How to hire a principal statistical scientist

How to hire a principal statistical scientist, step by step

Here's a step-by-step principal statistical scientist hiring guide:

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

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   The principal statistical scientist hiring process starts by determining what type of worker you actually need. Certain roles might require a full-time employee, whereas part-time workers or contractors can do others.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

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

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   Hiring the perfect principal statistical scientist also involves considering the ideal background you'd like them to have. Depending on what industry or field they have experience in, they'll bring different skills to the job. It's also important to consider what levels of seniority and education the job requires and what kind of salary such a candidate would likely demand.

   The following list breaks down different types of principal statistical scientists and their corresponding salaries.

   Type of Principal Statistical Scientist	Description	Hourly rate
   Principal Statistical Scientist	Statisticians use statistical methods to collect and analyze data and to help solve real-world problems in business, engineering, healthcare, or other fields.	$34-78
   Scientist	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... Show more	$32-67
   Biostatistician	A biostatistician specializes in gathering and analyzing data for medical and biological research. Typically, their responsibilities revolve around devising the ideal questionnaire or survey for significant results, maintaining accurate records of data, developing conclusions and research papers, contributing findings to publications, and even collaborating with other scientists... Show more	$28-57

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Clinical Trials
   • Data Analysis
   • Experimental Design
   • Statistical Analyses
   • Internal Training

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage pediatric dose development project, technology transfer project and alternate API supplier qualification project on budget and on schedule
   • Conduct research and analyze data to identify potential biomarkers and provide input for selection of candidates for non-clinical studies development.
   • Facilitate customer acceptance of demand forecast by developing visualization processes, tutoring clients in methodology, and providing detail walk-through examples.

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your principal statistical scientist job description is a great way to entice the best and brightest candidates. A principal statistical scientist salary can vary based on several factors:

   • Location. For example, principal statistical scientists' average salary in hawaii is 50% less than in nevada.
   • Seniority. Entry-level principal statistical scientists earn 56% less than senior-level principal statistical scientists.
   • Certifications. A principal statistical scientist with a few certifications under their belt will likely demand a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for a prestigious company or an exciting start-up can make a huge difference in a principal statistical scientist's salary.

   Average principal statistical scientist salary

   $108,113yearly

   $51.98 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level principal statistical scientist salary

   $71,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 21, 2026

   Average principal statistical scientist salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$118,121	$57
   2	Washington	$108,970	$52
   3	Massachusetts	$108,800	$52
   4	Arizona	$108,568	$52
   5	New York	$108,034	$52
   6	New Jersey	$107,994	$52
   7	Pennsylvania	$107,366	$52
   8	Maryland	$106,693	$51
   9	District of Columbia	$106,484	$51
   10	Virginia	$106,466	$51
   11	Texas	$105,174	$51
   12	Ohio	$104,714	$50
   13	North Carolina	$104,352	$50
   14	Michigan	$103,890	$50
   15	Illinois	$100,730	$48
   16	Georgia	$99,564	$48
   17	Florida	$99,325	$48
   18	Minnesota	$98,119	$47
   19	Missouri	$97,375	$47
   20	Colorado	$96,837	$47

   Average principal statistical scientist salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Genentech	$139,472	$67.05	81
   2	Edwards Lifesciences	$125,402	$60.29	71
   3	Critical Path Institute	$123,732	$59.49
   4	Merck	$116,772	$56.14	131
   5	Bayer	$116,396	$55.96	171
   6	BioMarin	$112,253	$53.97	3
   7	Duke University Health System	$107,212	$51.54	13
   8	QuintilesIMS	$106,839	$51.36	45
   9	Bridgestone	$105,004	$50.48
   10	Monsanto	$104,585	$50.28
   11	Glaxosmithkline	$104,325	$50.16
   12	Ice Cream	$104,162	$50.08
   13	Allen Institute	$99,790	$47.98	13
   14	Exponent	$95,009	$45.68	61

4. Writing a principal statistical scientist job description

   A job description for a principal statistical scientist role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a principal statistical scientist job description:

   Principal statistical scientist job description example

   General Mills is seeking a statistical consultant to join the Statistics and Data Sciences team within the Innovation, Technology, and Quality (ITQ) function. The ITQ function is the center of technical innovation, product development, and quality activities for the company. You will be part of a successful, multi-talented, analytics team that is blending statistics, mathematics, modeling, and cloud computing to solve problems within a data-rich science and engineering environment.
   
   In this role, you will be a key player on business teams that are using technical, consumer, and business data to develop and launch successful food products across our $18 billion dollar portfolio of brands. This is a unique opportunity to engage in product innovation through ideation, development, commercialization, and into the market. Working with subject matter experts from across ITQ, you will lead the application of study design, data collection, and data analysis to make decisions and take actions that drive business results.
   KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES
   Drive collaborations on a wide range of problems, using data from consumer research, scientific experimentation, manufacturing operations, to ecommerce and social media platforms Proactively lead the development of business strategies for leveraging analytics to improve decision making and advance key short- and long-term company priorities Guide teams in: translating business goals to analytics objectives; designing effective studies and data collection; analyzing and interpreting data; and communicating actionable insights and recommendations that directly influence business decisions Manage a portfolio of business consulting projects, and partner with other team members to create results, communications, and tools to meet the project deliverables Design programs to educate ITQ scientists and engineers in the use of analytics Partner with statistics and data science teams in other company functions to share standards and best practices and to collaborate on shared objectives and areas of common interest
   
   MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
   Master's degree in Statistics, Biostatistics, Computer Science, or related quantitative field; or MS in the sciences, with education in statistics or data science 5+ years of experience as a statistics/analytics consultant, including work on study design and analytics in a science or technology organization Demonstrated ability to solve business and technical problems. Excellent communication skills, with the ability to collaborate and build relationships in-person and virtually Expert in the use of statistical software, and proficient in an analytics programming language (e.g., R)
   
   PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
   Past assignments within an R&D or Science organization, and experience with food industry applications. Familiarity with regulatory statistics is a plus Experience working within a global team Some experience with SQL scripting languages and relational databases
   COMPANY OVERVIEW
   
   We exist to make food the world loves. But we do more than that. Our company is a place that prioritizes being a force for good, a place to expand learning, explore new perspectives and reimagine new possibilities, every day. We look for people who want to bring their best - bold thinkers with big hearts who challenge one other and grow together. Because becoming the undisputed leader in food means surrounding ourselves with people who are hungry for what's next.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find principal statistical scientists for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any principal statistical scientists they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level principal statistical scientists with the right educational background.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

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

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting principal statistical scientists requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   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.

   While interviews are great, you will only sometimes learn enough from a conversation with a principal statistical scientist applicant. In those cases, having candidates complete a test project can go a long way in figuring out who's the most likely to succeed in the role. If you aren't a technical person and don't know how to design an appropriate test, you can ask someone else on the team to create it or take a look at these websites to get a few ideas:

   • TestDome
   • CodeSignal
   • Testlify
   • BarRaiser
   • Coderbyte

   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 principal statistical scientist

   Once you've decided on a perfect principal statistical scientist candidate, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, it should include benefits and perks available to the employee. Qualified candidates may be considered for other positions, so make sure your offer is competitive. Candidates may wish to negotiate. Once you've settled on the details, formalize your agreement with a contract.

   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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