How To Become A Senior Materials Scientist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a senior materials scientist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Nikhilesh Chawla

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a senior materials scientist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $49.06 an hour? That's $102,039 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 5,700 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a senior materials scientist?

Nikhilesh Chawla

Ransburg Professor of Materials Engineering, Purdue University

Prioritize your education. Having a Bachelor’s is great but you will be able to do much more interesting work AND have a higher salary with a Master’s or PhD.

ScoreSenior Materials ScientistUS Average

Salary

7.7

Avg. Salary $102,039

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.3

Growth rate 6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.25%

Asian 29.02%

Black or African American 5.81%

Hispanic or Latino 8.48%

Unknown 4.04%

White 52.40%

Gender

female 24.00%

male 76.00%

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

5.3

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.9

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.1

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a senior materials scientist

Explore senior materials scientist education requirements

Most common senior materials scientist degrees

Bachelor's

58.2 %

Doctorate

26.4 %

Master's

13.2 %

Start to develop specific senior materials scientist skills

Skills	Percentages
R	14.07%
Additive Manufacturing	11.84%
DSC	10.50%
FTIR	7.40%
Product Development	6.12%

Complete relevant senior materials scientist training and internships

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

Research senior materials scientist duties and responsibilities

Manage sample inventory via in-house laboratory information management system (LIMS) and implement additional systems for sample and chemical organization.
Key activities include process chemistry development, synthesis of intermediates, compound purification and structure identification, and comprehensive scientific documentation.
Manage sample inventory via in-house laboratory information management system (LIMS) and implement additional systems for sample and chemical organization.

Get senior materials scientist experience

Generally, it takes 2-4 years to become a senior materials scientist. The most common roles before becoming a senior materials scientist include research associate, research assistant team lead and research scientist.

Prepare your senior materials scientist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your senior materials scientist 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 senior materials scientist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable senior materials scientist resume templates

Build a professional senior materials scientist 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 senior materials scientist resume.