A chemist usually heads a team of chemists on a specific project or task. Depending on the setting, the lead chemist may perform administrative tasks along with her chemist duties.
A day in the life of a lead chemist involves performing research, preparing compounds, creating reports of findings, and presenting findings to other colleagues. She may also supervise the work of team members and assign tasks to them. If a lab technician is on the team, the chemist's lead may also oversee her activities.
In some settings, a lead chemist may also be responsible for procuring equipment and supervising its care.
To become a lead chemist, you'll need a degree in chemistry or relevant fields. Employers favor advanced degrees and years of experience when filling this role. Skills like problem-solving and critical thinking are also an advantage.
Chemist Lead Overview
Working as a Chemist Lead
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a chemist lead. For example, did you know that they make an average of $45.39 an hour? That's $94,404 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 4% and produce 3,500 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Chemist Lead Do
There are certain skills that many chemist leads have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, communication skills and math skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a chemist lead, we found that a lot of resumes listed 12.8% of chemist leads included instrument maintenance, while 11.9% of resumes included analytical methods, and 5.8% of resumes included chemistry. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
How To Become a Chemist Lead
If you're interested in becoming a chemist lead, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 63.2% of chemist leads have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 20.2% of chemist leads have master's degrees. Even though most chemist leads have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a chemist lead. When we researched the most common majors for a chemist lead, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on chemist lead resumes include doctoral degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a chemist lead. In fact, many chemist lead jobs require experience in a role such as chemist. Meanwhile, many chemist leads also have previous career experience in roles such as laboratory technician or analytical chemist.
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Chemist Lead Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a chemist lead can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as senior chemist, progress to a title such as senior scientist and then eventually end up with the title laboratory director.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Chemist Lead
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Environmental Reagent Service Lead Chemist Lead Chemist | Environmental Reagent Service Environmental Reagent Service | 10/29/2018 10/29/2018 | $43,00010/29/2018 $43,000 |
Ecolab USA Inc. Lead Chemist Lead Chemist | Ecolab USA Inc. Ecolab USA Inc. | 04/19/2018 04/19/2018 | $93,65004/19/2018 $93,650 |
Ecolab USA Inc. Lead Chemist Lead Chemist | Ecolab USA Inc. Ecolab USA Inc. | 04/19/2018 04/19/2018 | $93,65004/19/2018 $93,650 |
Environmental Reagent Service Lead Chemist Lead Chemist | Environmental Reagent Service Environmental Reagent Service | 11/03/2017 11/03/2017 | $43,00011/03/2017 $43,000 |
Albemarle Corporation Lead Electrochemist Lead Electrochemist | Albemarle Corporation Albemarle Corporation | 09/19/2017 09/19/2017 | $93,60009/19/2017 $93,600 |
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Top Colleges for Chemist Leads
1. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
2. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI • Public
3. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Public
4. University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA • Public
5. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
6. Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY • Private
7. Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN • Private
8. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
9. University of Florida
Gainesville, FL • Public
10. Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA • Private
Top Skills For a Chemist Lead
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 12.8% of chemist leads listed instrument maintenance on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and communication skills are important as well.
- Instrument Maintenance, 12.8%
- Analytical Methods, 11.9%
- Chemistry, 5.8%
- Lab Equipment, 4.7%
- Hplc, 4.5%
- Other Skills, 60.3% See All Chemist Lead Skills
Best States For a Chemist Lead
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a chemist lead. The best states for people in this position are Virginia, Delaware, Vermont, and New Mexico. Chemist leads make the most in Virginia with an average salary of $117,149. Whereas in Delaware and Vermont, they would average $109,585 and $100,611, respectively. While chemist leads would only make an average of $100,234 in New Mexico, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Virginia
$117,149
Avg. Salary
2. Delaware
$109,586
Avg. Salary
3. Michigan
$87,711
Avg. Salary