---
title: "Mathematician"
description: "Conduct research in fundamental mathematics or in application of mathematical techniques to science, management, and other fields. Solve problems in…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/mathematician"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Mathematician

**Category:** Computer and Mathematical · **SOC code:** 15-2021 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 15-2021.00

Conduct research in fundamental mathematics or in application of mathematical techniques to science, management, and other fields. Solve problems in various fields using mathematical methods.

Also advertised as: Agent-Based Modeler; Computational Mathematician; Computational Scientist; Cryptographer; Cryptographic Vulnerability Analyst; Mathematician; Research Computing Specialist; Research Scientist.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $126,710 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $60.92/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $69,240 to $195,190, with the middle half between $88,570 and $157,020
- **Total US employment:** 2,030
- **Typical entry education:** Master's
- **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +0.6% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 100 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 16/100 — 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 2,030 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $69,240 |
| 25th | $88,570 |
| 50th (median) | $126,710 |
| 75th | $157,020 |
| 90th | $195,190 |
| Mean (average) | $129,260 |

### Pay by state

The 12 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| WA | $162,280 | $151,645 | 100 |
| VA | $148,030 | $146,414 | 400 |
| MD | $131,810 | $125,582 | 160 |
| IL | $130,970 | $131,025 | 60 |
| NY | $126,950 | $117,632 | 150 |
| CA | $126,710 | $114,442 | 250 |
| RI | $109,260 | $106,824 | 100 |
| MA | $104,190 | $98,518 | 40 |
| NV | $102,890 | $102,912 | 70 |
| IN | $88,050 | $94,344 | 40 |
| CO | $86,020 | $83,472 | 60 |
| MI | $65,510 | $68,086 | 90 |

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 2,200 in the 2025–2035 base year to 2,200 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 0 jobs, or +0.6%. Slower than average: 0.6% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 100 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:** Master's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Five: Extensive 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 |
| --- | --- |
| Doctoral Degree | 45.0% |
| Master's Degree | 25.0% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 10.0% |
| Post-Doctoral Training | 10.0% |
| Post-Master's Certificate | 5.0% |
| First Professional Degree | 5.0% |

## What the work involves

- Mentor others on mathematical techniques.
- Maintain knowledge in the field by reading professional journals, talking with other mathematicians, and attending professional conferences.
- Disseminate research by writing reports, publishing papers, or presenting at professional conferences.
- Assemble sets of assumptions, and explore the consequences of each set.
- Develop new principles and new relationships between existing mathematical principles to advance mathematical science.
- Conduct research to extend mathematical knowledge in traditional areas, such as algebra, geometry, probability, and logic.
- Address the relationships of quantities, magnitudes, and forms through the use of numbers and symbols.
- Develop mathematical or statistical models of phenomena to be used for analysis or for computational simulation.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Mathematics — importance 5.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Science — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — 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 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — 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
- Persuasion — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Mathematics — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Physics — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Engineering and Technology — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Mathematical Reasoning — importance 5.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Number Facility — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 4.1 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), Artistic (A).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| I — Investigative | 7.00 |
| C — Conventional | 5.03 |
| A — Artistic | 3.23 |
| R — Realistic | 3.22 |
| S — Social | 1.95 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.11 |

### 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) |
| --- | --- |
| INTJ | 85.9 |
| INTP | 75.5 |
| ISTP | 74.9 |
| ISTJ | 73.7 |
| INFJ | 61.8 |

Best-fitting types: INTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Data Scientist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/data-scientist) — median $120,230
- [Physicist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/physicist) — median $172,250
- [Statistician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/statistician) — median $105,650
- [Computer and Information Research Scientist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/computer-and-information-research-scientist) — median $140,300
- [Mathematical Science Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/mathematical-science-teacher-postsecondary) — median $79,940
- [Bioinformatics Scientist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/bioinformatics-scientist) — median $98,920
- [Astronomer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/astronomer) — median $128,820
- [Bioinformatics Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/bioinformatics-technician) — median $81,490
- [Biostatistician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/biostatistician) — median $105,650
- [Operations Research Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/operations-research-analyst) — median $88,940

## 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/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **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

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/mathematician