Primarily, these professionals prepare clinical, nonclinical, and regulatory documents. Senior medical writers prepare and submit reports and manuscripts for product approval. They follow international regulatory requirements and the company's document standards. They also review and analyze scientific literature to aid and prepare publications and regulatory submissions. They identify and record potential clinical risks during product development. Also, they work with investigators and internal personnel to prepare abstracts for submission for data presentation and publication.
Employers seek applicants with a bachelor's degree in a science-related field. Applicants must have a minimum of five years of relevant experience, and you must be an expert in Microsoft word. To succeed in this role, you need organization, multitasking, interpersonal, presentation, and communication skills. Also, you must be conversant with scientific terminology and relevant regulations. Senior medical writers earn $103,385 yearly. Their salary is between $83,000 and $129,000.
How to Become a Senior Medical Writer
What is a Senior Medical Writer
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a Senior Medical Writer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $47.66 an hour? That's $99,142 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 4,700 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Senior Medical Writer Do
There are certain skills that many Senior Medical Writers 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 Detail oriented, Imagination and Teamwork.
How To Become a Senior Medical Writer
If you're interested in becoming a Senior Medical Writer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 55.1% of Senior Medical Writers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 15.5% of Senior Medical Writers have master's degrees. Even though most Senior Medical Writers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a Senior Medical Writer. When we researched the most common majors for a Senior Medical Writer, we found that they most commonly earn Bachelor's Degree degrees or Master's Degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on Senior Medical Writer resumes include Doctoral Degree degrees or Associate Degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a Senior Medical Writer. In fact, many Senior Medical Writer jobs require experience in a role such as Medical Writer. Meanwhile, many Senior Medical Writers also have previous career experience in roles such as Research Assistant or Medic.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
And if you’re looking for a job, here are the five top employers hiring now:
Senior Medical Writer Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a Senior Medical Writer can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as Manager, Medical Writing, progress to a title such as Manager, Medical Writing and then eventually end up with the title Manager, Medical Writing.
Senior Medical Writer Jobs You Might Like
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Senior Medical Writer
Calculate your salary
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Senior Medical Writer Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Senior Medical Writer templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Senior Medical Writer resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Find the best Senior Medical Writer job for you
Senior Medical Writer Jobs You Might Like
- High Paying Senior Medical Writer Jobs - $207K and Up
- Work From Home Senior Medical Writer Jobs
- Entry Level Senior Medical Writer Jobs
- Part Time Senior Medical Writer Jobs
- Actively Hiring
- No Degree Senior Medical Writer Jobs
Top Colleges for Senior Medical Writers
1. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
2. Northeastern University
Boston, MA • Private
3. University of Houston
Houston, TX • Private
4. University of Wisconsin - Madison
Madison, WI • Private
5. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI • Private
6. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Private
7. SUNY Stony Brook
Stony Brook, NY • Private
8. University of Washington
Seattle, WA • Private
9. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN • Private
10. University of Georgia
Athens, GA • Private
Find the best Senior Medical Writer job for you
Senior Medical Writer Jobs You Might Like
- High Paying Senior Medical Writer Jobs - $207K and Up
- Work From Home Senior Medical Writer Jobs
- Entry Level Senior Medical Writer Jobs
- Part Time Senior Medical Writer Jobs
- Actively Hiring
- No Degree Senior Medical Writer Jobs
Online Courses For Senior Medical Writer That You May Like
Introduction to the meaning of various roots, terms and combining forms that are components of medical words...
For those in healthcare, billing, and more. Boost earning ability and marketable skills by learning to "speak medicine."...
A practical course discussing the EU Medical Device Regulation (MDR) in real-world situations...
Top Skills For a Senior Medical Writer
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, 26.2% of Senior Medical Writers listed Clinical Trials on their resume, but soft skills such as Detail oriented and Imagination are important as well.
Best States For a Senior Medical Writer
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a Senior Medical Writer. The best states for people in this position are California, Arizona, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Senior Medical Writers make the most in California with an average salary of $125,409. Whereas in Arizona and Virginia, they would average $121,687 and $118,497, respectively. While Senior Medical Writers would only make an average of $116,625 in Pennsylvania, 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. District of Columbia
$128,649
Avg. Salary
2. California
$125,409
Avg. Salary
3. Virginia
$118,497
Avg. Salary
How Do Senior Medical Writer Rate Their Jobs?
Top Senior Medical Writer Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ Senior Medical Writers and discovered their number of Senior Medical Writer opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Abbott Laboratories was the best, especially with an average salary of $113,901. Novartis follows up with an average salary of $138,611, and then comes Biogen with an average of $158,597. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a Senior Medical Writer. The employers include AbbVie, Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings, and Boehringer Ingelheim