How To Become A Clinical Product Manager: What It Is and Career Path

What is a clinical product manager and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Sachin Tuli

A clinical product manager leads the execution of their company's products. In general, their main job responsibilities include participating in development or strategy meetings, working with other departments (sales, engineering, marketing, etc.) to improve the product, conducting market research, and providing expert advice on various health domain matters.

A clinical product manager may also be expected to suggest changes according to relevant industry trends, participate in conferences, and provide training to junior staff. They usually work in offices with a regular forty-hour-per-week schedule, but may also travel for work from time to time.

Many clinical product managers have bachelor's or master's degrees in nursing, pharmacy, or other allied health courses with professional licenses in their respective fields. Employers expect candidates to have practical experience as a healthcare provider, as well as proven expertise in health domains. On top of that, the ideal candidate for this role should excel in communication, interpersonal skills, leadership, and collaboration.

What's a day at work look like for a clinical product manager?

Sachin Tuli

Director, International Business Major, Wisconsin School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The pandemic accelerated ongoing shifts with work-from-anywhere and use of remote meeting technologies. With mass adoption at all levels, these trends are likely to persist to some degree across fields and industries. There will likely be less travel for a number of years, but concurrently we may see more cross-team and cross-national collaboration and coordination. From an international business perspective, firms do plan to continue their globalization efforts and we know that graduates themselves increasingly seek potential global opportunities and mobility when choosing which organizations to work for.

ScoreClinical Product ManagerUS Average

Salary

7.7

Avg. Salary $104,486

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.5

Growth rate 10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.23%

Asian 8.15%

Black or African American 3.04%

Hispanic or Latino 8.67%

Unknown 5.32%

White 74.58%

Gender

female 57.63%

male 42.37%

Age - 38

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 38

Stress level

7.5

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.5

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a clinical product manager

Explore clinical product manager education requirements

Most common clinical product manager degrees

Bachelor's

62.3 %

Master's

17.0 %

Associate

15.1 %

Start to develop specific clinical product manager skills

Skills	Percentages
Cross-Functional	19.05%
Product Management	14.75%
Roadmap	13.34%
Competitive Analysis	9.57%
Clinical Product	6.14%

Complete relevant clinical product manager training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New clinical product managers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a clinical product manager based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real clinical product manager resumes.

Research clinical product manager duties and responsibilities

Lead the pre-clinical FDA approval studies of catheters and of software.
Manage VOC process by meeting with physician KOLs to identify unmet needs and translate into product requirements.
Lead cross-functional team in pioneering the application/game download ecosystem with the implementation of Java games and generating significant new revenue stream.
Gather through formal and informal VOC efforts.

Apply for clinical product manager jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a clinical product manager job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do clinical product managers rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Clinical product manager reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Aug 2023

Pros

Solve tough problems, work on agile teams, outlet for creativity,

Cons

high expectations, constantly evolving technology, broad range of topics to learn (product management specifics, industry, technology, software development methods