How to hire a senior science consultant

How to hire a senior science consultant, step by step

Here's a step-by-step senior science consultant 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 science consultant job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new senior science consultant
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a senior science consultant do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the senior science consultant you need to hire. Certain senior science consultant roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

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

   Yes

   No

   A senior science consultant's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, senior science consultants from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   This list shows salaries for various types of senior science consultants.

   Type of Senior Science Consultant	Description	Hourly rate
   Senior Science Consultant	Chemists and materials scientists study substances at the atomic and molecular levels and the ways in which the substances interact with one another. They use their knowledge to develop new and improved products and to test the quality of manufactured goods.	$34-63
   Chemist, Development	A development chemist is responsible for delivering products that are specially created for a customer. You will be responsible for conducting qualitative and quantitative chemical analyses for process or quality control... Show more	$22-52
   Research And Development Chemist	A research and development chemist primarily works at laboratories to conduct extensive tests and experiments aiming to develop new products and technologies. Although the extent of their duties may vary, it typically revolves around conducting research and studies, observing chemical reactions, maintaining records and databases, collaborating with fellow experts, and identifying the strengths and weaknesses of existing components or mixtures... Show more	$25-54

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Life Sciences
   • Project Management
   • SAS
   • C++
   • SQL
   • Professional Development
   • Data Analysis
   • FDA
   • Mathematics
   • Regression
   • Business Processes
   • Math
   • Business Development
   • Market Research

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Select to project manage infrastructure changes in Mid-Atlantic routers for IPTV program.
   • Initiate business case, lead project team in BRD development, review functional design, UAT testing, user training.
   • Manage internal and external organizational team members regarding all RFP deliverables.
   • Manage project/validation deliverables using Sharepoint.
   • Remain billable at client sites to help provide income for building infrastructure and staff for further expansion of QA department.
   • Create triggers, database procedures and functions utilizing PL/SQL.

   More senior science consultant duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your senior science consultant job description is a great way to entice the best and brightest candidates. A senior science consultant salary can vary based on several factors:

   • Location. For example, senior science consultants' average salary in south dakota is 54% less than in washington.
   • Seniority. Entry-level senior science consultants earn 46% less than senior-level senior science consultants.
   • Certifications. A senior science consultant with a few certifications under their belt will likely demand a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for a prestigious company or an exciting start-up can make a huge difference in a senior science consultant's salary.

   Average senior science consultant salary

   $97,589yearly

   $46.92 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level senior science consultant salary

   $71,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 31, 2026

   Average senior science consultant salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	Washington	$133,813	$64
   2	District of Columbia	$123,883	$60
   3	California	$122,142	$59
   4	Massachusetts	$111,032	$53
   5	Maryland	$106,891	$51
   6	Virginia	$105,480	$51
   7	New York	$104,339	$50
   8	Texas	$103,807	$50
   9	Connecticut	$101,453	$49
   10	Michigan	$101,268	$49
   11	Ohio	$99,755	$48
   12	South Carolina	$96,974	$47
   13	New Jersey	$96,331	$46
   14	Pennsylvania	$94,794	$46
   15	Louisiana	$92,572	$45
   16	Indiana	$90,763	$44
   17	Georgia	$90,024	$43
   18	Arizona	$89,784	$43
   19	Iowa	$87,380	$42
   20	Colorado	$87,316	$42

   Average senior science consultant salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	McKinsey & Company Inc	$128,898	$61.97
   2	The Walt Disney Company	$126,636	$60.88	10
   3	Amazon	$123,201	$59.23	181
   4	SAS Institute	$112,231	$53.96	2
   5	Point B	$112,061	$53.88
   6	Analytic Partners	$108,540	$52.18
   7	West Monroe	$108,134	$51.99	29
   8	Yoh	$107,818	$51.84
   9	HumRRO	$106,700	$51.30
   10	Randstad North America, Inc.	$106,012	$50.97
   11	Putnam Associates	$102,777	$49.41
   12	SAI MedPartners	$102,225	$49.15
   13	Marsh & McLennan Companies	$101,962	$49.02	126
   14	Fresh Gravity	$101,884	$48.98
   15	Blue Matter	$101,882	$48.98	8
   16	Engineering Systems Inc	$101,882	$48.98	32
   17	Ncpa	$101,639	$48.86
   18	Sia Interactive	$101,424	$48.76
   19	Fusion Sport	$101,185	$48.65
   20	Highland Capital Holding Corporation	$101,126	$48.62

4. Writing a senior science consultant job description

   A good senior science consultant job description should include a few things:

   • Summary of the role
   • List of responsibilities
   • Required skills and experience

   Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of a senior science consultant job description:

   Senior science consultant job description example

   Founded in 2015 and rapidly expanding, Fresh Gravity (www.freshgravity.com) is an exciting business and technology consulting company that is at the cutting edge of digital transformation. We drive digital success for our clients by enabling them to adopt transformative technologies. We provide a range of services: from Data Management, Data Science & Analytics, to API Management/SOA and Artificial Intelligence.
   
