When I was in an embedded role, I had a few years to gain expertise in our product space. Then when I switched to a prototyping role, I had an opportunity to learn all about the so-called "big data" technologies. Over the years I just kept teaching myself more stats and ML, and here I am.

To be honest, I'm trying to shift away from it. Data science seems to be past peak hype, and much of the work tends to be less challenging than more conventional software engineering.

I'm not sure I'd be able to get a data science job outside of the company. I have no academic background in it, and that seems to be a prerequisite for most places. It's a pity, because most of the credentialed data scientists I've worked with have tended to be underwhelming.