data labeling jobs in 2026 — demand, top roles hiring, and related skills
As of 2026-09-30, data labeling appears in 902 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the past 90 days — Generative AI Specialist has the most postings mentioning data labeling.
Last updated · 90d ending 2026-09-30
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Frequently asked questions about data labeling
+Is data labeling in demand in 2026?
Yes. data labeling appears in 902 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the 90 days ending 2026-09-30. Generative AI Specialist accounts for the most postings mentioning data labeling (6.0% of all postings mentioning data labeling).
+What jobs require data labeling?
According to the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-09-30, among roles with at least 20 postings, the highest shares mentioning data labeling are Data Labeling Analyst (100.0% of that role’s postings mention data labeling), Generative AI Specialist (93.1% of that role’s postings mention data labeling), AI Tutor (73.9% of that role’s postings mention data labeling).
+What skills are commonly paired with data labeling?
Across job postings indexed by Skillenai (90 days ending 2026-09-30), data labeling most often appears alongside machine learning, Python, data annotation, model evaluation, AI training.
+Where is data labeling most in demand?
As of 2026-09-30, the metro areas posting the most jobs requiring data labeling are San Francisco, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, New York City, Boston, according to the Skillenai jobs index.
+How can I keep up with new data labeling content and jobs?
Skillenai indexes news, blog posts, and research papers mentioning data labeling alongside the jobs index. You can subscribe to a daily email digest of new data labeling content from your Skillenai account.
+Which skills come before and after data labeling?
The skill-flow chart shows skills documented in adjacent positions across observed employer changes. An outgoing skill is documented in the following position but not the preceding one. These are ideas to explore, not proven prerequisites, acquisition dates, or levels of mastery. Each ribbon counts employer moves with that skill pair; one move can contribute several pairs.
Weekly indexed postings requiring data labeling — last 90 days
Salary distribution
Box = 25th–75th percentile · tick = median · whisker = 10th–90th · USD, annualized
Career paths around data labeling
Skills documented before and after this skill across employer changes.
Historical career profiles · all locations
Skills before data labeling
Skills after data labeling
How to read this chart · view counts
Each side is an independent set of observed employer moves, not the same people followed through three stages. Ribbon widths compare move counts within that side. Internal moves are not included.
The following position documents a skill that the preceding position does not. Skills must be linked to both positions, with clear dates and no overlap. One move can connect several skill pairs. These patterns suggest skills to explore; they do not establish prerequisites, when a skill was learned, or a higher skill level.
Source: Skillenai talent graph, historical career profiles. Historical descriptions and coverage can change. Only the leading published connections are shown.
| Connection | Moves |
|---|---|
| Before: spark | 1 |
| Before: AWS (EMR, S3, Redshift) | 1 |
| Before: AUC | 1 |
| Before: Bloom Filters | 1 |
| Before: MYSQL | 1 |
| Before: segmentation | 1 |
| Before: type-C fibers | 1 |
| Before: sql | 1 |
| After: usability testing | 1 |
| After: Environment Layer | 1 |
| After: a/b testing | 1 |
| After: python | 1 |
| After: clustering algorithms | 1 |
| After: Azure Databricks | 1 |
| After: data retrieval | 1 |
| After: dataset pipeline | 1 |
Roles most likely to require data labeling
Among roles with at least 20 postings in the same period.
| Role | Postings mentioning skill | % of role postings mentioning skill |
|---|---|---|
| Data Labeling Analyst | 26 | 100.0% |
| Generative AI Specialist | 54 | 93.1% |
| AI Tutor | 34 | 73.9% |
| AI Training Expert | 29 | 44.6% |
| AI Evaluator | 9 | 33.3% |
| AI Response Evaluator | 9 | 33.3% |
| AI Training Specialist | 12 | 30.8% |
| Perception Engineer | 6 | 30.0% |
| AI Safety Evaluator | 8 | 29.6% |
| AI Quality Analyst | 7 | 29.2% |
Roles with the most data labeling postings
| Role | Postings mentioning skill | Share of skill postings |
|---|---|---|
| Generative AI Specialist | 54 | 6.0% |
| Machine Learning Engineer | 38 | 4.2% |
| AI Tutor | 34 | 3.8% |
| AI Training Expert | 29 | 3.2% |
| Data Labeling Analyst | 26 | 2.9% |
| Software Engineer | 21 | 2.3% |
| AI Trainer | 18 | 2.0% |
| Data Scientist | 17 | 1.9% |
| AI Quality Evaluator | 15 | 1.7% |
| Product Manager | 15 | 1.7% |
Top companies posting jobs requiring data labeling
Employers ranked by indexed job postings in the last 90 days.
| Company | Postings · 90 days |
|---|---|
| OpenBrain | 383 |
| Innodata | 67 |
| xAI | 35 |
| Welo Data | 28 |
| Canva | 17 |
| Waymo | 17 |
| Beacon Biosignals | 13 |
| CLERA | 11 |
| Weloglobal | 10 |
| Wayve | 8 |
Job postings indexed over the past 90 days, grouped by resolved employer. Counts are postings, not hires. Companies without a published page appear without a link.
Top metros hiring for data labeling
| Name | Postings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | 42 | 4.7% |
| Mountain View | 21 | 2.3% |
| Sunnyvale | 18 | 2.0% |
| New York City | 13 | 1.4% |
| Boston | 12 | 1.3% |
| Berlin | 8 | 0.9% |
| London | 8 | 0.9% |
| Palo Alto | 8 | 0.9% |
| Paris | 7 | 0.8% |
Skills commonly paired with data labeling
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How this was computed
Counts derive from the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-09-30. Skills are resolved against the Skillenai canonical taxonomy, so the same entity is counted whether a posting writes 'Python', 'Python 3', or 'python'. Role prevalence divides postings mentioning data labeling by all postings for each role in the same window, ranking roles with at least 20 postings. Role distribution divides each role’s data labeling postings by all data labeling postings, including postings without a role. Shares need not sum to 100% for the displayed roles. Pages refresh weekly (or daily for the top-50 most-requested skills). An adjusted trend is not shown because comparable posting coverage is insufficient.
- source
- Skillenai jobs index, deduplicated daily
- entity_id
- 6210150622556b0b
- data_as_of
- 2026-09-30
- window_days
- 90
The demand, skills, and geo numbers on this page come from the same Skillenai labor market index that powers our API. Use it for compensation benchmarking, hiring-competition analysis, and skill-adoption tracking.
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