How To Become A Medical Investigator: What It Is and Career Path

What is a medical investigator and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

Quoted expert

Dr. Andrew Karmen Ph.D.

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a medical investigator. For example, did you know that they make an average of $37.49 an hour? That's $77,976 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 17% and produce 20,800 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a medical investigator?

Dr. Andrew Karmen Ph.D.

Professor of Sociology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Given the grim prospects of a very slow recovery of the job market, I would recommend that she or he take any full-time job with benefits that they are offered. I would avoid any "gig economy", "freelance", or "independent contractor" opportunities that offer absolutely no job security or benefits.

ScoreMedical InvestigatorUS Average

Salary

6.1

Avg. Salary $77,976

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.3

Growth rate 17%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.15%

Asian 23.78%

Black or African American 6.40%

Hispanic or Latino 9.65%

Unknown 4.11%

White 55.90%

Gender

female 60.64%

male 39.36%

Age - 39

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 - 39

Stress level

6.3

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.8

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.7

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a medical investigator

Explore medical investigator education requirements

Most common medical investigator degrees

Bachelor's

53.1 %

Associate

17.7 %

Master's

10.9 %

Start to develop specific medical investigator skills

Skills	Percentages
Law Enforcement Agencies	11.21%
Subpoenas	10.53%
Medical History	9.33%
Body Fluids	8.07%
Physician Assistants	7.11%

Complete relevant medical investigator training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New medical investigators 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 medical investigator based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real medical investigator resumes.

Research medical investigator duties and responsibilities

Manage and facilitate manuscript preparation of oncology clinical trials results arising from currently market and pipeline drugs.
Identify trends and establish corrective procedures to maintain FDA compliance and customer satisfaction.
Supervise activities of analytical cellular and molecular immunology laboratories.
Perform QC of various documents to include PSURs, PADERs, CSRs, CTDs, and other regulatory aggregate reports.

Apply for medical investigator jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a medical investigator 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 medical investigators rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

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1 star

Medical investigator reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jan 2024

Pros

you get to help peoples familys get closure