Physicist job description templates for applied R&D, research, medical physics, health physics, optics, and modeling, with pay, FLSA, and licensure notes.
Physicist Job Description Templates for Small Technical Teams
6 templates for the companies that hire physicists without an HR department: applied R&D, grant-funded research, medical physics, health physics and radiation safety, optics, and computational modeling. Download as DOCX.
Search for a physicist job description and you get university faculty postings, postdoctoral calls, and federal laboratory listings. Every one of them assumes a tenure track, a published pay band, and a staffing office that handles the paperwork. If you run a fourteen person optics company or an independent radiation oncology practice, none of that describes your situation.
A founder of a photonics startup once sent me the posting he had been running for four months. It was a national laboratory template with the lab name swapped out. It asked for a publication record and said nothing about vendor selection, manufacturing test procedures, or the fact that the hire would spend a quarter of the week on a customer call. He was attracting academics and losing them at the second interview.
At FirstHR we write hiring templates for exactly that employer. The six below cover applied R&D, a grant-funded research program, medical physics in a private practice, health physics and radiation safety, optical product development, and computational modeling, each with the credential and classification notes the generic versions leave out.
TL;DR
A physicist job description has to name the subfield, the apparatus, and the split between bench work and code, because the degree title alone tells a candidate almost nothing. Physics is unlicensed except in medical physics. Physicists are exempt learned professionals. The national median is $172,250 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). Six templates below.
Where Small Employers Hire Physicists
Most physicist hiring happens at universities, national laboratories, and federal agencies, but the small-employer share is real and concentrated in four places: applied R&D companies, independent medical practices, licensed materials operations, and modeling groups. Each has a different gate on who is eligible.
That difference is the whole reason a single generic template fails. A medical physics posting is decided by licensure and board certification before anyone reads a resume. An applied R&D posting is decided by whether the candidate has ever built a working setup. Writing both from the same outline produces something that fits neither.
Small applied R&D company
Optics, sensors, semiconductors, energy
The physicist owns the physics of the product end to end and sits three feet from the engineer who has to build it. Hands-on experimental skill matters more than publication count, and the posting should say so.
Independent radiation oncology or imaging practice
Licensure and board certification drive it
Medical physics is one of the few physics roles genuinely concentrated in small private practices. State licensure, board certification, and accreditation requirements decide who is eligible before any interview happens.
Licensed materials or radiography operation
The name goes on the license
A health physicist here is not only an employee, they are the Radiation Safety Officer named on your radioactive materials license. Replacing one is a regulatory filing with qualification criteria attached.
National lab or federal agency
Out of scope here
Federal and national laboratory hiring runs through a central staffing office, published pay bands, and a security clearance process. If that is you, the posting is largely written for you already.
Name the Subfield, Not Just the Title
Physics is wide enough that two people with identical degree titles can share almost no working skills. A condensed matter experimentalist, a plasma modeler, an optical designer, and a clinical medical physicist are four different hires. A posting that says only physicist gets applications from all four and fits none of them. Name the subfield, name the instruments or the codes, and state what fraction of the week is at a bench, in a solver, or in front of an engineer. Physicists read specifications for a living, so a precise posting reads as competence rather than as a narrow filter.
What Belongs in the Posting
A physicist job description does four jobs at once: it explains what your company builds, it filters candidates whose subfield does not match, it settles the legal terms that get expensive later, and it closes the hire. Most small-company postings do only the first. Here is the full inventory.
The parts a physicist reads first
What the company actually builds, in one sentence
The physics subfield, named specifically
Whether the role is experimental, computational, or both
Instruments, codes, and facilities available
The parts that filter applicants
Degree level, marked required or preferred
Board certification or license where the role requires one
Onsite lab requirement stated without hedging
Export control or clearance eligibility, if it genuinely applies
The parts that protect you
FLSA classification stated on the posting
Intellectual property and publication rights
Radiation, laser, and lab safety obligations
Equal opportunity statement
The parts that win the hire
A salary range you will honor
Equity, conference budget, and certification fees
Who they work with and who decides
A named person and a real timeline to apply
The single most common omission is intellectual property and publication rights. Physicists coming out of an academic environment expect to publish, and a small company with a patent strategy may not want them to. Settling that in the posting and again in the offer letter avoids an argument after a discovery. Our guide to writing a job description covers the general structure in more depth, and the hiring templates library has the adjacent technical roles.
