JobAfterNext

Computer and Information Research Scientists

Conduct research into fundamental computer and information science as theorists, designers, or inventors. Develop solutions to problems in the field of computer hardware and software.

Wages

Median annual wage, U.S.$140,300
Employment, U.S.37,200
Median hourly wage$67.45
Annual wage percentiles, U.S., May 2025
10th25thMedian75th90th
$82,200$103,570$140,300$188,700$230,630
By state (36)
StateEmploymentMedian annualLocation quotient
Alabama570$117,8701.13
Arizona360$129,7600.46
California8,440$159,1001.94
Colorado400$133,1600.59
Connecticut$131,650
District of Columbia330$144,1901.97
Florida1,070$119,8100.45
Georgia810$92,2500.69
Hawaii70$134,3500.46
Idaho70Not available0.35
Illinois630$136,5400.43
Indiana720$85,4600.94
Louisiana140$115,2100.30
Maryland2,870$145,3104.33
Massachusetts1,760$170,5102.03
Michigan530$82,5900.50
Minnesota30$135,8500.05
Mississippi300$109,0501.07
Missouri230$127,8200.33
Nevada80$134,3100.22
New Hampshire90$136,1600.57
New Jersey1,580$140,8401.54
New Mexico490$165,6902.36
New York1,950$181,9900.84
North Carolina600$128,3700.50
Ohio280$135,5100.21
Oklahoma590$93,1001.44
Oregon730$206,2201.54
Pennsylvania330$130,3000.23
Rhode Island500$121,4704.20
South Carolina430$126,9800.78
Tennessee$108,830
Texas1,960$121,2100.58
Utah1,250$94,7003.00
Virginia3,590$157,3903.65
Washington2,050$202,4002.41

Similar occupations

Similarity is our measure: the cosine of importance x level over all 120 O*NET skills, knowledge areas and abilities. It is not an O*NET finding. More.

#OccupationJob ZoneSimilarity
1Database Architects40.976
2Computer Systems Engineers/Architects30.972
3Database Administrators40.970
4Computer Hardware Engineers40.968
5Computer Network Architects40.966
6Blockchain Engineers40.964
7Computer Systems Analysts40.964
8Web Developers30.963
9Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers40.960
10Electrical Engineers40.959

One skill away

Among the 50 occupations most similar to Computer and Information Research Scientists, those at the same Job Zone or lower, where exactly one skill rated at least 3 in importance needs a level more than 0.75 points higher (on O*NET's 0-7 level scale). Our definition. Change the thresholds.

OccupationSkill to buildLevel gapSimilarity
Computer Systems Engineers/ArchitectsQuality Control Analysis1.000.972
Computer Network ArchitectsQuality Control Analysis1.000.966
Software Quality Assurance Analysts and TestersQuality Control Analysis1.000.960
Computer ProgrammersQuality Control Analysis0.880.959
Electronics Engineers, Except ComputerQuality Control Analysis1.260.955
Microsystems EngineersQuality Control Analysis0.880.953
Web AdministratorsQuality Control Analysis0.760.949
Automotive EngineersQuality Control Analysis1.000.947
Photonics EngineersQuality Control Analysis1.380.945
Industrial Engineering Technologists and TechniciansQuality Control Analysis0.760.944

All 14

Software to learn next

Software used by at least 3 of the 20 occupations most similar to Computer and Information Research Scientists, excluding software Computer and Information Research Scientists already lists and any you named. Ranked by how many of them use it, weighted by how much more common it is among them than across all occupations (lift). Our ranking.

SoftwareSimilar jobs using itLift
Hewlett Packard HP-UX12 of 2024.1x
Spring Framework11 of 2031.7x
Red Hat Enterprise Linux12 of 2021.3x
Microsoft Windows Server12 of 2020.5x
Amazon Simple Storage Service S311 of 2026.7x
Perforce Helix software12 of 2019.8x
Common business oriented language COBOL11 of 2025.4x
KornShell11 of 2024.2x
Advanced business application programming ABAP11 of 2022.1x
Job control language JCL11 of 2022.1x

Skills

From O*NET data. Importance is rated 1 to 5 and level 0 to 7.

