Data Scientist Salary in Maryland (2026)
The average Data Scientist in Maryland earns around $145,000/year. After taxes, your estimated take-home is $104,221/year ($8,685/month).
Take-Home Pay Breakdown
| Category | Amount |
|---|---|
Annual Take-Home Pay | $104,221 |
Monthly Take-Home Pay | $8,685 |
Biweekly Take-Home Pay | $4,009 |
Hourly Take-Home Pay based on 2,080 hrs/year | $50/hr |
Federal Tax | $23,534 |
State Tax | $6,152 |
FICA Taxes | $11,093 |
Effective Tax Rate total taxes ÷ gross salary | 28.12% |
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Read the guideData Scientist Salary Ranges in Maryland
Not all Data Scientists earn the same — not even close
Maryland's data science market is unusual nationally — the federal contractor cluster in Bethesda + Montgomery County (NIH + Lockheed Martin HQ + Walter Reed + NCI) plus Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (Laurel, $1.4B+ federal contracts) plus Fort Meade NSA + Cyber Command (Anne Arundel County) drive substantial cleared AI/ML hiring at federal-contractor scales. Commercial data science at T. Rowe Price (Baltimore asset management), Marriott HQ, McCormick HQ, and Constellation Energy adds parallel non-cleared career paths.
Principal ML Engineer / Senior Scientist
$245,000–$385,000 TC
Hopkins APL senior · Lockheed Martin AI/ML principal · NIH Clinical Center senior data scientist
Senior Data Scientist (Cleared / Federal)
$175,000–$265,000
Lockheed Martin Bethesda · Booz Allen Hamilton · Northrop Grumman · TS/SCI clearance premium
Senior Data Scientist (NIH / Biomedical)
$165,000–$245,000
NIH intramural + extramural research · NCI Frederick · biomedical ML · genomics specialty
Senior Data Scientist (FinTech / Asset Mgmt)
$145,000–$215,000
T. Rowe Price quantitative research · LifeBridge Health analytics · Constellation Energy ML
Data Scientist (Mid-Level, 3-6 yrs)
$110,000–$160,000
Most common Indianapolis-comparable band · post-MS Hopkins + UMD + Johns Hopkins Carey + UMBC
ML Engineer / MLOps
$125,000–$215,000
Production ML deployment · Lockheed defense · NIH Clinical · Hopkins APL · cleared work premium
Biostatistician (NIH / Hopkins)
$130,000–$195,000
NIH Clinical Center biostatistics · Hopkins Biostatistics (top-5 nationally) · FDA-regulated trial premium
Junior Data Scientist / Analyst
$80,000–$118,000
Hopkins + UMD + UMBC pipeline · Lockheed Martin new-grad program · NIH postdoc-to-data-scientist pivot
Senior Quant Researcher (T. Rowe Price)
$165,000–$285,000
Investment-strategy quantitative research · T. Rowe Price + Brown Advisory + Baltimore asset mgmt
Senior Cyber / Signals Intel ML
$195,000–$345,000
NSA + Cyber Command + cleared contractors · TS/SCI with polygraph · signals intelligence ML specialty
Worth knowing: The Bethesda federal contractor cluster is the structural feature most national data-science career surveys understate. NIH Bethesda's intramural research program plus NCI Frederick plus Walter Reed clinical research plus the extramural research grant ecosystem ($40B+ federal grant flow annually) create a concentration of biomedical data science talent that doesn't exist anywhere else. Lockheed Martin HQ Bethesda (Fortune 100 defense, ~110,000 global employees, ~10,000 Bethesda HQ) operates substantial AI/ML R&D plus classified defense-program data science. Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (Laurel MD, ~8,500 employees, $1.4B+ federal contracts) is one of the country's largest university-affiliated research centers — substantial cleared AI/ML, autonomous systems, and aerospace defense research. Fort Meade (Anne Arundel County) hosts NSA + US Cyber Command — substantial signals intelligence ML and cleared cyber AI work at GS-13/14/15 federal scale plus polygraph clearance premium ($35-65K above standard cleared work). Senior data scientists with TS/SCI plus polygraph clearance routinely clear $245-385K TC. The MD combined effective rate at senior DS comp ($175K in Montgomery County) is ~7.95% (4.75% state + 3.20% piggyback); above $500K with post-2024 BRA 6.25% bracket, ~9.45%.
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More on Maryland
Salaries by profession, top-paying roles by industry, and an economic breakdown for Maryland in 2026.
Tax brackets, standard deductions, and take-home estimates for Maryland in 2026.
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