Principal chemist vs senior research chemist

The differences between principal chemists and senior research chemists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a senior research chemist has an average salary of $95,520, which is higher than the $74,065 average annual salary of a principal chemist.

The top three skills for a principal chemist include analytical chemistry, R and product development. The most important skills for a senior research chemist are R, chemistry, and product development.

Principal chemist vs senior research chemist overview

	Principal Chemist	Senior Research Chemist
Yearly salary	$74,065	$95,520
Hourly rate	$35.61	$45.92
Growth rate	6%	6%
Number of jobs	42,121	55,511
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 73%	Bachelor's Degree, 58%
Average age	42	42
Years of experience	-	-

Principal chemist vs senior research chemist salary

Principal chemists and senior research chemists have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Principal Chemist	Senior Research Chemist
Average salary	$74,065	$95,520
Salary range	Between $52,000 And $105,000	Between $69,000 And $130,000
Highest paying City	Richland, WA	Seattle, WA
Highest paying state	Washington	Washington
Best paying company	Edwards Lifesciences	Crunchbase
Best paying industry	-	Pharmaceutical

Differences between principal chemist and senior research chemist education

There are a few differences between a principal chemist and a senior research chemist in terms of educational background:

	Principal Chemist	Senior Research Chemist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 73%	Bachelor's Degree, 58%
Most common major	Chemistry	Chemistry
Most common college	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Principal chemist vs senior research chemist demographics

Here are the differences between principal chemists' and senior research chemists' demographics:

	Principal Chemist	Senior Research Chemist
Average age	42	42
Gender ratio	Male, 72.6% Female, 27.4%	Male, 79.1% Female, 20.9%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 5.8% Unknown, 4.3% Hispanic or Latino, 8.5% Asian, 29.2% White, 51.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%	Black or African American, 6.5% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 8.8% Asian, 27.5% White, 52.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage	5%	5%

Differences between principal chemist and senior research chemist duties and responsibilities

Principal chemist example responsibilities.

Accomplish ISO and CFR certifications for laboratory operations.
Ensure compliance with regulate standards to comply with FDA regulations.
Train individuals on dissolution, HPLC, and other general analytical techniques.
Implement systems and procedures per FDA guidance, ICH requirements, and CFR regulations.
Establish statistical quality controls in the laboratory to bring data and laboratory practices in compliance with ISO regulations.
Evaluate efficacy of extraction solvents and dosing methodology for soil degradation studies, determining reduction of chemical compounds in control environment.

Senior research chemist example responsibilities.

Manage an analytical laboratory, which include SEM-EDS, GC-MS, GPC, FT-IR, ICP-MS, TGA and DSC equipment.
Conduct HPLC analysis of two main products to support equivalency programs.
Establish the fast HPLC column screening system and serve as super user.
Calculate amounts of unknown components of a distillation bottoms mixture using NMR.
Train over twenty plant operators and scientists to use the FTIR system.
Act as leading analyst to provide analytical services to several GMP API productions.

Principal chemist vs senior research chemist skills

Common principal chemist skills

Analytical Chemistry, 13%
R, 10%
Product Development, 6%
HPLC, 6%
Sops, 5%
USP, 5%

Common senior research chemist skills

R, 16%
Chemistry, 14%
Product Development, 8%
Analytical Laboratory, 6%
Organic Synthesis, 4%
Polymer, 4%

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Principal Chemist vs Senior Research Chemist

Updated January 8, 2025

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