As a senior scientist, you will be in charge of proposing new projects on products and processes. You will provide technical leadership to the organization by identifying and developing new technologies. You will also develop and execute experiments, create laboratory test methods and perform chemical analyses, analyze data, and write and summarize technical reports. Besides that, you'll manage lab equipment and facilities, collaborate with other technical personnel, train junior scientists, and lead project teams.
For this job, you need a doctorate in life or physical sciences with over two years of industrial experience. You must possess communication, technical, leadership, organization, teamwork, and interpersonal skills. You must also be familiar with project planning, process updates, and experimental design. Plus, you must be proficient in Microsoft Office. Senior scientists earn a large sum of $110,349 on average per annum. This ranges from $78,000 to $155,000.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a Senior Scientist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $53.21 an hour? That's $110,673 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 10,600 job opportunities across the U.S.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a Senior Scientist, we found that a lot of resumes listed 12.3% of Senior Scientists included PHD, while 7.9% of resumes included R, and 7.0% of resumes included Data Analysis. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
If you're interested in becoming a Senior Scientist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 51.1% of Senior Scientists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 17.0% of Senior Scientists have master's degrees. Even though most Senior Scientists have a college degree, it's impossible 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 Scientist. When we researched the most common majors for a Senior Scientist, we found that they most commonly earn Bachelor's Degree degrees or Doctoral Degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on Senior Scientist resumes include Master's Degree degrees or Associate Degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a Senior Scientist. In fact, many Senior Scientist jobs require experience in a role such as Scientist. Meanwhile, many Senior Scientists also have previous career experience in roles such as Research Scientist or Research Assistant.