Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between chief scientists and scientists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a chief scientist and a scientist. Additionally, a chief scientist has an average salary of $108,046, which is higher than the $97,344 average annual salary of a scientist.
The top three skills for a chief scientist include DOD, RF and IC. The most important skills for a scientist are chemistry, data analysis, and patients.
| Chief Scientist | Scientist | |
| Yearly salary | $108,046 | $97,344 |
| Hourly rate | $51.95 | $46.80 |
| Growth rate | 17% | 17% |
| Number of jobs | 60,741 | 62,467 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 51% | Bachelor's Degree, 60% |
| Average age | 41 | 41 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 4 |
Chief scientists supervise, plan, and budget the funds for research activities to publish their discoveries with influential publication companies. By doing commentaries with the press and media, they spread their knowledge about science to the public. They are mentors or coaches to non-professional scientists and help them build a case to get their promotion. For their subordinates to feel motivated to reach their goals when working on research projects, chief scientists must maintain a professional, creative, but engaging environment.
A scientist is responsible for researching and analyzing the nature and complexities of the physical world to identify discoveries that would improve people's lives and ignite scientific knowledge for society. Scientists' duties differ in their different areas of expertise, but all of them must have a broad comprehension of scientific disciplines and methods to support their experiments and investigations. They collect the sample for their research, record findings, create research proposals, and release publications. A scientist must know how to utilize laboratory equipment to support the study and drive results efficiently and accurately.
Chief scientists and scientists have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Chief Scientist | Scientist | |
| Average salary | $108,046 | $97,344 |
| Salary range | Between $69,000 And $168,000 | Between $67,000 And $140,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | Redwood City, CA |
| Highest paying state | New Jersey | California |
| Best paying company | Uber Technologies | Airbnb |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Technology |
There are a few differences between a chief scientist and a scientist in terms of educational background:
| Chief Scientist | Scientist | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 51% | Bachelor's Degree, 60% |
| Most common major | Physics | Chemistry |
| Most common college | Duke University | University of Southern California |
Here are the differences between chief scientists' and scientists' demographics:
| Chief Scientist | Scientist | |
| Average age | 41 | 41 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 86.1% Female, 13.9% | Male, 56.9% Female, 43.1% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 6.3% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 9.6% Asian, 26.4% White, 53.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% | Black or African American, 6.5% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 9.8% Asian, 26.3% White, 53.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% |
| LGBT Percentage | 8% | 8% |