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 their 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. They may also supervise the work of team members and assign tasks to them. If a lab technician is on the team, the chemist lead may also oversee their 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.
What is a Chemist Lead?
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.
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 81.3% of chemist leads have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 10.2% 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.
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.
Average Salary for a Chemist Lead
What Am I Worth?
Top Colleges for Chemist Leads
1. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
2. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI • Private
3. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Private
4. University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA • Private
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 • Private
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.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Chemist Lead Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Chemist Lead templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Chemist Lead resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Chemist Lead Demographics
Chemist Lead Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among chemist leads, 34.8% of them are women, while 65.2% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among chemist leads is White, which makes up 66.2% of all chemist leads.
- The most common foreign language among chemist leads is Spanish at 40.0%.
Online Courses For Chemist Lead That You May Like
Become A Professional in HPLC From A to Z - Your Comprehensive guideline. The first and the lonely Chemistry HPLC course...
Analytical chemistry takes a prominent position among all fields of experimental sciences, ranging from fundamental studies of Nature to industrial or clinical applications.Analytical chemistry covers the fundamentals of experimental and analytical methods and the role of chemistry around us. This course introduces the principles of analytical chemistry and provides how these principles are applied in chemistry and related disciplines - especially in life sciences, environmental sciences and...
Use Excel for HR Analytics, calculate HR metrics, build HR dashboards & ML models for Human Resource & People Analytics...
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 Delaware, Washington, Vermont, and New Jersey. Chemist leads make the most in Delaware with an average salary of $111,714. Whereas in Washington and Vermont, they would average $107,902 and $100,367, respectively. While chemist leads would only make an average of $100,296 in New Jersey, 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. Rhode Island
$93,715
Avg. Salary
2. Delaware
$111,714
Avg. Salary
3. Tennessee
$93,364
Avg. Salary
How Do Chemist Lead Rate Their Jobs?
Top Chemist Lead Employers
Most Common Employers For Chemist Lead
| Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Agilent Technologies | $113,276 | $54.46 | 1 |
| 2 | The Dow Chemical Company | $99,535 | $47.85 | 4 |
| 3 | AstraZeneca | $97,289 | $46.77 | 2 |
| 4 | Momentive | $97,110 | $46.69 | 4 |
| 5 | PPG | $96,506 | $46.40 | 3 |
| 6 | Ecolab | $95,634 | $45.98 | 2 |
| 7 | Quaker Houghton | $93,057 | $44.74 | 3 |
| 8 | Enpro | $91,003 | $43.75 | 2 |
| 9 | California Medical Association | $89,713 | $43.13 | 3 |
| 10 | Clean Harbors | $85,217 | $40.97 | 14 |