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Job outlook for bioinformatics scientists in the United States
Are bioinformatics scientist jobs in demand?
Bioinformatics scientist job and salary trends over time
Bioinformatics scientist jobs over time
Bioinformatics scientist job growth rate over time
| Year | # of jobs | % of population |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 101 | 0.00% |
| 2020 | 117 | 0.00% |
| 2019 | 118 | 0.00% |
| 2018 | 112 | 0.00% |
| 2017 | 103 | 0.00% |
Average bioinformatics scientist salary over time
Bioinformatics scientist salary by year
| Year | Avg. salary | Hourly rate | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $91,530 | $44.00 | +3.1% |
| 2024 | $88,809 | $42.70 | +4.7% |
| 2023 | $84,828 | $40.78 | +3.3% |
| 2022 | $82,108 | $39.47 | +1.9% |
| 2021 | $80,547 | $38.72 | --2.1% |
Bioinformatics scientist jobs by state
Most common states for bioinformatics scientists
| Rank | State | Population | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Massachusetts | 6,859,819 | 2,254 | 33% |
| 2 | District of Columbia | 693,972 | 146 | 21% |
| 3 | Maryland | 6,052,177 | 1,022 | 17% |
| 4 | Delaware | 961,939 | 159 | 17% |
| 5 | New Jersey | 9,005,644 | 1,302 | 14% |
| 6 | Virginia | 8,470,020 | 1,157 | 14% |
| 7 | South Dakota | 869,666 | 111 | 13% |
| 8 | Washington | 7,405,743 | 909 | 12% |
| 9 | Vermont | 623,657 | 75 | 12% |
| 10 | New Hampshire | 1,342,795 | 144 | 11% |
| 11 | North Dakota | 755,393 | 85 | 11% |
| 12 | North Carolina | 10,273,419 | 1,010 | 10% |
| 13 | Colorado | 5,607,154 | 534 | 10% |
| 14 | Oregon | 4,142,776 | 423 | 10% |
| 15 | Montana | 1,050,493 | 107 | 10% |
| 16 | Rhode Island | 1,059,639 | 106 | 10% |
| 17 | Alaska | 739,795 | 75 | 10% |
| 18 | New York | 19,849,399 | 1,774 | 9% |
| 19 | Pennsylvania | 12,805,537 | 1,157 | 9% |
| 20 | Minnesota | 5,576,606 | 524 | 9% |
Most common cities for bioinformatics scientists
| Rank | City | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl | Avg. salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bethesda | 13 | 21% | $87,159 |
| 2 | Palo Alto | 4 | 6% | $115,944 |
| 3 | Annapolis | 1 | 3% | $87,536 |
| 4 | Bangor | 1 | 3% | $91,367 |
| 5 | Cambridge | 2 | 2% | $84,460 |
| 6 | Pleasanton | 2 | 2% | $115,932 |
| 7 | Santa Clara | 2 | 2% | $115,730 |
| 8 | Baltimore | 4 | 1% | $87,641 |
| 9 | Atlanta | 3 | 1% | $53,779 |
| 10 | Albany | 1 | 1% | $53,200 |
| 11 | Alhambra | 1 | 1% | $107,079 |
| 12 | Los Angeles | 3 | 0% | $107,245 |
| 13 | San Diego | 3 | 0% | $103,057 |
| 14 | Chicago | 2 | 0% | $70,774 |
| 15 | Phoenix | 2 | 0% | $83,725 |
| 16 | Anchorage | 1 | 0% | $90,483 |
Bioinformatics Scientist job outlook: Expert opinions
Our panel of bioinformatics scientist experts
Earlham College
Northeastern State University
SUNY Stony Brook
Washburn University of Topeka
Pepperdine University
University of Hawaii at Manoa
University of Dallas
University of San Diego
Northwestern University
New Mexico State University
Santa Fe College
Washington State University
Purdue University
University of Pittsburgh
University of Nebraska - Omaha
What Bioinformatics Scientist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Dr. Taufika Williams PhD: Wet-laboratory skills will always be important, however, data interrogation is a key space of growth, as biotechnology research is being driven by big data. Seek education in scientific writing, computer programming, delivering scientific presentations, statistics and the analysis of large datasets.
