How to hire a health physicist

How to hire a health physicist, step by step

Here's a step-by-step health physicist hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a health physicist job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new health physicist
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a health physicist do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you start hiring a health physicist, identify what type of worker you actually need. Certain positions might call for a full-time employee, while others can be done by a part-time worker or contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them a health physicist to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire a health physicist that fits the bill.

   This list presents health physicist salaries for various positions.

   Type of Health Physicist	Description	Hourly rate
   Health Physicist	Physicists and astronomers study the ways in which various forms of matter and energy interact. Theoretical physicists and astronomers may study the nature of time or the origin of the universe... Show more	$19-64
   Research Fellow	A research fellow is an academic researcher who conducts research and analysis of comprehensive literature, data, and results and provides literature reviews. He/She supervises research assistants and recruits study participants to interview them for a particular study... Show more	$18-34
   Research Laboratory Technician	Research laboratory technicians play a vital role in scientific laboratories. They perform varied duties and responsibilities, which include setting up, operating, and maintaining the laboratory equipment, assisting in laboratory-based research activities such as sampling, testing, and analyzing results, and providing technical support to the laboratory team members... Show more	$14-23

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Radioactive Materials
   • Oversight
   • ALARA
   • Radiation Safety
   • Emergency Response
   • NRC
   • DOE
   • Radiation Exposure
   • Technical Support
   • Federal Regulations
   • Radiation Surveys
   • PowerPoint
   • Laser Safety
   • Radioactive Waste

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage the work and flow through the plant and department with regard to NDT.
   • Ensure local site regulatory compliance by providing RSO oversight.
   • Interpret and apply NRC and EPA regulations pertinent to each assignment.
   • Review verification data for compliance with EPA cleanup standards.
   • Perform all functions of outage health physics job coverage.
   • Monitor and assist RCA exit portal area as needed.

   More health physicist duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the health physicist job description is a good way to get more applicants. A health physicist salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

   For example, the average salary for a health physicist in Idaho may be lower than in New York, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level health physicist. Additionally, a health physicist with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average health physicist salary

   $74,942yearly

   $36.03 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level health physicist salary

   $41,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 20, 2026

   Average health physicist salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	New York	$109,683	$53
   2	Maryland	$105,941	$51
   3	New Mexico	$93,265	$45
   4	District of Columbia	$92,964	$45
   5	California	$91,239	$44
   6	Ohio	$87,438	$42
   7	Pennsylvania	$85,687	$41
   8	Arizona	$83,172	$40
   9	Minnesota	$82,447	$40
   10	Wisconsin	$82,324	$40
   11	Michigan	$78,899	$38
   12	Tennessee	$76,537	$37
   13	Nebraska	$76,135	$37
   14	Washington	$76,069	$37
   15	North Carolina	$75,959	$37
   16	South Carolina	$74,640	$36
   17	Illinois	$72,835	$35
   18	Utah	$72,572	$35
   19	Texas	$67,474	$32
   20	Virginia	$65,526	$32

   Average health physicist salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	UCI Health	$172,040	$82.71	4
   2	Northwestern Medicine	$123,248	$59.25	6
   3	St. Jude Children's Research Hospital	$107,220	$51.55	4
   4	Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory	$104,629	$50.30
   5	Sandia National Labs	$103,612	$49.81
   6	Arizona Public Service	$102,882	$49.46
   7	St. Luke's Hospital	$101,297	$48.70	4
   8	Los Alamos National Security LLC	$100,692	$48.41
   9	Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory	$96,276	$46.29	5
   10	Los Alamos National Laboratory	$96,210	$46.25	3
   11	Energy Northwest	$95,651	$45.99
   12	Plexus Scientific	$94,914	$45.63	1
   13	Pinnacle West Capital	$94,138	$45.26
   14	Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Inc.	$94,038	$45.21	2
   15	Mayo Clinic	$93,701	$45.05	18
   16	University of California	$92,165	$44.31	29
   17	Stanford University	$88,538	$42.57	3
   18	University of Michigan	$87,467	$42.05
   19	University of California-Berkeley	$86,638	$41.65
   20	NRC	$86,611	$41.64

4. Writing a health physicist job description

   A good health physicist job description should include a few things:

   • Summary of the role
   • List of responsibilities
   • Required skills and experience

   Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of a health physicist job description:

   Health physicist job description example

   This is a Direct Hire Authority (DHA) solicitation utilizing the DHA for STEM positions and Cyber Security and related positions to recruit and appoint qualified candidates to positions in the competitive service. About the Position: This position is located with the TACOM Safety Office on Detroit Arsenal, MI.
   Responsibilities
   
   Requirements
   
   Conditions of Employment
   
   null
   
   Qualifications
   
   Who May Apply: US Citizens In order to qualify, you must meet the education and/or experience requirements described below. Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community; student; social). You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Your resume must clearly describe your relevant experience; if qualifying based on education, your transcripts will be required as part of your application. Additional information about transcripts is in this document. Basic Requirement for Health Physicist, GS-1306-13: A. Degree: Bachelor's degree (or higher degree) in natural science or engineering that included at least 30 semester hours in health physics, engineering, radiological science, chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics, and/or calculus.
   
   (Note: You must attach a copy of your transcripts.) OR B. Combination of Education and Experience: Courses, as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or other education. (Note: You must attach a copy of your transcripts.) OR C. Certification: Certification as a health physicist by the American Board of Health Physics, plus appropriate experience and other education that provided an understanding of sciences applicable to health physics comparable to that described in paragraph A. (Note: You must attach a copy of your transcripts.) In addition to meeting the basic requirement above, to qualify for this position you must also meet the qualification requirements listed below: Specialized experience for a Health Physicist, GS-1306-13: One year of specialized experience at the next lower grade level (GS-12) or equivalent pay band in the Federal service which includes: 1) Investigate cause of radiation accidents/incidents and provide corrective actions to ensure compliance with requirements/regulations.; 2) Develop methods and procedures for handling, using, storing, or disposing radioactive materials or radioactive commodities.; 3) Evaluate radiation safety programs and radiation sources/devices to detect hazards and develop recommendations to eliminate them.; and 4) Conduct on-site and remote review of radiation safety programs to ensure compliance with regulatory guidance and safety protocols. Some federal jobs allow you to substitute your education for the required experience in order to qualify. For this job, you must meet the qualification requirement using experience alone--no substitution of education for experience is permitted.
   
   Education
   
   null
   
   Additional Information
   
   null

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find the right health physicist for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with health physicists they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit health physicists who meet your education requirements.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your health physicist job on Zippia to find and recruit health physicist candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Your first interview with health physicist candidates should focus on their interest in the role and background experience. As the hiring process goes on, you can learn more about how they'd fit into the company culture in later rounds of interviews.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match your ideal candidate profile. If you think a candidate is good enough for the next step, you can move on to the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new health physicist

   Once you've found the health physicist candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   You should also follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that you've filled the position.

   To prepare for the new employee's start date, you can create an onboarding schedule and complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9 forms, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Human Resources should also ensure that a new employee file is created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire a health physicist?