Study Design and Methods; Formal scientific writing. [19]

Biostatistician

What this job does:

Provide statistical leadership for biomedical studies (clinical, diagnostics, or preclinical): design studies, write analysis plans, run analyses, and produce defensible results for internal decisions and regulatory needs.

This job is similar to these lab/research tasks:

Planning: design experiments, choose endpoints, sample size/power; Analysis: run statistical models, sensitivity analyses, generate figures/tables; Documentation: write methods sections, analysis plans, QC checklists; Consulting: advise collaborators, explain assumptions/limitations; Other: create reusable code templates, mentor trainees.

Typical starting salary range

$100k to $165k

Salary estimate represented as 25th to 75th percentile. Gathered from recent job postings, Glassdoor.com, and Salary.com

Daily task breakdown

Study design & statistical planning (protocols, endpoints, power, SAPs) 30%
Programming & analysis (R/SAS, datasets, TLFs) 25%
Documentation & regulatory deliverables (CSRs, submission responses) 20%
Cross-functional consulting & communication 15%
Other (mentoring, standards, process improvement) 10%.

Skills you'll use in this job:

Deep applied statistics; R or SAS; clinical/biomedical study design and endpoints; power/sample size; data standards (ex: CDISC SDTM/ADaM) and rigorous documentation; ability to explain stats to non-statisticians.

Talk about these PhD skills in your resume and interview:

Translate your PhD methods work into: designing studies, pre-specifying analysis, validating assumptions, and writing clear methods/results. Highlight reproducibility, QA (double-programming/independent checks), and experience advising collaborators on design trade-offs.