Biological Scientists, All Other Salary
The median biological scientists, all other salary in the United States is $98,920 per year ($47.56/hour). Salaries range from $60,430 at the entry level to $168,010+ for the top 10% of earners. There are 55,850 biological scientists, all other jobs nationwide. Employment is projected to grow 1.2% through 2034.
Last updated: June 2026 Β· Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Median Salary
$98,920
per year
Hourly Rate
$47.56
per hour
Employment
55,850
jobs in the U.S.
Salary Distribution
10th percentile
$60,430
25th percentile
$76,800
Median
$98,920
75th percentile
$127,670
90th percentile
$168,010
Job Growth (2024-2034)
+1.2%
Slower than average
Annual Openings
4,800
jobs/year (growth + replacements)
Education Required
Bachelor's degree
Biological Scientists, All Other Career Guide
Interview questions, resume templates, and a career ladder written specifically for biological scientists, all others.
Biological Scientists, All Other (BLS SOC 19-1029) is the residual category that captures PhD- and MS-level biological researchers whose specialty does not fall neatly into microbiologist, zoologist, biochemist, or biophysicist β computational biologists, cell / molecular biologists in industry, translational biologists in early discovery, plant pathologists, entomologists in USDA regulatory science, marine biologists at NOAA, wildlife biologists at USDA APHIS or USGS Ecosystems Mission Area or USFWS, disease-ecology biologists at CDC, and program-officer scientists at NIH / NSF. Typical seats: Research Scientist / Sr Scientist / Principal Scientist on the biotech + pharma R&D track (Genentech / Roche, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Moderna, BioMarin Pharmaceutical, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Amgen, Gilead Sciences, Eli Lilly Loxo Oncology, Bristol Myers Squibb, Pfizer Discovery, Merck Research Laboratories, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, AstraZeneca, Sanofi, Novo Nordisk, Takeda); Staff Scientist / Investigator on the National-Labs track (NIH Intramural Research Program at the 27 institutes and centers including NCI, NIAID, NHLBI, NIDDK, NIMH, NHGRI; CDC intramural at NCEZID, NCHHSTP, NCIRD; USDA Agricultural Research Service ARS at Beltsville, Peoria, Ames, Athens; DOE National Labs β Lawrence Berkeley, Oak Ridge, Pacific Northwest, Argonne, Brookhaven, Los Alamos, Sandia); Regulatory Scientist / Reviewer at USDA APHIS (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) or FDA CDER (Center for Drug Evaluation and Research) or FDA CBER (Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research) or FDA CFSAN or FDA CVM; Research Associate / Sr Research Associate at CROs (Charles River Laboratories, Labcorp Drug Development, Syneos Health, IQVIA, PPD, ICON). BLS reports 55,850 employed with a median of $98,920, p10 $54,570, p90 $174,940+. Entry Research Associate at BS / MS $58-82k; PhD-required Research Scientist I / II $95-135k; Sr Scientist $135-175k; Principal Scientist / Sr Principal $175-245k; Sr Director / VP Research or Scientific Fellow / Distinguished Scientist $265-485k+ + RSU + LTIP. The single biggest earnings lever is completing the PhD + postdoctoral fellowship pipeline (3-6 year postdoc at a Genentech / Vertex / NIH-postdoc-track lab) and moving into a Principal Scientist track at Big-Pharma R&D or a tenure-track Staff Scientist seat at NIH intramural.
Core Skills Hiring Managers Screen For
Experimental design + hypothesis-driven biology
IND-enabling and mechanism-of-action study design β positive and negative controls, biological replicates (nβ₯3 for pilot, nβ₯6 for statistical power at Ξ±=0.05 with 80% power), technical replicates, randomization, blinding of readouts, and pre-registered analysis plans where the culture supports it. Familiarity with ARRIVE 2.0 guidelines for animal research reporting and the NIH Rigor and Reproducibility Guidelines (2016 update, revised 2023). Ability to design a dose-response titration, a time-course, an epistasis / genetic-interaction screen, and a competitive-binding assay from scratch.
