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Job outlook for senior applications scientists in the United States
Are senior applications scientist jobs in demand?
Senior applications scientist job and salary trends over time
Senior applications scientist jobs over time
Senior applications scientist job growth rate over time
| Year | # of jobs | % of population |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 275 | 0.00% |
| 2020 | 320 | 0.00% |
| 2019 | 322 | 0.00% |
| 2018 | 305 | 0.00% |
| 2017 | 283 | 0.00% |
Average senior applications scientist salary over time
Senior applications scientist salary by year
| Year | Avg. salary | Hourly rate | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | $105,538 | $50.74 | +3.1% |
| 2025 | $102,401 | $49.23 | +4.7% |
| 2024 | $97,811 | $47.02 | +3.3% |
| 2023 | $94,674 | $45.52 | +1.9% |
| 2022 | $92,875 | $44.65 | --2.1% |
Senior applications scientist jobs by state
Most common states for senior applications scientists
| Rank | State | Population | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | 693,972 | 191 | 28% |
| 2 | Massachusetts | 6,859,819 | 1,829 | 27% |
| 3 | Delaware | 961,939 | 181 | 19% |
| 4 | Maryland | 6,052,177 | 978 | 16% |
| 5 | Virginia | 8,470,020 | 1,271 | 15% |
| 6 | New Jersey | 9,005,644 | 1,148 | 13% |
| 7 | Washington | 7,405,743 | 973 | 13% |
| 8 | New Hampshire | 1,342,795 | 180 | 13% |
| 9 | South Dakota | 869,666 | 116 | 13% |
| 10 | Vermont | 623,657 | 84 | 13% |
| 11 | North Carolina | 10,273,419 | 1,083 | 11% |
| 12 | Connecticut | 3,588,184 | 382 | 11% |
| 13 | Rhode Island | 1,059,639 | 112 | 11% |
| 14 | North Dakota | 755,393 | 85 | 11% |
| 15 | California | 39,536,653 | 4,002 | 10% |
| 16 | Oregon | 4,142,776 | 434 | 10% |
| 17 | Montana | 1,050,493 | 106 | 10% |
| 18 | Alaska | 739,795 | 75 | 10% |
| 19 | Colorado | 5,607,154 | 511 | 9% |
| 20 | New Mexico | 2,088,070 | 187 | 9% |
Most common cities for senior applications scientists
| Rank | City | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl | Avg. salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Billerica | 3 | 7% | $94,777 |
| 2 | Milford | 1 | 4% | $95,012 |
| 3 | Menlo Park | 1 | 3% | $128,406 |
| 4 | Merrillville | 1 | 3% | $91,790 |
| 5 | Michigan City | 1 | 3% | $93,060 |
| 6 | Evansville | 1 | 1% | $89,090 |
| 7 | Gary | 1 | 1% | $92,023 |
| 8 | Hammond | 1 | 1% | $91,742 |
| 9 | Redwood City | 1 | 1% | $128,479 |
| 10 | South Bend | 1 | 1% | $94,025 |
| 11 | Indianapolis | 2 | 0% | $91,102 |
| 12 | San Jose | 2 | 0% | $127,951 |
| 13 | Fort Wayne | 1 | 0% | $94,687 |
Senior Applications Scientist job outlook: Expert opinions
Our panel of senior applications scientist experts
SUNY Stony Brook
Georgetown University
Santa Fe College
Jackson State University
San Jose State University
Washington State University
University of Kentucky
Purdue University
University of Pittsburgh
University of Nebraska - Omaha
Western Washington University
Case Western Reserve University
Auburn University
Stevenson University
Doverspike Consulting/HR LItehouse
Robert Morris University
What general advice would you give to a Senior Applications Scientist?
Dr. Taufika Williams PhD: Finding a job at with an undergraduate degree may be quite doable but upward mobility in your career often requires a terminal degree (i.e. PhD). Stay in school for as long as you can! Some students will work in biotechnology for a few years after their undergraduate studies are over and then return to school for graduate education. The work experience can tremendously benefit graduate research.
What Senior Applications Scientist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Dr. Vitaly Citovsky: Advanced degrees, bioinformatics, hi-tech research (synthetic biology), but classical molecular biology and genetics and biochemistry skills will remain critical
What will help Senior Applications Scientists increase their earning potential?
Meghan McGee-Lawrence Ph.D.: Cast a wide net! A huge variety of career paths can be pursued with a degree like this, including industry, academic research, healthcare, education, and more. It is a very versatile degree, and can be a foundation for a multitude of different professions. Talk to recent graduates from your program (as many as possible!) and see what they did with their degree – the more information you can collect, the better prepared you’ll be to seek out opportunities yourself. Take the time to figure out where your interests lie – and understand that you may have to try a few different paths out before you find the right one for you. The first position you land after graduation doesn’t have to be the job you perform for the next 30 years of your life – so use each opportunity as a learning experience to figure out what you’d really like to do long-term.
Luz Garcini PhD, MPH
Assistant ProfessorWhat Senior Applications Scientist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Luz Garcini PhD, MPH: Interdisciplinary, commitment to diversity, flexibility in thinking and approach, fast learning of technological advances, advanced statistical knowledge and skills in mixed methodologies.
