Research Scientist - Pathogen Genomics and Surveillance
Company websiteparsons.com (Parsons, opens in new tab)
Base salary $103,500 to $181,100
Employer-published annual base salary, USD. Advertised base range in Frederick, MD
You apply on the employer's own site. Six Figure Work does not handle applications.
- LocationFrederick, MD
- WorkplaceWorkplace not stated
- Status at last checkSource accepting applications when checked
- Last checked (8 min ago) · observed since
About this job
Job Description:
Parsons is seeking Research Scientists – Pathogen Genomics and Surveillance to support infectious-disease research at NMRC BDRD. These positions will conduct laboratory and analytical research involving molecular biology, genomics, microbiology, virology, bacteriology, and bioinformatics.
The selected scientists will contribute to pathogen detection, surveillance, protocol development, sequencing, data analysis, and epidemic or pandemic preparedness. Work may involve clinical, environmental, wastewater, animal, vector, or other complex samples.
What You’ll Be Doing
- Design and conduct basic and applied infectious-disease research.
- Perform wet-laboratory activities supporting genomics, pathogen detection, and characterization.
- Conduct or support NGS and bioinformatics analysis of complex samples.
- Develop, test, and improve laboratory and analytical protocols.
- Design probes or primers and assess analytical sensitivity and specificity.
- Support target-enrichment, shotgun-sequencing, and amplicon-sequencing approaches.
- Perform pathogen surveillance and contribute to the detection of known or novel pathogens.
- Analyze research data, troubleshoot technical issues, and document experimental results.
- Support epidemic, pandemic, and emerging-pathogen research activities.
- Prepare protocols, SOPs, technical reports, presentations, manuscripts, and database-ready data.
- Collaborate with multidisciplinary researchers and CONUS or OCONUS partners.
- Travel domestically and internationally when required.
What Required Skills You’ll Bring
- Ph.D. in molecular biology, biology, microbiology, virology, emerging infectious diseases, biochemistry, or a closely related field.
- Practical postdoctoral research experience in virology, bacteriology, and/or genomics.
- At least two years of demonstrable applied experience relevant to genomics, microbiology, virology, bacteriology, bioinformatics, or bioinformatics-platform and software development.
- Practical knowledge of basic and applied research, experimental design, and scientific methods.
- Demonstrated ability to perform original and competent research.
- Strong data-analysis, troubleshooting, writing, and communication skills.
- Ability to meet project deadlines and work in a multidisciplinary research environment.
- Ability to provide occasional after-hours support based on assigned mission requirements.
- Availability for domestic and international travel lasting up to two to four weeks.
- U.S. citizenship due to federal contract requirements.
- Eligibility to obtain and maintain a Secret security clearance and required Government access.
What Desired Skills You’ll Bring
- Significant NGS and wet-laboratory experience with infectious-disease protocols.
- Experience with clinical, environmental, wastewater, animal, or vector samples.
- Experience with whole-genome sequencing, genome assembly, annotation, or phylogenetics.
- Experience developing or validating bioinformatics pipelines.
- Experience supporting DoD, Navy Medicine, or another federal research laboratory.
- Experience with biosurveillance, outbreak response, or emerging pathogens.
- Scientific publication and conference-presentation experience.
- An active Secret security clearance.
Compliance Note
These positions are expected to be primarily on-site at Fort Detrick and are contingent upon contract award. Candidates must satisfy applicable security, facility-access, IT-access, laboratory-safety, human- or animal-research, and travel requirements. Participation in assigned rotational reach-back coverage may be required outside normal business hours, including evenings, weekends, or holidays.
Security Clearance Requirement:
NoneThis position is part of our Federal Solutions team.The Federal Solutions segment delivers resources to our US government customers that ensure the success of missions around the globe. Our intelligent employees drive the state of the art as they provide services and solutions in the areas of defense, security, intelligence, infrastructure, and environmental. We promote a culture of excellence and close-knit teams that take pride in delivering, protecting, and sustaining our nation's most critical assets, from Earth to cyberspace. Throughout the company, our people are anticipating what’s next to deliver the solutions our customers need now.Salary Range: $103,500.00 - $181,100.00We value our employees and want our employees to take care of their overall wellbeing, which is why we offer best-in-class benefits such as medical, dental, vision, paid time off, 401(k), life insurance, flexible work schedules, and holidays to fit your busy lifestyle!Parsons is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veteran status or any other protected status.We truly invest and care about our employee’s wellbeing and provide endless growth opportunities as the sky is the limit, so aim for the stars! Imagine next and join the Parsons quest—APPLY TODAY!Parsons is aware of fraudulent recruitment practices. To learn more about recruitment fraud and how to report it, please refer to https://www.parsons.com/fraudulent-recruitment/.
Source: Parsons on Workday · View original posting (opens in new tab)
Pay in context
This role's base floor ($103,500) is above 4% of the 44 Data & ML roles in Maryland listed on this site; 3 others list the same floor. Their median floor is $120,424; the middle half runs from $109,250 to $148,725.
Only jobs on this site count, and each one publishes a base salary of $100,000 or more, so this compares six-figure jobs with each other, not with the whole market. Computed Nov 7, 2026.
This listingResearch Scientist - Pathogen Genomics and Surveillance$103,500 to $181,100
Construction Surveillance Technician - CST$103,500 to $181,100
Workflow Support Specialist$103,500 to $181,100
Information System Security Officer - Topsecret$103,500 to $181,100
Scheduler$103,500 to $181,100
Security Cooperation Manager$103,500 to $181,100
Project Controls Specialist$103,500 to $181,100
Chart as a table
| Role | Published base |
|---|---|
| Research Scientist - Pathogen Genomics and Surveillance (this listing) | $103,500 - $181,100 |
| Construction Surveillance Technician - CST | $103,500 - $181,100 |
| Workflow Support Specialist | $103,500 - $181,100 |
| Information System Security Officer - Topsecret | $103,500 - $181,100 |
| Scheduler | $103,500 - $181,100 |
| Security Cooperation Manager | $103,500 - $181,100 |
| Project Controls Specialist | $103,500 - $181,100 |
Observed changes
- Began meeting the published-salary criteria
- First observed on the employer's board
- Observed since
- Employer-stated posting date
- 2026-09-16
Where this pay comes from
Location as the employer wrote it: US - MD, Frederick
Salary Range: $103,500.00 - $181,100.00
- Method
- Employer text, read with fixed rules and re-verified
- Checked
- Rule set
- us-base-v2
The pay passage appears in the employer's own job text. Fixed, deterministic rules located it, and the passage below was checked against the stored copy of the posting.
What we verified
- The pay figures come from the employer's own listing, quoted exactly above.
- The pay is an annual base salary in US dollars with a minimum of at least $100,000.
- The role was publicly listed on the employer's job board when last checked.
We do not verify what the employer will actually offer, whether the employer is still recruiting for the role, or anything beyond what the employer published. Full methodology.