Molecular + cellular biology bench techniques
PCR, qRT-PCR, Sanger sequencing, cloning (Gateway, Gibson Assembly, NEBuilder HiFi, TOPO), site-directed mutagenesis, Western blot, ELISA (sandwich + competitive), immunoprecipitation, co-IP, ChIP, mass-spectrometry sample preparation, flow cytometry (BD FACSAria, LSR Fortessa, Cytek Aurora spectral), CyTOF, confocal + super-resolution microscopy (Zeiss LSM, Leica STELLARIS, Nikon Ti2, Leica STED, Zeiss Elyra 7), live-cell imaging, patch clamp, primary cell culture (iPSC differentiation, organoid culture, primary neurons, hepatocytes, cardiomyocytes). CRISPR / Cas9 knockout and knock-in, base editing, prime editing, and CRISPRa / CRISPRi genetic screens.
Next-generation sequencing + bioinformatics
Bulk RNA-seq (Illumina NovaSeq X, NextSeq 2000), single-cell RNA-seq (10x Genomics Chromium, Parse Biosciences, BD Rhapsody), ATAC-seq, ChIP-seq, CUT&RUN, CUT&Tag, whole-genome / whole-exome sequencing, long-read sequencing (PacBio Revio HiFi, Oxford Nanopore PromethION). Analysis with STAR / HISAT2 / Salmon for alignment + quantification; DESeq2 / edgeR / limma for differential expression; Seurat / Scanpy / Bioconductor for single-cell; GATK for variant calling; Nextflow / Snakemake / Cromwell / WDL for reproducible pipelines. HPC + cloud compute (AWS Batch, Google Cloud Life Sciences, DNAnexus, Terra / FireCloud) for large cohorts. Programming in Python + R + Bash + occasional Julia; version control in Git with Bitbucket / GitHub / GitLab; environment management in conda + Docker + Singularity / Apptainer.
In-vivo animal models + regulatory compliance
IACUC (Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee) protocol writing under USDA APHIS Animal Welfare Act (7 USC §§2131-2159) and NIH Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW) PHS Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals; annual protocol renewal; adverse-event reporting. Mouse + rat models β C57BL/6J, BALB/c, 129S, transgenic (Cre-loxP, Flp-FRT), knockout, knock-in, humanized (NSG, NOG, NRG immunodeficient hosts); AAV, LNP-mRNA, LNP-siRNA delivery; PDX (patient-derived xenograft) and CDX models. Non-human-primate models under USDA APHIS Class R registration where required. GLP tox and safety-pharm studies at Charles River Ashland, Labcorp Madison, Envigo Somerset (now Inotiv), or Altasciences under 21 CFR Part 58.
Grant writing + peer-reviewed publication track record
NIH R01 (mechanistic hypothesis-driven, 5 years, $250-500k/yr direct costs), NIH R21 (exploratory / high-risk, 2 years, $275k total direct costs), NIH R03 (small grant, 2 years, $100k total), NIH R00 / K99 Pathway to Independence, NIH F32 postdoctoral fellowship, NIH T32 training grant participation, NIH U01 / U19 cooperative agreements, NIH SBIR / STTR Phase I / II / IIB for biotech spinouts. NSF standard research grant program (Directorate for Biological Sciences β MCB / IOS / DEB / EF), NSF CAREER (early-career, $500k over 5 years), NSF GRFP (graduate research fellowship). DOE Office of Science BER (Biological and Environmental Research) grants. Peer-review publication track β Cell, Nature, Science tier for principal-scientist track; Cell Reports, Nature Communications, PNAS, eLife tier for staff-scientist track; specialty journals (Cell Metabolism, Neuron, Immunity, Cancer Cell, Cell Stem Cell) for translational track.
