Computer Scientist

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

A Computer Scientist conducts research and studies complex problems in computing. Develops computer algorithms that provide the foundation for advances in technology. May study computer hardware architecture, robotics or software, and collaborate with electrical engineers and other computer professionals.

Job Outlook

There were 113 Computer Scientist job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 6733 in the United States.

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

Salary

Many new Computer 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 $132,755.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $123,253.

Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Computer Scientist postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $102,828.

Education and Experience

Posted Computer 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	46.23%
Master's Degree	42.48%
Doctoral Degree	45.36%
Other	4.62%

Posted Computer 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	31.06%
3 to 5 years	38.89%
6 to 8 years	15.73%
9+ years	14.32%

Skills

Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Computer 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 (50.44%)
Communication (33.27%)
Mathematics (25.22%)
Management (20.9%)
Innovation (19%)
Writing (16.44%)
Problem Solving (16.34%)
Leadership (14.14%)
Operations (13.69%)
Presentations (12.79%)

Defining Skills

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

Conversational AI (8.44%)
Computer Science (59.88%)
Natural Language Processing (NLP) (30.24%)
Artificial Intelligence (47.59%)
Machine Learning (53.34%)
Python (Programming Language) (47.16%)
Generative Artificial Intelligence (22.43%)

Necessary Skills

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

Workflow Management (8.24%)
Algorithms (26.38%)
Data Analysis (17.28%)
Microsoft Azure (11.23%)
Biology (9.25%)
Electrical Engineering (8.95%)
Information Systems (7.38%)
Linux (9.38%)
Integral Calculus (8.57%)
Scalability (11.61%)
Computer Vision (10.29%)
Automation (8.67%)
Amazon Web Services (16.19%)
Java (Programming Language) (19.46%)
Chemistry (9.83%)
Physics (14.11%)
Software Development (18.19%)
Applied Research (8.26%)
C++ (Programming Language) (21.06%)
Statistics (21.03%)
System Software (5.04%)
Systems Architecture (5.98%)
Computer Engineering (10.8%)
Systems Design (7.05%)
Chatbot (8.99%)
R (Programming Language) (20.73%)
Deep Learning (20.02%)
Technical Leadership (4.79%)
PyTorch (Machine Learning Library) (16.47%)
Project Management (8.36%)
Large Language Modeling (18.9%)
TensorFlow (15.26%)
Software Engineering (19.08%)
Data Science (19.67%)
SQL (Programming Language) (9.56%)
Transformer (Machine Learning Model) (4.2%)
Programming Languages (16.24%)

Distinguishing Skills

A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.

Dialogflow (Google Service) (4.43%)
Voice User Interface (3.35%)
Amazon Lex (3.68%)
Natural Language Understanding (6.43%)
Intelligent Virtual Assistant (3.65%)
Lex (Software) (3.87%)
Bot Framework (4.63%)
Word2Vec Models (3.57%)
NLTK (NLP Analysis) (3.73%)
Sentiment Analysis (5.75%)
Canonicalization (3.37%)
Lemmatization (3.42%)
ModelOps (3.39%)
BERT (NLP Model) (5.81%)
Nuance Mix (3.42%)
Hugging Face (NLP Framework) (6.71%)

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.

Machine Learning (100%)

Alternative Job Titles

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

Applied Scientist
Computational Scientist
Scientist
Principal Scientist
Digital Solutions Manager
Cryptologist
Applied Researcher
Artificial Intelligence Engineer
Artificial Intelligence Manager

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

United States

Amazon (559)
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (296)
PricewaterhouseCoopers (222)
CoreMedical Group (147)
United States Department of the Treasury (146)
Microsoft (95)
Jobs For Humanity (92)
Southwest Research Institute (90)
Jacobs Solutions (68)
Jt4 (66)

North Carolina

PricewaterhouseCoopers (13)
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (5)
Wells Fargo (5)
United States Department of the Treasury (4)
Splunk (3)
University of North Carolina (3)
Kitware (3)
Vkore Solutions (2)
Thermo Fisher Scientific (2)
Hitachi (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!

Data Science Foundations Graduate 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.

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