Research Scientist
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
A Research Scientist is responsible for designing, undertaking and analyzing information from controlled laboratory-based investigations, experiments and trials.
Job Outlook
There were 354 Research Scientist job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 19257 in the United States.
We do not have this data at this time.
Salary
Many new Research Scientist jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.
National
The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $115,796.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $123,017.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Research Scientist postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $85,430.
Education and Experience
Posted Research Scientist jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.
| Education Level | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Associate's Degree | 0% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 31.83% |
| Master's Degree | 40.98% |
| Doctoral Degree | 71.54% |
| Other | 0.94% |
Posted Research Scientist jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Years of Experience | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 0 to 2 years | 32.13% |
| 3 to 5 years | 43.43% |
| 6 to 8 years | 14.06% |
| 9+ years | 10.38% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Research Scientist positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.
Baseline Skills
A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.
- Research (95.82%)
- Communication (40.15%)
- Writing (27.97%)
- Innovation (23.24%)
- Presentations (22.79%)
- Management (17.84%)
- Leadership (17.35%)
- Problem Solving (15.42%)
- Mathematics (13.93%)
- Planning (13.82%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- Python (Programming Language) (32.94%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Statistical Analysis (8.47%)
- Molecular Biology (7.59%)
- Collaborative Research (4.62%)
- Artificial Intelligence (21.48%)
- Data Analysis (27.31%)
- Algorithms (20.9%)
- Biochemistry (9.35%)
- Cell Cultures (5.75%)
- Biology (18.78%)
- Automation (4.03%)
- Applied Research (5.68%)
- Computer Science (26.48%)
- C++ (Programming Language) (16.22%)
- Chemistry (17.72%)
- Data Collection (11.53%)
- Biochemical Assays (8.2%)
- R (Programming Language) (21.04%)
- Life Sciences (2.81%)
- Physics (18.14%)
- Machine Learning (30.98%)
- Scalability (7.45%)
- Project Management (12.82%)
- Pharmaceuticals (6.16%)
- New Product Development (7.93%)
- Statistics (20.13%)
- Research And Development (4.79%)
- Research Experiences (15.8%)
- Deep Learning (13.21%)
- Data Science (13.59%)
- PyTorch (Machine Learning Library) (9.04%)
- Programming Languages (8%)
Distinguishing Skills
A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.
- Biophysics (1.37%)
- Scientific Computing (4.5%)
Salary Boosting Skills
A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is listed.
- Python (Programming Language) (100%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Research Scientist skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Principal Scientist
- Clinical Research Scientist
- Research Scientist/Engineer
- Research Data Scientist
- Research Scientist Manager
- Operations Research Scientist
- Scientist
- Applied Research Scientist
- Computational Scientist
Similar Occupations
If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Research Scientist jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- Meta (1268)
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (734)
- Amazon (570)
- Humana (343)
- Google (303)
- Merck & Co. (212)
- Cedars-Sinai (208)
- New York University (191)
- Pearson Education (189)
- Marriott International (170)
North Carolina
- University of North Carolina (23)
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (22)
- Duke University (21)
- RTI International (15)
- Grifols (14)
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (14)
- Hitachi (13)
- Thermo Fisher Scientific (9)
- BASF (9)
- Belcan (7)
NC State Programs Relevant to this Career
If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!
- Animal Science Master's Degrees
- Forest Biomaterials Master's Degrees
- Foundations of Data Science Master's Degrees
- Fundamentals of Entomology Undergraduate Certificates
- Microbiology Undergraduate Certificates
- Statistics Master's Degrees
All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.