A biostatistician designs studies and analyzes data from medicine, public health, and biology, then explains what the numbers mean for a drug, a treatment, or a population. This page gives you a biostatistician job description you can copy, plus salary data, career paths, and a checklist for testing skills before the first interview.

Quick answer: a strong biostatistician job description covers study design, statistical analysis plans, programming in SAS or R, regulatory documentation, and the ability to explain results to clinicians. Most roles ask for a master’s degree in biostatistics or statistics, and the median pay for statisticians is above $100,000 a year, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

What does a biostatistician do?

Biostatistician work sits between the science and the decision. A clinical team wants to know whether a drug works. The biostatistician decides how many patients the trial needs, how they get randomized, which endpoints count, and which tests will answer the question without bias.

Once data comes in, the job shifts to analysis and interpretation. That means cleaning messy datasets, running models, checking assumptions, and writing up results that regulators, reviewers, and physicians can trust.

Most biostatisticians work in one of four settings:

• Pharmaceutical and biotech companies, running clinical trials and regulatory submissions
• Contract research organizations (CROs), supporting several sponsors at once
• Hospitals and academic medical centers, working with investigators on research studies
• Government and public health agencies, tracking disease trends and outbreaks

The Bureau of Labor Statistics describes biostatisticians as statisticians who work in pharmaceutical companies, public health agencies, or hospitals, designing studies to test drug effectiveness or identify sources of disease outbreaks.

Biostatistician job description template

Copy this biostatistician job description and adjust the bracketed parts for your team, therapeutic area, and level.

Job title

Biostatistician [or Senior Biostatistician / Principal Biostatistician]

About the role

We are hiring a biostatistician to lead the statistical side of our [clinical trials / research studies / public health programs]. You will shape study design from the protocol stage, own the analysis, and help our clinical and regulatory teams make decisions based on sound evidence.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to study protocols, including sample size calculations, randomization schemes, and endpoint definitions
• Write and maintain statistical analysis plans (SAPs) that describe how data will be analyzed before unblinding
• Analyze clinical and observational data using methods such as regression, mixed models, survival analysis, and Bayesian approaches
• Program analyses and produce tables, listings, and figures in SAS, R, or Python
• Review datasets built to CDISC standards (SDTM and ADaM) for accuracy and traceability
• Prepare statistical sections of clinical study reports, regulatory submissions, and manuscripts
• Explain results to clinicians, data managers, and leadership in plain language
• Follow good clinical practice, ICH E9 guidance, and internal quality procedures

Requirements

• Master’s degree in biostatistics, statistics, or a related field; a PhD for senior or principal roles
• [2+] years of experience in clinical trials, epidemiology, or health research
• Working knowledge of SAS and R, and comfort with version control and reproducible code
• Understanding of FDA and EMA expectations for statistical analysis
• Clear written and verbal communication with non statisticians

Nice to have

• Experience with adaptive designs, real world evidence, or missing data methods
• Background in a specific therapeutic area such as oncology, cardiology, or vaccines
• Experience mentoring junior statisticians or programmers

What we offer

[Salary range, benefits, remote or hybrid policy, learning budget.]

Biostatistician skills and qualifications

A job description lists skills. Hiring well means knowing which ones actually separate candidates.

Technical skills

• Statistical methods: hypothesis testing, regression, survival analysis, longitudinal models, and multiple comparison adjustments
• Study design: power and sample size, randomization, blinding, and interim analysis planning
• Programming: SAS remains the standard in many regulated sponsors; R and Python are growing in research and real world evidence teams
• Data standards: CDISC SDTM and ADaM for regulatory submissions

Working skills

• Explaining a confidence interval to a physician without losing accuracy
• Pushing back when a requested analysis would inflate false positives
• Documenting decisions so an auditor can follow them months later

The last two matter more than they look. A biostatistician who says yes to every post hoc analysis creates regulatory risk.

Biostatistician salary

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish a separate category for biostatisticians. It groups them with statisticians, who earned a median annual wage of $105,650 in May 2025. The same source projects statistician employment to grow 11 percent from 2025 to 2035, much faster than the average for all occupations.

Pay for biostatisticians moves with a few clear factors:

• Industry: pharmaceutical and biotech sponsors usually pay more than academic and government employers
• Education: a PhD tends to raise both starting pay and the ceiling
• Level: principal and director roles carry scope across multiple studies or programs
• Location: major life sciences hubs pay a premium

Treat any single average salary figure you see online with care. Salary sites mix job titles, levels, and regions. For a posting, benchmark against your local market and the level you are actually hiring for, then publish a range.

Career paths and entry level positions

A career as a biostatistician usually starts with a master’s degree. The Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that a master’s is the typical entry level requirement, though some entry level positions accept a bachelor’s degree in statistics or mathematics.

Common career paths look like this:

1. Statistical programmer or associate biostatistician: writing code, producing outputs, and supporting senior staff
2. Biostatistician: owning analyses for one or more studies
3. Senior or principal biostatistician: leading programs, writing SAPs, and representing statistics with regulators
4. Director or head of biostatistics: setting standards and managing a team

Some biostatisticians branch into epidemiology, data science, real world evidence, or academic research. Knowing these career paths helps you write a posting that speaks to the right level, and helps you explain growth to candidates during the interview.

How to screen biostatistician candidates

Resumes for this role look alike. Most list SAS, R, and “clinical trials experience.” The difference shows up when a candidate has to do the work.

Use this checklist before scheduling hiring manager time:

• Confirm degree and years of relevant experience against the job description
• Give a short, hands on data task: clean a dataset, fit a model, and interpret the output
• Ask for a written explanation of one result aimed at a clinician
• Test one design question, such as calculating sample size for a two arm trial
• Ask how they handled missing data or a protocol deviation in a past study
• Verify identity at each stage, especially for remote roles

Glider AI supports this part of the process. Its skills assessments include hands on data science tasks in Jupyter Notebooks and open ended video or text responses scored against a rubric, with human override available. AI proctoring and identity checks help confirm the person who passed the assessment is the person who shows up to the interview. For behavioral fit, you can add behavioral and psychometric assessments. If you hire across clinical and research roles, see how Glider supports healthcare recruiting.

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