Medical investigator vs principal scientist

The differences between medical investigators and principal scientists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a medical investigator and a principal scientist. Additionally, a principal scientist has an average salary of $119,982, which is higher than the $77,976 average annual salary of a medical investigator.

The top three skills for a medical investigator include law enforcement agencies, subpoenas and medical history. The most important skills for a principal scientist are oncology, data analysis, and drug discovery.

Medical investigator vs principal scientist overview

	Medical Investigator	Principal Scientist
Yearly salary	$77,976	$119,982
Hourly rate	$37.49	$57.68
Growth rate	17%	17%
Number of jobs	49,363	80,899
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 53%	Bachelor's Degree, 51%
Average age	41	41
Years of experience	4	4

Medical investigator vs principal scientist salary

Medical investigators and principal scientists have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Medical Investigator	Principal Scientist
Average salary	$77,976	$119,982
Salary range	Between $43,000 And $141,000	Between $84,000 And $169,000
Highest paying City	Memphis, TN	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	Alaska	California
Best paying company	Yoh	PayPal
Best paying industry	-	Finance

Differences between medical investigator and principal scientist education

There are a few differences between a medical investigator and a principal scientist in terms of educational background:

	Medical Investigator	Principal Scientist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 53%	Bachelor's Degree, 51%
Most common major	Criminal Justice	Chemistry
Most common college	Duke University	Duke University

Medical investigator vs principal scientist demographics

Here are the differences between medical investigators' and principal scientists' demographics:

	Medical Investigator	Principal Scientist
Average age	41	41
Gender ratio	Male, 39.4% Female, 60.6%	Male, 76.8% Female, 23.2%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 6.4% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 9.6% Asian, 23.8% White, 55.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%	Black or African American, 6.3% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 9.6% Asian, 26.4% White, 53.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%
LGBT Percentage	8%	8%

Differences between medical investigator and principal scientist duties and responsibilities

Medical investigator example 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.
Supervise activities of analytical cellular and molecular immunology laboratories.

Principal scientist example responsibilities.

Manage pediatric dose development project, technology transfer project and alternate API supplier qualification project on budget and on schedule
Provide development of and line support for assign immunoassay reagents, calibrators and controls.
Transfer controls to manufacturing for product launch and include all require studies, testing and documentation under GMP guidelines.
Maintain several lab documents for ISO certification.
Understand drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics and design stable molecules.
Image visualization and manipulation of background plates for animation and post-processing.

Medical investigator vs principal scientist skills

Common medical investigator skills

Law Enforcement Agencies, 11%
Subpoenas, 11%
Medical History, 9%
Body Fluids, 8%
Physician Assistants, 7%
Medicaid, 5%

Common principal scientist skills

Oncology, 7%
Data Analysis, 6%
Drug Discovery, 5%
GMP, 3%
Experimental Design, 3%
Clinical Trials, 3%

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Medical Investigator
Medical Investigator vs Principal Scientist

Updated January 8, 2025

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