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Senior laboratory scientist job growth summary. After extensive research, interviews, and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
The projected senior laboratory scientist job growth rate is 17% from 2018-2028.
About 20,800 new jobs for senior laboratory scientists are projected over the next decade.
Senior laboratory scientist salaries have increased 14% for senior laboratory scientists in the last 5 years.
There are over 12,246 senior laboratory scientists currently employed in the United States.
There are 77,364 active senior laboratory scientist job openings in the US.
The average senior laboratory scientist salary is $88,562.
| Year | # of jobs | % of population |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 12,246 | 0.00% |
| 2020 | 14,227 | 0.00% |
| 2019 | 14,348 | 0.00% |
| 2018 | 13,574 | 0.00% |
| 2017 | 12,600 | 0.00% |
| Year | Avg. salary | Hourly rate | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $88,562 | $42.58 | +3.1% |
| 2024 | $85,929 | $41.31 | +4.7% |
| 2023 | $82,078 | $39.46 | +3.3% |
| 2022 | $79,445 | $38.19 | +1.9% |
| 2021 | $77,936 | $37.47 | --2.1% |
| Rank | State | Population | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Massachusetts | 6,859,819 | 2,243 | 33% |
| 2 | Maryland | 6,052,177 | 1,294 | 21% |
| 3 | New Hampshire | 1,342,795 | 274 | 20% |
| 4 | Vermont | 623,657 | 124 | 20% |
| 5 | South Dakota | 869,666 | 162 | 19% |
| 6 | North Dakota | 755,393 | 140 | 19% |
| 7 | District of Columbia | 693,972 | 135 | 19% |
| 8 | New Jersey | 9,005,644 | 1,591 | 18% |
| 9 | Delaware | 961,939 | 172 | 18% |
| 10 | Virginia | 8,470,020 | 1,318 | 16% |
| 11 | Washington | 7,405,743 | 1,191 | 16% |
| 12 | Minnesota | 5,576,606 | 855 | 15% |
| 13 | Alaska | 739,795 | 114 | 15% |
| 14 | Iowa | 3,145,711 | 448 | 14% |
| 15 | Wyoming | 579,315 | 80 | 14% |
| 16 | North Carolina | 10,273,419 | 1,312 | 13% |
| 17 | Maine | 1,335,907 | 178 | 13% |
| 18 | Montana | 1,050,493 | 137 | 13% |
| 19 | California | 39,536,653 | 4,795 | 12% |
| 20 | Rhode Island | 1,059,639 | 126 | 12% |
| Rank | City | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl | Avg. salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jackson | 1 | 3% | $75,606 |
| 2 | Redwood City | 1 | 1% | $123,134 |
| 3 | Troy | 1 | 1% | $76,195 |
| 4 | San Diego | 2 | 0% | $107,574 |
| 5 | Atlanta | 1 | 0% | $54,563 |
| 6 | Boston | 1 | 0% | $88,678 |
| 7 | San Jose | 1 | 0% | $122,724 |
Washburn University of Topeka
Pepperdine University
University of Hawaii at Manoa
University of San Diego
Northwestern University
Georgetown University
Santa Fe College
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Jackson State University
San Jose State University
Washington State University
University of Kentucky
Christopher Vitek Ph.D.: My research focuses on disease vectors, mostly mosquitoes, so I explore factors that influence how quickly they develop, where they spread, what time of year they are found, etc. I also do research in effective control methods, and even a little bit in disease transmission. Depending on your research area, you may be involved in looking at mathematical models, life history tables, species interactions, and more.
Christopher Vitek Ph.D.: I love being a population biologist because it allows me to work with a lot of other people and help public health offices learn how to control vector-borne diseases. The work is interesting and has an end result that can provide some use to the public. One thing that people may not like is that population biology often uses a lot of math and mathematical modeling to help predict growth and distribution patterns. You don’t need to be an expert, but you should be comfortable with math.
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.
Dr. Taufika Williams PhD: Wet-laboratory skills will always be important, however, data interrogation is a key space of growth, as biotechnology research is being driven by big data. Seek education in scientific writing, computer programming, delivering scientific presentations, statistics and the analysis of large datasets.
Dr. Taufika Williams PhD: Get as many graduate degrees as you are able to as it will really bump up your starting salary. An MS is great but stick around for the PhD if you can. Terminal degrees can open doors for career growth and upward mobility.
Frank David MD, PhD: In many biopharma industry positions, the annual cash bonus can be a sizable chunk of the compensation. So if you start out in a job like this, make sure you understand how you’ll be evaluated at the end of the year so you can make sure you knock it out of the park and get the highest possible ratings. If you go into a biopharma R&D; position straight out of undergrad, you should try to figure out relatively soon if you’ll want to go back to school for a PhD. Most science-based jobs will require a PhD to advance, but in many 'science-adjacent' jobs you’ll be able to move up without an advanced degree. Either is fine, but it would be great to figure out which direction you want to go within 2-4 years of entering the industry so you can plan accordingly.
