Senior research specialists are experts who carry out research projects and designs with fellow junior research specialist teams. Your job requires you to propose and implement new techniques to improve productivity, sales, and research quality. You will also be needed to oversee and monitor daily laboratory experiments and tasks, ensure timely completion of tasks, and prepare documentation of all experimental procedures. Furthermore, you are to respond to questions, fix problems, report damaged or faulty equipment, and write appropriate financial proposals to funding agencies. Also, you are to supervise or assist in training, advising, and guiding junior researchers and students.
Senior research specialists must have very good knowledge of research principles and scientific methods, be computer literate, and showcase outstanding analytical and interpersonal skills. You also need a bachelor's degree in science or a related field to get this job. With these requirements met, you will earn an average yearly salary of $54,686 or $26 an hour.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a Senior Research Specialist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $30.24 an hour? That's $62,908 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 20% and produce 139,200 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many Senior Research Specialists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed Analytical skills, Detail oriented and Communication skills.
If you're interested in becoming a Senior Research Specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 58.1% of Senior Research Specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 20.7% of Senior Research Specialists have master's degrees. Even though most Senior Research Specialists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a Senior Research Specialist. When we researched the most common majors for a Senior Research Specialist, we found that they most commonly earn Bachelor's Degree degrees or Master's Degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on Senior Research Specialist resumes include Doctoral Degree degrees or Associate Degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a Senior Research Specialist. In fact, many Senior Research Specialist jobs require experience in a role such as Research Assistant. Meanwhile, many Senior Research Specialists also have previous career experience in roles such as Research Specialist or Research Associate.