Computational Chemist

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

A Computational Chemist studies and solves problems in chemistry using computer programs and modelling. May use computational analysis in research to develop new products or chemical processes.

Job Outlook

There were 7 Computational Chemist job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 296 in the United States.

In combination with other careers in the Chemist industry, which includes the Computational Chemist career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2016:

Salary

Many new Computational Chemist 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 $141,714.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $141,714.

Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Computational Chemist postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $108,238.

Education and Experience

Posted Computational Chemist 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	18.92%
Master's Degree	33.78%
Doctoral Degree	83.78%
Other	0.34%

Posted Computational Chemist 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	23.03%
3 to 5 years	40.79%
6 to 8 years	17.11%
9+ years	19.08%

Skills

Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Computational Chemist 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 (70.27%)
Communication (38.18%)
Innovation (28.72%)
Leadership (22.97%)
Presentations (22.3%)
Problem Solving (19.26%)
Forecasting (17.91%)
Writing (17.23%)
Verbal Communication Skills (15.54%)
Influencing Skills (14.86%)

Defining Skills

A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.

Quantum Mechanics (17.91%)
Workflow Management (31.08%)
Small Molecules (30.41%)
Artificial Intelligence (44.93%)
Biology (28.38%)
Chemistry (68.58%)
Data Analysis (23.65%)
Ligand (31.76%)
Conformational Isomerism (9.12%)
Computational Chemistry (80.07%)
Quantum Chemistry (11.49%)
Large-Scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator (LAMMPS) (7.77%)
Drug Discovery (47.64%)
Python (Programming Language) (48.99%)
Homology Modeling (10.14%)
Medicinal Chemistry (31.08%)
Molecular Modeling (23.65%)
Machine Learning (59.8%)
Physics (29.39%)
Quantitative Structure Activity Relationship (14.19%)
GROningen MAchine For Chemical Simulations (GROMACS) (13.18%)
Pharmaceuticals (20.61%)
Molecular Dynamics (34.8%)
Cheminformatics (26.69%)

Necessary Skills

A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.

Computational Modeling (9.12%)
Computational Tools (17.57%)
Collaborative Research (7.77%)
Materials Science (13.85%)
Physical Science (3.38%)
Biotechnology (14.86%)
Computer Science (12.84%)
Computer Simulation (12.16%)
Software Development (7.43%)
Biophysics (19.93%)
Algorithms (11.82%)
C++ (Programming Language) (17.23%)
Biochemistry (15.88%)
Data Mining (7.43%)
Biopharmaceuticals (9.46%)
Computational Biology (9.12%)
Density Functional Theory (8.78%)
Chemical Engineering (13.18%)
Linux (12.84%)
Pipeline Pilot (8.11%)
Experimental Data (6.08%)
Drug Development (7.77%)
R (Programming Language) (15.54%)
Fortran (Programming Language) (6.08%)
Informatics (8.45%)
Predictive Modeling (14.19%)
Physical Chemistry (7.77%)
Scripting (19.26%)
Research Experiences (5.07%)
Simulations (12.5%)
Scientific Computing (7.09%)
High Performance Computing (11.15%)
Structural Biology (11.49%)
Structure Activity Relationship (8.78%)
Molecular Docking (14.53%)
Scientific Literature (9.12%)
Data Science (17.57%)
Programming Languages (10.14%)
Deep Learning (9.8%)

Distinguishing Skills

A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.

NAMD (3.38%)
Molecular Mechanics (5.74%)
Computer-Aided Drug Design & Discovery (7.43%)

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.

Computational Chemistry (95.56%)
Drug Discovery (56.85%)
Molecular Modeling (28.23%)

Alternative Job Titles

Sometimes employers post jobs with Computational Chemist skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:

Postdoctoral Research Associate
Computational Scientist
Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Postdoctoral Researcher
Postdoctoral Fellow
Postdoctoral Associate
Geochemist
Assistant Professor of Biochemistry
Computational 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.

Common Employers

Here are the employers that have posted the most Computational Chemist jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.

United States

Merck KGaA Darmstadt Germany (13)
AbbVie (10)
Novartis (9)
Eli Lilly (9)
Takeda Pharmaceutical Company (9)
Pfizer (8)
Meta (8)
Understanding Recruitment (7)
Argonne National Laboratory (7)
Amgen (6)

North Carolina

RTI International (3)
Research Triangle Institute (2)
Oerth Bio (1)
Inotiv (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.

Science and Research