Statistical analysis + reproducibility discipline
Frequentist inference (t-test, ANOVA with post-hoc Tukey / Bonferroni / Sidak, Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney U, chi-square, Fisher's exact), regression modeling (linear, logistic, mixed-effects with lme4 / lmerTest), survival analysis (Kaplan-Meier + Cox proportional hazards with survminer / survival), multiple-testing correction (Benjamini-Hochberg FDR, Bonferroni family-wise error). Bayesian inference for hierarchical models where appropriate (Stan / brms / PyMC). Effect-size + confidence-interval reporting per ASA 2016 statement on p-values. Reproducibility discipline β pre-registered analysis plans on OSF where feasible, data + code deposition to GEO / SRA / dbGaP / Zenodo / Figshare with DOI at publication.
IND-enabling translation + regulatory-science interface
Target validation β lead identification β lead optimization β IND-enabling pharmacology + toxicology β Investigational New Drug (IND) application per 21 CFR Part 312 (small-molecule + biologics) or Investigational New Animal Drug (INAD) per 21 CFR Part 511 (veterinary). Interface with FDA CDER Office of New Drugs (ONDs β OND1 through OND8 by therapeutic area) or FDA CBER Office of Tissues and Advanced Therapies (OTAT) for cell / gene therapy. Pre-IND meeting Type A / Type B / Type C briefing package drafting. USDA APHIS Biotechnology Regulatory Services (BRS) for genetically-engineered plants and animals under 7 CFR Part 340 revised 2020 SECURE rule.
Team + program leadership at Principal / Staff level
Direct-manage 2-8 Research Associates + Sr Research Associates + Scientist I / II direct reports; matrix-manage cross-functional partners at Biology / Chemistry / DMPK / Tox / Translational Medicine / Clinical / Regulatory / CMC. Project-management discipline β Gantt-based timelines in Smartsheet or MS Project, gated go / no-go decision points, quarterly portfolio reviews with the R&D leadership team. External-collaboration management with academic labs, CROs (Charles River, Labcorp, Syneos, PPD, IQVIA, ICON), and biotech partners under MTA + collaboration + license-option agreements. Talent acquisition + retention discipline at a research-organization scale.
How to Become a Biological Scientists, All Other
- 1Complete a Bachelor's in a biological or quantitative scienceBiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, cell biology, microbiology, genetics, neuroscience, bioinformatics, biomedical engineering, or a quantitative discipline (statistics, applied math, physics, computer science) with a biology minor. Undergraduate research experience is effectively mandatory β 2-4 semesters in a research lab producing at least a co-authorship or a well-documented independent project. Programs with strong feeder pipelines: MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Caltech, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, UC San Francisco (UCSF for grad), Johns Hopkins, University of Washington, University of Michigan, Cornell, UT Austin, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Duke, Yale, Princeton, Rockefeller.
- 2Start as Research Associate at $58-78k (BS) or $70-92k (MS) at a biotech / pharma / CRO / academic labFirst seat β Research Associate I / II at Genentech, Regeneron, Vertex, Moderna, Amgen, Gilead, Merck, Lilly, BMS, Novartis, AstraZeneca, or at a CRO (Charles River Laboratories, Labcorp Drug Development, Syneos Health, PPD, IQVIA, ICON) or an academic core facility (flow, imaging, sequencing, animal). This is the wet-lab-execution phase β protocol optimization, high-volume experimental throughput, data QC + presentation at weekly group meetings. Stay 2-4 years, decide the PhD / MD / MD-PhD question, and apply.
- 3Complete a PhD (5-7 years) at an R1 program with a strong publication culturePhD in cell biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, neuroscience, genetics, developmental biology, immunology, microbiology, cancer biology, computational biology, or biomedical engineering. Direct-admit or umbrella program (BBS at Harvard, Biosciences at Stanford, PIBS at Michigan, DGP at Northwestern, etc.). Fully funded β stipend $34-52k/yr + tuition + benefits, NIH T32 or NIH F31 predoctoral fellowship where possible, NSF GRFP where eligible. Target 4-8 first / co-first-author publications by defense, ideally 1-2 in top-tier journals (Cell / Nature / Science / Immunity / Neuron / Cancer Cell) if targeting Principal Scientist industry track or tenure-track academic career.
