Bioinformatician

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

A Bioinformatician uses computers and software tools to study biology and biology-related data. Conducts studies and maintains biology data; may develop specialized bioinformatics software. Analysis may be used for product development at a pharmaceutical company, disease research at a hospital or health policy research at a public health organization.

Job Outlook

There were 114 Bioinformatician job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 4079 in the United States.

In combination with other careers in the Biostatistician industry, which includes the Bioinformatician career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:

Salary

Many new Bioinformatician 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 $99,346.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $96,562.

Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Bioinformatician postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $73,814.

Education and Experience

Posted Bioinformatician 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	48.25%
Master's Degree	51.21%
Doctoral Degree	45.08%
Other	1.4%

Posted Bioinformatician 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	33.26%
3 to 5 years	51.16%
6 to 8 years	10.06%
9+ years	5.52%

Skills

Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Bioinformatician 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 (58.86%)
Communication (41.77%)
Writing (21.97%)
Presentations (20.69%)
Innovation (20.4%)
Management (18.78%)
Problem Solving (17.99%)
Leadership (17.28%)
Troubleshooting (Problem Solving) (15.4%)
Operations (13.07%)

Defining Skills

A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.

Workflow Management (37.98%)
Algorithms (22.98%)
DNA Sequencing (29.97%)
Biology (44.14%)
Linux (21.95%)
Python (Programming Language) (55.45%)
Bioinformatics (60.83%)
Computer Science (38.6%)
Computational Biology (34.35%)
R (Programming Language) (52.74%)
Whole Genome Sequencing (8.01%)
Gene Expression (8.35%)
Data Analysis (47.02%)
Machine Learning (23.19%)
Genomics (33.7%)
Next-Generation Sequencing (26.9%)
Ribonucleic Acid Sequencing (26.69%)

Necessary Skills

A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.

Biomarkers (8.68%)
Statistical Analysis (11.26%)
Clinical Informatics (9.28%)
Biotechnology (6.98%)
Git (Version Control System) (4.97%)
Proteomics (14.79%)
Amazon Web Services (8.68%)
Java (Programming Language) (12.14%)
Molecular Biology (16.16%)
Data Processing (9.82%)
C (Programming Language) (7.55%)
C++ (Programming Language) (11.57%)
Automation (8.01%)
Artificial Intelligence (7.52%)
Biochemical Assays (10.62%)
Hospital Information Systems (7.09%)
Software Development (8.53%)
Biochemistry (4.64%)
Immunology (9.69%)
Clinical Trials (6.26%)
Biostatistics (17.19%)
Cloud Computing (10.67%)
Bash (Scripting Language) (8.12%)
Data Mining (9.25%)
Drug Discovery (5.72%)
Perl (Programming Language) (15.9%)
Unix (14.66%)
Data Visualization (10.95%)
Medical Records (9.51%)
Data Management (13.79%)
Version Control (8.14%)
Genetics (16.98%)
Scalability (3.25%)
Oncology (9.48%)
Deep Learning (4.02%)
Nursing (9.92%)
Microbiology (4.05%)
Project Management (11.52%)
Programming Languages (14.02%)
Electronic Medical Record (10.31%)
Pharmaceuticals (4.92%)
SQL (Programming Language) (13.48%)
Statistics (9.92%)
Data Science (17.08%)
Workflow Management Systems (1.73%)
Informatics (14.38%)
Docker (Software) (4.59%)
Scripting (14.89%)
High Performance Computing (7.65%)

Distinguishing Skills

A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.

Epigenetics (7.11%)
Genome Annotation (1.03%)
Phylogenetics (1.98%)
Cancer Genomics (3.04%)
Bioconductor (Bioinformatics Software) (5.23%)
Sequence Analysis (2.91%)
Exome Sequencing (3.32%)
SAMtools (2.42%)

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.

Workflow Management (44.03%)
Algorithms (26.64%)
Data Analysis (54.51%)
Bioconductor (Bioinformatics Software) (6.06%)
Computer Science (44.74%)
Linux (25.45%)
Machine Learning (26.88%)
Sequence Analysis (3.38%)

Alternative Job Titles

Sometimes employers post jobs with Bioinformatician skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:

Bioinformatics Scientist
Bioinformatics Analyst
Clinical Informaticist
Bioinformatics Research Scientist
Bioinformatics Specialist
Nurse Informaticist
Bioinformatics Intern
Bioinformatics Research Assistant
Director of Bioinformatics

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 Bioinformatician jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.

United States

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (74)
University of Pennsylvania (69)
Humana (56)
Cedars-Sinai (46)
Washington University in St. Louis (46)
University of California (46)
Mount Sinai Health System (41)
University of Chicago (40)
AbbVie (39)
Thermo Fisher Scientific (38)

North Carolina

Duke University (14)
University of North Carolina (12)
Thermo Fisher Scientific (6)
Labcorp (6)
System One Holdings (5)
Grail (4)
Inotiv (3)
Wake Forest Baptist Health (3)
Viiv Healthcare (2)
Atrium Health (2)

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!

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.

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