Average Salaries ($K)
Toronto 2020-2024
Data Salary review
Toronto
2020 - 2024
- 21% Average Cost Of Living Rise
- #12/23 Cheapest City To Live
- 24% Average Salary Rise
- #10/23 Salary Growth - All Roles
- #6/23 Salary Growth For Heads Of Data
- #2/23 Salary Growth For Data Engineers
- #21/23 Salary Growth For Data Analyst
- #21/23 Salary Growth For Data Scientists
Overview
Toronto has cemented itself as a major tech hub in North America, and when it comes to data roles, it is one of the top cities in Canada for opportunities. The city’s tech ecosystem is fuelled by strong industries like finance, healthcare, e-commerce and telecommunications. Banks and fintech companies (RBC, TD, Wealthsimple) hire aggressively for data analysts, engineers, and scientists. Healthcare and life sciences firms like Ontario Health, Klick Health, and the University Health Network have also ramped up data hiring. Shopify, though headquartered in Ottawa, maintains a strong Toronto presence, and Big Tech players like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have expanded their local offices, increasing demand for data professionals. The company landscape is nicely mixed and alongside these large corporates and scale-ups. (Ada, Ritual, or FreshBooks)
The pandemic triggered a tech hiring boom, but by 2023 and 2024, layoffs hit many companies, especially those in e-commerce and SaaS. Shopify for example, slashed jobs in multiple waves. Venture capital funding has also cooled, meaning fewer flashy data roles at startups compared to the 2019–2021 period. This is a pattern we see repeated in many tech hubs. Toronto’s data scene is still solid, but it is not as unstoppable as it once seemed. The cost of living is high, and salaries may not always justify the expenses.
Heads Of Data
Toronto is a tough market for aspiring data leaders. While the demand is high, competition is fierce, and companies tend to look for proven executives rather than take risks on newcomers. Many more current Heads of Data in Toronto were promoted internally after proving their ability to manage teams and so your best bet may be to position yourself as the natural successor when leadership roles open.
Toronto’s data leadership roles often require a unique blend of technical expertise, business acumen, and regulatory knowledge. Compared to Silicon Valley, where technical depth is highly prized, Toronto skews more toward applied data science, analytics, and governance. Because of the dominance of banking and healthcare in Toronto, many leadership roles focus heavily on data privacy, compliance and security more so than many American tech hubs. Unlike the aggressive, high-turnover culture in SF or NYC, Toronto’s hiring for senior data roles tends to be relationship-driven and risk-averse. Leadership hires are often made based on internal referrals rather than external poaching.
Toronto ranked #6/23 in terms of wage growth over the last five years.
Average Salaries ($K) By Experience
Data Engineers
Toronto’s tech scene has a strong demand for data engineers, with industries like finance, healthcare, and e-commerce driving the need for scalable data infrastructure. However, breaking into and advancing as a data engineer in Toronto comes with unique challenges, entry-level roles are highly competitive with companies often requiring you to have two years of experience in order to be considered. As such graduates may need to consider internships, volunteering or graduate programmes in order to get on the ladder.
Toronto still has many companies transitioning from on-prem Hadoop and legacy data warehouse and so Engineers who can lead cloud migrations will be in high demand. Having Kafka and real-time processing experience will also help you to stand out in the market. With many larger companies in the sectors of finance and healthcare, Toronto is a more stable job market and whilst there was a dip in average wage in 2023 (23% at expert level) the market has since corrected. Overall Toronto has high demand for data engineers and a much more stable salary progression compared to most of the other tech hubs we investigated, ranking #2/23 for wage growth over the last five years
Average Salaries ($K) By Experience
Data Analysts
Toronto is a great place to build a data analytics career, particularly if you are interested in working with large-scale enterprise data and want the stability that comes with working in finance, healthcare, or tech giants. The market offers solid growth opportunities, especially as companies continue to mature their data practices and make decisions more data-driven.
While the Toronto data analytics market is competitive, it is not yet as saturated as places like NYC, meaning there is room for growth, especially in industries heavily reliant on data like finance and tech. To stand out, experience in building automated reports, advanced analytics, and predictive modelling will give you an edge, and Tableau and Power BI are good visualisation tools to master.
There is a large talent pool in the city, and so the route to advance your career is typically through stability and growing with the right employer as opposed to job hopping. Getting promoted is not as easy as it might be in smaller or more dynamic cities. The road to senior or leadership roles in data analytics can take longer since Toronto’s data analytics landscape often values stability and slow growth over innovation. The real kicker is team structure, many companies still have very siloed teams, so while you might do some advanced analysis, you are not likely to lead teams or make strategic decisions until much later in your career.
Average Salaries ($K) By Experience
Data Scientists
Data science roles in Toronto have exploded over the past few years, but the market is still not as mature as other tech hubs and is perhaps a little late to the game in many respects. Whilst you will definitely find roles in AI research or deep learning in Toronto, they are not as abundant and tend to be more research-oriented in contrast to the product-focused roles in the U.S. Toronto might feel a bit more “traditional,” especially when many companies still focus on predictive analytics rather than real-time applications. The competition here is tough, with candidates flocking to roles that offer higher salaries, particularly in industries like fintech. So, what will make you stand out? Being able to demonstrate end-to-end project ownership, from cleaning and processing data to building models and deploying them at scale, will set you apart from others.
We have generally seen wages for Data Scientists stagnate over the last five years as more talent enters the market, and the same is true in Toronto. There is virtually no difference between 2024 salaries and 2020 but as Toronto is a later-staged maturity tech hub this may change in the next few years, but today’s picture is that Toronto ranks #21/23 in salary growth.
Average Salaries ($K) By Experience
Hiring Data Roles For Toronto Companies
Toronto offers one of the largest and most dynamic data talent pools in North America, fuelled by a strong pipeline of graduates from institutions like the University of Toronto and York University. Employers will find a diverse range of skilled data professionals, but competition is fierce, particularly in sectors like financial services, tech startups, and enterprise-level corporations. Wage growth has been significant in AI, cloud computing, and machine learning, driving up hiring costs. Retention remains a challenge as many top-tier professionals are frequently approached by U.S. companies offering higher salaries and remote work opportunities. Employers to invest in competitive compensation, strong employer branding, and professional development initiatives to attract and retain top talent.
For businesses struggling to fill highly specialised roles or needing short-term expertise, working with a data agency like 173tech can be a strategic solution. By leveraging agency support, companies can accelerate data initiatives, reduce time-to-hire, and gain access to high-level expertise without the long-term commitment of building an in-house team.
173tech Direct Comparison
- Head Of Data (5+ yrs) $280k
- Data Engineer (5+ yrs) $125k
- Data Engineer (0-3 yrs) $75k
- Data Analyst (3-5 yrs) $80k
- $560k per yr + Tax + Pension + Holidays
- Candice (15+ yrs) Ruben (8+ yrs) Oliver (10+ yrs)
- Adrian (15+ yrs)
- Oscar (2+ yrs)
- Emeric (3+ yrs) Mai (4+ yrs) Noel (2+ yrs) Amy (2+ yrs) Poppy (2+ yrs)
- $240k
Working with 173tech is effortless – wake up, log in, and instantly tap into a full data team at your fingertips. From strategy to implementation, we make leveraging data for growth easy and hassle-free.
We deploy a full team to every project and give you direct access through weekly syncs and shared slack. We work with the tools and processes you have already established or can set up from scratch.
We provide a fully flexible resource to tap into when you need to fast-track data projects and represent not only great value, but are passionate about creating value from data. Get in touch today to see how we can help you!