- 4Complete a postdoctoral fellowship (2-6 years) at a top labPostdoc at a Genentech / Vertex / Regeneron / NIH-intramural-postdoc / HHMI-lab track. Postdoc pay is set by NIH NRSA scale β FY24 starts at $61,008 (0 yrs) and progresses to $77,196 (7+ yrs); industry postdocs at Genentech / Vertex / Regeneron / Moderna pay $85-125k + benefits + partial RSU + relocation. Postdocs typically produce 2-4 first-author publications and secure independent funding (NIH K99 Pathway to Independence, HHMI Hanna Gray, Damon Runyon, Jane Coffin Childs, HHMI Fellows) before moving to independent PI or Principal Scientist track.
- 5Advance to Scientist I / II at $95-135k + RSU + benefits6-9 years post-BS. First independent-project ownership at biotech / pharma R&D. Direct-manage 1-3 Research Associates. Co-author or first-author on 3-6 papers annually. Present at Gordon Research Conferences, Keystone Symposia, Cold Spring Harbor Meetings, AACR, AAI, ASCB, SfN, ASBMB. Some Scientist II seats at Fortune-500 biotech pay $115-155k in high-cost metros (South San Francisco Bay Area, Cambridge / Boston, Seattle, San Diego).
- 6Advance to Sr Scientist at $135-175k + RSU + benefits9-13 years post-BS. Own a research program with 2-3 associated projects; direct-manage 3-6 direct reports; matrix-lead 8-15 cross-functional contributors. Author on 4-8 papers annually including 1-2 first / last-author. Increasing scope on external collaborations, CRO management, and IND-enabling program transitions. Sr Scientists at Genentech, Vertex, Regeneron, Moderna, Amgen typically clear $155-195k base + $30-60k RSU annually.
- 7Advance to Principal Scientist / Sr Principal at $175-245k + RSU + LTIP12-18 years post-BS. Own a therapeutic-area program or a platform-technology function (e.g., cell-line engineering, mouse-model core, single-cell platform, AI/ML drug-discovery); direct-manage 6-12 direct reports; matrix-lead 20-40 contributors. Sit on the R&D portfolio-review committee. Author on 8-15 papers annually including 3-5 senior-author. Principal Scientists at top biotech / pharma clear $215-275k base + $80-150k RSU + $30-60k LTIP.
- 8Advance to Sr Director / VP Research or Scientific Fellow / Distinguished Scientist at $265-485k+18-30 years post-BS. Two forks β management (Sr Director β VP β SVP Research β CSO β enterprise portfolio + P&L + org design) or IC (Scientific Fellow β Sr Scientific Fellow β Distinguished Scientist β no direct reports, deep scientific authority, board / external-facing thought leadership). VP Research at $325-465k base + $150-350k RSU + $80-180k LTIP + long-term equity. CSO track opens $485-985k+ total comp at public-company scale. IC track at Scientific Fellow / Distinguished Scientist clears $325-485k+ total comp at Genentech / Roche, Vertex, Regeneron, Moderna, Amgen, Novartis NIBR.
Career Progression
Research Associate I / II (BS / MS)
0-4 yrs$58-92k salaried + RSU (industry) or step-scale (federal / academic) + benefits
- β’Execute bench experiments under Scientist supervision β molecular biology, cell culture, in vivo, imaging, sequencing library prep, flow cytometry
- β’Maintain electronic lab notebook (LabArchives, Benchling, SciNote) with reproducibility discipline
- β’Present data at weekly group meetings; contribute to figure preparation for manuscripts
- β’Order + inventory reagents; maintain equipment; onboard rotation students + newer RAs
Next: Enroll in PhD program at 2-4 years and return to industry as Scientist I after PhD + postdoc, or promote to Sr Research Associate at 3-5 years if staying non-PhD track.
Scientist I / II (PhD + postdoc entry)
6-9 yrs$95-135k base + $18-45k RSU + benefits
- β’Own an independent project or a defined sub-program within a therapeutic-area or platform team
- β’Direct-manage 1-3 Research Associates; matrix-collaborate with Chemistry / DMPK / Translational Medicine partners
- β’Co-author or first-author on 3-6 peer-reviewed publications annually
- β’Present at Gordon Conferences, Keystone Symposia, Cold Spring Harbor Meetings, AACR, AAI, SfN, ASBMB
Next: Sr Scientist at 9-13 years post-BS.
