At a university research operation, federal or state research agency, think tank, or specialty research firm, you support statistical research projects — data preparation, statistical analysis support, documentation of research, and the operational work academic and applied statistical research involves.
Statistical research-assistant work serves the senior researchers driving the substantive work — preparing data sets for analysis (cleaning, transforming, validating), running statistical analyses under researcher direction, documenting methodology and results, and supporting the academic-and-publication workflow research operations involve. The assistant works statistical software (R, Stata, SAS, Python statistical libraries), the research-data infrastructure, and the methodology framework specific to the research domain. Research-support quality, analytical contribution, and project advancement are the operating measures.
Variance across employers is wide: at university research operations the assistant role is often a graduate or post-bachelor pathway position; at federal research agencies it integrates with federal-statistical-program work; at think tanks or specialty research firms it serves applied-research projects. The educational-pathway dimension matters — many statistical research assistants are working toward graduate degrees that open more senior research positions.
This role fits people who are analytically curious, comfortable with statistical-software depth, and committed to the research-career pathway the work often supports. Statistical-software training, BS or MS in statistics or related quantitative fields, and ongoing CE anchor advancement. The trade-off is the modest entry-level pay typical of research-assistant positions and the competitive market for more senior statistical research positions that follow.
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Roles like this one sit within a broader occupational category. The numbers below reflect that full landscape — helpful for context, but your specific experience will depend on level, specialty, and where you work.
Roles with similar work and overlapping career paths
View all Admin & Office roles →At a university research operation, federal or state research agency, think tank, or specialty research firm, you support statistical research projects — data preparation, statistical analysis support, documentation of research, and the operational work academic and applied statistical research involves.
Median pay for a Statistical Research Assistant is about $51K nationally, with the field ranging roughly from $38K to $79K depending on experience, employer, and metro (BLS).
Core skills for this role include Mathematics, Reading Comprehension, Critical Thinking, Active Learning, and Complex Problem Solving.
Most people in this role hold a bachelor's degree.
Employment in this field is projected to decline about 2.5% through 2034, with roughly 5,900 people working in it today (BLS).
Closely related roles include Research Scientist, Research Analyst, and Statistical Analyst.
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