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Scientific technical writer vs senior technical writer

The differences between scientific technical writers and senior technical writers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a scientific technical writer and a senior technical writer. Additionally, a scientific technical writer has an average salary of $78,877, which is higher than the $70,820 average annual salary of a senior technical writer.

The top three skills for a scientific technical writer include sops, subject matter experts and FDA. The most important skills for a senior technical writer are technical documentation, subject matter experts, and API.

Scientific technical writer vs senior technical writer overview

Scientific Technical WriterSenior Technical Writer
Yearly salary$78,877$70,820
Hourly rate$37.92$34.05
Growth rate6%6%
Number of jobs79,68080,897
Job satisfaction-4
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 54%Bachelor's Degree, 72%
Average age4646
Years of experience22

Scientific technical writer vs senior technical writer salary

Scientific technical writers and senior technical writers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Scientific Technical WriterSenior Technical Writer
Average salary$78,877$70,820
Salary rangeBetween $57,000 And $109,000Between $54,000 And $92,000
Highest paying City-San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state-California
Best paying company-PayPal
Best paying industry-Technology

Differences between scientific technical writer and senior technical writer education

There are a few differences between a scientific technical writer and a senior technical writer in terms of educational background:

Scientific Technical WriterSenior Technical Writer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 54%Bachelor's Degree, 72%
Most common majorBiologyEnglish
Most common collegeUniversity of Southern CaliforniaUniversity of Houston

Scientific technical writer vs senior technical writer demographics

Here are the differences between scientific technical writers' and senior technical writers' demographics:

Scientific Technical WriterSenior Technical Writer
Average age4646
Gender ratioMale, 35.4% Female, 64.6%Male, 51.8% Female, 48.2%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 6.7% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 7.9% Asian, 8.8% White, 71.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%Black or African American, 6.6% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 7.8% Asian, 8.7% White, 71.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%
LGBT Percentage11%11%

Differences between scientific technical writer and senior technical writer duties and responsibilities

Scientific technical writer example responsibilities.

  • Help company achieve ISO registration by determining best practices, writing ISO compliant manufacturing instructions and teaching best manufacturing processes.
  • Maintain contacts within the FDA and EPA to stay abreast of the latest regulatory actions.
  • Develop sophisticated PowerPoint presentations for cross-departmental meetings.
  • Develop sophisticated PowerPoint presentations for cross-departmental meetings.

Senior technical writer example responsibilities.

  • Manage and participate in logistics programs, and commercial and DOD technical manual complements.
  • Manage team activities for internal and client documentation development that supports the SDLC methodology.
  • Lead team to deliver the first simultaneous release of the product stack across UNIX platforms.
  • Manage multiple SharePoint sites for active documentation projects and resulting archives to meet customer version control and compliance requirements.
  • Identify and initiate wholesale computer upgrade to accommodate new CMS while allocating and managing staff resources devote to developing the software.
  • Design and develop standalone and context-sensitive help with RoboHelp HTML, enhancing application usability.
  • Show more

Scientific technical writer vs senior technical writer skills

Common scientific technical writer skills
  • Sops, 26%
  • Subject Matter Experts, 20%
  • FDA, 14%
  • Technical Reports, 9%
  • ISO, 6%
  • Adobe Acrobat, 6%
Common senior technical writer skills
  • Technical Documentation, 7%
  • Subject Matter Experts, 6%
  • API, 4%
  • Java, 4%
  • PowerPoint, 4%
  • XML, 4%

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