For PhD data scientists in research focused roles, do you exclusively hire PhDs?

This is regarding the data scientist positions in the industry which are more research focused. Not business facing or product facing ones. I find in the research focused data scientist roles the main criteria is a PhD. However, I’m wondering if there are:

Any MS stats folks working in these types of jobs?

And if PhDs are the ones hiring, do you exclusively hire PhDs for these roles as oppose to a MS with industry experience?

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