Sr Scientist
9-13 yrs$135-175k base + $30-60k RSU + benefits
- β’Own a research program with 2-3 associated projects; direct-manage 3-6 direct reports
- β’Matrix-lead 8-15 cross-functional contributors across Biology / Chemistry / DMPK / Tox / Translational
- β’Contribute to IND-enabling package preparation and pre-IND briefing materials
- β’Serve as scientific lead on 1-2 external collaborations or CRO-managed studies
Next: Principal Scientist at 12-18 years post-BS.
Principal Scientist / Sr Principal Scientist
12-18 yrs$175-245k base + $80-150k RSU + $30-60k LTIP
- β’Own a therapeutic-area program or a platform-technology function; direct-manage 6-12 direct reports
- β’Matrix-lead 20-40 contributors; sit on R&D portfolio-review + IND-enabling stage-gate committees
- β’First / senior author on 3-5 high-impact publications per year (Cell / Nature / Science tier or equivalents)
- β’Represent the company at external scientific advisory boards, KOL engagements, and investor scientific reviews
Next: Sr Director / VP Research (management) or Scientific Fellow (IC) at 18-25 years post-BS.
Sr Director / VP Research or Scientific Fellow / Distinguished Scientist
18+ yrs$265-485k+ base + $150-350k RSU + $80-180k LTIP + long-term equity at public / late-stage biotech
- β’Management fork β own a therapeutic area or research function P&L; report to CSO / EVP R&D; hire, coach, and shape a 40-200+ person research org
- β’IC fork (Scientific Fellow / Distinguished Scientist) β no direct reports; deep scientific authority; board-facing thought leadership; drive platform-scale innovation
- β’Own the enterprise research strategy, external-innovation partnerships, and R&D talent + culture
- β’Represent the company to FDA, EMA, PMDA, NMPA on scientific matters; testify at advisory-committee meetings
Interview Questions & Answers
5 free questions below. Career Kit unlocks 13 total plus resume bullets for every level.
Q1. Walk me through your thesis / postdoc project β the biology, the key experiment, and what you'd do differently.technical
Structured, tight. 60-second version of the biology (what field, what unknown, what hypothesis), then the single experiment that made or broke the story (what was the readout, what were the controls, what did the data show, why did it convince reviewers), then the honest post-mortem β what you'd design differently with what you know now. Interviewers screen for candidates who own the science on their own β no hand-waving about 'my PI's idea,' and no defensiveness about limitations. If you got scooped or a competing group published something similar, name it and explain the differentiation. If a specific experiment failed, name the failure mode (bad antibody, insufficient power, wrong genetic background, etc.).
Q2. How do you design a hypothesis-driven experiment with proper controls?technical
Framework. State the hypothesis in falsifiable terms (H0 and H1). Identify the independent variable being manipulated + the dependent variable being measured + all held-constant variables. Positive control (known-effect condition β validates the assay works), negative control (no-effect condition β validates specificity), vehicle control (matches the delivery matrix), and where appropriate a genetic or pharmacological rescue. Biological replicates β₯3 for pilot, β₯6 for statistical power at Ξ±=0.05 with 80% power; technical replicates for platform-level noise. Randomize assignment; blind the readout scoring where feasible. Pre-specify the primary endpoint + statistical test before unblinding. ARRIVE 2.0 + NIH Rigor and Reproducibility principles from the start, not retrofitted.
Q3. Tell me about a time you disagreed with your PI or your Scientist about the science.behavioral
STAR. Situation: name the specific technical disagreement β dataset interpretation, experimental design, target choice, methodology. Task: how to advance the science without eroding the working relationship. Action: brought the disagreement to a 1:1 with data β not slides, primary data at the raw + processed level. Proposed an experiment that would decide between the two interpretations at reasonable cost + timeline (usually 2-6 weeks). Result: the experiment resolved the interpretation, or generated a third interpretation neither of us had seen. Interviewers screen for candidates who bring data instead of opinions and who stay junior enough in tone to keep the door open, but senior enough in thinking to move the science forward.