6 Physicist Job Description Templates to Download
Download all six as one file or copy them individually. Each follows the same structure: company overview, position summary, key responsibilities, required qualifications, a classification and compliance note, an equal opportunity statement, and how to apply. The bracketed fields are the only parts you need to change. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR, so these are written to paste straight into whichever posting channel you already use.
Download All 6 Physicist Job Description Templates
Applied R&D, research, medical physics, health physics, optics, and computational. All in one download.
Physicist, Applied R&D
Bench to product
The general small-company role: experiments, models, instrumentation, and the handoff into engineering, written for a team that ships hardware.
Research Physicist
Grant-funded or institute lab
For an independent research program, with term funding stated honestly, proposal expectations, mentoring, and intellectual property settled up front.
Medical Physicist
Radiation oncology and imaging
For a private practice or imaging center: commissioning, quality assurance, plan review, and the licensure and board certification questions that gate the hire.
Health Physicist and RSO
Named on the license
For a licensed materials operation, with the Radiation Safety Officer duties, the qualification criteria, and the amendment timing spelled out.
Optical and Photonics Physicist
Design through manufacturing
For an optics or laser product team, with design tooling, alignment work, test procedure ownership, and the export control warning stated plainly.
Computational Physicist
Modeling and simulation
For a modeling group: solver development, verification and validation, uncertainty quantification, and code ownership terms written into the offer.
Template 1: Physicist, Applied R&D
The general small-company role, with experiments, modeling, instrumentation, and the handoff into engineering built in. Use this one when the physicist owns the physics of a product rather than a research program.
•Follow all lab safety, chemical, laser, and electrical safety procedures
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[PhD / MS / BS] in physics, applied physics, or a closely related field
•[Number] years of experience in [specialization: optics, condensed matter,
plasma, RF, cryogenics, vacuum, materials]
•Hands-on experimental skill: you have built a setup, not only analyzed data
someone else collected
•Programming for data analysis and instrument control
•Written communication clear enough for a customer to read
PREFERRED
•Experience taking a measurement technique from research to production
•[Cleanroom / vacuum system / cryogenic / high-power laser] experience
•Publication or patent record in [field]
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE (read before posting)
A physicist in an applied R&D role is normally exempt under the FLSA learned
professional exemption: the primary duty is work requiring advanced knowledge in
a field of science customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized
intellectual instruction, and the salary must meet the federal threshold of $684
per week ($35,568 per year), plus any higher state threshold that applies. Do not
assume the exemption for a technician-level role that follows written procedures.
If your work touches controlled technology, confirm export control status before
the first day and never screen candidates by nationality without written counsel.
This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year, [equity], [benefits summary]
To apply, email __ with your resume and a one-page
description of an experiment you designed and what it actually showed.
Template 2: Research Physicist
For an institute or grant-funded lab, with term funding stated honestly, proposal expectations, and mentoring duties. If the role is closer to a general laboratory science program, the research scientist templates fit better.
Research Physicist Job Description (Institute or Grant-Funded Lab)
RESEARCH PHYSICIST JOB DESCRIPTION (INSTITUTE OR GRANT-FUNDED LAB)
Organization: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Principal Investigator / Research Director]
Employment type: Full-time, [term-limited to the grant period / continuing]
FLSA status: Exempt (learned professional; see classification note)
Compensation: $_ per year
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Organization Name] is a [nonprofit research institute / independent lab /
university-affiliated center] working on [research area]. This position is
funded by [grant or contract] and runs through [date], with continuation
dependent on renewal.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Research Physicist plans and executes an independent research program within
[research area], publishes results, contributes to proposals that renew the
funding, and mentors junior staff and students in the group.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Design and carry out original research in [research area]
•Build, commission, and maintain experimental apparatus
•Develop simulation and analysis codes and keep them under version control
•Publish in peer-reviewed journals and present at conferences
•Write and contribute to grant proposals and progress reports
•Mentor [graduate students / postdocs / research assistants]
•Maintain research records adequate for audit and for reproducibility
•Comply with all research integrity, data management, and safety policies
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•PhD in physics or a closely related field
•[Number] years of postdoctoral or equivalent research experience
•Publication record in [subfield]
•Demonstrated ability to run an apparatus and a project end to end
•Experience contributing to funded proposals
TERM, FUNDING, AND WHAT WE PROMISE
This role is funded through [date]. We will tell you the renewal outlook
honestly at [frequency], and we will give [notice period] if funding ends. Time
allocation: approximately [percent] research, [percent] proposal writing,
[percent] mentoring and service.
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
A research physicist is normally exempt under the FLSA learned professional
exemption, which requires both the advanced-knowledge primary duty and a salary
at or above $684 per week ($35,568 per year), or a higher state threshold where
one applies. Grant funding does not change the classification analysis, and a
term-limited employee is still an employee, not an independent contractor.
Intellectual property, publication rights, and data ownership should be settled
in the offer letter rather than argued about after a discovery. If the work is
export controlled or subject to a research security requirement of the funding
agency, resolve that before the start date. This is general information, not
legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Organization Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per year, [benefits summary], [relocation]
To apply, email __ with your CV, a two-page research
statement, and the names of three references.
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For an independent radiation oncology practice or imaging center: commissioning, quality assurance, plan review, and the radiation protection program, with the licensure and board certification questions stated up front.
Medical Physicist Job Description (Radiation Oncology and Imaging)
MEDICAL PHYSICIST JOB DESCRIPTION (RADIATION ONCOLOGY AND IMAGING)
Practice or center: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Medical Director / Practice Administrator]
Employment type: Full-time / Part-time / [per diem coverage]
FLSA status: Exempt (learned professional; see classification note)
Compensation: $_ per year
ABOUT THIS PRACTICE
[Practice Name] is an independent [radiation oncology practice / imaging center]
in [City, State] treating [volume] patients per [period] on [linear accelerator
model / imaging modalities]. You would be our [only / lead] medical physicist,
working directly with [number] physicians and [number] therapists.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Medical Physicist is responsible for the safety and accuracy of radiation
delivered to patients: commissioning and quality assurance of treatment and
imaging equipment, treatment planning support, dose calculation review, and the
radiation protection program for staff and the public.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Perform acceptance testing, commissioning, and calibration of [linear
•Run the daily, monthly, and annual quality assurance program and document it
•Review treatment plans and independently verify dose calculations
•Support [IMRT / VMAT / SBRT / brachytherapy] planning and special procedures
•Maintain the radiation protection program, shielding surveys, and staff
dosimetry records
•Investigate incidents and near misses and file required reports
•Train therapists, dosimetrists, and residents on safe practice
•Keep the practice ready for [state inspection / accreditation survey]
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[MS / PhD] in medical physics, physics, or a related field
•Graduate of a CAMPEP-accredited program or residency [required / preferred:
choose one and be consistent in screening]
•Board certification in [therapeutic / diagnostic] medical physics
[required / preferred / must obtain within N years]
•[State license or registration as a medical physicist, where your state
requires one: verify with your state radiation control program]
•Experience with [treatment planning system] and [record and verify system]
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
A medical physicist is normally exempt under the FLSA learned professional
exemption. The harder compliance questions are elsewhere. Several states license
or register medical physicists directly, and the requirement is a condition of
practice, not a nice to have, so verify it with your state radiation control
program before you post. Federal mammography rules require a qualified medical
physicist to survey each mammography facility annually, and accreditation and
payer requirements often specify board certification. If you are covering a site
under a per diem or consulting arrangement, remember that a person whose
schedule, methods, and equipment you control is generally an employee rather
than an independent contractor, whatever the invoice says. This is general
information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Practice Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per year, [call schedule], [CME budget], [board
maintenance fees paid], [benefits summary]
To apply, email __ with your CV and current board status.
Template 4: Health Physicist and Radiation Safety Officer
For a licensed materials or radiography operation, with the Radiation Safety Officer duties and the license amendment timing spelled out. Pair it with the nuclear engineer templates if you also staff the technical side.
Health Physicist and Radiation Safety Officer Job Description
HEALTH PHYSICIST / RADIATION SAFETY OFFICER JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [President / VP Operations / Radiation Safety Committee]
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Exempt (learned professional; see classification note)
Compensation: $_ per year
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] holds a [NRC / Agreement State] radioactive materials license for
[use type: research, industrial radiography, gauges, manufacturing, medical] at
[number] sites. We are hiring a Health Physicist to run the radiation safety
program and to serve as the named Radiation Safety Officer on the license.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Health Physicist directs the radiation protection program: dosimetry,
surveys, source accountability, training, waste handling, and the license
paperwork that keeps the operation legal and inspection ready.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Serve as Radiation Safety Officer named on the [NRC / state] license
•Maintain the ALARA program and review occupational dose records
•Run surveys, leak tests, source inventories, and instrument calibration
•Manage receipt, transfer, storage, and disposal of licensed material
•Deliver radiation safety training and document attendance
•Prepare license amendments, renewals, and required reports
•Host regulator inspections and close findings on schedule
•Investigate overexposures, contamination events, and lost source incidents
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[BS / MS] in health physics, physics, radiological science, or a related field
•Training and experience meeting the RSO qualification criteria in our license
and the applicable regulation [verify the exact citation for your license type]
•[Certification by the American Board of Health Physics: required / preferred]
•Experience with [instrument type] and [dosimetry program]
•Comfortable writing procedures and standing in front of an inspector
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
A health physicist is normally exempt under the FLSA learned professional
exemption. The critical detail is the license, not the offer letter: the
Radiation Safety Officer is named on your radioactive materials license, and
changing that person usually requires a license amendment or notification, with
specific training and experience criteria the candidate must actually meet.
Start that process during hiring, not after the previous RSO leaves. Confirm
whether you are regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or by an
Agreement State program, because the qualification criteria and the amendment
process differ. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per year, [certification fees paid], [benefits summary]
To apply, email __ with your resume and a summary of the
license types you have worked under.
Template 5: Optical and Photonics Physicist
For an optics or laser product team, covering design tooling, alignment work, test procedure ownership, and the export control warning. Adjacent hires often sit in the aerospace engineer templates.
Optical and Photonics Physicist Job Description (Product Development)
•Write alignment, test, and acceptance procedures for manufacturing
•Support failure analysis on returned units and drive root cause
•Own laser safety practice in the lab alongside the safety officer
•Document designs well enough that the next engineer can reproduce them
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[PhD / MS / BS] in physics, optics, optical engineering, or a related field
•[Number] years designing and building real optical systems
•Fluency in an optical design package and in [Python / MATLAB] for analysis
•Hands-on alignment skill with [free-space / fiber / integrated] optics
•Understanding of manufacturing tolerance and cost, not just ideal performance
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
An optical physicist is normally exempt under the FLSA learned professional
exemption, with the federal salary threshold of $684 per week ($35,568 per year)
and any higher state threshold applying on top of the duties test. Optics and
laser technology are frequently controlled for export, and releasing controlled
technology to a foreign person inside the United States counts as an export to
that person's country of nationality, which means the requirement can attach to
an ordinary domestic hire. Classify your technology and get an export control
answer before you write a citizenship requirement into the posting, because
screening by citizenship or immigration status without a genuine legal basis is
itself unlawful. Also confirm your laser safety program and any state laser
registration. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year, [equity], [benefits summary]
To apply, email __ with your resume and a short note on an
optical system you took from design to a working build.
Template 6: Computational and Theoretical Physicist
For a modeling group: solver development, verification and validation, uncertainty quantification, and code ownership terms. If the role is closer to statistics and machine learning than to physical modeling, use the data scientist templates instead.
Computational and Theoretical Physicist Job Description (Modeling and Simulation)
A computational physicist is normally exempt under the FLSA learned professional
exemption based on advanced knowledge in a field of science, and the federal
salary threshold of $684 per week ($35,568 per year) plus any higher state
threshold applies. If the role is remote, you are subject to the wage, hour,
leave, and pay transparency rules of the state the employee works in, not the
state your office is in, so decide the eligible states before posting. Settle
code and model ownership, open source contribution policy, and publication
rights in the offer letter. Simulation code for controlled applications can
itself be export controlled. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year, [equity], [conference budget]
To apply, email __ with your resume and a link to code you
have written.
Degrees, Licenses, and Board Certification
Physics is not a licensed profession, so for most roles the degree is the only formal credential and it carries all of the signalling. Medical physics is the sharp exception, and health physics carries a regulatory constraint of its own through the Radiation Safety Officer named on a materials license.
That asymmetry should change how you screen. Where no license gates the role, demonstrated work beats the credential, and asking for one experiment the candidate designed tells you more than the transcript. Where a license or board certification does gate the role, eligibility is settled before fit and the pool is genuinely small.
There is no license to call yourself a physicist
Physics is not a licensed profession the way engineering, medicine, or law are. Nobody sits a state board to become a physicist, and no credential body can revoke the title. That means the degree is doing all of the signalling, and the degree alone tells you very little about whether someone can build an apparatus, debug a solver, or hold a specification. Screen on demonstrated work instead: ask for one experiment they designed and what it actually showed, one model they validated against data and where it disagreed, or one piece of code someone else now depends on. Set the degree bar to what the work needs. A PhD is genuinely required for an independent research program and frequently not required for an applied measurement role where a strong master's candidate with five years on real hardware will outperform.
Medical physics is the exception and it is heavily gated
Medical physics runs on a formal credential ladder that the rest of physics does not have: a graduate degree, a program or residency accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Physics Education Programs, and board certification in therapeutic, diagnostic, or nuclear medical physics. Several states license or register medical physicists outright, which makes the credential a condition of practice rather than a preference. Federal mammography quality rules require a qualified medical physicist to survey each mammography facility annually, and accreditation bodies and payers commonly specify board certification of their own. For a small private practice this reverses the usual hiring order: eligibility is decided before fit, and the candidate pool is small enough that you should confirm state requirements with your radiation control program before you write the posting. This is general information, not legal advice.
A Radiation Safety Officer is named on a license
If your operation holds a radioactive materials license, the Radiation Safety Officer is not merely a job title inside your org chart, it is a person identified on the license itself, with training and experience criteria set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or by your Agreement State program. Replacing that person generally requires a license amendment or a notification, and the replacement has to meet the criteria for your specific license type before they can hold the role. The failure mode is predictable and expensive: the incumbent resigns, the successor is hired on general health physics credentials, and only then does somebody read the qualification criteria. Start the regulatory step during hiring. Write the specific criteria into the posting so candidates can self-assess, and confirm your regulator before you make an offer. This is general information, not legal advice.
Clearance and export control eligibility are not the same thing
Two different requirements get confused constantly. A security clearance is a government investigation tied to classified work, it takes months, and only a sponsoring employer with a contract can start it, so a small company without one cannot simply require it. Export control eligibility is a different question governed by the Export Administration Regulations and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, and it can attach to an ordinary domestic hire in an optics or aerospace shop with no classified work at all. Classify your technology first, then decide what the role genuinely requires. Never copy a clearance line from another company's posting, and never write a citizenship requirement you cannot tie to a specific legal obligation, because screening on citizenship or immigration status without that basis is itself unlawful. This is general information, not legal advice.
Background screening still applies at every level, and for roles with facility access or controlled material it is usually a condition of the offer. Our guides to running a background check and to state background check laws cover the process and the notice requirements.
Export Control and Citizenship Language
Export control can attach to an ordinary domestic physicist hire with no classified work involved, and it is the reason so many technical postings carry a citizenship line they cannot legally defend. Releasing controlled technology to a foreign person inside the United States is treated as an export to that person's country of nationality.
The Commerce Department explains that deemed export rule under the Export Administration Regulations, and defense articles carry a parallel regime under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. Optics, lasers, sensors, propulsion, and certain simulation codes are commonly controlled, which is exactly the technology a small physics-heavy company builds.