What general advice would you give to a Senior Applications Scientist?
Ivica Labuda PhD: The 21st century is the century of biotechnology, which means that opportunities for a successful, impactful career in the field are there for those who go after them. Your blossoming career path may take you from the private sector, to government agencies, to academia and beyond, so taking advantage of every opportunity to gain exposure to the different sides of biotech will set you up to grasp varied and exciting opportunities.
What Senior Applications Scientist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Ivica Labuda PhD: Certainly everyone in the biotech field would benefit from having knowledge of biotechnology techniques and skills in concert with understanding the regulatory framework. That provides a good foundation so that one can interact confidently in every aspect of the biotech world. With AI progress, the next step is to add the basic understanding of the speed at which we can evolve new techniques and materials. Not everybody needs to code, but everyone needs to think about how to maximize its benefits for biotechnology.
What will help Senior Applications Scientists increase their earning potential?
Ivica Labuda PhD: Everyone's career is a unique path, but a strong education gets your foot in the door and graduate programs such as Georgetown's MS in Biotechnology are accelerators for your potential. An advanced degree and the exposure to real-world internships they often provide bring you to a much higher starting point in negotiations and can help you gain confidence to start at higher positions. Salary, however, is just one measure of success -- also important to consider are satisfaction from the working environment, a great team, and potential for professional and personal growth.
What will help Senior Applications Scientists increase their earning potential?
Kristopher Koudelka Ph.D.: Always keep learning. These fields change fast! The leading edge is always unveiling new information that can be applied to the area you are working on, and there will be new techniques developed that allow you to answer questions in more efficient ways. You must learn to regularly update yourself through conversations, reading, conferences, and trainings. This change is fun and exciting, embrace it. It will keep your job feeling new.
What Senior Applications Scientist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Jeff Heslep: A good entry-level starting salary is great, but it may not maximize your salary potential if the job doesn't help you grow. You might want to take learning opportunities and experience over money early on in your career. Focus on experience, learning, and growth early so your salary potential in the long run will be much higher. Be wary of companies offering a sign-on bonus for certain positions. The reason companies need to offer a sign-on bonus for specific positions is often because the job is very demanding and unpleasant, or they are positions that stagnate and offer little growth opportunities. You'll have plenty of time to advance and make a higher salary after you have a good system of self-improvement in place and ways to master your skills.
What will help Senior Applications Scientists increase their earning potential?
Jeff Heslep: Know how to interpret data. Don't simply know what expected results are necessary for successful projects, know why and be able to explain the data. Technology in the form of automation, machine learning, and robotics is going to become more prevalent in the near future. Knowing how to program automated systems and how to prompt AI is going to be very beneficial. Lab skills will continue to be necessary, but continuing to grow with the advancement of technology is ideal.
What general advice would you give to a Senior Applications Scientist?
Hung-Chung Huang: Master key concepts in genetics, molecular biology and biochemistry; also learn at least one programming language like R or Python.
Dr. Harit Agroia
Adjunct Professor of Public HealthSan Jose State University
Health Services/Allied Health/Health Sciences
What general advice would you give to a Senior Applications Scientist?
Dr. Harit Agroia: The day-to-day of a Health Science Researcher may vary depending on the organization, industry and setting in which the role is based. Generally, the Health Science Researcher may be responsible for the following: working in close collaboration with a research team to identify research gaps, conducting population-level data analyses to understand the distribution and burden of and social determinants of disease within a specified geographic region, designing research plans including aims, objectives, theoretical or conceptual frameworks, data collection tools, analyses, results visualization and interpretation, and dissemination of findings. Health Science Researchers may spend their day collecting data which may involve manual extraction and data entry or conducting interviews or focus groups. Conducting interviews and focus groups may require travel related to the job as being in the field and area where the research is focused provides additional observational data that may be integrated into the analysis or provide context for the results. The data analysis portion of the job may require basic to advanced statistical analysis skills; many researchers work in close collaboration with biostatisticians to complete more complex analyses. For qualitative analyses, data analysis may require transcribing notes, coding and identifying themes to organize the results. These day-to-day tasks are completed in the setting of larger team environment and in consultation with senior management and principal investigators.
What Senior Applications Scientist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Dr. Harit Agroia: The Health Science Researcher provides an exciting opportunity for individuals to explore areas of health that they are curious about; this role will be very well-enjoyed by someone who is curious, analytical and detail-oriented. One challenge about the role is that there may be times when research data may have to be re-collected or analyzed with evolving changes to research design and methodologies; being able to manage this effectively requires flexibility and adaptation in order to be thorough and successful in achieving set research goals.
What will help Senior Applications Scientists increase their earning potential?
Lindsey du Toit: Take every opportunity you can to learn, network, and build an effective team of people that bring a greater breadth and depth of skills and expertise to the work on which you will be focusing. Cultivate a life-long sense of intellectual curiosity and learning. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Treat ignorance as an opportunity to learn. Questions demonstrate you want to understand the situation/problem effectively and that you are paying attention. Always demonstrate integrity in your work. It is one of the most valuable traits you can bring to your career. Be kind and supportive of your colleagues.
