How To Become A Process Chemist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a process chemist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Dr. Betsy Smith

Trust the process--especially if it was developed by a process chemist. The process chemist helps take a chemical from discovery to finished product by developing the process for synthesizing chemicals on a larger scale and analyzing their reactions. The work of a process chemist then gets used to develop a product and sell it.

Since they have such an important job, it's only natural that the process chemist has to have a variety of skills. They need to be experts in scientific processes such as differential scanning calorimetry. They need to be able to analyze results and communicate them clearly with other people in the development chain. They also need to have a brain for regulations--there's no use wasting time developing a chemical that will never be approved by the FDA.

The process chemist has important skills that are especially important in the pharmaceutical industry, where their work saves lives. In fact, the demand for process chemists is expected to grow by 4%.

What general advice would you give to a process 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.

ScoreProcess ChemistUS Average

Salary

6.4

Avg. Salary $81,542

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.7

Growth rate 6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.25%

Asian 20.50%

Black or African American 8.11%

Hispanic or Latino 9.50%

Unknown 4.63%

White 57.01%

Gender

female 22.72%

male 77.28%

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 a process chemist

Explore process chemist education requirements

Most common process chemist degrees

Bachelor's

75.8 %

Master's

11.3 %

Doctorate

7.6 %

Start to develop specific process chemist skills

Skills	Percentages
Lab Equipment	7.40%
HPLC	6.27%
R	5.15%
GMP	4.96%
NMR	4.42%

Complete relevant process chemist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New process 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 a process chemist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real process chemist resumes.

Research process chemist duties and responsibilities

Manage synthesis and production of specialty chemicals for carpet and textile industry.
Support new, modify and existing chemical processes by developing and validating HPLC and GC methods with a rapid turnaround time.
Analyze unknown materials with FTIR, Raman, and SEM-EDS.
Display improving working knowledge of business processes as they relate to GMP manufacturing.

Prepare your process chemist resume

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

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a process chemist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable process chemist resume templates

Build a professional process chemist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your process chemist resume.