How To Become An Instrumentation Chemist: What It Is and Career Path

What is an instrumentation chemist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

Quoted expert

Dr. Betsy Smith

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an instrumentation chemist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $26.18 an hour? That's $54,463 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 5,700 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to an instrumentation chemist?

Dr. Betsy Smith

Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Elmira College

I would advise students just graduating to be flexible and open-minded in their job search. Chemistry is a challenging major, and students who succeed in it have learned how to learn, so they shouldn't assume that pure chemistry is the only thing they can do. One growing field is biomedical research, and chemistry majors are often qualified for jobs in that area. If you have other strengths like writing, there are often jobs that can combine them as a technical writer or work for a science journal. There are jobs out there that might be perfect for you that you haven't heard of until you see an ad for it, so be open to different possibilities.

ScoreInstrumentation ChemistUS Average

Salary

4.3

Avg. Salary $54,463

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.7

Growth rate 6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.25%

Asian 19.49%

Black or African American 4.69%

Hispanic or Latino 7.98%

Unknown 4.11%

White 63.49%

Gender

female 27.66%

male 72.34%

Age - 40

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 40

Stress level

5.7

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

10.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.2

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an instrumentation chemist

Explore instrumentation chemist education requirements

Most common instrumentation chemist degrees

Bachelor's

72.9 %

Master's

12.5 %

Associate

6.3 %

Start to develop specific instrumentation chemist skills

Skills	Percentages
Laboratory Equipment	16.01%
Liquid Chromatography	12.89%
HPLC	10.54%
Sample Preparation	9.59%
Gas Chromatography	9.35%

Complete relevant instrumentation chemist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New instrumentation chemists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an instrumentation chemist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real instrumentation chemist resumes.

Research instrumentation chemist duties and responsibilities

Achieve and maintain ISO 9001-2000 certification by creating and implementing policies and serving as management representative.
Revise and develop new instrumental methods for the chemical analysis on HPLC and GC to be perform more efficiently.
Operate and maintain ICP-MS, ICP-OES, AA instrumentation.
Support in customer application development and implementation according ASTM, USP, EP and JP methodologies.

Prepare your instrumentation chemist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your instrumentation chemist resume.

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