How To Become A Pharmacovigilance Safety Expert: What It Is and Career Path

What is a pharmacovigilance safety expert 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 pharmacovigilance safety expert. For example, did you know that they make an average of $47.14 an hour? That's $98,051 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 17% and produce 20,800 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScorePharmacovigilance Safety ExpertUS Average

Salary

7.6

Avg. Salary $98,051

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.3

Growth rate 17%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.15%

Asian 26.25%

Black or African American 6.52%

Hispanic or Latino 9.80%

Unknown 4.15%

White 53.14%

Gender

female 25.45%

male 74.55%

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 pharmacovigilance safety expert

Explore pharmacovigilance safety expert education requirements

Most common pharmacovigilance safety expert degrees

Bachelor's

45.5 %

Master's

25.0 %

Associate

11.4 %

Start to develop specific pharmacovigilance safety expert skills

Skills	Percentages
Safety Data	26.52%
QC	20.87%
FDA	17.48%
Safety Culture	8.15%
Clinical Trials	7.15%

Complete relevant pharmacovigilance safety expert training and internships

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

Research pharmacovigilance safety expert duties and responsibilities

Manage compliance issues, and provide feedback for risk assessments within safety/regulatory regulations for FDA reporting.
Demonstrate and effectively used knowledge of FDA, ICH and GCP and safety reporting guidelines.
Perform adequate duplicate search in database prior to book-in and creating cases in Argus.
Develop and maintain training materials using PowerPoint presentations and computer-base training for new and current employees.

Apply for pharmacovigilance safety expert jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a pharmacovigilance safety expert 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 pharmacovigilance safety experts rate their job?

5/5

Out of 1 Pharmacovigilance Safety Expert reviews, 100% were positive.

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Based on 1 ratings

Career growth

4.0

Pay / salary

5.0

Work/life balance

4.0

Overall rating

5.0

Pharmacovigilance safety expert reviews

5.0

A zippia user wrote a review on Jul 2024

Pros

Intellectually challenging, dynamic, ability to work from home, working with and learning from other professionals, contributing to the proper use of medications across a broad population

Cons

Workload is variable and often high, very detail oriented with high stakes, not much creativity or leverage, red tape and bureaucracy, pay may be less than other functions like clinical and medical affairs, hard to break into