Frank David MD, PhD: My main piece of advice is to network. Do tons of informational interviews with folks and then follow up to see if there are possible opportunities or other connections that folks can help you make. Many biotech and pharma positions go to folks with 'inside tracks' because they are recommended by current employees or already know the hiring manager. Also: be flexible about the type of role whenever possible. For example, if you’re looking at an entry-level lab-based job, don’t get hung up on the specific disease area. Or if you’re interested in regulatory science, cast a broad net and also explore roles in program management and medical writing, which involve similar activities and required skills. Finally: it’s great to look for opportunities at biotech and pharma firms, but don’t forget about contract research organizations, consultancies, and other vendors that serve drug companies. Those types of organizations are often more willing to train folks who are coming straight out of school, and those positions are great stepping stones to eventually move 'to the client side' (into drug companies) as experienced hires.
Frank David MD, PhD: In basic research jobs, the key lab-related skills will continue to be the ones that are commonly used for discovering and developing new therapies: mammalian cell culture, in vitro assays, transfection, immunoprecipitation, Western blots, etc. It’s typically not necessary to 'check all the boxes' in terms of bench skills for a job, but having a few of these key techniques under your belt will give a company confidence that you can learn others. In general across the industry, effective written communication and project management are key skills that cut across almost all jobs and divisions within biotech and pharma. Anything you can do to build and highlight those capabilities will serve you in good stead.
Camellia Okpodu: Adatation and fundamental knowledge of botanical terms will always be pivotal to the discipline; however new technologies and applications will move the bountiful the discipline. Bioinformatics, genomics; Machine learning, Remote Sensing and VR (both for instruction and field application) will be necessay skills. Also, Botanists will collaborate with experts from diverse fields (ecology, computer science, engineering) thus making effective communication and teamwork critical.skills of the future
Camellia Okpodu: My advise would be to continue to network by joining affiliated associations in botany and Keep learning, stay updated on research, and explore new areas.
Camellia Okpodu: When starting your career, maximizing your salary potential involves strategic planning and effective negotiation. Here are some of the best practices I have learned through mg own experience. I often tell graduates I didn’t know these things when I graduated. Here are tips to consider: 1. Research Industry Standards: Understand the average salary range for the position you’re pursuing. Use the La or statistics to look at national data for the position you are applying for. 2. Know Your Value: Highlight your unique skills, experience, and qualifications. Present a well-articulated case during negotiations. Make sure you include an opportunity to grow. Ask about professional organization and fees. See if that can’t be included in your salary or compensation 3. Ask About Salary Range: If asked about your salary expectations, inquire about the employer’s range first. 4. Consider Total Rewards: Look beyond the base salary. Make an evaluation about other benefits - work flexibly, professional development and employee benefits. Negotiations sets the stage for your financial well-being and long-term career progression. These are the recommendations and best practices I used when I was the director of a Center of Academic Excellence for the Intelligence Community. I received two accommodations from the Obama administration’s ODNI for putting students in jobs in the Intelligence community.
Washburn University of Topeka
Biological And Physical Sciences
Susan Bjerke: Maximizing your salary is important, but don’t forget that jobs can come with other benefits that may compensate for a lower starting salary. For instance, maybe you get to work out in the field instead of being tied to a desk all day. Maybe you have the opportunity to work from home some of the time. Some employers offer matches for retirement plans or discounted health insurance for spouses. Negotiating for the best salary you can makes sense, but also look into those intangibles!
Susan Bjerke: Some of the skills that will be important in the next 3-5 years will be general critical thinking skills and the ability to adapt to changing technology. Almost all science fields are increasingly dependent on technology, so being able to learn new skills and change the way you do things in your job will be important. Being an effective communicator, both in writing and orally, is an overlooked skill in the sciences and is always an important asset.
Rachel Tan Ph.D.: I do not have an answer for this. My response would be to be proactive during undergraduate studies, to discern where you find joy and curiosity. Pursue that topic. I do not think that the salary should be the priority when considering careers.
Qing Li: Develop your specialty and be good at one thing; jobs will be after you rather than you after jobs.
Qing Li: AI will become more important and prevalent in the field in the next 3-5 years but laboratory experiments will continue to make new discoveries.
Nicole Danos PhD: In the next 3-5 years techniques in Biotech will constantly improve. Which will mean three things:
a) there will be much more data to sort through! It will be important to let the questions being asked direct data analyses.
b) workers will need to be nimble to improve their lab skills. The same principles of good practices will apply!
c) AI tools will be in the workplace. Workers will need to understand these tools and know whether or not they are appropriate for what they are trying to use, and not trust them blindly.
