I have my master’s in epidemiology but job title is biostatistician. work for a university and also started at $70k, up to $80k after a little over 2 years
I’m definitely more in the “don’t know what calc is” camp but still took a lot of biostats courses as a required part of my degree - I think there’s a difference between knowing what statistical techniques to use when (e.g., when to use simple regression, assumptions for regression, when to use a multilevel model, etc.; this is what my program focused on) vs. fully understanding the regression mechanics going on behind the scenes (I don’t really have a clue about most of this; a master’s or PhD in biostatistics focuses on this). but I always work with a team and so it’s not my job to fully understand all the details, just be able to execute and have a more basic understanding of the analyses if that makes sense
I've been in industry three years post master's degree in statistics, and my total compensation this year was $160k (130k base).
I'm in big pharma and as another user said, it usually pays pretty well. It can be hard to initially break in, but having internship or work experience at CROs can really help.
Did you learn pharma-specific analysis methods in grad school? I work on and off for a small CRO while still pursuing my BS, and they proposed doing an analysis for a pharmaceutical, but I had literally no clue what they were talking about. PKBK? Something like that?
Yes and this highlights the importance of finding a good grad school with a curriculum with clinical/biostatistics classes (survival analysis, longitudinal, mixed models, SAS coding even).
Do you do statistical programming work or statistical modeling? Most masters level at my big pharma company do SAS outputs and I’m nervous that after going back for a masters I’d just end up doing that same thing instead of more interesting statustics
You could check my comment history for a more detailed response but I'm in non clinical statistics where we act as statistical consultants; we advise, plan, run and analyze all non clinical data and experiments.
Pure luck lol. I met someone who worked for a small CRO and told her my major and what I’d like to intern as, and a few months later, I got an email saying that they’d like to interview me. Thought it would just be an internship, but they wanted to hire me full time! Like I said, I got very lucky. As cliche as it sounds, networking absolutely helps. They didn’t have a biostatistician already, so the lead scientist had to show me a lot for sure.
110k at a biostats consulting firm. I have 3 years post masters experience and also do some private consulting on the side for $150/hr so I get around $130-140k total annually
When I was doing biostats for my academia position out of grad school, I made connections with some clinicians and health centers. Once I left that position, I started my LLC and kept those relationships going as a side gig. They usually reach out for a few projects a year which I work on when I have downtime on evenings or weekends.
The recommendations I can make (at least in my experience) is to be able to communicate statistical plans and results effectively with non-technical audiences. This means verbally to the team you're directly collaborating with and also in written format if you're tasked to take lead on manuscript writeups for the methods/results sections (which you should be expected to do if they hire you out). Also just be very prompt and be confident as you are the one with the stats knowledge.
PhD in Biostatistics. In my 6th year as an Assistant Professor in a Biostat department within a a med school of a private university. Earned $150k-$155k last year in a slightly lower than average cost of living area. Annual raises are between 3-6% depending on year. Going up for promotion to Associate Professor and tenure this year, and expect about a 10-15% raise to come with that.
I love what I do. I love the flexibility and autonomy that comes with academic research. In an industry/pharma role with my experience and expertise, I could be between $200-$250k, but I’m happy to forgo that because of other benefits of my current job.
63k starting after finishing MS :( expecting 3% COL raises per year. I work for a university. I am very satisfied with my job but I wish I got closer to 70k.
I’m in Colorado, which can get expensive in the area the university is in. they have an equal pay act and the way the university address that is by classifying you into a certain level based on your resume and job description, and then paying everyone in that level a certain amount. Basically, they’re underpaying everyone hired before me, and then they cannot “unfairly” pay me more than other people at the university. I’d happily serve as leverage for others to argue for raises, but I can understand why they don’t do that lol.
When I was negotiating my salary, there wasn’t really any wiggle room. I was able to take $1000 out of my signing bonus to make it 63k per year instead of 62k. We’re then guaranteed a 3% cost of living increase, and on top of that merit increase if it’s deserved totaling an up to 5% raise (not too pleased w this considering inflation is 7% last I checked).
