst (pivot): ArcGIS appeared alongside R, Python, SQL, Tableau, and Power BI in a local research and data posting, which suggests a nearby niche for candidates with geography, planning, or infrastructure experience.[4]

30 / 60 / 90-Day Plan

First 30 Days

• Split your resume into two versions: one for consulting or contractor employers and one for finance or business-unit analytics teams, because local demand clusters around those settings rather than one uniform buyer pool.[3][9][5]
• Build one portfolio project around Python and SQL analysis and a second around dashboard delivery in Tableau or Power BI.[2][4]
• Add a data-cleaning or data-mapping example to your portfolio, since a recent St. Petersburg opening explicitly emphasized data mapping for a conversion project.[7]
• Create a target list of named local employers and check them directly each week, starting with Deloitte, Booz Allen, Raymond James, PwC, MANTECH, and LTM.[20][9]

Days 31-60

• Expand beyond permanent roles and pursue contract openings too, including senior analyst work that recently posted at $60-$90/hr in Tampa.[10]
• Refocus your search filters around Tampa and St. Petersburg hybrid or on-site roles posted in the last month, because the typical active posting has been open around 33 days and the market is not heavily remote.[21][12]
• If you have public-sector or defense background, test whether you can reactivate or leverage clearance-related experience, because TS/SCI is the most frequently cited local certification signal.[22]
• For finance, healthcare, or public-policy targets, add one domain-specific case study instead of another generic Kaggle notebook.[4][5][6]

Days 61-90

• If interviews are not converting, widen into adjacent roles such as business systems, policy research, finance or risk analysis, or GIS-flavored analyst work instead of waiting only for data scientist titles.[4][7][5][6]
• Use compensation reality to set a floor: compare offers against the region's estimated $106,000 household cost threshold and the local data scientist median of $109,990 rather than anchoring on national AI hype numbers.[23][24]
• Treat fully remote search as optional upside, not the core plan, because only about 10% of sampled local roles were remote.[12]
• If you need sponsorship, pivot early toward employers and metros with better sponsorship odds, because local postings that stated policy almost never offered it and one recent Raymond James role explicitly excluded it.[25][5]

Methodology and Confidence

This July 2026 report was generated on August 10, 2026. Latest direct national data: July 2026. Latest direct Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL data: July 2026.

Confidence: Overall confidence: Medium. Local wage and labor data are solid, but some conclusions rely on broader category signals and partial posting samples.

Limitations

• The strongest official local pay benchmark here is for data scientists, not the full Data, Analytics & AI category, so titles like BI analyst, analytics engineer, and AI engineer are inferred from broader posting and salary signals.
• Local occupation wage data lags the market: the main metro wage figures are from May 2025, while the hiring signals in this report run through August 2026.
• Statewide occupation trend data was used as a proxy where metro-level trend data was not published, so Florida posting and employment direction may not match Tampa Bay exactly.
• The Callings.ai job database is a partial, deduplicated sample of online postings, so direction of demand, leading employer names, and skill patterns are more reliable than exact counts, shares, or remote-work percentages.
• Some salary figures come from employer postings or salary guides rather than government wage surveys, and niche AI or analyst sub-roles can have small samples that swing reported pay bands.

References

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3. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-07 · callings.ai
4. Tampabay. Job Opening | Research & Data Analyst - Tampa Bay Partnership · 2026-07 · tampabay.org
5. Careerrebound. Job Board | CAREER REBOUND - Networking - Training - Support · 2026-08 · careerrebound.org
6. Jobsnearme. Data Analyst Jobs in Tampa, FL | Salary & Hiring 2026 | Jobs Near Me · 2026-01 · jobsnearme.career
7. Haystackapp. Senior Data Analyst / Business Data Analysis at Indotronix International Corp - St. Petersburg | Haystack · 2026-07 · haystackapp.io
8. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-07 · callings.ai
9. Haystackapp. Data Scientist Jobs in Tampa - 23 Open Positions | Haystack · 2026-08 · haystackapp.io
10. Haystackapp. Senior Data Analysts at Kforce Technology Staffing - Tampa | Haystack · 2026-07 · haystackapp.io
11. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · 2026-06 · data.bls.gov
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15. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · 2026-07 · data.bls.gov
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23. Wusf. The cost of living in Tampa Bay grows to $106K, annual report finds · 2026-06 · wusf.org
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31. Coursera. How Much Do Data Analysts Earn in 2026? Your Salary Guide · 2025-11 · coursera.org
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33. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · 2026-06 · data.bls.gov
34. Reveliolabs. Salaries — Revelio Public Labor Statistics (RPLS) · 2026-07 · reveliolabs.com

Live Openings in This Market

This report is published monthly; its companion page tracks the active Data, Analytics & AI openings in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL from the live Callings.ai job index. Browse current Data, Analytics & AI openings in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL.