---
title: "Regulatory Affairs Manager"
description: "Plan, direct, or coordinate production activities of an organization to ensure compliance with regulations and standard operating procedures."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/regulatory-affairs-manager"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Regulatory Affairs Manager

**Category:** Management · **SOC code:** 11-9199 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 11-9199.01

Plan, direct, or coordinate production activities of an organization to ensure compliance with regulations and standard operating procedures.

Also advertised as: CMC Director (Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls Director); Compliance Director; Global RA Director (Global Regulatory Affairs Director); Global RA Manager (Global Regulatory Affairs Manager); RA Director (Regulatory Affairs Director); RA Manager (Regulatory Affairs Manager); RA QA Director (Regulatory Affairs Quality Assurance Director); RA VP (Regulatory Affairs Vice President).

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $141,900 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $68.22/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $74,300 to $238,270, with the middle half between $102,880 and $186,300
- **Total US employment:** 622,190
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +4.9% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 100,900 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 12/100 — 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 622,190 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $74,300 |
| 25th | $102,880 |
| 50th (median) | $141,900 |
| 75th | $186,300 |
| 90th | $238,270 |
| Mean (average) | $153,890 |

### 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 | $182,950 | $172,991 | 10,630 |
| DC | $175,720 | $159,889 | 18,570 |
| CA | $174,560 | $157,659 | 99,580 |
| CO | $171,140 | $166,071 | 14,060 |
| DE | $168,060 | $168,383 | 1,280 |
| NY | $167,200 | $154,928 | 18,470 |
| VA | $166,230 | $164,415 | 21,560 |
| RI | $165,900 | $162,202 | 790 |
| WA | $164,160 | $153,402 | 10,490 |
| CT | $162,690 | $157,022 | 7,330 |
| NJ | $161,510 | $148,440 | 30,270 |
| MD | $159,040 | $151,526 | 17,530 |
| MN | $152,600 | $154,734 | 4,160 |
| NH | $145,630 | $139,807 | 1,330 |
| NC | $141,160 | $149,651 | 21,830 |

39 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 54 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/regulatory-affairs-manager/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/regulatory-affairs-manager.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 1,338,800 in the 2025–2035 base year to 1,404,400 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 65,600 jobs, or +4.9%. Faster than average: 4.9% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 100,900 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:** Less than 5 years.
- **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 | 73.9% |
| Master's Degree | 13.0% |
| Some College Courses | 4.4% |
| Post-Baccalaureate Certificate | 4.4% |
| Doctoral Degree | 4.4% |

## What the work involves

- Develop regulatory strategies and implementation plans for the preparation and submission of new products.
- Review all regulatory agency submission materials to ensure timeliness, accuracy, comprehensiveness, or compliance with regulatory standards.
- Direct the preparation and submission of regulatory agency applications, reports, or correspondence.
- Provide responses to regulatory agencies regarding product information or issues.
- Represent organizations before domestic or international regulatory agencies on major policy matters or decisions regarding company products.
- Provide regulatory guidance to departments or development project teams regarding design, development, evaluation, or marketing of products.
- Communicate regulatory information to multiple departments and ensure that information is interpreted correctly.
- Maintain current knowledge of relevant regulations, including proposed and final rules.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Writing — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.0 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.

- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- English Language — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Law and Government — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Biology — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Written Expression — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 3.9 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 Enterprising (E), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| E — Enterprising | 6.55 |
| C — Conventional | 5.67 |
| I — Investigative | 2.99 |
| S — Social | 2.65 |
| R — Realistic | 1.93 |
| A — Artistic | 1.34 |

### 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) |
| --- | --- |
| ESTJ | 81.5 |
| ESFJ | 73.6 |
| ENTJ | 70.9 |
| ISTJ | 64.9 |
| ENFJ | 59.8 |

Best-fitting types: ESTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Regulatory Affairs Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/regulatory-affairs-specialist) — median $80,730
- [Compliance Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/compliance-manager) — median $141,900
- [Environmental Compliance Inspector](https://nuecareer.com/careers/environmental-compliance-inspector) — median $80,730
- [Management Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/management-analyst) — median $101,860
- [Clinical Data Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/clinical-data-manager) — median $120,230
- [Financial Risk Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/financial-risk-specialist) — median $117,330
- [Administrative Services Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/administrative-services-manager) — median $114,130
- [Quality Control Systems Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/quality-control-systems-manager) — median $126,060
- [Project Management Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/project-management-specialist) — median $102,320
- [Compliance Officer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/compliance-officer) — median $80,730

## 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/
- **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/regulatory-affairs-manager