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People and OperationsEntry 23

Clinical ResearchCoordinator

Patient facing trial operations, not laboratory science. You run the study day to day, and the rules are not negotiable.

The same work is also posted as
Study CoordinatorResearch CoordinatorClinical Trial CoordinatorClinical Research SpecialistResearch NurseClinical Trials Assistant

What the title covers

Running a clinical trial at the place where patients are actually seen. You screen people against the eligibility criteria, take them through informed consent, schedule and run study visits, record data exactly as the protocol requires, track samples and study drug, report adverse events within fixed deadlines, and prepare for the monitors and auditors who check that all of it was done properly. Most applicants expect laboratory science. The reality is closer to highly regulated project management with patients in the room, and the documentation is not paperwork around the job. It is the job.

A second use of this title

Two roles that sound identical

A Clinical Research Coordinator works at the site, with patients, running the study day to day. A Clinical Research Associate works for the sponsor or a contract research organisation, travels between sites, and checks that coordinators are doing it correctly. The titles differ by one word and the jobs are opposite sides of the same process. Coordinators frequently become associates later, which is one of the clearest promotion paths in this field.

The setting matters too. Academic medical centres run investigator led studies with smaller budgets and more variety. Dedicated research sites and industry sponsored trials run to tighter protocols with better systems and usually better pay. A posting mentioning monitoring visits, multiple sites and travel describes the associate role rather than this one.

Where it is found

Wherever trials are run, which is a narrower set of employers than most other entries in this library.

Academic medical centresThe most common entry point, with the widest variety of studies and the tightest budgets.
Hospitals and health systemsSponsored trials alongside clinical care, often in oncology, cardiology or neurology.
Dedicated research sitesPurpose built for trials, running many studies at once, with more structure and usually higher pay.
Sponsors and contract research organisationsWhere the associate and monitoring roles sit, generally requiring site experience first.

Typical entry requirements

Education
Bachelor's degree in a life science, nursing or public health. Some coordinator roles require a nursing licence
Expected
Precision with documentation, because in a trial an action that was not recorded did not happen
Frequently required
Good Clinical Practice training, which employers normally provide rather than expect
Often listed
ACRP or SOCRA certification, which comes after experience rather than before it
Experience
Zero to two years. Undergraduate research assistant work at a university hospital is the most reliable way in
Example of a taskResearch

What a typical day may look like

The request below is typical of how this kind of work is assigned. The steps that follow describe what completing it involves.

Your principal investigator9:20 AM
The monitor is here Thursday. I would like to know what she is going to find before she finds it.

Before Thursday.

01

Check that every entry in the study record traces back to something in the patient's own medical record, because unsupported data is the finding monitors write up most often.

02

Confirm each participant signed the version of the consent form that was current on the day they signed it, and that the date is in their handwriting.

03

Work through the protocol deviations and make sure each one was reported, explained and closed rather than noted and forgotten.

04

Check the temperature logs for the study drug and the sample freezer for gaps, since a missing weekend reading is a finding whatever the readings either side of it say.

05

Reconcile the study drug count against what was dispensed and returned, and find the discrepancy before someone else does.

06

Verify that adverse events were reported inside the required window, and where they were not, that the reason is documented.

07

Write down what you found and what you corrected, because a site that identifies its own problems is treated very differently from one that does not.

What is delivered

A written list of findings prepared before the monitor arrives, corrections made where they can still be made, and documented explanations where they cannot.

FitClinical Research Coordinator

Is this job for you

Characteristics of the work itself, listed so you can compare them against how you prefer to spend your time.

Yes, if you like

  • Rules that exist for a reason and are followed exactly
  • Contact with patients during a difficult period of their lives
  • Documentation done properly rather than quickly
  • Variety as studies open and close
  • Being trusted with confidential medical information
  • Work that contributes to something measurable

No, if you don't like

  • Laboratory science and bench work
  • Deciding what the study investigates
  • Flexibility in how the work is done
  • A calm week when a monitor is coming
  • Anonymity from audits and inspections
  • A job that stops being detailed once you are experienced
CompensationUnited States

What this work pays

One usable number rather than two, because the government does not have a category that describes this job and the one it uses is misleading.

Starting out
$68,873Average starting salary, business graduates, Class of 2026

This is the general graduate benchmark used across this library rather than this role specifically. Coordinator roles at academic medical centres commonly start below it. Dedicated research sites and industry sponsored positions tend to pay more.

After several years
Not publishedNo government category describes this job

Coordinators are filed under natural sciences managers, a category built for senior scientists who direct research programmes and which reports a median of $161,180. That describes people several levels above this role. It is not what a coordinator earns and should not be read that way.

Look up the band instead of the national figure

Because the published data is unusable here, use a better source. Universities and public hospital systems publish their salary bands, and many list them by job code on their own careers pages. Those bands are the real answer for the employers most likely to hire you, and they are specific to your city rather than to the country. It is also worth knowing that pay improves noticeably with certification and with a move from an academic site to an industry sponsored one, which is the most common way coordinators increase their earnings in the first five years.

SOURCES / NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGES AND EMPLOYERS, WINTER 2026 SALARY SURVEY. U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, OCCUPATIONAL OUTLOOK HANDBOOK, NATURAL SCIENCES MANAGERS, MAY 2024 WAGE DATA. CLINICAL RESEARCH COORDINATORS ARE CLASSIFIED WITHIN THAT CATEGORY, WHICH IS WHY THE FIGURE DOES NOT DESCRIBE THIS ROLE.

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