Camellia Okpodu
What general advice would you give to a Bioinformatics Scientist?
Camellia Okpodu: Adatation and fundamental knowledge of botanical terms will always be pivotal to the discipline; however new technologies and applications will move the bountiful the discipline. Bioinformatics, genomics; Machine learning, Remote Sensing and VR (both for instruction and field application) will be necessay skills. Also, Botanists will collaborate with experts from diverse fields (ecology, computer science, engineering) thus making effective communication and teamwork critical.skills of the future
Mr. Brian Zimmerman III
Assistant Vice President of Strategic CommunicationsEarlham College
Drama/Theatre Arts And Stagecraft
What Bioinformatics Scientist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Mr. Brian Zimmerman III: An emerging trend in my particular field is deep-sequencing or "big data" analysis. Many techniques that investigate the identities, regulation, and networks of biological molecules are high-throughput, meaning they generate huge quantities of data that require specialized programs and training to analyze. Developing a background in bioinformatics, data literacy, programming, or computer science will definitely make a student highly marketable and sought after when on the job market. There are several online and in-person courses, workshops, and webinars to learn about these techniques and the accompanying data analysis; I encourage recent graduates or soon-to-be graduates to explore these opportunities as these skills are transferrable to several disciplines and career paths.
What Bioinformatics Scientist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Dulanjani Wijayasekara Ph.D.: Research skills and data analysis for pharmaceutical and drug development companies, Biostatistics, Bioinformatics and Medical laboratory sciences
What will help Bioinformatics Scientists increase their earning potential?
Dulanjani Wijayasekara Ph.D.: Biology is a vast field with a lot of opportunities. The highest paying jobs in the field include health care, biostatisticians, data analysts, ecologists, genetic counselors, pharmacists, molecular biologists and research scientists/technicians in pharmaceutical companies. Depending on what area you would like to focus on, it would be a good idea to improve some basic skill sets that will give you an added advantage in the job market. If you are a fresh graduate many online certificate courses can be completed to give you these additional skills. You can improve upon IT skills such as biotechnology and computer literacy, research skills, and data analysis including biostatistics. You also can get some research experience by either volunteering in research labs or by gaining a master’s degree in molecular biology. This will open up many more job opportunities for you in the pharmaceutical area. Find out what career you love and work towards that by improving your skills and experience.
What general advice would you give to a Bioinformatics Scientist?
Ross Weatherman Ph.D.: Generally, broad training across a number of different types of biochemical and molecular biology methods will make you an attractive candidate to a larger number of employers and expand your potential options, but deep skills in one or two really important techniques areas, such as proteomics or bioinformatics, will make you most attractive to a single employer and improve your salary potential.
What Bioinformatics Scientist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Ross Weatherman Ph.D.: Being able to communicate effectively, whether it is in-person or remotely, is still probably the most important skill for any graduate, but as more work is being split up among sites, the ability to add value to those more delocalized work environments is really important. Also, the ability to handle big data sets and the awareness of how best to visualize and explain these types of large data sets will become more important.
What general advice would you give to a Bioinformatics Scientist?
Dr. Vitaly Citovsky: One cannot get high salaries with a bachelor's degree in biology. To maximize your future salary you need to get a terminal degree such as PhD or MD. Alternatively one could go to law school. If you still want to begin working after BSc, look for industry jobs; these would be low-level technicians but make much more money than in academia.
What Bioinformatics Scientist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Dr. Vitaly Citovsky: Advanced degrees, bioinformatics, hi-tech research (synthetic biology), but classical molecular biology and genetics and biochemistry skills will remain critical
Susan Bjerke
Associate Professor of BiologyWashburn University of Topeka
Biological And Physical Sciences
What Bioinformatics Scientist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Susan Bjerke: Maximizing your salary is important, but don’t forget that jobs can come with other benefits that may compensate for a lower starting salary. For instance, maybe you get to work out in the field instead of being tied to a desk all day. Maybe you have the opportunity to work from home some of the time. Some employers offer matches for retirement plans or discounted health insurance for spouses. Negotiating for the best salary you can makes sense, but also look into those intangibles!
