---
title: "Clinical Research Coordinator"
description: "Plan, direct, or coordinate clinical research projects. Direct the activities of workers engaged in clinical research projects to ensure compliance with…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/clinical-research-coordinator"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Clinical Research Coordinator

**Category:** Management · **SOC code:** 11-9121 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 11-9121.01

Plan, direct, or coordinate clinical research projects. Direct the activities of workers engaged in clinical research projects to ensure compliance with protocols and overall clinical objectives. May evaluate and analyze clinical data.

Also advertised as: Clinical Coordinator; Clinical Program Coordinator; Clinical Program Manager; Clinical Research Administrator; Clinical Research Coordinator; Clinical Research Manager; Clinical Research Nurse Coordinator; Clinical Trial Coordinator.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $167,220 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $80.39/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $79,710 to $316,850, with the middle half between $119,430 and $221,540
- **Total US employment:** 108,690
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +8.2% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 9,200 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 25/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 108,690 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $79,710 |
| 25th | $119,430 |
| 50th (median) | $167,220 |
| 75th | $221,540 |
| 90th | $316,850 |
| Mean (average) | $180,250 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| MA | $267,290 | $252,740 | 10,590 |
| CT | $210,670 | $203,330 | 1,190 |
| CA | $210,230 | $189,875 | 14,950 |
| NJ | $207,030 | $190,276 | 10,040 |
| WA | $182,480 | $170,521 | 2,490 |
| NC | $173,870 | $184,329 | 6,010 |
| MD | $168,620 | $160,653 | 4,820 |
| IL | $159,670 | $159,737 | 2,810 |
| DC | $156,730 | $142,610 | 1,540 |
| KS | $153,820 | $170,782 | 240 |
| CO | $152,730 | $148,207 | 1,640 |
| VA | $150,570 | $148,926 | 1,470 |
| OR | $143,120 | $138,466 | 1,700 |
| ME | $141,360 | $145,657 | 430 |
| WV | $138,010 | $154,206 | 160 |

34 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 49 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/clinical-research-coordinator/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/clinical-research-coordinator.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 112,200 in the 2025–2035 base year to 121,500 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 9,200 jobs, or +8.2%. Much faster than average: 8.2% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 9,200 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** 5 years or more.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Bachelor's Degree | 60.1% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 11.6% |
| Some College Courses | 9.2% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 7.0% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 5.9% |
| Master's Degree | 4.8% |

## What the work involves

- Oversee subject enrollment to ensure that informed consent is properly obtained and documented.
- Identify protocol problems, inform investigators of problems, or assist in problem resolution efforts, such as protocol revisions.
- Monitor study activities to ensure compliance with protocols and with all relevant local, federal, and state regulatory and institutional polices.
- Assess eligibility of potential subjects through methods such as screening interviews, reviews of medical records, or discussions with physicians and nurses.
- Inform patients or caregivers about study aspects and outcomes to be expected.
- Perform specific protocol procedures such as interviewing subjects, taking vital signs, and performing electrocardiograms.
- Record adverse event and side effect data and confer with investigators regarding the reporting of events to oversight agencies.
- Organize space for study equipment and supplies.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Coordination — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Management of Personnel Resources — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Medicine and Dentistry — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Biology — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Investigative (I), Conventional (C), Enterprising (E).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| I — Investigative | 5.90 |
| C — Conventional | 4.81 |
| E — Enterprising | 4.31 |
| S — Social | 3.58 |
| A — Artistic | 1.76 |
| R — Realistic | 1.58 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ENTJ | 65.6 |
| INTJ | 63.5 |
| ESTJ | 63.4 |
| ISTJ | 62.5 |
| ISFJ | 55.1 |

Best-fitting types: ENTJ, INTJ, ESTJ, ISTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Clinical Data Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/clinical-data-manager) — median $120,230
- [Clinical Nurse Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/clinical-nurse-specialist) — median $97,550
- [Health Informatics Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/health-informatics-specialist) — median $105,850
- [Social Science Research Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/social-science-research-assistant) — median $61,990
- [Health Specialties Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/health-specialties-teacher-postsecondary) — median $107,310
- [Medical and Health Services Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/medical-and-health-services-manager) — median $123,860
- [Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/medical-and-clinical-laboratory-technologist) — median $62,930
- [Natural Sciences Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/natural-sciences-manager) — median $167,220
- [Biostatistician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/biostatistician) — median $105,650
- [Medical Scientist, Except Epidemiologists](https://nuecareer.com/careers/medical-scientist) — median $103,410

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/clinical-research-coordinator