Dr. David Harmon
Professor of Animal & Food SciencesUniversity of Kentucky
Animal Sciences
What general advice would you give to a Senior Applications Scientist?
Dr. David Harmon: Reading and writing skills are never more important. If you want to do research you have to compete for funds.
What Senior Applications Scientist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Dr. David Harmon: Opportunities abound. The job opportunities outnumber current graduates. Decide what you want to be good at and then be good at it.
Yan Cong
Purdue University
Romance Languages, Literatures, And Linguistics
What will help Senior Applications Scientists increase their earning potential?
Yan Cong: Develop some in-demand skills such as programming or generating content from text models via prompt engineering, et cetera. Get experience and extra income via paid summer internships.
What general advice would you give to a Senior Applications Scientist?
Arjumand Ghazi Ph. D: Don’t hesitate to experiment with different career options before settling for one where you enjoy the work and make a good living.
Andrew Riquier Ph.D.
InstructorUniversity of Nebraska - Omaha
Neurobiology And Neurosciences
What general advice would you give to a Senior Applications Scientist?
Andrew Riquier Ph.D.: Apply for the positions you want, even if you feel underqualified. I know plenty of people who have applied for jobs they didn't quite meet the requirements for, and got hired for other reasons. In my experience, many recent graduates choose to take time to strengthen their resumes by retaking classes, working jobs they don't particularly want to get experience, etc. There is some value in that, particularly if you have been unsuccessful attaining the position you want, or if you want to see if you even enjoy that type of work. But if you are confident in what you want to do, go for it; in the worst-case scenario, you are in the same position you would be if you hadn't applied, but now you have experience applying and have potentially gained a contact in the field.
What Senior Applications Scientist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Josh Kaplan Ph.D.: Demonstrating a skill set that is unique, such as experience with a rare technical research approach, or demonstrating that you can save your employer money by utilizing free resources, can be used to negotiate a higher salary.
What experience really stands out on Senior Applications Scientist resumes?
Glenn Starkman: For students planning to head off to graduate school, what really counts is sustained and meaningful research in collaboration with faculty.
For students looking for work, it is harder to determine what's needed. Anecdotally, what seems to matter is obtaining, and better yet, creating opportunities instead of only doing what is expected of you, and thereby doing new things that will set you apart from other job candidates.
What Senior Applications Scientist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Karen McNeal Ph.D.: I would say getting familiar with how to process Big data and enhance GIS skills would be potential skill areas to continue to build up. There are some online courses one could l take without being enrolled in graduate/undergraduate programs to continue to build these skills (I do not have the plans offhand, but a google search would probably find some). Besides that, I would also say that trying to fine-tune communication skills about science to non-technical audiences would be good. If they are taking a gap year, use the opportunity to talk with the new people you are meeting about science in non-technical ways. See what works, what doesn't. Start building your confidence and experience doing so.
What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for Senior Applications Scientists in the next 3-5 years?
Neil Rothman Ph.D.: Based on the past year, the rapid development of diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics would seem to be an area that will be very important. I am talking about developing a specific vaccine or therapeutic and the equipment and laboratory methods necessary for their product. Running a diagnostic test on an "easy to acquire" sample will be essential to enable rapid and widespread testing and diagnosis. Detection of pathogens in water and food will likely continue and potentially increase in importance as the effects of climate change impact the water supply.
I also think that the strategy behind diagnostic testing may become more critical. Rather than going for very high sensitivity and specificity, it may be more useful to have a "good" test that can be conducted more quickly and often to prevent disease spread. This directly impacts what technologies are developed and how they are applied.
What type of skills will young Senior Applications Scientists need?
Dennis Doverspike Ph.D.: Seemingly a paradox, there will continue to be a need for very general, but highly fungible, skills and demand for too specialized skills, requiring advanced education. Coding, statistics, and data analysis related skills will remain a hot growth area. The aging of the baby boomers will create demand for medical and healthcare-related regions, especially nursing, nursing aides, and emergency services. Despite the automation of many people facing jobs, there will continue to be a demand for interpersonal and people skills, including various types of sales. The switch to remote work, due to COVID, will create a substantial future market to fill the leadership and managerial skills gap. In many areas of Technology and engineering, it is already challenging to find a combination of technical knowledge and people skills, and this demand will intensify.
Will there be an increase or decrease in demand for Senior Applications Scientists in the next 5 years?
Paul Badger Ph.D.: The demand for skilled research scientists in the healthcare industry or related industries will almost certainly grow in the next five years. There is nearly always a need for entry-level positions, such as laboratory scientists or medical laboratory technicians. The recent increase in pressures placed on the health care sector will likely lead to more hiring as testing facilities, and analytical labs are expanded.
Are there any particularly good places in the United States for Senior Applications Scientists to find work opportunities?
Paul Badger Ph.D.: Any area of the U.S. that has current or projected population growth, like the southern Atlantic states and the Rocky Mountain regions, will have an increased demand for biology graduates in a variety of occupations.