Computational Biologist
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
A Computational Biologist uses biological data to develop models to better understand biological systems. Conducts analysis using computational and mathematical methods and large data sets.
Job Outlook
There were 13 Computational Biologist job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 1072 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Biologist industry, which includes the Computational Biologist career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:
Salary
Many new Computational Biologist 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 $119,984.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $119,984.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Computational Biologist postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $82,372.
Education and Experience
Posted Computational Biologist 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 | 23.88% |
| Master's Degree | 30.5% |
| Doctoral Degree | 63.53% |
| Other | 4.38% |
Posted Computational Biologist 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 | 23.98% |
| 3 to 5 years | 45.25% |
| 6 to 8 years | 20.36% |
| 9+ years | 10.41% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Computational Biologist 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 (74.72%)
- Communication (39.83%)
- Innovation (27.61%)
- Presentations (25.28%)
- Leadership (17.72%)
- Writing (15.02%)
- Self-Motivation (13.06%)
- Management (12.13%)
- Mathematics (11.19%)
- Mentorship (10.54%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- Workflow Management (12.77%)
- Molecular Biology (20.33%)
- Algorithms (28.19%)
- Biology (66.01%)
- Python (Programming Language) (64.24%)
- Drug Discovery (15.82%)
- Bioinformatics (62.28%)
- Computer Science (42.53%)
- Computational Biology (83.6%)
- R (Programming Language) (51.96%)
- Data Analysis (39.78%)
- Machine Learning (41.06%)
- Genetics (22.4%)
- Genomics (36.44%)
- Data Science (21.51%)
- Ribonucleic Acid Sequencing (27.9%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Computational Tools (11.3%)
- Biomarkers (15.23%)
- Applied Mathematics (11.1%)
- Cancer Biology (10.41%)
- Statistical Analysis (11.98%)
- Epigenetics (8.06%)
- Biotechnology (8.25%)
- Machine Learning Methods (10.41%)
- Git (Version Control System) (13.65%)
- Proteomics (19.35%)
- Amazon Web Services (6.88%)
- Agile Methodology (2.65%)
- C (Programming Language) (7.47%)
- C++ (Programming Language) (9.43%)
- Automation (5.3%)
- Artificial Intelligence (14.64%)
- Cell Biology (10.41%)
- Software Development (12.28%)
- Biochemical Assays (7.96%)
- Chemistry (6.97%)
- Image Analysis (8.15%)
- DNA Sequencing (15.13%)
- Biochemistry (9.53%)
- Immunology (11.79%)
- Biostatistics (15.82%)
- Cloud Computing (5.11%)
- Bash (Scripting Language) (2.55%)
- Linux (18.27%)
- Data Integration (9.63%)
- Biophysics (7.76%)
- Data Visualization (6.97%)
- Computer Simulation (3.54%)
- Data Management (6.58%)
- Github (5.4%)
- Experimentation (2.55%)
- Whole Genome Sequencing (4.03%)
- Machine Learning Algorithms (11.1%)
- Life Sciences (7.47%)
- Scalability (2.95%)
- TensorFlow (15.13%)
- Oncology (14.93%)
- Deep Learning (20.43%)
- Scientific Literature (5.01%)
- Software Engineering (14.64%)
- Physics (11.3%)
- Structural Biology (3.44%)
- Project Management (4.13%)
- Postdoctoral Research (7.66%)
- Systems Biology (14.54%)
- MATLAB (7.27%)
- Research Experiences (8.74%)
- Programming Languages (14.83%)
- Pharmaceuticals (6.78%)
- Statistics (11.1%)
- Next-Generation Sequencing (12.87%)
- PyTorch (Machine Learning Library) (15.82%)
- Unsupervised Learning (7.66%)
- Informatics (9.14%)
- Statistical Methods (10.22%)
- High Performance Computing (11.1%)
Distinguishing Skills
A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.
- Genome-Wide Association Study (4.32%)
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 (14.66%)
- Algorithms (32.36%)
- Data Analysis (45.66%)
- Genome-Wide Association Study (4.96%)
- Python (Programming Language) (73.73%)
- Machine Learning (47.13%)
- Data Science (24.69%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Computational Biologist skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Postdoctoral Fellow
- Principal Scientist
- Computational Scientist
- Postdoctoral Associate
- Postdoctoral Research Fellow
- Postdoctoral Researcher
- Scientist
- Staff Scientist
- Molecular Biology Intern
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.
- Bioinformatician
- Bioinformatics Engineer
- Research Scientist
- Computer Scientist
- Data Scientist
- Biologist (General)
- Biomedical Scientist
- Research Associate (General)
- Computational Chemist
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Computational Biologist jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- Genentech (111)
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (81)
- Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (24)
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (22)
- Broad Institute (21)
- UT Southwestern Medical Center (18)
- Takeda Pharmaceutical Company (17)
- Oregon Health & Science University (16)
- University of California (16)
- Mass General Brigham (15)
North Carolina
- National Institutes of Health (3)
- University of North Carolina (2)
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (2)
- Agricultural Research Service (1)
- Oak Ridge Associated Universities (1)
- Elo Life Systems (1)
- ASGN (1)
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.