Nathaniel Stern: Within academic physics, your potential can be maximized by doing impactful work in graduate school that matters to other people. The next step is to communicate this impact broadly, and then figure out how to take the next step in the field. That is a lot of steps, but if one can successfully do those things in graduate school, they can build the profile, community, and intellectual leadership to demand the highest salary. Outside of academic physics, the requirements are probably not that different, but I do not have explicit knowledge of them myself. So I would fall back on the standard goals of innovation and communication, which should help one succeed in any knowledge-related career.
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: Find a purpose and a meaning in their work and be open to learning from interdisciplinary fields.
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.
Luz Garcini PhD, MPH: Build a unique niche and new skills (another language), disseminate your work via high impact networks/avenues, get mentoring in negotiation.
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.
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.
Kristopher Koudelka Ph.D.: There are two skillsets, and one field I see become more important. The first skillset is application of material. You must know the language of your field; however, most content can be quickly found through simple research. People who can apply this knowledge, and formulate the new questions are more valuable employees. The second skill set is troubleshooting. Very often experiments fail or give strange results, how one can glean as much information as possible from the experiment and then plan the next course of action is a huge asset. The field I see becoming more important is computer programming. Very often these fields deal with large datasets that are so big, complex, or repetitive that computer assistance isn’t just helpful… but mandatory.
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.
Jason Ferrell: College has given you the tools to be a life-long learner. Very rarely will you enter a career and have all the skills necessary to succeed. You will need to use the critical thinking, networking, and scientific background you have been taught to grow yourself into this new role. I can be intimidating, but trust me, you have all the skills and now you just need to put them into motion.
Jason Ferrell: While technology is changing at a rapid pace and artificial intelligence will no doubt play an ever increasing role in life and science, I believe the foundations of success will not change. These include, 1. Being responsive and timely. 2. Possessing excellent written and oral communication skills. 3. Being a helpful team member. Regardless of skill set or expertise, these are three pillars of success.
Jeff Heslep: Find a starting job that gives you a wide range of work to perform. The more experience you can gain during the first few years will help you to hone your skills, decide what areas interest you the most, and give you the opportunity to choose. Learn as much as you can about the various equipment, analytical techniques, processes, and how to troubleshoot minor problems. Take the initiative and ask to learn how to use instruments you aren't familiar with. It is unlikely someone will deny you the opportunity to broaden your knowledge. Take every chance you have to network and get to know the people within your local biotechnology industry. Networking plays a major role in employment opportunities. Work on your written and verbal communication skills. Communicating well will help you stand out. Being able to effectively convey complex scientific concepts in such a way that anyone can understand it can be a powerful skill.
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.
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.
Jacob Nordman: In the field of neuroscience, the field is increasingly concerned with cellular and pathway specificity – what are the cell types and pathway that control ever-specific physiological functions. Some tools necessary to probe these questions include the powerful single-cell RNA sequencing method, genetic tools like optogenetics and chemogenetics that allow for neural pathway-specific manipulations, and increasingly sophisticated computer models that incorporate machine learning and artificial intelligence. These techniques will only become more precise and integral, so familiarity with them now will set you up to learn the newer versions later.
Hung-Chung Huang: Master key concepts in genetics, molecular biology and biochemistry; also learn at least one programming language like R or Python.
Hung-Chung Huang: Cloud computing, AI (e.g., ChatGPT) computing, machine learning, HMM, neural network, and natural language processing.
San Jose State University
Health Services/Allied Health/Health Sciences
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.
Dr. Harit Agroia: The Health Science Researcher is a dynamic profession to enter into now given that the world has collectively experienced the significant impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic; the effects on social and behavioral patterns for which are largely unknown. From a clinical perspective, there are many opportunities to get involved in research that focuses on the impacts of long-COVID on physical and overall health especially among subsets of the population. The pandemic has also exacerbated health inequities for which there is definitely a need to conduct more qualitative research to hear the voices of impacted communities, the challenges they face, and what may be helpful ways that these challenges can be addressed. Aside from global pandemic related research, there are many other exciting aspects of entering into this profession such as to understand how artificial intelligence will play a role in improving individual and population-level health.
Lindsey du Toit: The ability to put advanced, including molecular plant pathology, skills and methods pathology in the context of fundamental principles of plant pathology is so important. There is a real danger of being trained/educated so narrowly that you lose the bigger picture and context of the work. Make an effort to learn from people with expertise in related disciplines to avoid working in an isolated ivory tower, and to benefit from the amazing cross-pollination that can happen with shared expertise.
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.
University of Kentucky
Animal Sciences
Dr. David Harmon: Reading and writing skills are never more important. If you want to do research you have to compete for funds.
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.
Dr. David Harmon: Be productive as a graduate student. Publishing is still the road to success.