Investigations director vs principal investigator

The differences between investigations directors and principal investigators can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 4-6 years to become an investigations director, becoming a principal investigator takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, an investigations director has an average salary of $91,261, which is higher than the $84,635 average annual salary of a principal investigator.

The top three skills for an investigations director include oversight, law enforcement agencies and ethics. The most important skills for a principal investigator are patients, data collection, and project management.

Investigations director vs principal investigator overview

	Investigations Director	Principal Investigator
Yearly salary	$91,261	$84,635
Hourly rate	$43.88	$40.69
Growth rate	8%	5%
Number of jobs	10,339	44,475
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 61%	Bachelor's Degree, 53%
Average age	40	47
Years of experience	6	4

What does an investigations director do?

An investigations director usually supervises and manages all the financial investigation and security management of a company or business. They conduct internal analysis and implement long-term solutions. Often, they handle a schedule of financial audits, review financial statements, and conduct interviews. They may seek advice from managers concerning compliance with the guidelines of a company.

What does a principal investigator do?

A Principal Investigator is the primary person who is responsible for designing, conducting, and reporting a research project. They report to a designated official such as the department head or division chief.

Investigations director vs principal investigator salary

Investigations directors and principal investigators have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Investigations Director	Principal Investigator
Average salary	$91,261	$84,635
Salary range	Between $61,000 And $134,000	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 investigations director and principal investigator education

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

	Investigations Director	Principal Investigator
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 61%	Bachelor's Degree, 53%
Most common major	Criminal Justice	Psychology
Most common college	Stanford University	University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Investigations director vs principal investigator demographics

Here are the differences between investigations directors' and principal investigators' demographics:

	Investigations Director	Principal Investigator
Average age	40	47
Gender ratio	Male, 74.4% Female, 25.6%	Male, 52.2% Female, 47.8%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 7.9% Unknown, 5.6% Hispanic or Latino, 14.6% Asian, 6.4% White, 65.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%	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	14%	16%

Differences between investigations director and principal investigator duties and responsibilities

Investigations director example responsibilities.

Manage and maintain building security CCTV security cameras and issuing of access cards.
Manage SIU's arrears settlement program, negotiating offers, drafting justifications and executing agreements.
Manage a data analytics team spanning five locations as part of an FCPA investigation of an oil and gas services company.
Manage a proprietary POS transaction exception reporting and auditing process.
Task with the oversight of day-to-day operational flow of the 3rd party SIU investigations.
Spearhead global investigations of fraud and ethics violations in business units throughout the company.

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

Investigations director vs principal investigator skills

Common investigations director skills

Oversight, 9%
Law Enforcement Agencies, 9%
Ethics, 7%
Litigation, 6%
Fraud Investigations, 6%
SIU, 5%

Common principal investigator skills

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

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Investigations Director
Investigations Director vs Principal Investigator

Updated January 8, 2025

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