Counted October 20, 2026 · from employers’ own postings
Physical Scientist: $122K median posted pay.
From 30 salary bands employers posted on 32 open physical scientist roles in data & science. Never an estimate.
The ladder, by level
What each rung pays.
No level is named often enough in these postings to build a ladder.
Levels as the postings name them. A rung shows a median only where eight or more postings at that level carried a band.
Who is hiring
The employers with the most open.
| Employer | Open roles | Entry level |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Energy Headquarters | 8 | — |
| Geological Survey | 5 | — |
| U.S. Army Medical Command | 3 | — |
| Customs and Border Protection | 3 | — |
| United States Fleet Forces Command | 3 | — |
| Ames Research Center | 2 | — |
| Headquarters, NASA | 2 | — |
| National Park Service | 2 | — |
| Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives | 1 | — |
| Air Force Civilian Career Training | 1 | — |
Counted from employers’ own job boards. The ten with the most open physical scientist roles tonight.
The skills, as the postings name them
What these postings ask for.
| Skill | Postings | At entry |
|---|---|---|
| Toxicology | 3 | — |
| Waste Management | 3 | — |
| Geology | 2 | — |
| Astronomy | 2 | — |
| Program Management | 2 | — |
| Data Analysis | 2 | — |
| Investigation | 2 | — |
| Sculpture | 1 | — |
| Law Enforcement | 1 | — |
Where the work is
0% of these roles are remote.
- Remote0%0 roles
- Hybrid0%0 roles
- On site53%17 roles
- Not stated47%15 roles
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How this was counted
Every figure is counted from 32 open postings read from employers’ own job boards on October 20, 2026, and recounted every night. Pay is the band the employer posted — never an estimate, never a model — and 30 of these postings carried one. Titles are grouped by the words the postings use, with levels, shifts and schedules removed, so “Senior Physical Scientist (Nights)” counts here too. 100% of roles with this title sit in data & science, which is why this page belongs to that career. A title gets a page only where twenty-five or more roles are open, eight or more of them posted a band, three or more employers are hiring for it and four in five of its postings sit in one career, so no page here is a guess.