Chemist Skills & Requirements (2026 Data)
Skills, experience and job titles from 1,002 US job postings by 479 employers. Data as of October 2026.
What US employers post for chemists: advertised pay, the skills and experience they ask for, and the job titles they use, from 1,002 open job postings (October 2026).
- The skills that most set chemist postings apart are hplc, ftir, gc.
- Postings that state a minimum ask for a median of 2 years of experience.
Chemist job postings in the US, October 2026
- 1,002
- US job postings from 479 employers
- 2 years
- Median experience asked
How much does a chemist make?
Figure withheld: fewer than 250 US postings list pay. How we decide.
What is the starting salary for a chemist?
Figure withheld: fewer than 250 US postings list pay. How we decide.
Skills employers ask for in chemist job postings
| Skill | Share of postings |
|---|---|
| Communication | 41% |
| Problem-solving | 25% |
| Hplc | 24% |
| Attention to detail | 19% |
| Excel | 18% |
| Organizational skills | 17% |
| Microsoft Office | 16% |
| Work independently | 13% |
| Ftir | 12% |
| Interpersonal skills | 12% |
Skills named in the posting text; at most 20 postings per employer; US, October 2026. Methodology.
Skills that set chemists apart
- Hplc593× as often as in all postings · 24%
- Ftir530.6× as often as in all postings · 12%
- Gc672× as often as in all postings · 11%
- Analytical instrumentation429.2× as often as in all postings · 6%
- Uv-vis740.5× as often as in all postings · 5%
- Technical writing21.6× as often as in all postings · 5%
- Organization3.8× as often as in all postings · 7%
Skills named in at least 5% of these postings and at least 3 times as often as in job postings overall.
Have a chemist job posting in front of you? See which of its skills your resume is missing.
What does a chemist do?
Employers post these jobs as Analytical Chemist, Chemist I, Senior Chemist, Chemist II, Lab Chemist and other titles. The largest specializations are Analytical Chemist (21%), Food Scientist (10%).
The closest official occupation is Chemists (19-2031.00). Its most important tasks:
- Develop, improve, or customize products, equipment, formulas, processes, or analytical methods.
- Analyze organic or inorganic compounds to determine chemical or physical properties, composition, structure, relationships, or reactions, using chromatography, spectroscopy, or spectrophotometry techniques.
- Induce changes in composition of substances by introducing heat, light, energy, or chemical catalysts for quantitative or qualitative analysis.
- Conduct quality control tests.
- Write technical papers or reports or prepare standards and specifications for processes, facilities, products, or tests.
Source: O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (CC BY 4.0).
How much experience do you need to be a chemist?
Among 496 postings that state a minimum, the median is 2 years. 10% say 0 years and 28% ask for 1 year or less.
Minimum experience asked in 496 US chemist job postings: median 2 years, and 28% ask for 1 year or less.
The figures as a table
| Minimum experience asked | Share of postings |
|---|---|
| 0 yr | 10% |
| 1 yr | 18% |
| 2 yrs | 26% |
| 3-4 yrs | 23% |
| 5-7 yrs | 15% |
| 8-9 yrs | 2% |
| 10+ yrs | 6% |
Postings that state a minimum (required or preferred); at most 20 postings per employer; US, October 2026.
We do not show a degree figure: in our checks, degree requirements in posting text were found too rarely to publish one. Why.
Other names for a chemist: job titles employers use
| Job title | Employers using it |
|---|---|
| Chemist | 163 (34.0%) |
| Analytical Chemist | 51 (10.7%) |
| Chemist I | 37 (7.7%) |
| Senior Chemist | 26 (5.4%) |
| Chemist II | 21 (4.4%) |
| Lab Chemist | 16 (3.3%) |
| Research Chemist | 15 (3.1%) |
| Development Chemist | 15 (3.1%) |
| Chemist III | 14 (2.9%) |
| QC Chemist | 14 (2.9%) |
| R&D Chemist | 13 (2.7%) |
| Formulation Scientist | 13 (2.7%) |
| Formulation Chemist | 12 (2.5%) |
| Quality Control Chemist | 11 (2.3%) |
| Associate Chemist | 8 (1.7%) |
| Analytical Scientist | 8 (1.7%) |
| Bioanalytical Scientist | 7 (1.5%) |
| Sr. Chemist | 7 (1.5%) |
| Product Development Chemist | 6 (1.2%) |
| Senior Scientist, Analytical Development | 6 (1.2%) |
Titles read in our audit and used by at least 3 employers.
Chemist compared with similar careers
| Career | Median pay | Median experience | Postings | Shares N of top 25 skills |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chemist | – | 2 years | 1,002 | – |
| Laboratory Technician | $22.84/hr | 2 years | 3,224 | 17 |
| Biologist | – | 2 years | 678 | 19 |
| Environmental Specialist | $105K | 5 years | 1,582 | 19 |
| Regulatory Affairs Specialist | $153K | 5 years | 920 | 14 |
Similar careers
| Career | Shares N of the top 25 skills | Median pay |
|---|---|---|
| Laboratory Technician | 17 | $22.84/hr |
| Biologist | 19 | – |
| Environmental Specialist | 19 | $105K |
| Regulatory Affairs Specialist | 14 | $153K |
| Technical Writer | 15 | $100K |
| Chemical Engineer | 20 | – |
Applying for chemist jobs?
- Chemist resume examples: one-page examples for these roles
- Match your resume to a job: paste a posting and see the skills your resume is missing
- Check your resume: see how an applicant tracking system reads it
- Find chemist jobs: search open postings
Source and method
Open US job postings collected from employers' applicant tracking systems, de-duplicated, counted only when their job title was read in our audit. Shares count at most 20 postings per employer, and franchise locations of one brand count as one employer. Pay uses hourly and annual figures only; a figure is shown when leaving out the largest employer moves it by 10% or less. Every figure states its number of postings. Methodology and measured accuracy.
Accuracy check: we read 82 randomly chosen postings counted on this page in full; 76 of them were this career or a closely related one (October 2026).
Download the figures on this page (CSV): every number above with its count of postings. Aggregate figures are licensed CC BY 4.0; cite the page when you reuse them.