The trap is what employers do next. Copying a citizenship requirement from another posting, or writing US persons only as a reflex, is itself unlawful when you cannot tie it to a specific legal obligation. The Justice Department enforces that through its Immigrant and Employee Rights Section, and export-control-flavored language is a recurring source of charges.
Classify the Technology Before You Write the Eligibility Line
Run the sequence in this order and it stays clean. First, classify what the role will touch under the Export Administration Regulations or the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. Second, decide whether a license or exemption covers the situation. Third, write only the eligibility language your actual obligation supports, with counsel. Never start at step three. A citizenship requirement written from habit rather than from a classification is both a discrimination exposure and a needless cut into an already small candidate pool.
Overtime and the Professional Exemption
A physicist is normally exempt from overtime under the FLSA learned professional exemption, because the primary duty is work requiring advanced knowledge in a field of science customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction. Unlike the teaching exemption, this one does carry a salary test.
The rule is set out in the federal regulation on learned professionals, and the current federal threshold is $684 per week, or $35,568 per year. The 2024 Department of Labor rule that would have raised it was vacated in federal court in November 2024 and formally rescinded in May 2026, so the older figure stands. Several states set a higher threshold, and the state figure wins where it applies. Schools of thought differ on borderline roles, but the Fair Labor Standards Act analysis always turns on duties first.
Role
Typical FLSA status
Why
Physicist, applied R&D
Exempt learned professional
Advanced scientific knowledge is the primary duty; salary test applies
Research physicist, grant funded
Exempt learned professional
Grant funding does not change the analysis; still an employee, not a contractor
Medical physicist
Exempt learned professional
Advanced degree plus board certification; licensure is the harder gate
Health physicist and RSO
Exempt learned professional
Regulatory program ownership; RSO criteria set by the license, not the offer
Optical or photonics physicist
Exempt learned professional
Design and analysis duty; export control is the separate question
Computational physicist
Exempt learned professional
Model development, not routine coding to specification
Physics or laboratory technician
Usually non-exempt
Follows written procedures under supervision; track hours and pay overtime
Graduate intern or co-op
Depends on the arrangement
Apply the primary beneficiary test before treating anyone as unpaid
Anyone outside the exemption needs hours tracked and overtime paid past forty in a week, which in a physics lab most often means the technician and the instrumentation support staff rather than the physicist. Our breakdown of exempt versus non-exempt classification works through the tests when a role sits on the line.
What to Pay a Physicist
Physics is one of the highest paid science occupations the federal wage survey tracks, and the spread inside the occupation is unusually wide. Treat the national median as a reference point rather than a target, because it blends a postdoctoral researcher, an industrial optics lead, and a senior clinical medical physicist into one number.
National Wage Ladder for Physicists
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), physicists earned a national median annual wage of $172,250, or $82.81 per hour. The tenth percentile earned $82,110, the twenty-fifth $111,720, the seventy-fifth $222,760, and the ninetieth $274,110 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS national estimates).
One thing to know before you benchmark a specialty hire: the federal survey does not publish a separate occupation for medical physicists or health physicists. Both sit inside the single Physicists classification, SOC 19-2012, which the Department of Labor sponsored O*NET database lists alongside reported job titles including medical physicist, health physicist, research physicist, and biophysics scientist.
Classification
National median (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
Note for small employers
Physicists (SOC 19-2012)
$172,250 per year
Includes medical and health physicists; no separate code exists for either
Physicists, 10th percentile
$82,110 per year
Roughly where a postdoctoral or early-career research role sits
Physicists, 90th percentile
$274,110 per year
Senior industrial and clinical roles in high-cost metro areas
Nuclear engineers
$133,970 per year
Useful comparison for a licensing or radiation services hire
Astronomers
$128,820 per year
Nearest observational science classification
Materials scientists
$117,790 per year
Common alternative hire for a measurement-heavy R&D role
Medical scientists
$103,410 per year
Benchmark for a biophysics or instrumentation research role
Physics teachers, postsecondary
$100,310 per year
Where academic-track candidates are comparing your offer
For a small company the practical move is to benchmark against comparable private employers in your metro area rather than the national figure, then decide what you can offer that a large research organization cannot: equity, scope, speed of decision, and seeing the work reach a customer. Publish a good-faith range where pay transparency laws apply, and remember that a remote hire brings the rules of the state they sit in.
