Data Scientist Salary in Denver — 2026 BLS Data

$119K median base salary · Denver
BLS OEWS · 2024 data

Salary distribution

Percentile breakdown of Data Scientist base salaries in Denver.

The $119K median base for a data scientist in Denver is a genuine, useful anchor — but the population it covers is wide enough that the number can mislead as easily as it informs. BLS OEWS May 2024 national data for SOC code 15-2051 (Data Scientists) puts the US median at $112,590, with the P25 at $82,630 and the P90 at $194,410. Denver’s market runs modestly above that national line: BLS data for the Denver-Aurora-Centennial MSA shows computer and mathematical occupations averaging $60.06 per hour ($124,925 annualized), compared to the national computer/math mean of roughly $73,950 — but that national mean is heavily weighted by Bay Area and NYC clusters. Within Colorado’s actual employer mix, Denver data scientists cluster around $115K–$125K at the median, consistent with the $119K figure used here.

That median blends together a junior DS running SQL reports at a healthcare IT vendor in the Denver Tech Center, a mid-level ML engineer at Arrow Electronics building demand-forecasting models, and a senior data scientist at a defense contractor on a cloud analytics contract. The P25-to-P90 spread — $87K to $204K — is nearly $117K. Equity, which accounts for 20–40% of total comp at growth-stage and public tech companies, is entirely absent from BLS tracking. The $119K is a floor reference for “mid-level at a normal Denver employer,” not a ceiling.

How Denver compares to other data science hubs

Denver occupies a clear middle tier in the US data science market — above the national BLS median, well below the coastal clusters. For direct comparison using 2024–2026 data:

  • San Francisco Bay Area — BLS OEWS puts the San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara metro median for data scientists at approximately $173K base; Levels.fyi tracks total comp at $215K–$265K median depending on level.
  • Seattle — Median base around $155K–$165K, anchored by Amazon’s large DS org and Microsoft’s AI division. Levels.fyi median total comp ~$200K.
  • New York City — Median base ~$145K–$155K; total comp medians around $190K–$210K across finance-sector and tech-sector DS roles.
  • Austin — BLS OEWS places the median near $155K base; Levels.fyi shows $167K average total comp across all levels.
  • Denver — $119K median base; Levels.fyi Denver data scientist median total comp of approximately $149,500 across all levels, with a P25 of $111K and P75 of $176K in reported total compensation.

Denver is about 6% above the BLS national median for data scientists in base salary terms, while Austin runs roughly 38% above it. The gap to San Francisco narrows dramatically after cost of living — more on that below — but nominally, Denver data scientists earn 55–65% of what Bay Area DS roles pay in base, before equity enters the picture.

Where Denver holds its own: the cost of living is meaningfully lower than Seattle, Austin, or any California metro, and the labor market is competitive enough that multiple employers actively recruit for data science talent. The CompTIA 2024 survey estimated more than 260,000 tech workers in the Denver MSA, representing 8.5% of the overall workforce. That density creates genuine competition among employers, which matters in salary negotiations.

What drives the P25-to-P90 spread

The $87K–$204K range doesn’t primarily reflect experience level, though experience contributes. It reflects which tier of employer you land at, what specialty you practice, and whether the role has a defense or clearance component. Four dynamics drive the spread:

Employer tier and funding stage. At the entry tier, regional companies — health systems, energy firms, smaller SaaS vendors — pay $85K–$110K for data analyst-to-scientist roles that may carry a DS title but run more analytical than ML-engineering in scope. At the second tier, established mid-size tech employers like DISH Network, Vertafore, Palantir’s Denver team, and Arrow Electronics pay $120K–$150K with modest equity. The third tier — public tech companies, growth-stage Series C/D companies with active ML programs, and FAANG satellite offices — pay $150K–$180K base with RSU programs that meaningfully expand total comp. The difference between tiers is not always visible in the job title.

Technical specialty. Not all data science work commands the same premium in 2026. According to multiple labor market analyses, generative AI and LLM expertise commands a 40–60% salary premium over base DS roles; MLOps and production ML engineering carries a 25–40% premium; NLP and computer vision roles run 20–35% above generalist DS. A Denver DS who works primarily on dashboards and A/B testing analysis is compensating differently from one building and deploying production ML pipelines on cloud infrastructure. The BLS SOC code bundles both.

