Bioinformatics scientists use technology and computer science to find solutions to problems in the area of biology. They study biological and biochemical data at the molecular level by using computer software and hardware. They also develop new software applications or improve on existing ones to meet scientific project needs. Bioinformatics scientists earn a median sum of $38 per hour, which amounts to $79,000 per year.
Bioinformatics scientists are known by different names, including biostatisticians, computational biologists, bioinformaticists, etc. They collaborate closely with scientists from a variety of disciplines to build innovative frameworks for data integration and automated data mining. They also ensure compliance with all existing safety standards.
Bioinformatics scientists mostly hold a master's degree in genomics, bioinformatics, computational biology, or related fields. They may work in an industrial, laboratory, or college classroom setting and spend a lot of time in front of a computer screen. Experience is integral in this field, and employers prefer candidates who have garnered enough over the years.
How to Become a Bioinformatics Scientist
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a bioinformatics scientist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $40.94 an hour? That's $85,147 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 10,600 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Bioinformatics Scientist Do
There are certain skills that many bioinformatics scientists 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 observation skills, communication skills and detail oriented.
How To Become a Bioinformatics Scientist
If you're interested in becoming a bioinformatics scientist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 42.7% of bioinformatics scientists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 30.5% of bioinformatics scientists have master's degrees. Even though most bioinformatics 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 bioinformatics scientist. When we researched the most common majors for a bioinformatics scientist, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on bioinformatics scientist resumes include doctoral degree degrees or associate degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a bioinformatics scientist. In fact, many bioinformatics scientist jobs require experience in a role such as research assistant. Meanwhile, many bioinformatics scientists also have previous career experience in roles such as research fellow or research associate.
Bioinformatics Scientist Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of consultant you might progress to a role such as project manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title product manager.
Average Salary for a Bioinformatics Scientist
What Am I Worth?
Top Colleges for Bioinformatics Scientists
1. Duke University
Durham, NC • Private
2. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
3. Harvard University
Cambridge, MA • Private
4. Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY • Private
5. University of California - Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA • Private
6. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Private
7. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI • Private
8. Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN • Private
9. University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA • Private
10. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
Top Skills For a Bioinformatics Scientist
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 18.3% of bioinformatics scientists listed python on their resume, but soft skills such as observation skills and communication skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Bioinformatics Scientist Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Bioinformatics Scientist templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Bioinformatics Scientist resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Bioinformatics Scientist Demographics
Bioinformatics Scientist Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among bioinformatics scientists, 18.1% of them are women, while 81.9% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among bioinformatics scientists is White, which makes up 46.0% of all bioinformatics scientists.
- The most common foreign language among bioinformatics scientists is Chinese at 15.4%.
Online Courses For Bioinformatics Scientist That You May Like
The past 15 years have been exciting ones in plant biology. Hundreds of plant genomes have been sequenced, RNA-seq has enabled transcriptome-wide expression profiling, and a proliferation of "-seq"-based methods has permitted protein-protein and protein-DNA interactions to be determined cheaply and in a high-throughput manner. These data sets in turn allow us to generate hypotheses at the click of a mouse or tap of a finger. The Plant Bioinformatics Specialization on Coursera introduces core bio...
The past 15 years have been exciting ones in plant biology. Hundreds of plant genomes have been sequenced, RNA-seq has enabled transcriptome-wide expression profiling, and a proliferation of "-seq"-based methods has permitted protein-protein and protein-DNA interactions to be determined cheaply and in a high-throughput manner. These data sets in turn allow us to generate hypotheses at the click of a mouse or tap of a finger. In Plant Bioinformatics on Coursera.org, we covered 33 plant-specific o...
Large-scale biology projects such as the sequencing of the human genome and gene expression surveys using RNA-seq, microarrays and other technologies have created a wealth of data for biologists. However, the challenge facing scientists is analyzing and even accessing these data to extract useful information pertaining to the system being studied. This course focuses on employing existing bioinformatic resources - mainly web-based programs and databases - to access the wealth of data to answer q...
Best States For a Bioinformatics Scientist
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a bioinformatics scientist. The best states for people in this position are Rhode Island, Delaware, California, and New Jersey. Bioinformatics scientists make the most in Rhode Island with an average salary of $111,064. Whereas in Delaware and California, they would average $109,068 and $98,394, respectively. While bioinformatics scientists would only make an average of $97,615 in New Jersey, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Delaware
$109,068
Avg. Salary
2. New Jersey
$97,615
Avg. Salary
3. Rhode Island
$111,064
Avg. Salary
How Do Bioinformatics Scientist Rate Their Jobs?
Top Bioinformatics Scientist Employers
Most Common Employers For Bioinformatics Scientist
| Rank  | Company  | Average Salary  | Hourly Rate  | Job Openings  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Integrated DNA Technologies | $106,833 | $51.36 | 6 |
| 2 | Foundation Medicine | $106,155 | $51.04 | 8 |
| 3 | Illumina | $97,523 | $46.89 | 94 |
| 4 | Guardant Health | $94,488 | $45.43 | 23 |
| 5 | Veracyte | $93,921 | $45.15 | 14 |
| 6 | GENEWIZ | $90,371 | $43.45 | 14 |
| 7 | Ambry Genetics | $88,068 | $42.34 | 12 |
| 8 | Institute for Systems Biology | $87,989 | $42.30 | 10 |
| 9 | Molecular epidemiology | $87,955 | $42.29 | 6 |
| 10 | Monsanto | $86,953 | $41.80 | 18 |