What it pays
Government survey numbers — not estimates, not ads.
Half of all Computer and Information Research Scientists in the U.S. earn more than $140,300 a year — the middle 80% land between $82,200 and $230,630. About 37,200 people in the U.S. do this work. Figures are for the U.S. occupation group “Computer and Information Research Scientists”. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics survey, published 2025.) In India, Professionals earn about ₹38,298 a month on average — around ₹4.6 lakh a year (government PLFS survey via ILOSTAT, occupation-family figure).
$140,300typical pay / year
37,200people in this work
$230,630+top 10% earn
₹4.6 lakha year in India (family avg)
Think you get this job?Six quick questions on how it really works — with a hint and the reason behind every answer.
Test yourself →The work, task by task
These are the real jobs-to-be-done, not a wish list. Each task shows where we found it, and the prompt underneath is written for that exact task.
Analysing4
Examine computer hardware
+Inspect the workstation fleet listed in the maintenance log, record serial numbers, RAM and disk capacities,…
Examine computer hardware
+Inspect the workstation fleet listed in the maintenance log, record serial numbers, RAM and disk capacities, note any physical damage, update each machine's maintenance record, and email technicians and Claire in support with the updated summary by Thursday.
The tools that do the workAnsibleESCOjob descriptionsO*NETWikipedia
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Test computer hardware
+Run the standard diagnostics on the five failing desktops in Bay 3, capture boot logs, CPU and memory stress…
Test computer hardware
+Run the standard diagnostics on the five failing desktops in Bay 3, capture boot logs, CPU and memory stress results, flag any parts needing replacement, attach test logs to each ticket, and notify the customer liaison, Marco, with ETA for repairs today.
The tools that do the workApache SparkESCOjob descriptionsWikipedia
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Develop and interpret organizational policies
+Draft a short hardware maintenance policy that defines minimum spec baselines, routine check intervals,…
Develop and interpret organizational policies
+Draft a short hardware maintenance policy that defines minimum spec baselines, routine check intervals, escalation steps for failed diagnostics, and customer communication standards, circulate to IT manager Sara and legal for comment and return a consolidated version next Tuesday.
The tools that do the workApache Airflowjob descriptionsO*NET
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Evaluate project plans for feasibility
+Review the new project plan for deploying 120 workstations, verify power, cooling and spare-parts…
Evaluate project plans for feasibility
+Review the new project plan for deploying 120 workstations, verify power, cooling and spare-parts assumptions, estimate realistic service windows and staffing, mark any infeasible items and send my feasibility notes to project lead Omar by Friday noon.
The tools that do the workAmazon Elastic Compute Cloud EC2job descriptionsO*NET
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Convincing1
Consult with users and management
+Hold joint sessions with Helen in product and Raj in support to gather their pain points with current…
Consult with users and management
+Hold joint sessions with Helen in product and Raj in support to gather their pain points with current hardware lifecycles, capture three highest-priority issues, propose two mitigations each, and email proposed next steps and timeline by Monday morning.
The tools that do the workApache Kafkajob descriptionsO*NET
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Make1
Create new computing languages and tools
+Prototype a small interpreter and a testing harness to parse our device log format, add functions to…
Create new computing languages and tools
+Prototype a small interpreter and a testing harness to parse our device log format, add functions to normalise timestamps and error codes, run it on last quarter's logs, and share the prototype and results with the development team on Wednesday.
The tools that do the workApache HadoopApache Sparkjob descriptionsWikipedia
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The daily work14
Publish research findings in scientific journals
+Write the manuscript draft reporting our experiment comparing firmware update strategies, include methods…
Publish research findings in scientific journals
+Write the manuscript draft reporting our experiment comparing firmware update strategies, include methods with hardware specs, full R code and data provenance, tables of results with reproducible figures, and prepare cover letter for Ecology Letters by next Tuesday.
The tools that do the workApache SparkWikipedia
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Replace damaged components and parts
+Create the maintenance report and update the parts-replacement log after swapping the failed network card and…
Replace damaged components and parts
+Create the maintenance report and update the parts-replacement log after swapping the failed network card and two capacitors, note serial numbers, test results, customer contact details, warranty claims started, and schedule follow-up visit for Friday morning.
The tools that do the workApache KafkaESCO
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Participate in multidisciplinary projects
+Join the multidisciplinary team meeting on Thursday, bring the diagnostic scripts, the recent maintenance log…
Participate in multidisciplinary projects
+Join the multidisciplinary team meeting on Thursday, bring the diagnostic scripts, the recent maintenance log for the signal processors, and explain how my data-cleaning workflow ties hardware specs to customer repair histories so engineers and clinicians can agree next steps.
The tools that do the workApache Sparkjob descriptionsO*NET
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Collaborate with scientists and engineers
+Work with Dr. Morales and Sam from hardware to reproduce the sensor calibration issue: share the analysis…
Collaborate with scientists and engineers
+Work with Dr. Morales and Sam from hardware to reproduce the sensor calibration issue: share the analysis notebook, the subset of repair tickets showing voltage anomalies, and propose two experimental runs engineers can reproduce next week.