Defense and aerospace. Colorado’s Front Range is one of the most defense-dense corridors in the country. Lockheed Martin Space (Waterton Canyon), Raytheon Intelligence, L3Harris, and dozens of smaller contractors collectively employ tens of thousands of workers in the Denver-Boulder-Colorado Springs corridor. Data scientists in defense contexts — building analytics on sensor data, logistics optimization models, or intelligence pipelines — often earn at the P75–P90 range while appearing in the same BLS bucket as a DS at a downtown Denver startup. The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency ranks Colorado third in the US for cleared workforce size. An active TS/SCI clearance adds $15K–$35K effective value to a Denver DS offer, and cleared DS roles at defense primes tend to carry strong pension-adjacent benefits absent from commercial offers.

Level compression in BLS data. SOC 15-2051 covers everyone from entry-level analysts who recently retitled to “data scientist” to staff DS leading multi-team modeling programs. In practice: entry-level (0–2 years, without advanced degree) land $80K–$100K; mid-level (3–6 years) $115K–$145K; senior (6–10 years) $145K–$175K; staff and principal $175K–$210K+. The median is a weighted average of all of these, not a useful target for any individual.

Total compensation breakdown

For a mid-level data scientist — roughly L4 equivalent, three to six years of experience, individual contributor — at a typical Denver tech or analytics employer, the comp stack in 2026 looks approximately like this:

Base salary: $119,000. This is what BLS tracks and what appears on your W-2. Denver employers in the commercial tech sector — Palantir, Ibotta, Zayo, Confluent’s Denver teams — pay base in the $115K–$135K band for L4. Defense contractors pay similarly or slightly below in base but compensate through benefits and retirement contributions. Remote-first employers benchmarked to national pay bands often offer $130K–$155K for Denver-based DS hires because they price to “national remote” rates rather than local geography.

Annual cash bonus: ~$12,000. Most established Denver employers pay 8–12% of base as an annual performance bonus. At defense primes and larger corporations, these bonuses are formula-driven and relatively predictable; at growth-stage startups, bonuses are often replaced with equity. The $12K figure (~10% of base) is conservative and realistic for a mid-level DS at a company that runs a formal bonus program.

Annualized equity: ~$15,000. This is where Denver’s market diverges most from coastal hubs. At a profitable public company or late-stage private with structured RSU grants, a four-year grant worth $60K ($15K/year) is a realistic mid-level package. However, many Denver DS roles — especially at defense contractors, energy companies, and regional employers — carry no equity at all. Pre-IPO startup equity can be worth substantially more or nothing. Levels.fyi data for Denver shows a wide equity distribution, with engineers at Palantir and FAANG satellite offices reporting $40K–$100K+ annualized equity, while the typical Denver employer offers zero to modest RSUs.

Total all-in: approximately $146,000 at the median employer for a mid-level DS. For senior data scientists ($163K base band), total comp runs $195K–$225K at companies with equity programs. Staff-level DS at the handful of Denver employers that run proper staff IC tracks (Palantir’s Denver presence being the clearest example) can reach $250K+ total.

For comparison, the same L4 equivalent in San Francisco earns roughly $280K–$330K total comp. The gap is real. So is the difference in rent, state income tax, and quality-of-life tradeoffs.

Cost-of-living adjusted purchasing power

Denver’s cost of living index runs approximately 125 against the US average of 100 — meaning goods and services in Denver cost about 25% more than the national baseline. That places Denver more expensive than Austin (~119), significantly cheaper than San Francisco (~178) or NYC (~168), and broadly comparable to Seattle (~142) though still below it.

Housing is the dominant driver. Denver median home prices exceeded $525,000 in early 2025 according to data from the Colorado Association of Realtors — more than double the national median — and the Denver-Aurora metro area has seen among the steepest rent increases in the Mountain West over the past decade. Median one-bedroom rent in Denver proper runs $1,700–$2,100/month; suburban markets like Centennial, Aurora, and Lakewood run $1,400–$1,700.

The COL-adjusted math: a $119K Denver data scientist salary buys approximately $95,200 in national-average purchasing power. Conversely, a Seattle data scientist earning $160K, considering Denver as a move, can accept a Denver offer around $140K and maintain equivalent purchasing power — the nominal $20K gap nearly disappears. Against San Francisco at $180K base, the Denver equivalent is roughly $126K on a pure COL basis, though the California state income tax wedge (9.3% marginal rate at $180K) shifts the comparison more favorably toward Denver on an after-tax basis.

Two categories where Denver’s index underestimates real cost: childcare and healthcare. The Colorado Department of Early Childhood reports average full-time infant care costs of $19,300/year statewide — among the top 10 in the US — and individual health insurance premiums for non-group-covered workers are above average. A Denver DS evaluating an offer from an employer with thin benefits needs to price these in explicitly, particularly if family coverage is relevant.

