What is a Principal Investigator?

The preparation, conduct, and administration of a research grant, contract, cooperative agreement, or other sponsored project is the sole responsibility of a principal investigator. He/She is responsible for developing project research designs. He/She plans, oversees, and participates in fieldwork and analysis and compiles various reports. Additionally, he/she keeps himself updated on the regulations surrounding his/her research, the additional requirements set by the funding agency, study sponsor, and relevant regulatory authorities. Lastly, he/she prepares costs estimates and budgets. The private investigator may consult with review agencies, tribal representatives, and other interested parties.

To become a private investigator, you need to be holding a master's degree or Ph.D. in anthropology or a related field. You must have at least ten years of fieldwork and analytical experience. You must be familiar with relevant regulations and laws. Private investigators earn a whooping sum of $106,052. Their salary varies from $63,000 to $180,000.

What Does a Principal Investigator Do

There are certain skills that many principal investigators have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed decision-making skills, leadership skills and problem-solving skills.

Learn more about what a Principal Investigator does

How To Become a Principal Investigator

If you're interested in becoming a principal investigator, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 53.2% of principal investigators have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 20.9% of principal investigators have master's degrees. Even though most principal investigators have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Principal Investigator

Top Principal Investigator Jobs Near You

Principal Investigator Career Paths

In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of director you might progress to a role such as medical director eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title chief medical officer.

Principal Investigator

Director Medical Director

Chief Medical Officer

8 Years

Director Nursing Director

Director Of Clinical Operations

12 Years

Director Information Technology Director

Project Director

8 Years

Chairperson Associate Director

Director Of Analytics

12 Years

Project Director Senior Director

Vice President Of Research And Development

13 Years

Project Manager Engineering Director

Research And Development Director

11 Years

Top Careers Before Principal Investigator

Research Assistant (51,080 Jobs)

22.0 %

Internship (51,064 Jobs)

8.7 %

Teaching Assistant (59,465 Jobs)

8.6 %

Top Careers After Principal Investigator

Research Assistant (51,080 Jobs)

14.1 %

Consultant (171,733 Jobs)

8.5 %

Internship (51,064 Jobs)

7.4 %

Average Salary for a Principal Investigator

Principal Investigators in America make an average salary of $84,635 per year or $41 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $120,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $59,000 per year.

Average Principal Investigator Salary

$84,635 Yearly

$40.69 hourly

$59,00010%

$84,000Median

$120,00090%

See More Salary Information

What Am I Worth?

Roles and Types of Principal Investigator

The role of a principal investigator includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general principal investigator responsibilities:

Lead and provide management oversight and technical guidance to program on the “building global capacity to support diagnostic testing of tuberculosis, hiv
Develop and execute the field program in north america,collecting data
Listed examples are illustrative and representative of the tasks required of this position

There are several types of principal investigator, including:

Superintendent

Role:

The best thing about being a superintendent is the kids. Sure, you may not have a direct impact on them, but the things that you approve or deny can impact their education. And like the saying goes, "children are the future" so your job is pretty important. After all, you don't want to be the reason the future is bleak.

With all pressure aside, it's pretty cool having a handle on how and what kids will be learning. And when they do succeed, that's got to be a great feeling. That's where you being supportive of teachers comes into play. Not everyone learns the same way, and no one knows how your school's students learn better than your teachers. So it's important to listen to them. Because they know what's going on.

Another huge part of being a superintendent is balancing the budget. Sometimes you're going to have to figure out a way to pay for something. Whether that leads you to invest in a money tree or dig for treasure, some things are just more important than others. That's where a good backbone comes into play. You need to learn how to say "no" for some situations.

Average Salary: $82,458
Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Principal

Role:

We all had that principal in school that had a lasting impression on us. Whether they helped us make a change in our lives that was for the better or they taught us valuable lessons, like the importance of showing up on time. Now, it's your turn to have a lasting impression on some kids' lives.

As principal, everyone is going to know who you are. You're the one that gets to enforce all of the rules, and make sure the teachers are following them, too! But you also get to go to fun conferences with your teachers and learn new ways to teach your kiddos.

