Drug Safety Specialist
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
A Drug Safety Specialist is responsible for managing adverse effects and interactions of drugs, increasing drug safety for users (aka pharmacovigilance). Conducts interactivity studies between pharmaceuticals, monitors study participants for adverse effects and controls access to drugs.
Job Outlook
There were 46 Drug Safety Specialist job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 1061 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Safety Specialist / Coordinator industry, which includes the Drug Safety Specialist career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2016:
Salary
Many new Drug Safety Specialist jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.
National
The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $89,104.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $106,781.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Drug Safety Specialist postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $51,890.
Education and Experience
Posted Drug Safety Specialist jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.
| Education Level | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Associate's Degree | 0% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 46.09% |
| Master's Degree | 28.56% |
| Doctoral Degree | 31.86% |
| Other | 2.64% |
Posted Drug Safety Specialist jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Years of Experience | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 0 to 2 years | 18.55% |
| 3 to 5 years | 58.44% |
| 6 to 8 years | 19.8% |
| 9+ years | 3.21% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Drug Safety Specialist positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.
Baseline Skills
A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.
- Management (57.96%)
- Communication (45.05%)
- Operations (29.5%)
- Writing (27.05%)
- Verbal Communication Skills (23.66%)
- Research (22.24%)
- Detail Oriented (18.85%)
- Ethical Standards And Conduct (17.81%)
- Problem Solving (16.78%)
- Organizational Skills (16.02%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- Pharmacovigilance (82.87%)
- Pharmaceuticals (58.62%)
- Clinical Trials (44.76%)
- Detection Theory (47.2%)
- Regulatory Affairs (32.52%)
- Pre-Clinical Development (34.38%)
- Patient Safety (34.15%)
- Risk Management (23.66%)
- Project Management (28.67%)
- MedDRA (22.96%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Marketing (26.34%)
- Safety Standards (18.88%)
- Risk Analysis (21.68%)
- Auditing (17.83%)
- Reconciliation (13.4%)
- Regulatory Requirements (9.79%)
- Drug Development (14.22%)
- Data Analysis (13.4%)
- Standard Operating Procedure (16.2%)
- Data Management (27.04%)
- Biotechnology (12.59%)
- Process Improvement (16.43%)
- Oncology (17.25%)
- Clinical Research (10.61%)
- Epidemiology (10.14%)
- Clinical Experience (8.28%)
- Regulatory Compliance (7.11%)
- Triage (8.74%)
- Biology (17.37%)
- Aggregate Reporting (8.28%)
- Statistics (7.81%)
- Regulatory Documents (5.71%)
- Life Sciences (12.12%)
- Biostatistics (21.79%)
- Informed Consent (13.17%)
- Safety Monitoring (6.64%)
- Data Entry (4.78%)
- Workflow Management (6.41%)
- Scientific Literature (9.44%)
- ICH Guidelines (15.15%)
- Functional Safety (19.23%)
- Nursing (10.14%)
- Medical Affairs (6.76%)
- Material Safety Data Sheet (5.36%)
- Biopharmaceuticals (6.18%)
Distinguishing Skills
A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.
- ARISg (6.41%)
Salary Boosting Skills
A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is listed.
- Pre-Clinical Development (39.81%)
- Clinical Trials (51.82%)
- Detection Theory (54.66%)
- Marketing (30.5%)
- MedDRA (26.59%)
- Pharmaceuticals (67.88%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Drug Safety Specialist skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Pharmacovigilance Scientist
- Pharmacovigilance Manager
- Scientist/Associate Director
- Scientist
- Systems Consultant
- Safety Scientist
- Monitoring Specialist
- Safety Specialist
- Drug Safety Scientist
Similar Occupations
If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.
- Director of Clinical Research
- Clinical Trial Manager
- Clinical Project Manager
- Biostatistics Manager / Director
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Drug Safety Specialist jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- Sumitomo Pharma (151)
- Beacon Hill Staffing Group (145)
- Johnson & Johnson (60)
- Thermo Fisher Scientific (25)
- Merck & Co. (17)
- Amgen (14)
- Bristol-Myers Squibb (10)
- Medasource (10)
- Takeda Pharmaceutical Company (10)
- Baptist Health (9)
North Carolina
- Thermo Fisher Scientific (13)
- Sumitomo Pharma (3)
- United Therapeutics Corporation (2)
- Bavarian Nordic (2)
- Beacon Hill Staffing Group (2)
- Life Technologies (2)
- Catalyst Clinical Research (2)
- Novant Health (1)
- ProKidney Corp. (1)
- LifePoint Health (1)
NC State Programs Relevant to this Career
If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!
All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.