How to hire a senior research specialist

How to hire a senior research specialist, step by step

Here's a step-by-step senior research specialist hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a senior research specialist job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new senior research specialist
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a senior research specialist do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   The senior research specialist hiring process starts by determining what type of worker you actually need. Certain roles might require a full-time employee, whereas part-time workers or contractors can do others.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them a senior research specialist to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire a senior research specialist that fits the bill.

   This list presents senior research specialist salaries for various positions.

   Type of Senior Research Specialist	Description	Hourly rate
   Senior Research Specialist	Market research analysts study market conditions to examine potential sales of a product or service. They help companies understand what products people want, who will buy them, and at what price.	$20-47
   Research Manager	A Research Manager performs research, data collection, and economic, statistical, and demographic analysis. They also determine and implement research and development strategies, policies, and plans.	$24-63
   Research Project Coordinator	Research Project Coordinators take on a lead role in maintaining and creating processes that support the execution of a research project. Their duties include researching governance requirements, preparing for contract bidding, manage budgeting of a project to meet a specified timeline, and present findings of a project to all stakeholders involved... Show more	$17-31

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Data Collection
   • Research Projects
   • Data Analysis
   • PI
   • Laboratory Equipment
   • Research Studies
   • Cell Culture
   • Molecular Biology
   • IRB
   • Data Management
   • Statistical Analysis
   • Research Procedures
   • Research Results
   • PowerPoint

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage expanding mouse colony including genotyping.
   • Perform sample preparation which includes DNA and RNA extraction, follow by conventional or real-time PCR.
   • Gel shifts - looking at the DNA binding to proteins.
   • Perform DNA extractions of plant tissue.
   • Attend weekly IRB meetings to take meeting minutes.
   • Conduct gene cloning; RNA probe labeling and purification.

   More senior research specialist duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the senior research specialist job description is a good way to get more applicants. A senior research specialist salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

   For example, the average salary for a senior research specialist in Kentucky may be lower than in Washington, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level senior research specialist. Additionally, a senior research specialist with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average senior research specialist salary

   $65,071yearly

   $31.28 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level senior research specialist salary

   $42,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 13, 2025

   Average senior research specialist salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	Washington	$118,869	$57
   2	California	$108,640	$52
   3	District of Columbia	$94,614	$45
   4	Minnesota	$90,672	$44
   5	New York	$82,997	$40
   6	North Carolina	$80,995	$39
   7	Texas	$80,334	$39
   8	Massachusetts	$79,403	$38
   9	Michigan	$77,454	$37
   10	Ohio	$74,477	$36
   11	Virginia	$71,577	$34
   12	Illinois	$65,330	$31
   13	Maryland	$63,079	$30
   14	Pennsylvania	$61,870	$30
   15	Indiana	$59,644	$29
   16	Wisconsin	$58,826	$28
   17	Florida	$57,808	$28
   18	New Mexico	$57,559	$28
   19	West Virginia	$56,948	$27
   20	Missouri	$55,650	$27

   Average senior research specialist salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	VMware	$173,777	$83.55
   2	eBay	$166,026	$79.82	5
   3	Sharecare	$164,715	$79.19
   4	Microsoft	$163,606	$78.66	200
   5	Algolia	$156,487	$75.23
   6	Sharp Labs Of America	$148,071	$71.19
   7	Exxon Mobil	$140,614	$67.60	6
   8	Walmart	$138,841	$66.75	6
   9	SAS Institute	$136,322	$65.54	4
   10	Bain & Company	$130,889	$62.93	3
   11	Mayo Clinic	$123,003	$59.14	184
   12	FactSet	$121,516	$58.42
   13	Accenture	$121,118	$58.23	109
   14	Nokia	$121,038	$58.19	18
   15	McAfee	$120,626	$57.99
   16	Edwards Lifesciences	$120,306	$57.84	27
   17	Lowe's Companies	$117,212	$56.35	3
   18	Tencent	$111,860	$53.78	19
   19	BlackBerry	$111,045	$53.39
   20	Mathematica	$109,950	$52.86	11

4. Writing a senior research specialist job description

   A job description for a senior research specialist role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a senior research specialist job description:

   Senior research specialist job description example

   Sharecare is the leading digital health company that helps people -- no matter where they are in their health journey -- unify and manage all their health in one place. Our comprehensive and data-driven virtual health platform is designed to help people, providers, employers, health plans, government organizations, and communities optimize individual and population-wide well-being by driving positive behavior change. Driven by our philosophy that we are all together better, at Sharecare, we are committed to supporting each individual through the lens of their personal health and making high-quality care more accessible and affordable for everyone. To learn more, visit www.sharecare.com.
   
   We are growing our Experience team and are seeking a Senior UX Specialist with an emphasis in UX Research to join our team. We are passionate about human-centered design methods advocating for user needs to deliver innovative products that redefine their day-to-day well-being activities. If you're passionate about unearthing human insights while providing actionable and meaningful data-driven to guide stellar experiences, we would love to hear from you.
   Essential Job Functions:
   
   * Create and execute qualitative and quantitative research studies that drive foundational user understanding* Lead research projects that demonstrate significant user, customer, and business impact* Establish and own a variety of research methods and tools including (but not limited to): card sorting, usability testing, A/B testing, user interviews, surveys and questionnaires, and diary studies* Define research questions and select appropriate methods of data collection* Recruit participants for research studies* Conduct research studies and analyzing the data collected* Work collaboratively with multi-disciplinary Experience team members.* Work collaboratively with Product stakeholders to understand research needs* Develop budgets and timelines for research projects* Transform your findings into easily understandable insights* Present your findings to designers, developers, and other stakeholders* Participate in end-to-end product and experience design by:o Working with Service Designers to understand experience ecosystem, across various touchpoints to identify core concepts of a problem or opportunityo Working with UX Architects to share insights and findings to help create wireframes and user flows, resulting in low to high fidelity prototypes, and artifactso Collaborate with multi-disciplinary team to create meaningful product user storieso Supporting effective storytelling and presentation with a mix of data-backed findings to various stakeholders
   
   Specific Skills/ Attributes:
   
   * A person that thrives in a fast-paced environment* Someone who studies target users to collect and analyze data that will help inform the product design process.* Practitioner of designing research strategies that empower you to answer questions in a data-driven way.* An advocate for users giving them a voice in the product development process* An adept communicator with excellent facilitation and presentation skills.* Passionate about human-centered design.* Additional design chops including but not limited to: UX Design, Service Design, Content Design* Comfort with ambiguity yet unstoppable drive to create order out of chaos * Ability to communicate with partners about design methodologies and artifacts
   
   Sharecare is an Equal Opportunity Employer and doesn't discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, age, disability, genetic information, protected veteran status,or other non-merit factor.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   There are a few common ways to find senior research specialists for your business:

   • Promoting internally or recruiting from your existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
   • Attend job fairs at local colleges to meet candidates with the right educational background.
   • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to recruit passive job-seekers.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your senior research specialist job on Zippia to find and attract quality senior research specialist candidates.
   • Use niche websites such as swipe files, exit five, marketinghire, american marketing association.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting senior research specialists requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   Remember to include a few questions that allow candidates to expand on their strengths in their own words. Asking about their unique skills might reveal things you'd miss otherwise. At this point, good candidates can move on to the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new senior research specialist

   Once you've found the senior research specialist candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   You should also follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that you've filled the position.

   To prepare for the new employee's start date, you can create an onboarding schedule and complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9 forms, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Human Resources should also ensure that a new employee file is created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire a senior research specialist?