   In a short time, we have crafted an exceptional team who have delivered impactful projects for some of the largest corporations in the world. We are on a mission to solve the most complex business problems for our clients using the most exciting new technologies. And we are looking for top talent to join us in our quest.
   
   Fresh Gravitys team members are authorities in their field, but know how to have fun, too. Were building an inspiring, open organization youll take pride in. We challenge ourselves to grow every day. We create value for our clients and partners every day. We promise rich opportunities for you to succeed, to shine, to exceed even your own expectations.
   We are thoughtful. We are engaged. We are relentless. We are Fresh Gravity. Fresh Gravity is an equal opportunity employer.
   Requirements Core Requirements: Masters degree in a quantitative discipline, e.g., Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Artificial Intelligence. 3+ years of hands-on experience with statistical software tools: SAS, SPSS, Strata, R, Matlab, or Python statistical libraries. (We work primarily in Python and R). 3+ years of experience working in a business context (technology consulting, systems integration, management consulting, working as an analyst in industry, etc.) Comfort communicating and collaborating with client executives up to the C-suite. Strong project management skills, with examples of teams led and projects delivered successfully. Strong verbal presentation skills. Strong qualitative storytelling via structured slide decks. Strong data storytelling with good grasp of data visualization theory.
   Techniques and Use Cases: Required: Strong data visualization capabilities, and comfort telling a story about analytic results, with Tableau expertise (or equivalent) preferred. Required: Fundamental data processing and preparation expertise (e.g., via Access or SQL). Required: Experience implementing standard statistical techniques such as experimental design, regression, statistical inference and prediction. Preferred: Experience implementing standard machine learning models on real data (whether big or small data). For example: Standard data wrangling and preparation, including feature selection and engineering Unsupervised clustering to segment a customer base into meaningful groups Supervised classification to predict malignancy given training data on tumors Supervised regression to estimate the price of a house based on 30+ features Bonus: Kaggle competition results can be a differentiator.
   ML Concepts: Required: Fundamental understanding of core machine learning and deep learning concepts, and ability to explain them at multiple levels: in laymens terms using examples and minimal jargon at an intermediate level for clients with some statistical background Preferred: Understanding of advanced machine learning techniques such as anomaly detection, recommendation engines, collaborative filtering, natural language processing, computer vision, network analysis, etc. Ability to identify appropriate techniques if given a real-world use case. Bonus: Personal data science projects can be a differentiator
   Responsibilities: A typical project involves: Structured interviews with clients about their business problems and analytic needs. Blue sky / art of the possible conversations on clients technology strategy. Given the clients real-world business problem, identify the appropriate analytic or ML use cases that would constitute a solution tailored to their business needs. Produce prototypes and proofs-of-concept, and lead teams of Data Scientists to do the same. Lead Data Science teams to deliver fully-fledged solutions that are scaled to production
   Additional Responsibilities: Lead teams of Data Scientists and serve as Project Manager for client engagements. Given unstructured and complex business problems, design and develop tailored analytic solutions. Design experiments, test hypotheses, and build actionable models. Research machine learning algorithms, develop solution formulations, and test on large datasets Draw relevant inferences and insights from data including identification of trends and anomalies. Effectively document and communicate methodologies and results. Produce high-quality storytelling including data visualizations, dashboards, and executive presentations. Produce C-level communications including live presentations, facilitated discussions, and slide materials.
   Soft Skills: Customer- and peer- relationship focused. Our success comes from happy clients AND happy project teams. Ability to thrive in a fast paced team environment. We aim for the best of both worlds: high-autonomy plus high-support. Artificial Intelligence is an emerging field we all learn from each other and each team member leads the way in some areas. Comfort with blue sky and art of the possible thinking. We hire candidates both for what they know and for what they can imagine. We frequently work on emerging opportunities that dont have a single best practice solution. If you come up with a great idea, be prepared for the green light to run with it! Ability to learn new skills/technologies quickly and independently. Because AI is an emerging area, we set aside time to stay up-to-date and share knowledge with each other. Comfort with executive-level client communication. Its an exciting time in the lifecycle of companies adopting AI. Sponsorship and support for data science initiatives goes all the way up the chain, and we are often tasked with explaining complex math at varying levels of detail for clients with different statistical backgrounds and levels of seniority.
   Benefits In addition to a competitive package, we promise rich opportunities for you to succeed, to shine, to exceed even your own expectations. In keeping with Fresh Gravitys challenger ethos, we have developed the 5 Dimensions (5D) benefits program. This program recognizes the multiple dimensions within each of us and seek to provide opportunities for deep development across these dimensions. Enrich Myself; Enhance My Client; Build my Company, Nurture My Family; and Better Humanity.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find senior science consultants for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any senior science consultants they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level senior science consultants with the right educational background.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your senior science consultant job on Zippia to find and recruit senior science consultant candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting senior science consultants 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.

   You should also ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match the ideal candidate profile you developed earlier. Candidates good enough for the next step can complete 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 science consultant

   Once you've found the senior science consultant 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.

   Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new senior science consultant. Human Resources should complete Employee Action Forms and ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc. They should also ensure that new employee files are created for internal recordkeeping.

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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