How To Become A Junior Clinical Research Associate: What It Is and Career Path

What is a junior clinical research associate and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a junior clinical research associate. For example, did you know that they make an average of $28.76 an hour? That's $59,820 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 4,600 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreJunior Clinical Research AssociateUS Average

Salary

4.7

Avg. Salary $59,820

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.6

Growth rate 6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.49%

Asian 9.02%

Black or African American 2.25%

Hispanic or Latino 11.27%

Unknown 7.08%

White 69.88%

Gender

female 85.71%

male 14.29%

Age - 43.5

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 - 43.5

Stress level

5.6

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.5

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.3

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a junior clinical research associate

Explore junior clinical research associate education requirements

Most common junior clinical research associate degrees

Bachelor's

69.2 %

Master's

15.4 %

Diploma

7.7 %

Start to develop specific junior clinical research associate skills

Skills	Percentages
CRA	43.94%
Sops	18.21%
Clinical Trials	15.70%
Investigational Product	10.27%
CRF	7.25%

Complete relevant junior clinical research associate training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New junior clinical research associates 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 junior clinical research associate based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real junior clinical research associate resumes.

Research junior clinical research associate duties and responsibilities

Coordinate and manage multiple clinical studies for safety assessment of products with CRO.
Supervise and manage planning, implementation, conduct and reporting of assign early phase international clinical studies in oncology.
Preform protocol require basic medical evaluations such as blood pressure and ECG's as well as dispensing study medication.
Conduct initiations, interim site visitations and audits of CRO for GCP compliance.

Prepare your junior clinical research associate resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your junior clinical research associate resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a junior clinical research associate resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable junior clinical research associate resume templates

Build a professional junior clinical research associate resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your junior clinical research associate resume.