A quality control scientist conducts tests to determine the quality of raw materials, bulk intermediate, and finished products. May conduct stability sample tests. Their main duty is testing and assessing products, usually in an industrial or warehouse setting. The quality control scientist may test parts or products using a variety of techniques, checking that specifications are met and that the product works as intended.

Essential skills required to qualify for the position include excellent technical skills, leadership skills, planning and organizational skills, communication, and interpersonal skills, among others. Furthermore, they perform analysis on raw materials, intermediates, standards, and finished products, and also carry out routine maintenance activities for QC systems and meet quality and safety standards.

Quality control scientists can find work with a high school diploma or G.E.D. However, many companies are now seeking candidates who have a certificate in quality control from a community college or technical school. This is typically a two-year program that covers quality control principles and best practices and may prepare students for certification through an organization like the American Society for Quality.

Quality control scientists make an average of $32.83 an hour during a traditional workweek. This amounts to over $68,000 a year.

What Does a Quality Control Scientist Do

There are certain skills that many quality control scientists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, communication skills and interpersonal skills.

Learn more about what a Quality Control Scientist does

How To Become a Quality Control Scientist

If you're interested in becoming a quality control scientist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 81.3% of quality control scientists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 12.4% of quality control scientists have master's degrees. Even though most quality control scientists have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Quality Control Scientist

Quality Control Scientist Career Paths

Average Salary for a Quality Control Scientist

Quality Control Scientists in America make an average salary of $75,410 per year or $36 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $112,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $50,000 per year.
Average Quality Control Scientist Salary
$75,410 Yearly
$36.25 hourly

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Roles and Types of Quality Control Scientist

The role of a quality control scientist includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general quality control scientist responsibilities:

  • Develop and validate analytical methods. Write standard test procedures, method validation protocols
  • 1. Accurately generate data using validated test methods
  • Plans and performs quality control testing of reagents

There are several types of quality control scientist, including:

Quality Control

Role:

Quality control inspectors monitor the quality of production procedures, as well as materials and products coming in and out of manufacturing sites or company premises. They run tests and log defects of products or procedures at assembly lines, laboratories, or quality control departments.

Quality control focuses on the inspection aspect of quality management and fulfilling quality requirements, as opposed to monitoring processes, which is more along the area of quality assurance.

Summing up to much more than error hunting, the position of quality control inspectors is a widely misunderstood one, burdened by many stereotypes. One of them, strangely enough, is a gender stereotype assuming that women perform better at quality control. Multitasking and attention to detail do seem to be skills ladies tend to beat quality control dudes at, as well as empathy and communication. But deciding whether a job is for men or women is pointless. If you like it, it is for you. Who says you have to be like other men? Or women?

  • Average Salary: $32,824
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Chemist

Role:

If you're looking for a career that will blow all the other careers out of the water, becoming a chemist will quite literally do that. At least the blowing up part. Chemists get to study how substance interact with each other, while studying them at atomic and molecular levels.

You won't have to worry about any schedule changes because chemists tend to keep regular, full-time hours. Plus, you'll get to work in a lab. It'll be like "Dexter's Laboratory" and you could be Dexter! But seriously, blowing stuff up is where it's at.

  • Average Salary: $64,961
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Scientist

Role:

Science plays an important role in all our lives. It creates new knowledge, improves education, and increases the quality of our lives. If you like the idea of exploring the world around you and making new discoveries, then you should consider becoming a scientist. If you decide to become a scientist, you could end up working in either the public or private sector. Scientists work in a wide range of settings, including chemical and pharmaceutical companies, research institutes, universities, food and drink manufacturers, hospitals, and environmental agencies.

As part of their job, scientists plan and carry out experiments and then record and analyze the data. They typically specialize in a particular field, such as geoscience, meteorology, or pharmacology. It is crucial that scientists follow the scientific method as a means of ensuring their results are accurate.

Research scientists need a bachelor's degree in a closely related field for most positions. Usually, a master's degree or a PhD is preferred.

