Director of special services vs principal investigator

The differences between directors of special services and principal investigators can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a director of special services and a principal investigator. Additionally, a principal investigator has an average salary of $84,635, which is higher than the $81,779 average annual salary of a director of special services.

The top three skills for a director of special services include social work, business development and mental health. The most important skills for a principal investigator are patients, data collection, and project management.

Director of special services vs principal investigator overview

	Director Of Special Services	Principal Investigator
Yearly salary	$81,779	$84,635
Hourly rate	$39.32	$40.69
Growth rate	5%	5%
Number of jobs	70,868	44,475
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 57%	Bachelor's Degree, 53%
Average age	47	47
Years of experience	4	4

Director of special services vs principal investigator salary

Directors of special services and principal investigators have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Director Of Special Services	Principal Investigator
Average salary	$81,779	$84,635
Salary range	Between $56,000 And $117,000	Between $59,000 And $120,000
Highest paying City	-	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	-	California
Best paying company	-	Incyte
Best paying industry	-	Technology

Differences between director of special services and principal investigator education

There are a few differences between a director of special services and a principal investigator in terms of educational background:

	Director Of Special Services	Principal Investigator
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 57%	Bachelor's Degree, 53%
Most common major	Business	Psychology
Most common college	Northwestern University	University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Director of special services vs principal investigator demographics

Here are the differences between directors of special services' and principal investigators' demographics:

	Director Of Special Services	Principal Investigator
Average age	47	47
Gender ratio	Male, 41.7% Female, 58.3%	Male, 52.2% Female, 47.8%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 11.1% Unknown, 4.0% Hispanic or Latino, 13.8% Asian, 4.3% White, 66.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%	Black or African American, 10.3% Unknown, 4.0% Hispanic or Latino, 14.0% Asian, 4.3% White, 66.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage	16%	16%

Differences between director of special services and principal investigator duties and responsibilities

Director of special services example responsibilities.

Develop and manage a capital budget of $200K, an operational budget of $100K and 50 FTE's.
Coordinate Medicaid billing for the district.
Direct the administrative and clinical operations of rehabilitation services for a two-campus 325-bed acute-care hospital and hospital-base home health agency.
Maintain and supervise all clinical performance improvement systems for JCAHO accreditation.

Principal investigator example responsibilities.

Serve chemistry project leads for two early-stage drug discovery projects.
Design, build and manage CADD, NMR and MRI facilities.
Attain IRB approval, recruit participants, analyze the data and present results
Manage outsource projects, and interact with vendors for API sourcing, and device components base on project needs.
Conduct research using industry standards: GCP, GLP, SORP and compliance with IRB.
Receive IRB approval and clearance for research

Director of special services vs principal investigator skills

Common director of special services skills

Social Work, 10%
Business Development, 8%
Mental Health, 8%
Securities, 7%
Treasury, 7%
Staff Development, 7%

Common principal investigator skills

Patients, 10%
Data Collection, 9%
Project Management, 8%
Technical Reports, 6%
FDA, 4%
Data Analysis, 4%

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Director Of Special Services
Director Of Special Services vs Principal Investigator

Updated January 8, 2025

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