---
title: "Bioinformatics Technician"
description: "Apply principles and methods of bioinformatics to assist scientists in areas such as pharmaceuticals, medical technology, biotechnology, computational…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/bioinformatics-technician"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Bioinformatics Technician

**Category:** Computer and Mathematical · **SOC code:** 15-2099 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 15-2099.01

Apply principles and methods of bioinformatics to assist scientists in areas such as pharmaceuticals, medical technology, biotechnology, computational biology, proteomics, computer information science, biology and medical informatics. Apply bioinformatics tools to visualize, analyze, manipulate or interpret molecular data. May build and maintain databases for processing and analyzing genomic or other biological information.

Also advertised as: Biocurator; Bioinformatics Analyst; Bioinformatics Data Analyst; Bioinformatics Specialist; Biotechnician; Research Scientist; Research Specialist; Scientific Informatics Analyst.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $81,490 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $39.18/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $47,980 to $154,580, with the middle half between $60,750 and $107,180
- **Total US employment:** 3,720
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +7.1% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 200 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 7/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 3,720 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $47,980 |
| 25th | $60,750 |
| 50th (median) | $81,490 |
| 75th | $107,180 |
| 90th | $154,580 |
| Mean (average) | $91,550 |

### Pay by state

The 13 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| CA | $180,500 | $163,024 | 120 |
| NC | $101,850 | $107,977 | Not published by BLS |
| TX | $93,090 | $95,913 | Not published by BLS |
| IL | $81,090 | $81,124 | 1,320 |
| NY | $79,460 | $73,628 | 70 |
| AK | $78,580 | $76,769 | 90 |
| WA | $65,840 | $61,525 | 320 |
| TN | $65,110 | $70,872 | Not published by BLS |
| NJ | $61,400 | $56,431 | 50 |
| VA | $59,990 | $59,335 | 180 |
| IA | $49,020 | $55,856 | 30 |
| MD | $42,850 | $40,825 | 50 |
| OK | $36,820 | $41,916 | 40 |

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 4,000 in the 2025–2035 base year to 4,200 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 300 jobs, or +7.1%. Much faster than average: 7.1% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 200 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Bachelor's Degree | 50.9% |
| Master's Degree | 40.7% |
| Doctoral Degree | 4.1% |
| Post-Baccalaureate Certificate | 2.5% |
| Post-Doctoral Training | 1.9% |

## What the work involves

- Create data management or error-checking procedures and user manuals.
- Confer with researchers, clinicians, or information technology staff to determine data needs and programming requirements and to provide assistance with database-related research activities.
- Document all database changes, modifications, or problems.
- Participate in the preparation of reports or scientific publications.
- Analyze or manipulate bioinformatics data using software packages, statistical applications, or data mining techniques.
- Confer with database users about project timelines and changes.
- Monitor database performance and perform any necessary maintenance, upgrades, or repairs.
- Maintain awareness of new and emerging computational methods and technologies.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Programming — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Computers and Electronics — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Biology — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Design — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Engineering and Technology — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Information Ordering — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Investigative (I), Conventional (C), Realistic (R).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| I — Investigative | 6.42 |
| C — Conventional | 6.04 |
| R — Realistic | 3.81 |
| S — Social | 1.69 |
| A — Artistic | 1.58 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 85.0 |
| INTJ | 81.1 |
| ISTP | 74.9 |
| ISFJ | 66.6 |
| ESTJ | 61.5 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ, INTJ. The bank also flags this occupation as introvert-friendly, meaning O\*NET work-context ratings put it low on public contact and performing for the public.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Data Scientist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/data-scientist) — median $120,230
- [Health Information Technologist and Medical Registrar](https://nuecareer.com/careers/health-information-technologist-and-medical-registrar) — median $68,020
- [Biological Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/biological-technician) — median $57,510
- [Database Architect](https://nuecareer.com/careers/database-architect) — median $139,500
- [Statistical Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/statistical-assistant) — median $50,330
- [Database Administrator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/database-administrator) — median $104,620
- [Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/medical-and-clinical-laboratory-technologist) — median $62,930
- [Social Science Research Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/social-science-research-assistant) — median $61,990
- [Cytogenetic Technologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cytogenetic-technologist) — median $62,930
- [Medical Records Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/medical-records-specialist) — median $51,140

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

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