The tools that do the workApache Hadoopjob descriptionsWikipedia
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Formulate mathematical models of problems
+Draft a compact mathematical model by Friday that links failure rate to operating temperature and maintenance…
Formulate mathematical models of problems
+Draft a compact mathematical model by Friday that links failure rate to operating temperature and maintenance interval, include assumptions, fitted parameters from last year's repair dataset, and a small R script to simulate expected uptime under three maintenance schedules.
The tools that do the workApache Sparkjob descriptionsWikipedia
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Assign or schedule tasks to meet work priorities and goals.
+Build the fortnight schedule that assigns debugging, ticket triage, and customer calls across our team to…
Assign or schedule tasks to meet work priorities and goals.
+Build the fortnight schedule that assigns debugging, ticket triage, and customer calls across our team to meet the product launch milestone, prioritise unresolved safety tickets, and flag resource gaps to my manager by Monday morning.
The tools that do the workApache AirflowO*NET
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Develop performance standards, and evaluate work in light of established standards.
+Set performance standards for data-processing pipelines: define acceptable runtimes, error rates, and data…
Develop performance standards, and evaluate work in light of established standards.
+Set performance standards for data-processing pipelines: define acceptable runtimes, error rates, and data completeness thresholds, run current pipelines against those metrics, and send a short evaluation to operations with remediation steps.
The tools that do the workApache KafkaO*NET
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Direct daily operations of departments, coordinating project activities with other departments.
+Coordinate today's operations: confirm technicians assigned to hardware diagnostics, allocate two analysts to…
Direct daily operations of departments, coordinating project activities with other departments.
+Coordinate today's operations: confirm technicians assigned to hardware diagnostics, allocate two analysts to the high-priority backlog, update the shared maintenance record with today's interventions, and notify procurement if spare parts below reorder level.
The tools that do the workAmazon Elastic Compute Cloud EC2O*NET
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Participate in staffing decisions and direct training of subordinates.
+Lead the staffing review for the analytics team: recommend hires and reassignments, schedule three interviews…
Participate in staffing decisions and direct training of subordinates.
+Lead the staffing review for the analytics team: recommend hires and reassignments, schedule three interviews this week with Priya, Jamal, and Diego, and draft a two‑month training plan that pairs each new hire with a senior for hands‑on device-repair diagnostics.
The tools that do the workApache AirflowO*NET
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Approve, prepare, monitor, and adjust operational budgets.
+Prepare and submit the quarterly operational budget for the analytics unit: list personnel costs, lab…
Approve, prepare, monitor, and adjust operational budgets.
+Prepare and submit the quarterly operational budget for the analytics unit: list personnel costs, lab hardware purchases, and maintenance contracts, set monthly spend limits, and send the budget to finance and the head of IT by Friday for their approval.
The tools that do the workApache SparkO*NET
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Improve the use of existing technology
+Review current analysis pipelines and propose three practical improvements to reduce run time or manual…
Improve the use of existing technology
+Review current analysis pipelines and propose three practical improvements to reduce run time or manual steps, document expected gains in hours saved, and pilot the first change on the patient-repair-log dataset this sprint.
The tools that do the workApache KafkaApache Sparkjob descriptions
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Determine computing needs and system requirements
+Assess computing needs for the next six months: inventory current servers and endpoints, estimate CPU, memory…
Determine computing needs and system requirements
+Assess computing needs for the next six months: inventory current servers and endpoints, estimate CPU, memory and storage required for planned models, and deliver a prioritized procurement list to procurement and IT by next Wednesday.
The tools that do the workAmazon Elastic Compute Cloud EC2job descriptions
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Monitor networks for security and availability
+Set up continuous monitoring for production pipelines to alert on latency or failed jobs, define the alert…
Monitor networks for security and availability
+Set up continuous monitoring for production pipelines to alert on latency or failed jobs, define the alert thresholds and on-call rotation, and run a fault-injection test with the operations lead next Tuesday to validate availability procedures.
The tools that do the workApache KafkaApache Airflowjob descriptions
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Analyze data to extract meaningful insights
+Analyze the last 12 months of repair and customer-service logs to identify three high-impact trends, produce…
Analyze data to extract meaningful insights
+Analyze the last 12 months of repair and customer-service logs to identify three high-impact trends, produce visual summaries showing root causes and seasonality, and send the findings with recommendations to the service director by Friday.
The tools that do the workApache SparkWikipedia
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Says who?
These are the pages we read to build this. Open any of them and check us.
The logs, files & records this job keeps
Shared with other careers — the same record means something different in each.
Related careers
Same family of work — each with its own tasks and prompts.
The LLOS Work Atlas is the world's largest evidenced task library — a map of human work, with a ready prompt behind every task. 1,774 careers · every task named by the sources that witnessed it — O*NET, ESCO, real job descriptions, Wikipedia — and the deepest tasks by several at once. And it is honest about limits: where AI cannot help, the map says so.
The rest of the map
Same library, five ways in.
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Built on public evidence: O*NET®, ESCO, Wikipedia, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, ILOSTAT. All sources & licenses
Built on public evidence: O*NET®, ESCO, Wikipedia, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, ILOSTAT. All sources & licenses