What will help Bioinformatics Scientists increase their earning potential?
Susan Bjerke: Some of the skills that will be important in the next 3-5 years will be general critical thinking skills and the ability to adapt to changing technology. Almost all science fields are increasingly dependent on technology, so being able to learn new skills and change the way you do things in your job will be important. Being an effective communicator, both in writing and orally, is an overlooked skill in the sciences and is always an important asset.
What general advice would you give to a Bioinformatics Scientist?
Rachel Tan Ph.D.: I do not have an answer for this. My response would be to be proactive during undergraduate studies, to discern where you find joy and curiosity. Pursue that topic. I do not think that the salary should be the priority when considering careers.
What Bioinformatics Scientist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Rachel Tan Ph.D.: The scientific method: to be able to find, read, interpret, understand, and implement research. Not only would this enhance personal skills and critical thinking, it could contribute to techniques and methods that could be performed; it could foster questions that would be important in advancing the field; and could set apart an individual.
What Bioinformatics Scientist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Qing Li: AI will become more important and prevalent in the field in the next 3-5 years but laboratory experiments will continue to make new discoveries.
What Bioinformatics Scientist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Dr. Prajay Patel Ph.D.: As high throughput instruments and supercomputers continue to generate massive amounts of data, learn how to do tasks with programming languages like Python for larger scale data analysis and visualization. However, communicating effectively, working well in team-based environments, one’s writing ability, and the ability to handle multiple projects/experiments at the same time are all valuable soft skills that one should build regardless of any new trends in a particular field.
What Bioinformatics Scientist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Nicole Danos PhD: In the next 3-5 years techniques in Biotech will constantly improve. Which will mean three things:
a) there will be much more data to sort through! It will be important to let the questions being asked direct data analyses.
b) workers will need to be nimble to improve their lab skills. The same principles of good practices will apply!
c) AI tools will be in the workplace. Workers will need to understand these tools and know whether or not they are appropriate for what they are trying to use, and not trust them blindly.
What will help Bioinformatics Scientists increase their earning potential?
Nathaniel Stern: Within academic physics, your potential can be maximized by doing impactful work in graduate school that matters to other people. The next step is to communicate this impact broadly, and then figure out how to take the next step in the field. That is a lot of steps, but if one can successfully do those things in graduate school, they can build the profile, community, and intellectual leadership to demand the highest salary. Outside of academic physics, the requirements are probably not that different, but I do not have explicit knowledge of them myself. So I would fall back on the standard goals of innovation and communication, which should help one succeed in any knowledge-related career.
What Bioinformatics Scientist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Dr. Michael Marchetti: My general advice to graduating biology majors would be to get actual hands-on experience in whatever field/sub-discipline you decide you want to specialize in. This could take various forms depending on your circumstances, for example: an internship (even short term), a job in a field that is similar or adjacent to the field you are interested in, pursue a master's degree in the field, or even volunteer in some capacity while you get a job to pay the bills, etc. It seems that in today's professional science environment that having some experience in the thing you want to do helps a lot to get your foot in the door.
What will help Bioinformatics Scientists increase their earning potential?
Dr. Michael Marchetti: I think that in the next few years, it will be important to have some wide range of skills across a diversity of sub-disciplines. For example, GIS (geographic information skills), R statistical programming language, modern genetic and genomic techniques, computer programming skills etc. Again, it seems that hard and fast borders/walls separating disciplinary fields are breaking down as our knowledge of the larger biological world expands.