Q4. Why industry (or NIH intramural, or a National Lab) rather than tenure-track academia?culture
Honest, specific answer. If industry: 'I want scale β reagents, infrastructure, cross-functional partners in Chemistry / DMPK / Translational Medicine β that let me take a target from an idea to an IND in 4-6 years instead of 15-20 as an academic PI. I want my science to reach patients on a timeline I can see.' If NIH intramural: 'I want the freedom to pursue high-risk mechanism-of-disease work with 5-year appropriations horizons instead of chasing R01 renewals every 5 years and RPPRs annually. Intramural pays $135-185k for a Staff Scientist and $185-345k for a Sr Investigator, which is meaningful.' If a DOE National Lab: 'I want to work at the intersection of biology and physical-sciences instrumentation β cryo-EM at LBNL, structural biology beamlines at SLAC / APS / NSLS-II, environmental microbiome work at PNNL β that requires facility-scale infrastructure academia can't match.' Never say 'money' or 'work-life balance' as the top reason.
Q5. Where do you see your career in 5 years?closer
Show the fork clearly. Two forks in R&D β the management track (Scientist II β Sr Scientist β Principal Scientist β Sr Director β VP Research, with direct-report + portfolio scope) or the IC track (Scientist II β Sr Scientist β Principal Scientist β Scientific Fellow β Distinguished Scientist, with deep-authority + no direct-report scope). Say which fork you're leaning toward and why. Name the specific therapeutic area or platform you want to own (oncology target-ID, gene therapy delivery, autoimmune B-cell biology, CNS translational biology, aging-biology metabolic pathway) and the specific external evidence of investment you're making β a K99 / R00 in progress, a Genentech postdoc, an HHMI Hanna Gray fellowship, a publication track record on the target.
Resume Template β Scientist I / II (PhD + postdoc, 6-9 yrs post-BS)
Copy these bullets into your resume as a starting point. Career Kit includes bullets for every level of the ladder.
Scientist I / II (PhD + postdoc, 6-9 yrs post-BS)
- βΈScientist II in Oncology Discovery at Genentech (South San Francisco); own the KRAS-G12C + SHP2 combination-therapy program with 2 Research Associate direct reports and a 6-person matrix team across Chemistry, DMPK, and Translational Medicine.
- βΈFirst-author on Cell Reports 2024 paper defining a resistance mechanism to adagrasib in NSCLC; co-author on 4 additional papers in Cancer Cell, Nature Communications, and JCI Insight over FY23-FY24.
- βΈDelivered the IND-enabling in vivo pharmacology package for a preclinical combination candidate; program advanced to IND-enabling Tox and is on track for CDER pre-IND meeting in Q2 FY25.
- βΈPhD Cancer Biology, Stanford (2019). Postdoc 2019-2022 at UCSF (Weissman lab). NIH F32 postdoctoral fellowship 2020-2022. $148k base + $42k RSU + $8k LTIP + full benefits.
What Gets You Rejected
- βCannot describe the primary data behind a headline claim in the thesis / postdoc β signals candidate leaned on the PI's storytelling without owning the science.
- βNo first-author publications after 4+ years of postdoc β the PI + K99 committees + hiring committees all read this as a productivity or scope-of-work concern.
- βRigor + reproducibility gaps β missing biological replicates, no blinding, no pre-registered analysis plan, no data / code deposition β a hard screen at any lab that reads its own retraction risk.
- βWeak statistical fluency β cannot articulate the difference between technical and biological replicates, or does not know when a t-test is wrong (paired vs unpaired, one-tailed vs two-tailed, ANOVA when >2 groups).
- βInability to name the specific therapeutic area, disease indication, and mechanism target the candidate wants to work on β signals the candidate is looking for any job, not a specific research program.
- βCannot cite recent literature in the target research area at the level of 3-6 papers from the last 12 months β reads as disengagement from the field.
