How to hire a clinical research director

How to hire a clinical research director, step by step

Here's a step-by-step clinical research director hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a clinical research director job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new clinical research director
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a clinical research director do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you start hiring a clinical research director, identify what type of worker you actually need. Certain positions might call for a full-time employee, while others can be done by a part-time worker or contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A clinical research director's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, clinical research directors from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   This list shows salaries for various types of clinical research directors.

   Type of Clinical Research Director	Description	Hourly rate
   Clinical Research Director	Natural sciences managers supervise the work of scientists, including chemists, physicists, and biologists. They direct activities related to research and development, and coordinate activities such as testing, quality control, and production.	$31-73
   Study Coordinator	Study coordinators oversee the entire process of clinical research from its inception to its completion. The coordinators make certain that human subjects are safe and well-protected... Show more	$16-31
   Director Of Clinical Operations	A director of clinical operations is responsible for monitoring the overall operations of a clinic facility, ensuring the efficiency of staff performance in providing the best quality care services for the patients. Directors of clinical operations enforce safety guidelines and security procedures during operations for everyone's strict compliance to prevent hazards and unforeseen circumstances within the premises... Show more	$40-95

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Patients
   • Clinical Trials
   • Oversight
   • FDA
   • GCP
   • Clinical Development
   • Data Collection
   • Regulatory Submissions
   • Research Projects
   • Data Management
   • Clinical Practice
   • IRB
   • IND
   • Business Development

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Coordinate and manage appropriate training for research staff (GCP, ICH, CLIA, protocol training, etc .).
   • Manage all regulatory documentation and correspondence require by sponsor and IRB.
   • Manage all planning and execution of oncology clinical trials, domestic and international, including decision impact and companion diagnostic trials.
   • Interpret and apply ICH/ GCP guidelines and deliver staff training via NIH, CITI, FDA and sponsor provide materials.
   • Select potential patients for participation in clinical trials.
   • Provide oversight for the oncology clinical research program.

   More clinical research director duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your clinical research director job description is a great way to entice the best and brightest candidates. A clinical research director salary can vary based on several factors:

   • Location. For example, clinical research directors' average salary in alabama is 45% less than in california.
   • Seniority. Entry-level clinical research directors earn 57% less than senior-level clinical research directors.
   • Certifications. A clinical research director with a few certifications under their belt will likely demand a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for a prestigious company or an exciting start-up can make a huge difference in a clinical research director's salary.

   Average clinical research director salary

   $100,744yearly

   $48.43 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level clinical research director salary

   $66,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 16, 2025

   Average clinical research director salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$133,118	$64
   2	Washington	$118,224	$57
   3	New York	$110,804	$53
   4	New Jersey	$110,566	$53
   5	Massachusetts	$108,072	$52
   6	District of Columbia	$98,790	$48
   7	Minnesota	$95,488	$46
   8	Illinois	$94,423	$45
   9	Ohio	$84,178	$40
   10	Oklahoma	$83,770	$40
   11	Wisconsin	$83,399	$40
   12	Florida	$82,970	$40
   13	Colorado	$82,381	$40
   14	North Carolina	$81,214	$39
   15	Pennsylvania	$80,639	$39
   16	Maryland	$78,974	$38
   17	Louisiana	$75,292	$36
   18	Tennessee	$73,841	$36
   19	Texas	$71,737	$34
   20	South Carolina	$70,712	$34

   Average clinical research director salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Amgen	$133,702	$64.28	20
   2	Merck	$119,852	$57.62	29
   3	Spectrum Pharmaceuticals	$119,372	$57.39
   4	Trifecta Technologies	$110,103	$52.93
   5	Novartis	$108,621	$52.22	5
   6	Variety Care	$107,842	$51.85
   7	Gilead Sciences	$107,128	$51.50	55
   8	Stanford University	$95,940	$46.13	143
   9	Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network	$94,795	$45.57	1
   10	Erlanger Health System	$94,664	$45.51	18
   11	Supernus Pharmaceuticals	$94,507	$45.44
   12	Johnson & Johnson	$94,237	$45.31	87
   13	Oracle	$94,058	$45.22	685
   14	Booz Allen Hamilton	$92,904	$44.67	17
   15	Stemedica	$92,877	$44.65
   16	Baylor Scott & White Health	$92,742	$44.59	104
   17	Eisai	$92,554	$44.50	1
   18	NGM Bio	$91,889	$44.18
   19	AlloSource	$91,037	$43.77	1
   20	J. The Jewish News of Northern California	$90,059	$43.30

4. Writing a clinical research director job description

   A job description for a clinical research director role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a clinical research director job description:

   Clinical research director job description example

   EAMC MISSION
   
   At East Alabama Medical Center, our mission is high quality, compassionate health care, and that statement guides everything we do. We set high standards for customer service, quality, and keeping costs under control.
   
   Essential Job Functions:
   
   Adheres to GCP, FDA, and Organization guidelines when implementing research trials to ensure highest quality research within Organization.
   
   Ensures patient eligibility in research study, all protocol procedures and data collected are completed per protocol.
   
   Ensures all documentation is completed to ensure high quality of research and sponsor satisfaction.
   
   Coordinates and prioritize multiple clinical trials to ensure production in the Institute of Research and Education.
   
   Works in a collaborative manner with research staff in order to meet research objectives of the team.
   
   Has detailed knowledge of all components of the research study protocol by creation of study packets, in servicing hospital staff and departments, and completion of all regulatory documents complete
   
   Ensures all regulatory documents are complete and submitted to Institutional Review Board and study sponsor prior to any research activities being initiated
   
   Identifies prospective research patients by rounding and screening appropriate areas demonstrated by screening logs and enrollment handed in weekly to sponsor and management coordinator
   
   Recognizes and interprets diagnostic, physical and psychological findings and incorporates these findings to determine patient eligibility in study as demonstrated by appropriate patients enrolled in studies and no protocol deviations identified by sponsors
   
   Completes all procedures identified by protocol demonstrated by no protocol violations from the sponsor and quality review tool by Institute of Research and Education staff
   
   All data points and case reports forms are completed with in 4 weeks of patient enrollment or study visit.
   
   All Institutional Review Board documentation and notifications of AE, SAE amendments and continual reviews are reported to Institutional Review Board per Institute of Research and Education/Institutional Review Board SOP's.
   
   Manage multiple clinical trials.
   
   Maintains study enrollment as measured by 75% enrollment rate
   
   Assist, volunteers and communicates with peers for 24 hour coverage of all research protocols
   
   Serves on one unit or hospital committee as requested
   
   Attends 90% of weekly team meetings and 90% of all staff meetings
   
   Completes weekly tracking sheets
   
   Minimum Education
   
   ? Bachelor's Degree
   
   Minimum Experience ? Minimum 5 years clinical research experience
   
   Required Registration/License/Certification Obtain and pass CRC req's after 2 years (and with required number of hours worked in the research field) of Organization's Research experience. Registered Nursing License; ACRP

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   There are a few common ways to find clinical research directors for your business:

   • Promoting internally or recruiting from your existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
   • Attend job fairs at local colleges to meet candidates with the right educational background.
   • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to recruit passive job-seekers.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your clinical research director job on Zippia to find and recruit clinical research director candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting clinical research directors requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   You should also ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match the ideal candidate profile you developed earlier. Candidates good enough for the next step can complete the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new clinical research director

   Once you've found the clinical research director candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   It's equally important to follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new clinical research director. Human Resources should complete Employee Action Forms and ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc. They should also ensure that new employee files are created for internal recordkeeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire a clinical research director?