SkillTypeImportanceLevel
Judgment and Decision MakingTransferable skill 4.00 4.62
Complex Problem SolvingTransferable skill 4.00 4.38
Critical ThinkingEssential skill 4.00 4.25
Reading ComprehensionEssential skill 3.75 4.50
Systems AnalysisTransferable skill 3.75 4.38
Active ListeningEssential skill 3.75 4.12
Systems EvaluationTransferable skill 3.62 4.88
ProgrammingTransferable skill 3.62 4.50
Active LearningEssential skill 3.50 4.88
SpeakingEssential skill 3.50 4.12
MathematicsEssential skill 3.38 4.38
WritingEssential skill 3.38 4.12
Time ManagementTransferable skill 3.38 3.88
Technology DesignTransferable skill 3.12 4.12
MonitoringEssential skill 3.12 4.00
Operations AnalysisTransferable skill 3.12 3.88
ScienceEssential skill 3.12 3.38
CoordinationTransferable skill 3.00 3.75
Learning StrategiesEssential skill 3.00 3.50
InstructingTransferable skill 3.00 3.38
Social PerceptivenessTransferable skill 3.00 3.12
Management of Personnel ResourcesTransferable skill 2.88 3.62
PersuasionTransferable skill 2.75 3.50
Service OrientationTransferable skill 2.75 2.88
Operations MonitoringTransferable skill 2.62 2.75
Management of Financial ResourcesTransferable skill 2.50 2.88
NegotiationTransferable skill 2.50 2.62
TroubleshootingTransferable skill 2.38 3.00
Quality Control AnalysisTransferable skill 2.38 2.62
Management of Material ResourcesTransferable skill 2.25 2.62
Operation and ControlTransferable skill 2.00 1.75
Equipment SelectionTransferable skill 1.88 1.75
Equipment MaintenanceTransferable skill 1.12not rated
RepairingTransferable skill 1.12not rated
InstallationTransferable skill 1.00not rated
Knowledge (33) and abilities (52)
Knowledge
NameImportanceLevel
Computers and Electronics 4.57 6.11
Mathematics 4.06 5.43
Engineering and Technology 3.95 4.84
English Language 3.89 4.47
Administration and Management 3.30 3.76
Design 3.27 4.48
Telecommunications 3.09 3.89
Physics 2.84 3.53
Sales and Marketing 2.71 2.93
Customer and Personal Service 2.71 2.84
Education and Training 2.66 3.68
Administrative 2.59 2.63
Production and Processing 2.47 2.47
Personnel and Human Resources 2.46 2.70
Public Safety and Security 2.41 2.73
Psychology 2.39 2.36
Communications and Media 2.28 2.12
Economics and Accounting 2.17 2.13
Mechanical 2.07 2.22
Law and Government 2.01 2.38
Biology 1.90 2.06
Sociology and Anthropology 1.89 1.91
Geography 1.85 1.94
Chemistry 1.85 1.74
Building and Construction 1.56 1.19
History and Archeology 1.43 1.01
Philosophy and Theology 1.41 1.21
Medicine and Dentistry 1.38not rated
Fine Arts 1.32 0.70
Therapy and Counseling 1.31 0.81
Foreign Language 1.28not rated
Transportation 1.28not rated
Food Production 1.05not rated
Abilities
NameImportanceLevel
Deductive Reasoning 4.12 4.88
Inductive Reasoning 4.12 4.62
Oral Comprehension 4.00 4.75
Oral Expression 4.00 4.75
Written Comprehension 3.88 4.38
Problem Sensitivity 3.88 4.25
Fluency of Ideas 3.88 4.12
Category Flexibility 3.75 4.38
Information Ordering 3.75 4.25
Written Expression 3.75 4.25
Near Vision 3.75 4.00
Originality 3.62 4.38
Mathematical Reasoning 3.38 4.25
Number Facility 3.25 3.75
Visualization 3.25 3.62
Speech Clarity 3.25 3.25
Speech Recognition 3.25 3.25
Flexibility of Closure 3.00 3.25
Perceptual Speed 3.00 3.00
Selective Attention 2.88 3.00
Speed of Closure 2.88 3.00
Memorization 2.88 2.88
Finger Dexterity 2.62 2.88
Far Vision 2.62 2.62
Time Sharing 2.50 2.12
Hearing Sensitivity 2.12 1.50
Control Precision 2.00 2.00
Visual Color Discrimination 2.00 2.00
Arm-Hand Steadiness 2.00 1.75
Manual Dexterity 2.00 1.62
Auditory Attention 2.00 1.38
Trunk Strength 1.88 1.38
Wrist-Finger Speed 1.88 1.00
Depth Perception 1.75 0.75
Response Orientation 1.12not rated
Dynamic Flexibility 1.00not rated
Dynamic Strength 1.00not rated
Explosive Strength 1.00not rated
Extent Flexibility 1.00not rated
Glare Sensitivity 1.00not rated
Gross Body Coordination 1.00not rated
Gross Body Equilibrium 1.00not rated
Multilimb Coordination 1.00not rated
Night Vision 1.00not rated
Peripheral Vision 1.00not rated
Rate Control 1.00not rated
Reaction Time 1.00not rated
Sound Localization 1.00not rated
Spatial Orientation 1.00not rated
Speed of Limb Movement 1.00not rated
Stamina 1.00not rated
Static Strength 1.00not rated

Software used

Examples from O*NET data. "Hot" and "in demand" are O*NET flags for technologies often listed in job postings.

