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What does a senior principal scientist do?

Updated January 8, 2025
7 min read
Quoted expert
Dr. Betsy Smith

A Senior Principal Scientist is focused on providing technical and scientific expertise in a specific field. They conduct quantitative and qualitative research to enhance existing products or develop new ones.

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Senior principal scientist responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real senior principal scientist resumes:

  • Manage stability coordination activities for market drug products in accordance to company and ICH guidelines.
  • Maintain a GMP & GLP laboratory & facility.
  • Provide documents and information of the CMC section for IND/NDA.
  • Assist FDA to validate contractor-supply data against the original source data.
  • Select appropriate biomarkers to determine mechanism of toxicity.
  • Identify several candidate biomarkers that are confirmed in internal experiments.
  • Participate in CMC due diligence efforts for supporting business development activities.
  • Engage with FDA to technically justify modification and/or removal of impurity test method/specification.
  • Propose ALIS-based method for quantitative bioanalytical analysis (including metabolic stability) and study pharmacokinetics.
  • Design key targets and supervise one chemistry associate resulting in the synthesis of additional compounds, some with excellent biological activity.
  • Assay results are used to screen compounds to ensure that high quality candidates are selected for subsequent pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic experiments.
  • Design and implement scoring mechanism of extraction results to evaluate performance of multiple commercial products.
  • Identify opportunities and develop and support on-line and at-line process NIR and IR monitoring and control methodologies for aluminum coating operations.

Senior principal scientist skills and personality traits

We calculated that 8% of Senior Principal Scientists are proficient in Chemistry, Drug Discovery, and Java.

We break down the percentage of Senior Principal Scientists that have these skills listed on their resume here:

  • Chemistry, 8%

    Conducted synthetic medicinal chemistry research and project progression in discovery projects.

  • Drug Discovery, 7%

    Initiated four antiviral drug discovery programs and concurrently managed up to six antiviral drug discovery projects in-house.

  • Java, 7%

    Developed computational cognitive models of human performance in task interruption experiments using ACT-R cognitive architecture, Lisp and Java.

  • Data Analysis, 6%

    Manage all aspects of interactions between data owners and data specifications necessary for performing data analysis.

  • Clinical Development, 5%

    Acted as Clinical Development Team lead and clinical representative on project and study execution teams.

  • Clinical Trials, 4%

    Key member of the clinical trial development-manufacturing team.

Most senior principal scientists use their skills in "chemistry," "drug discovery," and "java" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential senior principal scientist responsibilities here:

Communication skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a senior principal scientist to have is communication skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "medical scientists must be able to explain their research in nontechnical ways." Senior principal scientists often use communication skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "served as a liaison between the site safety committee and the drug discovery project team by facilitating open communication. "

Observation skills. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling senior principal scientist duties is observation skills. The role rewards competence in this skill because "medical scientists conduct experiments that require monitoring samples and other health-related data." According to a senior principal scientist resume, here's how senior principal scientists can utilize observation skills in their job responsibilities: "performed data mining and statistical analyses to draft responses to fda questions and observations. "

Most common senior principal scientist skills

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Compare different senior principal scientists

Senior principal scientist vs. Research fellow

A research fellow is an academic researcher who conducts research and analysis of comprehensive literature, data, and results and provides literature reviews. He/She supervises research assistants and recruits study participants to interview them for a particular study. To become a research fellow, a candidate should have a doctorate in a relevant discipline and publish peer-reviewed papers. Also, a research fellow can be an independent investigator or be supervised by a principal investigator.

If we compare the average senior principal scientist annual salary with that of a research fellow, we find that research fellows typically earn a $65,219 lower salary than senior principal scientists make annually.While the two careers have a salary gap, they share some of the same responsibilities. Employees in both senior principal scientist and research fellow positions are skilled in chemistry, data analysis, and clinical trials.

While similarities exist, there are also some differences between senior principal scientists and research fellow. For instance, senior principal scientist responsibilities require skills such as "drug discovery," "java," "clinical development," and "visualization." Whereas a research fellow is skilled in "patients," "research projects," "cell culture," and "immunology." This is part of what separates the two careers.

Research fellows really shine in the non profits industry with an average salary of $57,261. Comparatively, senior principal scientists tend to make the most money in the technology industry with an average salary of $122,831.On average, research fellows reach higher levels of education than senior principal scientists. Research fellows are 7.4% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 2.3% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Senior principal scientist vs. Chemist

Chemists are generally responsible for observing and investigating chemical substances to create new and safe compounds essential for practical applications. They are often grouped depending on a particular area of specialization to focus and understand the complexities of the matter. A chemist usually takes time performing research and conducting experiments to test and further improve the quality and usage of a specific chemical substance. Chemists are expected to write on their observations and findings to establish scientific results.