The best part of being a principal is getting to watch your students go on to the next step. Whether that's middle school, high school, or college. Knowing that you had a hand in each students' education and future has to make you feel good at the end of the day.

Average Salary: $111,719
Degree: Bachelor's Degree

School Director

Role:

A school director oversees educational programs to ensure everything runs smoothly and efficiently. He/She works with educational committees and advisory groups in the community to develop the appropriate curricula and programs to meet the needs of the students. He/She provides training in the use of educational materials and techniques. Also, he/she monitors the progress of new and existing teaching methods and supervises all faculty recruitment and vet prospective teachers.

To become a school director, you need a master's degree in education administration or a related field. Also, you'll need a teaching certification and previous teaching experience. The requirements for a license vary by state. You'll need leadership, communication, and people skills. You can work in a school, school district, or non-school settings, such as museums, businesses, and non-profit organizations. School directors make an average gross salary of $64,266 or $30.9 per hour. This falls between $43,000 and $95,000.

Average Salary: $68,563
Degree: Bachelor's Degree

States With The Most Principal Investigator Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active principal investigator jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where principal investigators earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Principal Investigator Jobs By State

Rank	State	Number of Jobs	Average Salary
1	Texas	1,386	$74,922
2	Florida	1,301	$68,538
3	Massachusetts	1,040	$82,477
4	Virginia	966	$79,866
5	Washington	907	$94,884
6	New York	896	$101,460
7	Pennsylvania	890	$81,857
8	Illinois	880	$76,867
9	New Jersey	758	$82,327
10	North Carolina	590	$79,534
11	Arizona	589	$75,847
12	Maryland	574	$91,771
13	California	572	$111,232
14	Colorado	541	$75,919
15	Georgia	506	$72,371
16	Minnesota	455	$90,283
17	Ohio	448	$85,695
18	Oregon	365	$107,718
19	Wisconsin	338	$75,077
20	Connecticut	255	$100,724
21	Missouri	232	$72,333
22	Michigan	223	$81,211
23	Indiana	197	$88,355
24	Rhode Island	191	$78,840
25	Alabama	183	$65,850
26	Arkansas	178	$74,284
27	Tennessee	165	$68,296
28	New Hampshire	156	$85,596
29	South Carolina	149	$67,160
30	Kentucky	147	$67,903
31	Nebraska	145	$64,127
32	Idaho	139	$75,216
33	Kansas	137	$64,085
34	Nevada	131	$79,034
35	New Mexico	118	$80,133
36	Vermont	100	$89,939
37	Louisiana	94	$71,185
38	Montana	91	$70,538
39	Iowa	86	$65,248
40	Delaware	71	$101,511
41	West Virginia	71	$93,575
42	Oklahoma	64	$72,433
43	Mississippi	55	$74,642
44	Utah	46	$73,421
45	Maine	37	$68,498
46	Wyoming	35	$64,456
47	South Dakota	31	$86,224
48	Hawaii	31	$83,604
49	North Dakota	28	$77,227
50	Alaska	26	$94,900

Principal Investigator Education

Principal Investigator Majors

Psychology

21.0 %

Biology

12.6 %

Chemistry

9.1 %

Principal Investigator Degrees

Admissions

Most Popular Majors

Biology

Business

Public Health

Electrical Engineering

Psychology

Top Skills For a Principal Investigator

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 10.2% of principal investigators listed patients on their resume, but soft skills such as decision-making skills and leadership skills are important as well.

Patients, 10.2%

Data Collection, 9.0%

Project Management, 7.7%

Technical Reports, 5.9%

FDA, 4.2%

Other Skills, 63.0%

Choose From 10+ Customizable Principal Investigator Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Principal Investigator templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Principal Investigator resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

Principal Investigator Demographics

Principal Investigator Gender Distribution

Male

52%

Female

48%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

Among principal investigators, 47.8% of them are women, while 52.2% are men.

The most common race/ethnicity among principal investigators is White, which makes up 66.7% of all principal investigators.

The most common foreign language among principal investigators is Spanish at 38.6%.

