Senior scientist, biology vs staff scientist

The differences between senior scientists, biology and staff scientists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a senior scientist, biology and a staff scientist. Additionally, a staff scientist has an average salary of $93,941, which is higher than the $88,965 average annual salary of a senior scientist, biology.

The top three skills for a senior scientist, biology include data analysis, cell biology and next-generation sequencing. The most important skills for a staff scientist are data analysis, research projects, and molecular biology.

Senior scientist, biology vs staff scientist overview

	Senior Scientist, Biology	Staff Scientist
Yearly salary	$88,965	$93,941
Hourly rate	$42.77	$45.16
Growth rate	17%	17%
Number of jobs	50,061	121,054
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 57%	Bachelor's Degree, 60%
Average age	41	41
Years of experience	4	4

What does a senior scientist, biology do?

A senior biology scientist is responsible for studying how living organisms relate to the environment. Duties and responsibilities include supporting and participating in project management and research and development meetings, conducting tissue culture and cell line generation, and performing binding assays to examine the biological activities of protein therapeutics. In addition, you will be participating in the organic synthesis of nucleotide drug and perform reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction procedure for gene expression and amplification.

What does a staff scientist do?

The primary role of a Staff Scientist is to develop and manage scientific research projects with minimal supervision. They are also responsible for the technical and budgetary aspects of scientific research projects.

Senior scientist, biology vs staff scientist salary

Senior scientists, biology and staff scientists have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Senior Scientist, Biology	Staff Scientist
Average salary	$88,965	$93,941
Salary range	Between $56,000 And $139,000	Between $63,000 And $137,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	Redwood City, CA
Highest paying state	California	California
Best paying company	Theranos	Etsy
Best paying industry	Pharmaceutical	Technology

Differences between senior scientist, biology and staff scientist education

There are a few differences between a senior scientist, biology and a staff scientist in terms of educational background:

	Senior Scientist, Biology	Staff Scientist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 57%	Bachelor's Degree, 60%
Most common major	Biology	Chemistry
Most common college	University of Southern California	Duke University

Senior scientist, biology vs staff scientist demographics

Here are the differences between senior scientists, biology' and staff scientists' demographics:

	Senior Scientist, Biology	Staff Scientist
Average age	41	41
Gender ratio	Male, 49.7% Female, 50.3%	Male, 67.8% Female, 32.2%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 6.4% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 9.7% Asian, 26.3% White, 53.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%	Black or African American, 6.2% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 9.4% Asian, 26.5% White, 53.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%
LGBT Percentage	8%	8%

Differences between senior scientist, biology and staff scientist duties and responsibilities

Senior scientist, biology example responsibilities.

Manage study protocols and study conduct, intimately involve in the toxicology and pharmacokinetic study protocol development process.
Contribute to a cancer cell line profiling effort.
Review documentation, write research reports and authore FDA submissions.
Cloned and express zebrafish DNA repair genes by PCR; design PCR primers.
Supervise transfer of methodology from GLP to GMP environment and between partner/CRO sites.
Investigate plant-microbe interactions using protein profiling experiments.

Staff scientist example responsibilities.

Lead efforts to replace a critical radioactive immunoassay with a non-radioactive format to measure clinical samples.
Manage clinical sample testing using MSD and ELISA in LIMS, including data review and approval using LIMS.
Assist in managing and maintenance of HPLC and Prep-HPLC systems to ensure maximum productivity for the process development group.
Manage pediatric dose development project, technology transfer project and alternate API supplier qualification project on budget and on schedule
Assist with RNA and DNA extractions from FFPE tissue and blood.
Supervise temps performing HPLC assays and validations during development and production campaigns under GMP conditions.

Senior scientist, biology vs staff scientist skills

Common senior scientist, biology skills

Data Analysis, 9%
Cell Biology, 9%
Next-Generation Sequencing, 6%
Cell-Based Assays, 5%
RNA, 5%
CMC, 4%

Common staff scientist skills

Data Analysis, 9%
Research Projects, 7%
Molecular Biology, 5%
Next-Generation Sequencing, 4%
Statistical Analysis, 4%
RNA, 4%

Senior Scientist, Biology vs. similar jobs

Senior Scientist, Biology related careers

Senior Scientist, Biology related jobs

What similar roles do

Zippia Careers
Life, Physical, and Social Science Industry
Senior Scientist, Biology
Senior Scientist, Biology vs Staff Scientist

Updated January 8, 2025

Browse life, physical, and social science jobs