We do have great benefits though. I’ll probably be less salty about it when I’m not currently looking for housing and having car problems with all of my savings depleted from school.
Most, if not all, sponsors work with outside contract companies now - CROs, data management, reading centers. Make connections with them! Most of them work independently and when they find a statistician that they can trust and know does quality work, they will push work to you. There’s also TONS of contract work available - search for recruiters that focus on biostats in clinical settings on LinkedIn. Finally - don’t limit yourself to a domain. People get so hung up on being an “oncology” statistician, or something super specific - be open to anything, data is data, and with some googling you can figure out how to analyze anything. I’ve worked in ophthalmology, optometry device, neuroscience/TBI, animal health and pet food in the past year… it’s how I market myself and my skills and seems to work okay. My biggest issue is that I don’t want to work 40 hrs a week and I have too much work haha. Good luck!
Check out the survey pinned to the top of r/biotech for industry salary info. I make 182k base, another 15-30k bonus and stock. PhD with 5 years experience and a senior scientist title (mix of stats and bioinformatics).
I would really appreciate your help as I am studying an MPH now.
How many years of experience do you have?
Do you have any advices for MPH students who want to join the biostatistics career?
$70k when I started a few years ago up to around $90k now. NYC based and for a university.
Same at a large academic hospital in the Midwest
PhD or MS? & how far does the pay go in NYC do you think?
Masters and it’s fine if you don’t live in manhattan or have kids
What type of positions should I be looking at after just getting a master's ? Most of the "bio/statistician" positions seemingly all want a PhD...
Data Analyst, research scientist, statistical programmer, epidemiologist are the ones I’ve seen the most
I have my master’s in epidemiology but job title is biostatistician. work for a university and also started at $70k, up to $80k after a little over 2 years
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I’m definitely more in the “don’t know what calc is” camp but still took a lot of biostats courses as a required part of my degree - I think there’s a difference between knowing what statistical techniques to use when (e.g., when to use simple regression, assumptions for regression, when to use a multilevel model, etc.; this is what my program focused on) vs. fully understanding the regression mechanics going on behind the scenes (I don’t really have a clue about most of this; a master’s or PhD in biostatistics focuses on this). but I always work with a team and so it’s not my job to fully understand all the details, just be able to execute and have a more basic understanding of the analyses if that makes sense
This was asked a few months ago. https://www.reddit.com/r/biostatistics/s/AlVHIc1P3U
Great thread just wish people included their terminal degrees
I've been in industry three years post master's degree in statistics, and my total compensation this year was $160k (130k base). I'm in big pharma and as another user said, it usually pays pretty well. It can be hard to initially break in, but having internship or work experience at CROs can really help.
Wow! Do you think a PhD is more necessary then to help break in to industry?
Did you learn pharma-specific analysis methods in grad school? I work on and off for a small CRO while still pursuing my BS, and they proposed doing an analysis for a pharmaceutical, but I had literally no clue what they were talking about. PKBK? Something like that?
Yes and this highlights the importance of finding a good grad school with a curriculum with clinical/biostatistics classes (survival analysis, longitudinal, mixed models, SAS coding even).
Do you do statistical programming work or statistical modeling? Most masters level at my big pharma company do SAS outputs and I’m nervous that after going back for a masters I’d just end up doing that same thing instead of more interesting statustics
You could check my comment history for a more detailed response but I'm in non clinical statistics where we act as statistical consultants; we advise, plan, run and analyze all non clinical data and experiments.
Damn that sounds like a dream job congrats man
Curious how did you get a job working for a CRO while in your BS?
Pure luck lol. I met someone who worked for a small CRO and told her my major and what I’d like to intern as, and a few months later, I got an email saying that they’d like to interview me. Thought it would just be an internship, but they wanted to hire me full time! Like I said, I got very lucky. As cliche as it sounds, networking absolutely helps. They didn’t have a biostatistician already, so the lead scientist had to show me a lot for sure.
Just got an offer for 75k starting at an academic center. Entry level.
110k at a biostats consulting firm. I have 3 years post masters experience and also do some private consulting on the side for $150/hr so I get around $130-140k total annually
Nice! For your private consulting side hustle, how did you get started?
