Hmm... That probably does have a lot to do with it. At my company, you're permitting to choose a public title of either your job description (e.g. Lead Data Sc

Hmm... That probably does have a lot to do with it. At my company, you're permitting to choose a public title of either your job description (e.g. Lead Data Scientist), your "engineering rank" (e.g. Lead Scientist/Technologist/Developer/Engineer) or your consulting rank e.g (Lead Associate). All of these are equivalent in rank and promotion opportunities, but it does give you some flexibility on what you can place on your resume.