One place Denver’s purchasing power narrative is better than the index suggests: the suburban ring. A DS commuting from Arvada, Wheat Ridge, or Littleton to an employer in Broomfield or the Denver Tech Center faces meaningfully lower housing costs than the Denver-proper median implies. The metro’s housing geography rewards anyone who doesn’t anchor to a downtown ZIP code.

Three-lever negotiation playbook for Denver data scientists

1. Use Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act as your opening move. Colorado’s EPEWA (effective January 2021) requires any employer with at least one Colorado employee to post salary ranges on all job listings — including remote jobs that could be filled by a Colorado resident. This applies even if the company is headquartered elsewhere. Before you negotiate, find the posted range. The posted maximum is the ceiling of what the company has budgeted. Getting to that ceiling is your task. The median offer at any established Denver employer lands closer to the midpoint of the posted range than the top; knowing the range lets you calibrate immediately whether an offer is negotiable upward or whether the company is already near its ceiling.

2. Anchor to the P75 when you have multiple options — $163K base is the realistic senior-level target. The P75 isn’t aspirational for strong DS talent in Denver; it’s the going rate at companies that run serious modeling programs. The most efficient anchor is a competing offer, even from a company you’d rank second. Denver’s mid-size tech employers — Ibotta, DISH Network, Arrow Electronics, Vertafore, DoorDash’s Denver analytics team — have more salary band discretion than they advertise. A documented competing offer at or above P75 converts the conversation from “what does the market say?” to “can you match this specific number?”, which is a faster negotiation. For candidates without a competing offer, detailed Levels.fyi data for Denver-specific roles at the hiring company (when available) is the next best anchor.

3. Negotiate the equity grant and refresh separately from base. Most Denver DS offers come with either no equity or a relatively modest initial grant. The initial grant size is almost always negotiable — recruiters at growth-stage companies commonly have authority to increase it 15–25% without additional approvals. More important than the initial grant is the refresh cadence: companies that issue annual equity refreshes starting year 2 are worth substantially more over a four-year window than those that wait until year 4. Ask directly: “What does the equity refresh cycle look like after the cliff?” If the recruiter can’t answer clearly, the answer is probably “infrequent” and the offer needs to compensate elsewhere. For defense contractor and large corporate offers with no equity, push harder on base (aim for the P75 band) and on retirement matching — Lockheed, Raytheon, and comparable employers often offer defined contribution matching at 4–6%, which is a meaningful benefit difference from startup-style comp.

A secondary lever specific to Denver: remote flexibility has direct economic value in this market. The difference between a mandatory downtown Denver presence and a hybrid schedule allowing two to three days remote translates to $200–$400/month in housing cost savings — equivalent to $2,400–$4,800 per year — because the suburban ring is materially cheaper and accessible only if you’re not commuting daily. If an employer is firm on cash comp, requesting explicit hybrid flexibility is a real economic ask, particularly easy to frame given that most Denver tech employers have normalized 2–3 day hybrid by 2026.

Data caveats

BLS OEWS is the most rigorous salary data source available — mandatory employer reporting covering the full employment population, not a self-selected online sample — but several limitations matter specifically for Denver data scientists.

The Colorado data release quirk. The national May 2024 OEWS release shipped in April 2025; Colorado’s data was delayed to July 2025 because the state was modernizing its unemployment insurance system. Any source relying only on the April 2025 national release is missing the Colorado-specific figures. The Denver-Aurora-Centennial MSA numbers are now published and publicly available, but older aggregator data may not reflect them.

Equity is entirely absent from BLS. The $119K median is a base-salary figure. At Palantir, Confluent, Ibotta, and the handful of FAANG satellite offices operating in Denver, equity is 25–50% of total comp. The BLS number is the right foundation; for employers with meaningful equity programs, it needs to be supplemented with Levels.fyi or direct recruiter conversations about grant size and refresh schedule.

Defense roles are structurally different. SOC 15-2051 groups commercial data scientists and cleared-defense data scientists in one bucket. Defense roles often carry total compensation advantages — comprehensive healthcare, pension contributions, tuition reimbursement, paid certifications — that don’t appear in BLS wages but meaningfully change the true value of the offer. If you’re comparing a Lockheed or Raytheon offer to a startup equity-heavy offer, model the full benefit stack over a five-year horizon, not just the W-2 numbers.

The BLS lag matters in a fast-moving specialty. May 2024 data reflects wages paid roughly 18–24 months before you’re reading this in mid-2026. Denver’s tech market has remained active since then — the metro added data science and AI-related roles across energy, aerospace, and fintech verticals — and 3–5% wage growth since the survey date is a reasonable baseline assumption. The percentile structure is durable; the exact dollar amounts are best treated as conservative floor estimates. For current real-time data, Colorado’s legally required job posting salary ranges are the most precise available source for any specific role you’re targeting.

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