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Small-company physics hiring fails in three predictable places: the posting is copied from an academic listing, the breadth of the role goes unstated, and the compliance paperwork arrives all at once after the offer is signed. Each has a fix that costs an hour rather than a hiring cycle.
The only physicist job descriptions you can find were written by universities and national labs
Search the phrase and you get faculty postings, postdoc calls, and federal listings built around a tenure track, a published pay band, and a central staffing office. None of that describes a fourteen person optics company where the physicist will also specify vendor parts, write the manufacturing test procedure, and sit in on customer calls. Copying an academic posting sets exactly the wrong expectation, and the mismatch surfaces in the second interview when the candidate asks about teaching load. Write the posting around what the day contains: the fraction that is bench work, the fraction that is code, the fraction that is talking to engineers, and the fraction that is writing. Physicists are unusually good at reading a specification, so an honest one earns you credibility rather than costing you applicants.
You are hiring one person for a job that three specialists cover at a larger company
At a small company the physicist is the experimentalist, the modeler, the metrology owner, and often the person who writes the technical section of the proposal. That breadth is real and it is a genuine selling point to the right candidate, but only if you say it out loud instead of listing twenty responsibilities and hoping. Name the two things that dominate the week and the three things that appear occasionally, then be honest that the boundary moves. Compete on what a small team actually offers: seeing your work reach a customer, choosing what to measure next, a decision made in a week, and equity in something you helped build. Those beat a large research organization for a specific kind of person, and that person is the one you want to attract.
The compliance paperwork for a technical hire arrives all at once and nothing is centralized
A physicist hire drags a longer document tail than most roles: signed offer with intellectual property and publication terms, export control determination, lab and laser safety training records, radiation dosimetry enrollment, board certification and license copies with expiration dates, controlled-area access approvals, and the ordinary onboarding paperwork on top. Miss one renewal and an inspection finds it. FirstHR was built for exactly this. The onboarding wizard runs the same sequence for every technical hire, e-signature handles the offer and the intellectual property acknowledgment, document management stores certifications and clearances against the employee profile with renewal dates attached, and training modules cover safety orientation before anyone touches a beam line. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR. Note that FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a payroll provider.
Once the offer is signed, the work shifts to a repeatable onboarding checklist that carries the safety training, dosimetry enrollment, certification copies, and access approvals a technical hire needs before the first day in the lab.
Key Takeaways
Name the physics subfield, the instruments or codes, and the split between bench work and analysis, because a shared degree title tells a candidate almost nothing about the job.
Physics is not a licensed profession, so demonstrated work beats the credential everywhere except medical physics, where state licensure and board certification gate eligibility before fit.
A Radiation Safety Officer is named on your radioactive materials license and must meet training criteria set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or your Agreement State, so start the amendment during hiring.
Physicists are exempt learned professionals, but that exemption carries a salary test: $684 per week federally, and higher in several states.
Export control can attach to an ordinary domestic hire, and a citizenship requirement written without a classification behind it is a discrimination exposure, not a safe default.
The national median was $172,250 (BLS OEWS, May 2025) with a tenth-to-ninetieth spread of $82,110 to $274,110, so benchmark locally rather than to the median.
A physicist hire drags a longer document tail than most roles. FirstHR runs the same onboarding sequence every time, with e-signature for the offer and the intellectual property acknowledgment, document storage for certifications and license copies, and renewal dates tracked so nothing expires quietly before an inspection. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should a physicist job description include?
A physicist job description should include nine things: what your company actually builds in one sentence, the physics subfield named specifically, whether the role is experimental, computational, or both, the instruments and codes the person will use, the degree level marked required or preferred, any license or board certification the role legally requires, the FLSA classification, the intellectual property and publication terms, and a salary range you will honor. The subfield matters more than most employers expect. Physics is wide enough that a condensed matter experimentalist and a plasma modeler share a degree title and almost nothing else, so a posting that says only physicist attracts volume and not fit. Name the subfield, name the apparatus, and say what fraction of the week is bench work versus code.