A career as a chemist brings a lower average salary when compared to the average annual salary of a senior principal scientist. In fact, chemists salary is $54,081 lower than the salary of senior principal scientists per year.A few skills overlap for senior principal scientists and chemists. Resumes from both professions show that the duties of each career rely on skills like "chemistry," "data analysis," and "analytical methods. "

While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that senior principal scientist responsibilities requires skills like "drug discovery," "java," "clinical development," and "clinical trials." But a chemist might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "lab equipment," "test results," "sample preparation," and "uv/vis."

Chemists earn a lower average salary than senior principal scientists. But chemists earn the highest pay in the manufacturing industry, with an average salary of $75,495. Additionally, senior principal scientists earn the highest salaries in the technology with average pay of $122,831 annually.chemists earn similar levels of education than senior principal scientists in general. They're 0.4% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 2.3% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for senior principal scientists in the next 3-5 years?

Dr. Betsy SmithDr. Betsy Smith LinkedIn profile

Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Elmira College

Honestly, I think anytime a scientist tries to predict what will be "big" in a few years, they're likely to fail. That said, I think there's a growing interest among consumers for more "green" products, so research into those areas will likely grow. For instance, we might see attempts to develop new plastics that are safer for the environment and humans, perhaps biodegradable. Organic chemistry traditionally uses harsh solvents and chemicals that are difficult to dispose of safely, so there is an effort to find alternatives to these. Analytical chemistry techniques for separating and identifying compounds, like GC-MS (gas chromatography-mass spectrometry), will likely continue to be necessary. CRISPR, the relatively new gene-editing technology, is likely to become even more widely used on the biochemistry side of things.

Senior principal scientist vs. Postdoctoral research associate

A postdoctoral research associate is responsible for assisting the educational institution's research department, writing research reports, analyzing research methods, and collecting information and related studies to support the research claims. Postdoctoral research associates must have excellent communication skills, both oral and written, reporting research updates to the research head, performing adjustments as needed, and gaining more expertise on the subject by brainstorming and discussing strategic procedures for the study. They may also conduct field investigation or coordinate with other institutions for additional reference, depending on the research's scope and limitation.

An average postdoctoral research associate eans a lower salary compared to the average salary of senior principal scientists. The difference in salaries amounts to postdoctoral research associates earning a $66,257 lower average salary than senior principal scientists.By looking over several senior principal scientists and postdoctoral research associates resumes, we found that both roles require similar skills in their day-to-day duties, such as "chemistry," "data analysis," and "visualization." But beyond that, the careers look very different.

The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, senior principal scientists are more likely to have skills like "drug discovery," "java," "clinical development," and "clinical trials." But a postdoctoral research associate is more likely to have skills like "python," "research projects," "post-doctoral," and "cell culture."

Postdoctoral research associates earn the highest salary when working in the professional industry, where they receive an average salary of $69,999. Comparatively, senior principal scientists have the highest earning potential in the technology industry, with an average salary of $122,831.When it comes to education, postdoctoral research associates tend to earn similar degree levels compared to senior principal scientists. In fact, they're 4.9% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 12.8% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Senior principal scientist vs. Quality control analyst

Quality assurance representatives are professionals who are responsible for ensuring the quality of units produced or manufactured is following the standards set by the industry. These representatives supervise the entire production process to identify erroneous methods or tools being used by workers and observing produced for visible defects. They are required to perform various tests to check for the durability of the product and other desirable characteristics. Quality assurance representatives must also collaborate with the manufacturing engineer to implement quality control programs and preparing training manuals and quality guidelines.

Quality control analysts tend to earn a lower pay than senior principal scientists by an average of $59,825 per year.According to resumes from senior principal scientists and quality control analysts, some of the skills necessary to complete the responsibilities of each role are similar. These skills include "data analysis," "analytical methods," and "technical reports. "While some skills are required in each professionacirc;euro;trade;s responsibilities, there are some differences to note. "chemistry," "drug discovery," "java," and "clinical development" are skills that commonly show up on senior principal scientist resumes. On the other hand, quality control analysts use skills like lab equipment, microbiology, test methods, and lims on their resumes.In general, quality control analysts earn the most working in the manufacturing industry, with an average salary of $62,870. The highest-paying industry for a senior principal scientist is the technology industry.The average resume of quality control analysts showed that they earn similar levels of education compared to senior principal scientists. So much so that theyacirc;euro;trade;re 1.3% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree by 33.2%.

Types of senior principal scientist

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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