Biostatistician
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
A Biostatistician conducts statistical analysis of health and biology-related data. Analysis may be used for product development at a pharmaceutical company, disease research at a hospital or health policy research at a public health organization.
Job Outlook
There were 206 Biostatistician job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 4174 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Biostatistician industry, which includes the Biostatistician career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2016:
Salary
Many new Biostatistician jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.
National
The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $113,780.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $123,581.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Biostatistician postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $88,921.
Education and Experience
Posted Biostatistician jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.
| Education Level | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Associate's Degree | 0% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 22.02% |
| Master's Degree | 64.9% |
| Doctoral Degree | 59.25% |
| Other | 0.41% |
Posted Biostatistician jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Years of Experience | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 0 to 2 years | 20.45% |
| 3 to 5 years | 49.64% |
| 6 to 8 years | 17.78% |
| 9+ years | 12.12% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Biostatistician positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.
Baseline Skills
A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.
- Research (63.85%)
- Communication (43.34%)
- Writing (30.52%)
- Presentations (28.89%)
- Management (25.9%)
- Leadership (24.03%)
- Innovation (23.5%)
- Planning (20.29%)
- Verbal Communication Skills (17.06%)
- Detail Oriented (16.79%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- SAS (Software) (70.35%)
- Statistics (72.51%)
- Biostatistics (67.03%)
- Statistical Analysis (59.89%)
- Clinical Trials (50.15%)
- R (Programming Language) (66.45%)
- Data Analysis (40.79%)
- Statistical Methods (37.11%)
- Epidemiology (27.83%)
- Clinical Study Design (28.63%)
- Data Management (24.37%)
- Pharmaceuticals (28.83%)
- Statistical Programming (24.9%)
- Survival Analysis (9.77%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Statistical Reporting (6.34%)
- Project Management (20.47%)
- Clinical Research (16.72%)
- Statistical Software (21.83%)
- Research Design (3.61%)
- Data Collection (16.42%)
- Python (Programming Language) (20.86%)
- Statistical Modeling (14.35%)
- Pre-Clinical Development (16.91%)
- Project Management Life Cycle (0.44%)
- SQL (Programming Language) (14.74%)
- Public Health (13.99%)
- Stata (13.52%)
- Clinical Study Reports (13.79%)
- Data Science (16.64%)
- Drug Development (13.33%)
- Machine Learning (17.98%)
- Electronic Medical Record (13.33%)
- Biotechnology (13.3%)
- Computer Science (8.87%)
- Oncology (8.72%)
- SPSS (Statistical Software) (8.72%)
- Biology (9.94%)
- SAP Applications (8.14%)
Distinguishing Skills
A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.
- Longitudinal Study (4.17%)
- S-PLUS Statistical Software (3.75%)
- SAS Macros (3.02%)
- SAS/STAT (2.49%)
Salary Boosting Skills
A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is listed.
- Pharmacoepidemiology (3.78%)
- Statistical Programming (27.76%)
- Data Analysis (45.48%)
- Bayesian Inference (4.24%)
- R (Programming Language) (74.08%)
- Longitudinal Study (4.65%)
- Pharmaceuticals (32.14%)
- Statistical Methods (41.37%)
- S-PLUS Statistical Software (4.18%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Biostatistician skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Principal Biostatistician
- Postdoctoral Fellow
- Associate Director of Statistical Programming
- Research Biostatistician
- Research Principal
- Principal
- Evaluation Analyst
- Internship Program Manager
- Statistical Programming Manager
Similar Occupations
If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.
- Biostatistics Manager / Director
- Statistician
- Research Scientist
- Research Analyst
- Research Associate (General)
- Director of Clinical Research
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Biostatistician jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- Cytel (524)
- Humana (99)
- Edwards Lifesciences (83)
- Takeda Pharmaceutical Company (73)
- AbbVie (69)
- Merck & Co. (58)
- Highmark Health (53)
- Elevance Health (52)
- Centerwell Limited Partnership (51)
- Thermo Fisher Scientific (49)
North Carolina
- IQVIA (32)
- Duke University (13)
- Syneos Health (11)
- Quintiles (10)
- Cytel (10)
- Knowesis Pte Ltd (8)
- Atrium Health (7)
- University of North Carolina (7)
- Fortrea Inc. (6)
- Thermo Fisher Scientific (6)
NC State Programs Relevant to this Career
If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!
All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.