Bioinformatics Scientists
Life, Physical, and Social Science
The day-to-day work is building or adapting software, creating computational methods, and analyzing large molecular datasets—genomic sequences, microarray output, proteomics data—for clinical or basic research. They consult with other scientists on what the data problems are and which computational approach to take, then build data models and databases to hold the results. Findings go out as papers, conference talks, or project reports, and the work requires staying current with new biochemistries, instruments, and software. This suits people who like combining programming with biological questions and who are comfortable reading dense scientific literature and explaining technical choices to researchers.
Typical education: Bachelor’s Degree (4-year)
Annual Median Wage in Field (2025)
$98'920
Median Wage Market Position
$98'920
What you might do
- Analyze genomic sequence and proteomics datasets
- Write software to process biological data
- Create analysis tools for genomic research
- Help researchers choose computational analysis methods
- Build databases for genomic and molecular data
- Share computational findings in papers and talks
Skills that matter
- Analyzing genomic and proteomics datasets
- Writing or adapting research software
- Building databases for biological information
- Creating new computational analysis methods
- Advising researchers on computing approaches
- Sharing results in papers and talks
AI & the future of this role
Sequence analysis, pipeline tuning, and large-scale genomic interpretation sit close to what AI systems already handle well on screen. Biological context and study design still count, yet day-to-day computational work looks more automatable than wet-lab science.
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Includes O*NET® 30.3 Database information by USDOL/ETA under CC BY 4.0; modified by LostInCareer. Wage/outlook from BLS. Attribution details