💡 Why it matters: Brain disorders affect millions of families, and scientists are still learning how the brain works. New tools are opening up discoveries every year.
🌍 Around the world
- United States: Jobs are projected to grow 13% from 2025 to 2035, much faster than average (US Bureau of Labor Statistics). (for medical scientists, the closest category).
💰 What it can pay
🇳🇬 Nigeria
- Starting out
- ₦700k – ₦1.5M
- Mid-career
- ₦2M – ₦5M
- Senior
- ₦5M – ₦12M
≈ ₦167k – ₦417k a month mid-career. Indicative estimate by Incusim.
🇺🇸 United States
Closest US category: Medical scientists. Median pay; low and high are the 10th and 90th percentiles. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025
🇨🇦 Canada
Closest Canadian job: Biologist. Hourly wage low/median/high x 2,080 hours. Job Bank (Government of Canada), 2023-2024
Yearly pay before tax. UK, US and Canada figures come from the official sources named on each card. Nigeria has no official salary survey, so those are our indicative estimates. Real pay depends on the employer, the place, your skills and experience.
🛠️ What you actually do
- Run experiments on how the brain and nerves work
- Use brain scans and recorded signals to gather data
- Study conditions such as epilepsy, dementia and depression
- Analyse results with statistics and code
- Publish findings and apply for research funding
⚡ Skills you'll need
- Scientific thinking
- Statistics
- Careful lab work
- Coding
- Writing and presenting
Get ready at school
🇳🇬 Nigeria
- Some begin as laboratory technicians and study part-time
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- Lab technician or research assistant jobs, studying part-time
- Laboratory scientist degree apprenticeships
🇺🇸 United States
- Undergraduate research assistant posts in university labs
- Research technician jobs before graduate school
🇨🇦 Canada
- Co-op placements and research assistant jobs in university labs
- Lab technician jobs before graduate school
🗺️ Your path to this career
- 1Study Biology, Chemistry and Mathematics at school
- 2Take a degree in neuroscience, biology or psychology
- 3Gain lab experience through a placement or research assistant job
- 4Complete a PhD on a brain-related question
- 5Work in a university, hospital or company lab
⏰ A day in the life
You start the day running a brain-recording experiment with a volunteer. In the afternoon you write code to clean the data and look for patterns. At a weekly meeting your team discusses what the results might mean.