Online Courses For Principal Investigator That You May Like

Advertising Disclosure

1. Data Analysis with R Programming

This course is the seventh course in the Google Data Analytics Certificate. These courses will equip you with the skills needed to apply to introductory-level data analyst jobs. In this course, you’ll learn about the programming language known as R. You’ll find out how to use RStudio, the environment that allows you to work with R. This course will also cover the software applications and tools that are unique to R, such as R packages. You’ll discover how R lets you clean, organize, analyze,...

See More on Coursera

2. Clinical Trials Data Management and Quality Assurance

In this course, you’ll learn to collect and care for the data gathered during your trial and how to prevent mistakes and errors through quality assurance practices. Clinical trials generate an enormous amount of data, so you and your team must plan carefully by choosing the right collection instruments, systems, and measures to protect the integrity of your trial data. You’ll learn how to assemble, clean, and de-identify your datasets. Finally, you’ll learn to find and correct deficiencies...

See More on Coursera

3. Statistics / Data Analysis in SPSS: Inferential Statistics

4.6

(1,300)

Increase Your Data Analytic Skills Highly Valued And Sought After By Employers...

See More on Udemy

Show More Principal Investigator Courses

Job type you want

Full Time

Part Time

Internship

Temporary

Best States For a Principal Investigator

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a principal investigator. The best states for people in this position are California, Oregon, Delaware, and New York. Principal investigators make the most in California with an average salary of $111,232. Whereas in Oregon and Delaware, they would average $107,718 and $101,511, respectively. While principal investigators would only make an average of $101,460 in New York, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. Oregon

Total Principal Investigator Jobs: 365

Highest 10% Earn:

$162,000

Location Quotient:

1.42

$107,718

Avg. Salary

View 365 Principal Investigator Jobs In OR

2. Connecticut

Total Principal Investigator Jobs: 255

Highest 10% Earn:

$141,000

Location Quotient:

1.24

$100,724

Avg. Salary

View 255 Principal Investigator Jobs In CT

3. Washington

Total Principal Investigator Jobs: 907

Highest 10% Earn:

$142,000

Location Quotient:

2.01

$94,884

Avg. Salary

View 907 Principal Investigator Jobs In WA

Full List Of Best States For Principal Investigators

How Do Principal Investigator Rate Their Jobs?

Top Principal Investigator Employers

Most Common Employers For Principal Investigator

Rank	Company	Average Salary	Hourly Rate	Job Openings
1	Northrop Grumman	$101,135	$48.62	9
2	DuPont	$100,856	$48.49	17
3	Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory	$100,452	$48.29	12
4	PI	$97,340	$46.80	10
5	Covance	$96,922	$46.60	10
6	Accenture	$95,664	$45.99	38
7	NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration	$92,807	$44.62	9
8	ARLINGTON	$91,595	$44.04	9
9	National Science Foundation	$90,386	$43.45	18
10	Lockheed Martin	$88,849	$42.72	14

Principal Investigator Videos

Day in the life of The Ask Lab

Updated February 6, 2023

What is a Principal Investigator?

What Does a Principal Investigator Do

How To Become a Principal Investigator

Principal Investigator Career Paths

Top Careers Before Principal Investigator

Top Careers After Principal Investigator

Recent Job Searches

Average Salary for a Principal Investigator

Roles and Types of Principal Investigator

Superintendent

Principal

School Director

States With The Most Principal Investigator Jobs

Number Of Principal Investigator Jobs By State

Principal Investigator Education

Principal Investigator Majors

Principal Investigator Degrees

Top Colleges for Principal Investigators

1. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

2. Northwestern University

3. Columbia University in the City of New York

4. Johns Hopkins University

5. Carnegie Mellon University

6. California State University - Long Beach

7. SUNY at Binghamton

8. University of California, Santa Barbara

9. Hunter College of the City University of New York

10. University of Maryland - College Park

Top Skills For a Principal Investigator

Choose From 10+ Customizable Principal Investigator Resume templates

Principal Investigator Demographics

Principal Investigator Gender Distribution

Online Courses For Principal Investigator That You May Like

Best States For a Principal Investigator

How Do Principal Investigator Rate Their Jobs?

Top Principal Investigator Employers

Most Common Employers For Principal Investigator

Principal Investigator Videos

Principal Investigator Related Careers

Principal Investigator Related Jobs

What Similar Roles Do

Resume For Related Jobs