Benchmark Job

Materials Scientists

Materials Scientists remains mostly human-led, with selective automation opportunities in support work.

Research and study the structures and chemical properties of various natural and synthetic or composite materials, including metals, alloys, rubber, ceramics, semiconductors, polymers, and glass. Determine ways to strengthen or combine materials or develop new materials with new or specific properties for use in a variety of products and applications. Includes glass scientists, ceramic scientists, metallurgical scientists, and polymer scientists.

40% exposure • High confidenceToday

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Category: Life, Physical, and Social Science • Industry: Regulation and Administration of Transportation Programs (92)

Why this score

How we calculate

Top 3 drivers

Routine process execution: 32% task weight, 54% automation potential.
Documentation and reporting: 28% task weight, 44% automation potential.
Stakeholder communication: 22% task weight, 30% automation potential.

Top 2 blockers

Exception handling: Edge cases and accountability ownership.
Stakeholder communication: Empathy, negotiation, and situational nuance.

Confidence reasons

1,016 benchmark role descriptions are mapped across O*NET + NAICS sources.
Coverage spans 23 categories and 1,012 industries.
Adjacent role consistency band is ±1 points for this benchmark family.

Task Mix

Routine process execution (32% weight • 17 contribution)54%

Mixed automation potential with meaningful human oversight.

Documentation and reporting (28% weight • 12 contribution)44%

High judgment, trust, or contextual complexity keeps this human-led.

Stakeholder communication (22% weight • 7 contribution)30%

High judgment, trust, or contextual complexity keeps this human-led.

Exception handling (18% weight • 4 contribution)20%

High judgment, trust, or contextual complexity keeps this human-led.

Recommended Stack

Click a stack item to open setup difficulty, time-to-value, and workflow details.

Replaceable tasks vs human tasks

AI-suitable tasks

Routine process execution54% automation potential • Workflow automation + RPA
Documentation and reporting44% automation potential • Document AI + reporting automation
Stakeholder communication30% automation potential • Template assistant + CRM automation

Human-needed tasks

Exception handlingAI struggles because edge cases and accountability ownership.
Stakeholder communicationAI struggles because empathy, negotiation, and situational nuance.
Documentation and reportingAI struggles because liability and audit-quality requirements.

Tools coverage meter

This stack covers 31% of automatable tasks.

Remaining gaps: exceptions, communication, edge cases.

Automation timeline

Current mode: Today • Exposure estimate: 40% • tools now

What to pivot into

Compare roles

Safer adjacent roles

Mental Health CounselorsExposure: 16% • Salary: $93,500 • -$16,500 • Exposure tradeoff: -20 pts
Environmental Science Teachers, PostsecondaryExposure: 17% • Salary: $97,500 • -$12,500 • Exposure tradeoff: -19 pts
Forestry and Conservation Science Teachers, PostsecondaryExposure: 17% • Salary: $97,500 • -$12,500 • Exposure tradeoff: -19 pts
Special Education Teachers, PreschoolExposure: 17% • Salary: $97,500 • -$12,500 • Exposure tradeoff: -19 pts
Physics Teachers, PostsecondaryExposure: 18% • Salary: $97,000 • -$13,000 • Exposure tradeoff: -18 pts
LawyersExposure: 19% • Salary: $149,000 • +$39,000 • Exposure tradeoff: -17 pts

Higher-paying adjacent roles

LawyersExposure: 19% • Salary: $149,000 • +$39,000 • Exposure tradeoff: -17 pts
Urban and Regional PlannersExposure: 19% • Salary: $128,000 • +$18,000 • Exposure tradeoff: -17 pts
Clinical and Counseling PsychologistsExposure: 22% • Salary: $127,000 • +$17,000 • Exposure tradeoff: -14 pts
Biochemists and BiophysicistsExposure: 23% • Salary: $127,000 • +$17,000 • Exposure tradeoff: -13 pts
Climate Change Policy AnalystsExposure: 23% • Salary: $127,000 • +$17,000 • Exposure tradeoff: -13 pts
Medical Scientists, Except EpidemiologistsExposure: 25% • Salary: $126,500 • +$16,500 • Exposure tradeoff: -11 pts

Related roles

Child, Family, and School Social Workers36% exposure • Community and Social Service
Conservation Scientists36% exposure • Life, Physical, and Social Science
Remote Sensing Scientists and Technologists36% exposure • Life, Physical, and Social Science
Survey Researchers36% exposure • Life, Physical, and Social Science
Air Crew Members37% exposure • Military Specific
Anthropology and Archeology Teachers, Postsecondary35% exposure • Educational Instruction and Library

Examples of automations

Scheduling automation examples

Capture requests from form/email into one queue
Auto-propose slots using Scheduling workflow
Send reminders and update status automatically
Escalate conflicts to a supervisor with context

Reporting automation examples

Aggregate daily operations into one reporting table
Generate dashboards with Reporting automation
Create weekly summary narratives with risk flags
Distribute summaries by role with required actions

Communication templating examples

Classify inbound messages by intent and urgency
Draft replies with Communication copilot
Insert policy-approved language and context snippets
Queue sensitive drafts for manager approval

Escalation handling examples

Detect exception triggers from job events
Route to specialist based on severity policy
Attach timeline, customer context, and prior actions
Track closure and feed outcomes into playbooks

Benchmark data source

Last updated: March 4, 2026

Benchmarked descriptions used: 1,016 role descriptions mapped across 1,012 industries.

Data references for this role

Role profile and task mix
Job title, SOC 19-2032.00, role description, task statements, and job-zone context.
Source: O*NET Database 29.0 (Occupation Data + Job Zones) • O*NET Resource Center / U.S. Department of Labor
Industry and sector mapping
Industry code 926120, sector 92, and category mapping shown on this role.
Source: NAICS 2022 6-Digit Codes • U.S. Census Bureau
Exposure score, confidence, and timeline views
Deterministic benchmark scoring, confidence tiers, stack coverage, and timeline projections derived from role/task inputs.
Source: replaced.fyi methodology • replaced.fyi
Related roles and pivot recommendations
Adjacent-role comparisons and safer/higher-pay pivot suggestions computed from the same benchmark catalog.
Source: replaced.fyi rankings dataset • replaced.fyi

Primary source list

O*NET Database 29.0 (Occupation Data + Job Zones) • O*NET Resource Center / U.S. Department of Labor
NAICS 2022 6-Digit Codes • U.S. Census Bureau

Confidence definition: High confidence means broad role coverage, benchmark consistency across adjacent roles, and stable task-level scoring signals.

Methodology • Rankings