Computational Biologist
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
A Computational Biologist uses biological data to develop models to better understand biological systems. Conducts analysis using computational and mathematical methods and large data sets.
Job Outlook
There were 13 Computational Biologist job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 884 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Biologist industry, which includes the Computational Biologist career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2016:
Salary
Many new Computational Biologist 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 $127,339.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $127,339.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Computational Biologist postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $96,306.
Education and Experience
Posted Computational Biologist 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 | 24.55% |
| Master's Degree | 35.52% |
| Doctoral Degree | 69.68% |
| Other | 5.77% |
Posted Computational Biologist 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 | 30% |
| 3 to 5 years | 46.41% |
| 6 to 8 years | 16.15% |
| 9+ years | 7.44% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Computational Biologist 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 (76.24%)
- Communication (44%)
- Innovation (30.77%)
- Presentations (24.66%)
- Leadership (17.19%)
- Interpersonal Communications (13.91%)
- Mentorship (13.91%)
- Writing (13.8%)
- Mathematics (13.24%)
- Management (13.12%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- Workflow Management (15.57%)
- Computer Science (43.86%)
- Biology (69.77%)
- Data Analysis (42.61%)
- Bioinformatics (68.3%)
- Computational Biology (85.23%)
- Genetics (24.43%)
- R (Programming Language) (54.66%)
- Drug Discovery (15.45%)
- Python (Programming Language) (64.55%)
- Machine Learning (47.5%)
- Ribonucleic Acid Sequencing (26.82%)
- Genomics (33.18%)
- Statistics (29.09%)
- Data Science (21.82%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Biomarkers (16.02%)
- Statistical Analysis (9.55%)
- Cancer Biology (10%)
- Computational Tools (11.14%)
- Phenotyping (5.45%)
- Git (Version Control System) (13.98%)
- Biotechnology (9.09%)
- Proteomics (19.66%)
- Cell Biology (10.34%)
- Unix (7.27%)
- Applied Mathematics (8.41%)
- DNA Sequencing (13.75%)
- Artificial Intelligence (24.66%)
- Artificial Neural Networks (6.82%)
- Bash (Scripting Language) (2.16%)
- Java (Programming Language) (5.68%)
- Computer Simulation (2.84%)
- Data Processing (4.77%)
- Image Analysis (8.18%)
- Software Development (8.75%)
- Molecular Biology (20.45%)
- Biophysics (4.2%)
- Algorithms (29.2%)
- Automation (4.43%)
- C++ (Programming Language) (9.2%)
- Chemistry (7.39%)
- Amazon Web Services (7.5%)
- Biochemistry (8.18%)
- Biostatistics (15.34%)
- Computational Chemistry (7.16%)
- Data Visualization (7.16%)
- Data Management (6.59%)
- Immunology (16.93%)
- Cloud Computing (5.91%)
- Version Control (5.68%)
- Functional Genomics (3.64%)
- Linux (15.68%)
- Whole Genome Sequencing (3.86%)
- Data Integration (6.93%)
- Github (5.23%)
- Gene Expression (3.75%)
- Drug Development (9.09%)
- MATLAB (6.7%)
- Experimentation (3.18%)
- TensorFlow (13.41%)
- Machine Learning Algorithms (8.18%)
- Project Management (4.55%)
- Life Sciences (8.41%)
- Scalability (5.45%)
- Oncology (18.18%)
- Systems Biology (15.23%)
- Informatics (4.09%)
- Physics (8.18%)
- Pharmaceuticals (7.95%)
- Research Experiences (9.32%)
- Software Engineering (10.57%)
- High Performance Computing (8.07%)
- Statistical Methods (6.93%)
- Scientific Literature (4.55%)
- Programming Languages (17.95%)
- PyTorch (Machine Learning Library) (15.23%)
- Next-Generation Sequencing (12.27%)
- Deep Learning (17.5%)
- Pandas (Python Package) (6.36%)
Distinguishing Skills
A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.
- Genome-Wide Association Study (3.98%)
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.
- Bioinformatics (75.98%)
- Computational Biology (94.82%)
- Genome-Wide Association Study (4.42%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Computational Biologist skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Postdoctoral Fellow
- Postdoctoral Associate
- Principal Scientist
- Computational Scientist
- Scientist
- Postdoctoral Researcher
- Summer Intern
- Postdoctoral Research Fellow
- Fishery Biologist
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.
- Bioinformatician
- Bioinformatics Engineer
- Research Scientist
- Computer Scientist
- Data Scientist
- Biomedical Scientist
- Biologist (General)
- Research Associate (General)
- Computational Chemist
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Computational Biologist jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- Genentech (82)
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (48)
- Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (22)
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (20)
- Takeda Pharmaceutical Company (16)
- Pfizer (15)
- Merck KGaA Darmstadt Germany (15)
- University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (14)
- Oregon Health & Science University (14)
- Eli Lilly (11)
North Carolina
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (3)
- TeMPus (1)
- University of North Carolina at Pembroke (1)
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (1)
- Agricultural Research Service (1)
- National Institutes of Health (1)
- United States Department of Agriculture (1)
- Trucking People (1)
- Arganteal Corporation (1)
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.