Food and Agricultural Scientist / Technologist
Career Area: Science and Research
Occupation Group: Biological Science
Salary
Percentile wages tell how much a certain percentage of an overall population in a geographic area or within a given industry or field makes. The percentile wage estimate is the value of a wage below which a certain percent of workers fall.
An example would be the 25th percentile, 25 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 75 percent earn more than the estimated wage value. At the 75th percentile, 75 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 25 percent earn more than the estimated wage value.
A typical Food and Agricultural Scientist / Technologist earns the following wages (national and state):
State
The average salary in North Carolina for those pursuing this career is $49,310
National
The average salary in the United States for those pursuing this career is $57,061
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
Studies plants and animals used in food production. Researches topics related to improving quality and productivity in agriculture and livestock farming, or food science and nutrition. May specialize in applying food science to food product development.
Employment Trends
The job demand and job growth statistics shown here were derived from job posts over the past year. Expected job growth projections are extrapolated from year-over-year job post listing history.
Job demand and job growth is expected at the following rates:
| Location | Growth | |
|---|---|---|
| North Carolina | 127 | +5.6% |
| Nationwide | 3585 | +5.3% |
Skills
A professional in this position typically utilizes the following skills in the course of everyday work in this exciting and challenging field:
Baseline Skills
The following are baseline skills every Food and Agricultural Scientist / Technologist is expected to have in order to experience success in this field:
- Communication Skills: The ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently.
- Research: Experience performing creative and systematic work to understand a product, market, or customer, either before building a new solution, or to troubleshoot an existing issue
- Teamwork / Collaboration: Experience working in collaborative efforts with a team to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in the most effective and efficient way.
- Microsoft Excel: Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet developed by Microsoft for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications.
- Organizational Skills: Experience with a systematic process of structuring, integrating, co-ordinating task goals, and activities to resources in order to attain objectives.
Specialized Skills
These skills are specific to working in this career:
- Food Safety: Food safety is a scientific discipline describing handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent foodborne illness.
- Food Science: Food science is the applied science devoted to the study of food.
- Product Development: In business and engineering, new product development (NPD) covers the complete process of bringing a new product to market.
- Chemistry: Chemistry is a branch of physical science that studies the composition, structure, properties and change of matter.
- Project Management: Project management is the discipline of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria.
Distinguishing Skills
Any Food and Agricultural Scientist / Technologist that possesses the following skills will stand out against the competition:
- Microbiology: Microbiology is the study of microscopic organisms, those being unicellular (single cell), multicellular (cell colony), or acellular (lacking cells).
- New Product Development: In business and engineering, new product development (NPD) covers the complete process of bringing a new product to market.
- Experimental Design: Working experience in experiments, describing or explaining a variation of information under conditions that are hypothesized to reflect the variation.
- Ingredient Functionality: Working experience of Ingredient Functionality. An assessment of food ingredient functionality in water or food applications is essential for optimising the performance of ingredients. Food system functionality helps in assessing the suitability of the ingredient in specific foods while the aqueous functionality may help in optimising the processing conditions
- Manufacturing Processes: Experience working within and designing manufacturing processes to combine raw materials or components into a final product.
Experience
This position typically requires the following level of experience. The numbers presented in the pie charts below were derived from actual job posts over the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Experience Required | % |
| 0 to 2 years | 62% |
| 3 to 5 years | 29% |
| 6 to 8 years | 5% |
Many of the programs offered through NC State are designed for working professionals who need additional credentials to enhance existing work experience.
Students who do not have the expected level of experience may wish to look into internship and employment opportunities.
Common Job Titles
It is possible to find work in this field in positions commonly listed as the following job titles:
- Food Safety Sanitor 3Rd
- Food Safety Sanitor
- Food Scientist
- Food Technologist
- Product Development Scientist
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