What Bioinformatics Scientist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Meghan McGee-Lawrence Ph.D.: That really depends on the field you go into, but as is common these days, I’d have to say that A.I. / machine learning is certainly increasing in relevance. From a research perspective, there is widespread interest in using these emerging technologies to offer new ways to address scientific questions, and from an education perspective, A.I. is likely here to stay – so we need to continually review and improve upon how we are delivering educational experiences to students in light of how technology is evolving. I also think having the ability to collect, work with, and understand “big data’-type datasets is becoming essential in scientific fields – whether you are collecting these sequencing- and “omics”-based datasets yourself, or simply working with the multitude of studies that are now publicly available in data repositories, there is a wealth of information available if you know how to use it.
What will help Bioinformatics Scientists increase their earning potential?
Meghan McGee-Lawrence Ph.D.: Cast a wide net! A huge variety of career paths can be pursued with a degree like this, including industry, academic research, healthcare, education, and more. It is a very versatile degree, and can be a foundation for a multitude of different professions. Talk to recent graduates from your program (as many as possible!) and see what they did with their degree – the more information you can collect, the better prepared you’ll be to seek out opportunities yourself. Take the time to figure out where your interests lie – and understand that you may have to try a few different paths out before you find the right one for you. The first position you land after graduation doesn’t have to be the job you perform for the next 30 years of your life – so use each opportunity as a learning experience to figure out what you’d really like to do long-term.
What will help Bioinformatics Scientists increase their earning potential?
Michael Marks: I think using AI as a research tool is going to be big in the near future. Learn the ins and outs of an AI platform or two and observe how others are using it in research (e.g., creating stimuli, interacting with participants).
What general advice would you give to a Bioinformatics Scientist?
Jeff Heslep: Find a starting job that gives you a wide range of work to perform. The more experience you can gain during the first few years will help you to hone your skills, decide what areas interest you the most, and give you the opportunity to choose. Learn as much as you can about the various equipment, analytical techniques, processes, and how to troubleshoot minor problems. Take the initiative and ask to learn how to use instruments you aren't familiar with. It is unlikely someone will deny you the opportunity to broaden your knowledge. Take every chance you have to network and get to know the people within your local biotechnology industry. Networking plays a major role in employment opportunities. Work on your written and verbal communication skills. Communicating well will help you stand out. Being able to effectively convey complex scientific concepts in such a way that anyone can understand it can be a powerful skill.
What will help Bioinformatics Scientists increase their earning potential?
Lindsey du Toit: Take every opportunity you can to learn, network, and build an effective team of people that bring a greater breadth and depth of skills and expertise to the work on which you will be focusing. Cultivate a life-long sense of intellectual curiosity and learning. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Treat ignorance as an opportunity to learn. Questions demonstrate you want to understand the situation/problem effectively and that you are paying attention. Always demonstrate integrity in your work. It is one of the most valuable traits you can bring to your career. Be kind and supportive of your colleagues.
Yan Cong
Purdue University
Romance Languages, Literatures, And Linguistics
What Bioinformatics Scientist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Yan Cong: AI singularity, Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), et cetera are topics that trigger a lot of debate nowadays and they will be prevalent in the near future. Perspectives from humanities and linguistics would contribute to the ongoing debate and provide new opportunities for future innovative technologies that are linked to languages, linguistics and humanities.
What will help Bioinformatics Scientists increase their earning potential?
Arjumand Ghazi Ph. D: Having an advanced degree such as a PhD and even a few years postdoc is a good way to start at a higher level. It often allows one to make up for the reduced earnings during the training periods while increasing long-term earnings.
Andrew Riquier Ph.D.
InstructorUniversity of Nebraska - Omaha
Neurobiology And Neurosciences
What general advice would you give to a Bioinformatics Scientist?
Andrew Riquier Ph.D.: Apply for the positions you want, even if you feel underqualified. I know plenty of people who have applied for jobs they didn't quite meet the requirements for, and got hired for other reasons. In my experience, many recent graduates choose to take time to strengthen their resumes by retaking classes, working jobs they don't particularly want to get experience, etc. There is some value in that, particularly if you have been unsuccessful attaining the position you want, or if you want to see if you even enjoy that type of work. But if you are confident in what you want to do, go for it; in the worst-case scenario, you are in the same position you would be if you hadn't applied, but now you have experience applying and have potentially gained a contact in the field.