- βHistory of unresolved authorship disputes or a pattern of gray-area contribution attribution in prior labs β reference-check red flag on the science-culture side.
Salary Negotiation Levers
- βPhD + postdoc pedigree β a PhD from an R1 program + postdoc at a top lab (Genentech postdoc, HHMI-lab postdoc, NIH-intramural postdoc) adds $12-25k at Scientist I entry and $25-55k at Principal Scientist entry vs comparable candidates without that pipeline.
- βFirst / co-first publication in Cell / Nature / Science tier during PhD or postdoc β the single largest signal for Sr Scientist and Principal Scientist promotion; each adds $8-18k at total-comp negotiation.
- βIndependent funding secured (NIH K99, HHMI Hanna Gray, Damon Runyon, Jane Coffin Childs, DoD CDMRP) β signals PI-track readiness and adds $10-25k at Scientist II / Sr Scientist entry.
- βMetro premium β South San Francisco / SF Bay Area, Cambridge / Boston, San Diego, Seattle, NYC / Long Island biotech corridors pay 15-30% above the national biotech average.
- βSpecialty premium β gene therapy + cell therapy + AI/ML drug discovery + computational biology + structural biology (cryo-EM) command a 12-25% premium at Sr Scientist and above.
- βSign-on bonus of $15-65k at Sr Scientist and Principal Scientist moves is standard, especially if you're leaving unvested RSUs at your current employer.
- βRSU refreshers are the wealth engine β negotiate the annual refresh cadence and the target grant, not just the initial grant. Public biotech refreshers at Sr Scientist $30-60k / yr, Principal Scientist $80-150k / yr.
- βLTIP / long-term-cash awards kick in at Principal Scientist and above at Fortune-500 pharma β negotiate the target percentage of base (typically 20-40% for Principal, 40-80% for Sr Director / VP).
- βFederal / NIH intramural comp β the Title 42 pay authority (up to $400k salary with waiver) is a real lever for Sr Investigator + Distinguished Investigator seats and is negotiable.
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Biological Scientists, All Other Salary by State
Best Cities (cost-adjusted) βSalary Map β Click a state for details
$63K$122Kβ No data
Top Paying States
Maryland
$122K
+23%
California
$114K
+15%
Delaware
$113K
+15%
Connecticut
$112K
+13%
Washington
$108K
+9%
Massachusetts
$107K
+8%
Alaska
$107K
+8%
New Jersey
$105K
+6%
Maine
$105K
+6%
New York
$104K
+5%
Vertical line = national median. Click a state for full details.
| State | Median | vs. National |
|---|---|---|
| Maryland | $121,680 | +23.0% |
| California | $113,530 | +14.8% |
| Delaware | $113,400 | +14.6% |
| Connecticut | $111,940 | +13.2% |
| Washington | $108,110 | +9.3% |
| Massachusetts | $107,100 | +8.3% |
| Alaska | $106,870 | +8.0% |
| New Jersey | $104,750 | +5.9% |
| Maine | $104,570 | +5.7% |
| New York | $104,120 | +5.3% |
Showing 1β10 of 50
Biological Scientists, All Other Salary by Metro Area
| Metro Area | Median | vs. National |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | $138,160 | +39.7% |
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | $133,790 | +35.3% |
| Dayton-Kettering-Beavercreek, OH | $126,960 | +28.3% |
| Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA | $124,840 | +26.2% |
| Portland-South Portland, ME | $119,430 | +20.7% |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | $114,920 | +16.2% |
| New Haven, CT | $112,670 | +13.9% |
| Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD | $111,530 | +12.7% |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | $111,380 | +12.6% |
| Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood, MI | $111,150 | +12.4% |
Showing 1β10 of 158
Data Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS). Data reflects the most recent annual survey.
How does this compare to pro athletes?
A biological scientists, all other earning $98,920/year would need 603 years to match Stephen Curry's NBA salary, or 647 yearsto match Patrick Mahomes' NFL contract.
See all sports & celebrity salaries βπ See how biological scientists, all other salaries have changed over the past decade.
View Biological Scientists, All Other salary trend (2011β2024) β