Assay Development Scientist
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
An Assay Development Scientist creates assays or systems to test and evaluate the effect of a chemical compound on an organism. Directs assay development as part of a research process to develop new drugs.
Job Outlook
There were 155 Assay Development Scientist job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 6490 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Chemist industry, which includes the Assay Development Scientist career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2016:
Salary
Many new Assay Development 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 $119,797.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $102,098.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Assay Development Scientist postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $95,229.
Education and Experience
Posted Assay Development 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 | 55.5% |
| Master's Degree | 55.18% |
| Doctoral Degree | 57.06% |
| Other | 0.43% |
Posted Assay Development 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 | 24% |
| 3 to 5 years | 42.82% |
| 6 to 8 years | 20.15% |
| 9+ years | 13.02% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Assay Development 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 (52.99%)
- Communication (41.97%)
- Troubleshooting (Problem Solving) (35.12%)
- Writing (27.2%)
- Innovation (24.27%)
- Detail Oriented (23.39%)
- Problem Solving (22.9%)
- Presentations (21.69%)
- Management (20.54%)
- Leadership (17.1%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- Molecular Biology (30.89%)
- Assay Development (34.67%)
- Data Analysis (30.65%)
- Biochemistry (39.36%)
- Cell Cultures (26.81%)
- Biology (45.93%)
- Immunology (29%)
- Chemistry (25.09%)
- Biochemical Assays (61.19%)
- Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent (ELISA) Assay (25.85%)
- Immunoassay (10.25%)
- Flow Cytometry (23.04%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Laboratory Experience (13.54%)
- Statistical Analysis (5.26%)
- Biomarkers (14.27%)
- Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) (15.45%)
- Analytical Techniques (16.25%)
- Cell Biology (27.69%)
- Good Documentation Practices (2.95%)
- Virology (3.69%)
- Workflow Management (13.24%)
- Quality Management Systems (2.64%)
- Antibodies (11.4%)
- Laboratory Equipment (9.64%)
- Small Molecules (7.68%)
- Chromatography (7.91%)
- Microscopy (3.63%)
- Automation (13.38%)
- Experimental Data (6.95%)
- Biotechnology (18.08%)
- Experimental Design (7.68%)
- Biopharmaceuticals (14.5%)
- Good Manufacturing Practices (18.55%)
- Reagent (9.74%)
- R (Programming Language) (6.85%)
- Experimentation (5.99%)
- Pre-Clinical Development (10.09%)
- Clinical Trials (14.05%)
- Clinical Research (2.77%)
- Western Blot (8.38%)
- Life Sciences (8.02%)
- Oncology (11.83%)
- Standard Operating Procedure (7.84%)
- Drug Development (10.21%)
- Microbiology (6.07%)
- ISO 13485 Standard (1.39%)
- Drug Discovery (13.62%)
- Electronic Lab Notebook (7.99%)
- Process Development (13.3%)
- High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (10.85%)
- Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reactions (15.23%)
- Sample Analysis (5.96%)
- Laboratory Techniques (5.36%)
- Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (8.41%)
- Project Management (13.33%)
- Pharmaceuticals (18.44%)
- Polymerase Chain Reaction (11.79%)
- New Product Development (16.18%)
- Research And Development (6.07%)
- Scientific Literature (8.23%)
- Scientific Methods (3.22%)
- Ribonucleic Acid Sequencing (10.22%)
- Mammalian Cell Cultures (6.87%)
Distinguishing Skills
A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.
- Laboratory Automation (2.24%)
- Protein Characterization (4.23%)
- Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (2.96%)
- Neutralization (1.52%)
- Ligand (3.86%)
- Bioanalysis (5.31%)
- Cytotoxicity (2.61%)
- GraphPad Prism (5.78%)
- FlowJo (3.3%)
- Ligand Binding Assay (4.16%)
- Transduction (2.12%)
- Molecular Assays (3.84%)
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.
- Ligand (100%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Assay Development Scientist skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Scientist
- Principal Scientist
- Associate Scientist
- Analytical Development Scientist
- Bioanalytical Scientist
- Development Scientist
- Field Application Scientist
- Immunologist
- Process Development 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.
- Biochemist
- Molecular Biologist
- Cell Biologist
- Biologist (General)
- Research Associate (General)
- Infectious Disease Scientist
- Research Technician
- Pharmacology Research Scientist
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Assay Development Scientist jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- Eurofins (217)
- Thermo Fisher Scientific (168)
- AstraZeneca (157)
- Pearson Education (150)
- AbbVie (148)
- Merck & Co. (148)
- Bristol-Myers Squibb (146)
- Pfizer (123)
- The College Board (112)
- Amgen (104)
North Carolina
- Actalent (17)
- IQVIA (14)
- Labcorp (8)
- Eurofins (7)
- Quintiles (6)
- Talentburst (5)
- Insight Global (4)
- Novozymes (4)
- Alcami Corporation (4)
- TeMPus (3)
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!
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.