  • Average Salary: $97,344
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

States With The Most Quality Control Scientist Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active quality control scientist jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where quality control scientists earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Quality Control Scientist Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1California6,106$84,213
2Texas3,418$64,918
3New York2,625$98,723
4Pennsylvania2,469$71,185
5Florida2,355$54,852
6Illinois2,274$69,929
7North Carolina2,258$67,230
8Virginia2,188$77,528
9New Jersey2,034$60,988
10Maryland1,719$78,454
11Georgia1,714$73,380
12Ohio1,669$66,367
13Massachusetts1,450$94,804
14Minnesota1,350$72,263
15Michigan1,309$68,767
16Indiana1,219$71,892
17Wisconsin1,167$83,282
18Washington1,065$88,519
19Colorado984$69,465
20Missouri976$50,410
21Tennessee933$52,916
22Arizona916$68,198
23Oregon850$67,534
24South Carolina829$67,270
25Utah732$56,597
26Connecticut721$99,105
27Alabama668$64,711
28Kentucky606$68,891
29Iowa568$63,930
30Kansas468$53,324
31New Hampshire454$99,487
32Arkansas369$65,468
33New Mexico356$72,180
34Nebraska334$65,292
35Nevada327$57,856
36Louisiana314$69,052
37Delaware306$58,501
38Mississippi303$52,093
39Idaho271$68,273
40Oklahoma271$66,031
41Rhode Island239$91,591
42Maine218$95,167
43South Dakota182$66,013
44Montana179$70,372
45West Virginia177$65,547
46North Dakota167$82,665
47Hawaii150$74,916
48Vermont139$93,737
49Alaska133$64,586
50Wyoming112$66,779

Quality Control Scientist Education

Quality Control Scientist Majors

32.9 %
32.0 %

Quality Control Scientist Degrees

Bachelors

81.3 %

Masters

12.4 %

Associate

3.3 %

Top Colleges for Quality Control Scientists

1. Stanford University

Stanford, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$51,354

Enrollment

7,083

2. Harvard University

Cambridge, MA • Private

In-State Tuition

$50,420

Enrollment

7,582

3. University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,584

Enrollment

10,764

4. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor, MI • Private

In-State Tuition

$15,262

Enrollment

30,079

5. Cornell University

Ithaca, NY • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,188

Enrollment

15,105

6. University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$14,184

Enrollment

30,845

7. Northwestern University

Evanston, IL • Private

In-State Tuition

$54,568

Enrollment

8,451

8. Georgetown University

Washington, DC • Private

In-State Tuition

$54,104

Enrollment

7,089

9. Johns Hopkins University

Baltimore, MD • Private

In-State Tuition

$53,740

Enrollment

5,567

10. Columbia University in the City of New York

New York, NY • Private

In-State Tuition

$59,430

Enrollment

8,216

Top Skills For a Quality Control Scientist

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 12.8% of quality control scientists listed qc on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and communication skills are important as well.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Quality Control Scientist Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Quality Control Scientist templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Quality Control Scientist resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

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Quality Control Scientist diversity

Quality Control Scientist Gender Distribution

Female
Female
56%
Male
Male
44%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among quality control scientists, 55.6% of them are women, while 44.4% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among quality control scientists is White, which makes up 52.9% of all quality control scientists.

  • The most common foreign language among quality control scientists is Spanish at 75.0%.

Online Courses For Quality Control Scientist That You May Like

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1. Total Data Quality

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This specialization aims to explore the Total Data Quality framework in depth and provide learners with more information about the detailed evaluation of total data quality that needs to happen prior to data analysis. The goal is for learners to incorporate evaluations of data quality into their process as a critical component for all projects. We sincerely hope to disseminate knowledge about total data quality to all learners, such as data scientists and quantitative analysts, who have not had...

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On Being a Scientist will provide you with an overview of scientific conduct & ethics, what it means to be a scientist and allows you to become acquainted with academic practice, thus meeting a demand for increased awareness in scientific integrity. This course is designed to inform you on topics as scientific integrity and social responsibilities of scientists. Broad questions, which are inseparably linked to these topics are discussed: namely regarding the nature of science and the societal...

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Complete Guide to the SAP Quality Management course. We will discuss all aspects of Quality Management Consultancy...

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Best States For a Quality Control Scientist

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a quality control scientist. The best states for people in this position are New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York, and Maine. Quality control scientists make the most in New Hampshire with an average salary of $99,487. Whereas in Connecticut and New York, they would average $99,105 and $98,723, respectively. While quality control scientists would only make an average of $95,167 in Maine, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. New Hampshire

Total Quality Control Scientist Jobs: 454
Highest 10% Earn:
$158,000
Location Quotient:
1.4

2. Connecticut

Total Quality Control Scientist Jobs: 721
Highest 10% Earn:
$157,000
Location Quotient:
1.18

3. New York

Total Quality Control Scientist Jobs: 2,625
Highest 10% Earn:
$157,000
Location Quotient:
1.11
Full List Of Best States For Quality Control Scientists

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Top Quality Control Scientist Employers

Most Common Employers For Quality Control Scientist

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1Novartis$108,602$52.2118
2Boehringer Ingelheim$106,289$51.109
3Bristol-Myers Squibb$104,627$50.3014
4Janssen$102,096$49.086
5Thermo Fisher Scientific$80,960$38.9210
6Regeneron$79,504$38.229
7Pfizer$76,862$36.9596
8AECOM$74,921$36.027
9Bactolac Pharmaceutical$72,465$34.8421
10Abbott$72,328$34.776

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