[HelloNurse]

But the "average" data scientist is probably more senior than the "average" software engineer: the right comparison to make is between the same person, at the same point in time, in the two roles.

Companies that hire a "data scientist", as opposed to getting help from temporary consultants or assigning their engineers and mathematicians to data science tasks, are probably companies that value data science highly (because there is a perceived necessity and/or business value) and do enough of it to hire a full time specialist.

Moreover, a company that starts a data science team is likely to hire someone sufficiently senior to work more or less alone, not the more junior data scientists that would need the guidance of such a team leader.