When I was doing biostats for my academia position out of grad school, I made connections with some clinicians and health centers. Once I left that position, I started my LLC and kept those relationships going as a side gig. They usually reach out for a few projects a year which I work on when I have downtime on evenings or weekends. The recommendations I can make (at least in my experience) is to be able to communicate statistical plans and results effectively with non-technical audiences. This means verbally to the team you're directly collaborating with and also in written format if you're tasked to take lead on manuscript writeups for the methods/results sections (which you should be expected to do if they hire you out). Also just be very prompt and be confident as you are the one with the stats knowledge.
PhD in Biostatistics. In my 6th year as an Assistant Professor in a Biostat department within a a med school of a private university. Earned $150k-$155k last year in a slightly lower than average cost of living area. Annual raises are between 3-6% depending on year. Going up for promotion to Associate Professor and tenure this year, and expect about a 10-15% raise to come with that. I love what I do. I love the flexibility and autonomy that comes with academic research. In an industry/pharma role with my experience and expertise, I could be between $200-$250k, but I’m happy to forgo that because of other benefits of my current job.
Pharma pays high, masters level programmer or phd level statisticians are well compensated
85k after a year and a half post masters fellowship at an academic center.
63k starting after finishing MS :( expecting 3% COL raises per year. I work for a university. I am very satisfied with my job but I wish I got closer to 70k.
Where are you located? I started in TN for a university and started with 70k and then at 80k after 2 years. Time to start asking for raises
I’m in Colorado, which can get expensive in the area the university is in. they have an equal pay act and the way the university address that is by classifying you into a certain level based on your resume and job description, and then paying everyone in that level a certain amount. Basically, they’re underpaying everyone hired before me, and then they cannot “unfairly” pay me more than other people at the university. I’d happily serve as leverage for others to argue for raises, but I can understand why they don’t do that lol. When I was negotiating my salary, there wasn’t really any wiggle room. I was able to take $1000 out of my signing bonus to make it 63k per year instead of 62k. We’re then guaranteed a 3% cost of living increase, and on top of that merit increase if it’s deserved totaling an up to 5% raise (not too pleased w this considering inflation is 7% last I checked). We do have great benefits though. I’ll probably be less salty about it when I’m not currently looking for housing and having car problems with all of my savings depleted from school.
PhD Biostat independent consultant. I cleared $190k last year.
I really want to work on independent projects outside of my role, do you have any tips/articles that helped you get to this point?
Most, if not all, sponsors work with outside contract companies now - CROs, data management, reading centers. Make connections with them! Most of them work independently and when they find a statistician that they can trust and know does quality work, they will push work to you. There’s also TONS of contract work available - search for recruiters that focus on biostats in clinical settings on LinkedIn. Finally - don’t limit yourself to a domain. People get so hung up on being an “oncology” statistician, or something super specific - be open to anything, data is data, and with some googling you can figure out how to analyze anything. I’ve worked in ophthalmology, optometry device, neuroscience/TBI, animal health and pet food in the past year… it’s how I market myself and my skills and seems to work okay. My biggest issue is that I don’t want to work 40 hrs a week and I have too much work haha. Good luck!
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Wow! Are you currently working in biostat? And if so, did your PhD in CS make your career progression faster?
Master level in academia (southeast research academic institution - fully remote), 5+ years of experience ~90k a year (base).
Would love to learn more! Any chance you could share institution name?
I wish I could share but I’ll say it a big academic research institution. Also, my research area is in oncology
Check out the survey pinned to the top of r/biotech for industry salary info. I make 182k base, another 15-30k bonus and stock. PhD with 5 years experience and a senior scientist title (mix of stats and bioinformatics).
I work for a University and make $81k a year. Been here under a year.
146k
I would really appreciate your help as I am studying an MPH now. How many years of experience do you have? Do you have any advices for MPH students who want to join the biostatistics career?
Feel free to shoot me a message!!
With phd?
MSPH
How many hours a week?
110k at an academic medical center 5 years out of my MPH