Do physicists need a license to work in the United States?
No, with one important exception. Physics is not a licensed profession the way engineering, medicine, or law are, so there is no state board and no legal credential required to hold the title or do the work. The exception is medical physics. Several states license or register medical physicists directly, which makes the credential a condition of practice rather than a preference, and the field runs on a formal ladder of a graduate degree, an accredited program or residency, and board certification in therapeutic, diagnostic, or nuclear medical physics. Health physicists serving as a Radiation Safety Officer face a related constraint: the RSO is named on your radioactive materials license and has to meet training and experience criteria set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or your Agreement State. Verify both with your state program before you post.
Are physicists exempt from overtime under the FLSA?
Yes, in nearly all cases. A physicist qualifies for the learned professional exemption because the primary duty is work requiring advanced knowledge in a field of science customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction, which is exactly what the federal regulation describes. Unlike the teaching exemption, the learned professional exemption does carry a salary test: the employee must be paid at least $684 per week, which is $35,568 per year, and any higher state threshold applies on top of that. Two cautions. A technician-level role that follows written procedures under supervision is not exempt just because it happens in a physics lab, so classify on the duties actually performed. And a term-limited or grant-funded position is still an employee, not an independent contractor, when you set the schedule, the equipment, and the direction of the work. This is general information, not legal advice.
How much does a physicist make?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), physicists earned a national median annual wage of $172,250, or $82.81 per hour, making physics one of the highest paid science occupations the survey tracks. The spread is very wide: the tenth percentile earned $82,110 and the ninetieth percentile $274,110, a range of more than three to one, which reflects how differently a postdoctoral researcher, an industrial optics lead, and a senior medical physicist are paid. Nearby classifications benchmark lower. Astronomers had a median of $128,820, nuclear engineers $133,970, materials scientists $117,790, and physics teachers in postsecondary institutions $100,310. For a small company, benchmark against comparable private employers in your metro area rather than the national median, and publish a good-faith range where pay transparency rules apply.
Is there a separate BLS occupation code for medical physicists?
No. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish a separate occupation for medical physicists, and it does not publish one for health physicists either. Both roll into the broader Physicists classification, SOC 19-2012, alongside research physicists, applied physicists, and biophysics scientists. The Department of Labor sponsored O*NET database lists medical physicist, health physicist, and research physicist among the reported job titles for that single code. The practical consequence is that the published median of $172,250 blends specialties with very different pay structures and very different credential requirements, so it is a starting reference rather than a benchmark for any one of them. For a specialty hire, anchor to the code, then adjust using local private-sector market data and what comparable practices or companies in your area actually pay.
Can I require US citizenship in a physicist job posting?
Usually not, and the question is more dangerous than it looks. Screening candidates on citizenship or immigration status without a specific legal basis is itself unlawful under federal law, and the Department of Justice enforces that through its Immigrant and Employee Rights Section. Two legitimate bases exist and they are narrower than employers assume. A security clearance requirement applies only to genuinely classified work that a sponsoring employer with a contract can support. Export control is a separate regime: under the Export Administration Regulations and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, releasing controlled technology to a foreign person inside the United States is treated as an export to that person's country of nationality, which can attach to an ordinary domestic hire in an optics or aerospace shop. Classify your technology first, then write the requirement to match the actual obligation, with counsel. This is general information, not legal advice.
Should I require a PhD for a physicist role at a small company?
Only when the work genuinely needs one, which is less often than most postings assume. A PhD is the right bar for an independent research program, for a role that will define what the company investigates next, and for medical physics where the credential ladder is formal anyway. For applied measurement, instrumentation, optical design, and production support, a master's candidate with five years on real hardware frequently outperforms a fresh doctorate, because the scarce skill in a small company is building and debugging a working setup rather than extending a theory. Requiring a doctorate you do not need shrinks an already small candidate pool, raises the salary you must offer, and attracts people who will be unhappy when the week is mostly tolerance analysis. Write the degree as required or preferred deliberately, and screen on demonstrated work either way.