All 164
  • LangChain in demand
  • Scikit-learn in demand
  • Vector database software in demand
  • pandas in demand
  • Amazon DynamoDB hot
  • Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud EC2 hot
  • Amazon Redshift hot
  • Amazon Web Services AWS CloudFormation hot
  • Apache Airflow hot
  • Apache Cassandra hot
  • Apache Hive hot
  • Apache Subversion SVN hot
  • C# hot
  • Chef hot
  • Django hot
  • ESRI ArcGIS software hot
  • Eclipse IDE hot
  • Elasticsearch hot
  • Extensible markup language XML hot
  • GitLab hot
  • Google Analytics hot
  • IBM SPSS Statistics hot
  • Microsoft Excel hot
  • Microsoft Office software hot
  • Microsoft Power BI hot
  • Microsoft PowerPoint hot
  • Microsoft Project hot
  • Microsoft SQL Server hot
  • Microsoft Visual Basic hot
  • Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications VBA hot
  • Microsoft Visual Studio hot
  • MongoDB hot
  • MySQL hot
  • NoSQL hot
  • Node.js hot
  • Oracle Database hot
  • Oracle Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition J2EE hot
  • PHP hot
  • Perl hot
  • PostgreSQL hot
  • Puppet hot
  • Redis hot
  • Ruby hot
  • SAS hot
  • Shell script hot
  • Splunk Enterprise hot
  • Tableau hot
  • Teradata Database hot
  • The MathWorks MATLAB hot
  • Transact-SQL hot
  • UNIX hot
  • UNIX Shell hot
  • 3D graphics software
  • Ada
  • Advanced numerical software
  • Algorithmic software
  • Apache Flume
  • Apache HTTP Server
  • Apache Pig
  • Apache Solr
  • Augmint
  • Automated document generation software
  • Bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT)
  • Business software applications
  • CMake
  • Charm++
  • Chatbot software
  • Clustermatic
  • Computational statistics software
  • Computer aided design and drafting CADD software
  • Data visualization software
  • Doxygen
  • Eiffel
  • Embarcadero JBuilder
  • Extensible stylesheet language transformations XSLT
  • Formula translation/translator FORTRAN
  • Geographic information system GIS software
  • Google Ads
  • Graphics pipelines
  • Greenhills Ada compilers
  • High-performance software libraries
  • IBM Cognos Impromptu
  • IBM Domino
  • IBM InfoSphere DataStage
  • IBM Rational Apex
  • IBM Rational Rose XDE
  • Integrated development environment IDE software
  • Intel Integrated Performance Primitives
  • Intel Math Kernel Library
  • Jupyter Notebook
  • List processing language LISP
  • Low-level virtual machine LLVM compilers
  • Mathematical software
  • MicroStrategy
  • Microsoft ActiveX
  • Microsoft Dynamics
  • Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Edition VBScript
  • Microsoft Visual Basic.NET
  • Microsoft Visual C# .NET
  • Microsoft Visual Studio.NET
  • Microsoft Windows XP
  • Minitab
  • Multisensory data representation software
  • National Instruments LabVIEW
  • Object oriented development environment software
  • Open Graphics Library OpenGL
  • OpenAI ChatGPT
  • Optimization software
  • Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition
  • Oracle Solaris
  • PTC Creo Parametric
  • Parallel systems software
  • Perforce Software Configuration Management System
  • Plug-in file software
  • Polaris parallelizing compilers
  • Polhemus Fasttrack System
  • Prolog
  • Qlik Tech QlikView
  • Quest Erwin Data Modeler
  • Relational database management software
  • Relational database management system software
  • Rice Simulator for ILP Multiprocessors RSIM
  • SAP Business Objects
  • Simulation software
  • Software libraries
  • Source code management SCM software
  • StataCorp Stata
  • System testing software
  • Ubuntu
  • Unified modeling language UML
  • VME PowerPC VxWorks
  • Verilog
  • Video editing software
  • Waikato Environment for Knowledge Analysis Weka

Where it concentrates

Metro areas ranked by BLS location quotient: the occupation's share of the area's jobs divided by its share of all US jobs. Above 1 means more concentrated than the nation. Metros employing fewer than 100 are left out.

Metro areaEmploymentLocation quotientMedian annual
Warner Robins, GA65035.72$89,500
Lexington Park, MD36021.36$136,660
Ogden, UT81012.55$96,740
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA2,2108.14$218,420
Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ2907.15$140,190
Panama City-Panama City Beach, FL1406.28$105,660
Bakersfield-Delano, CA4906.04$116,650
Utica-Rome, NY1605.81$125,720
Bremerton-Silverdale-Port Orchard, WA1105.12$109,550
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA1,6804.56$121,530

More metros, other thresholds