Biological Technician
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
A Biological Technician assists biologists and medical scientists working in labs. Operates lab equipment, monitors experiments, records results and observations. Uses computer software to collect and analyze data.
Job Outlook
There were 462 Biological Technician job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 12253 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Biological Technician industry, which includes the Biological Technician career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:
Salary
Many new Biological Technician 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 $62,313.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $63,002.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Biological Technician postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $44,626.
Education and Experience
Posted Biological Technician 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 | 36.77% |
| Master's Degree | 12.76% |
| Doctoral Degree | 8.7% |
| Other | 24.53% |
Posted Biological Technician 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 | 71.2% |
| 3 to 5 years | 22.86% |
| 6 to 8 years | 3.6% |
| 9+ years | 2.34% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Biological Technician 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.
- Communication (30.32%)
- Research (23.19%)
- Management (21.91%)
- Operations (18.51%)
- Detail Oriented (16.67%)
- Quality Control (16.15%)
- Writing (11.08%)
- Troubleshooting (Problem Solving) (10.99%)
- Lifting Ability (10.05%)
- Computer Literacy (9.74%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- Biology (55.26%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Laboratory Experience (16.33%)
- Laboratory Equipment (14.86%)
- Biotechnology (8.38%)
- Molecular Biology (9.47%)
- Asepsis (10.82%)
- Chemistry (19.2%)
- Biochemistry (8.5%)
- Cell Cultures (8.63%)
- Good Manufacturing Practices (13.32%)
- Data Collection (8.45%)
- Standard Operating Procedure (15.5%)
- Environmental Monitoring (3.62%)
- Data Analysis (9.04%)
- Life Sciences (5.31%)
- Microbiology (26.37%)
- Pharmaceuticals (5.22%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Biological Technician skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Microbiology Technician
- Biological Science Technician
- Fish and Wildlife Technician
- Extraction Technician
- Molecular Technologist
- Biometrics Technician
- Wildlife Biological Science Technician
- Biological Field Technician
- Microbiologist
- Bioprocess Associate
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.
- Biologist (General)
- Research Technician
- Microbiologist
- Laboratory Manager
- Clinical Laboratory Technician
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Biological Technician jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- Actalent (276)
- Amentum (220)
- United States Department of Agriculture (130)
- Kelly Services (129)
- National Park Service (125)
- Agricultural Research Service (120)
- United States Fish & Wildlife Service (115)
- Western Ecosystems Technology (109)
- Outlier (99)
- State of California (98)
North Carolina
- Labcorp (25)
- Thermo Fisher Scientific (14)
- TeMPus (11)
- National Park Service (10)
- The Judge Group (9)
- Mckim & Creed (9)
- Humacyte (7)
- Actalent (6)
- Duke University (6)
- Outlier Ai (6)
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 Nutrition Undergraduate Certificates
- Animal Science Master's Degrees
- Biomanufacturing Graduate Certificates
- Fundamentals of Entomology Undergraduate Certificates
- Microbiology Undergraduate Certificates
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.