Side-by-side distribution
Physicist
$168,450
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 26.3%
- Live roles
- 38
Research Scientist
$220,500
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 54.9%
- Live roles
- 417
Highest-paying jobs
Staff Quantum Sensor Physicist
Staff Quantum Physicist
Quantum Physicist (Quantum Computing)
Computational Physicist
Divertor Plasma Physicist (Scientist/Sr. Scientist/Manager)
PhD Physicist
Optical Physicist
Senior Physicist, Quantum Memory R&D
Quantum Physicist, Integrated Photonics
Computational Plasma Physicist – Transport Modeling
Highest-paying jobs
Research Engineer/Research Scientist, Pre-training
Research Scientist, Interpretability
Principal Research Scientist, Robot Foundation Model
[Expression of Interest] Research Engineer / Scientist, Alignment - London
Research Engineer / Research Scientist - Personal AGI, Personalization
Staff / Principal Research Scientist - USA
Research Engineer / Research Scientist - Personal AGI, Memory
Research Scientist
Research Scientist, APEX Benchmarks
Research Engineer / Research Scientist, Tokens
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Infleqtion
|
$211,000 | 3 |
|
Thea Energy
|
$138,750 | 2 |
|
Fuse
|
$175,000 | 1 |
|
Atomcomputing
|
$172,500 | 1 |
|
micro1
|
$166,400 | 1 |
|
Dodmg
|
$158,325 | 1 |
|
IonQ
|
$154,418 | 1 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
OpenAI
|
$440,000 | 14 |
| SA Scale AI | $244,350 | 12 |
Anduril Industries
|
$221,000 | 12 |
|
Anthropic
|
$388,750 | 10 |
Astera Institute
|
$173,750 | 10 |
| LS Lila Sciences | $240,000 | 6 |
Waabi
|
$212,750 | 6 |
Applied Intuition
|
$274,500 | 5 |
Physicist salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Chicago | $211,000 | 3 |
Physicist vs Research Scientist: which pays more?
The median for Physicist is $168,450 per year (typically $157,706–$174,375), versus $220,500 for Research Scientist ($169,838–$287,600). That puts Research Scientist about 31% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Physicist and Research Scientist are compared on equal terms regardless of the currency each role was originally posted in. Only roles that publish a salary range feed the medians; numbers refresh every few hours as new roles post and older ones close, so this comparison reflects the market right now rather than a fixed survey. Use it as a directional benchmark when weighing one path against the other.