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 45 Drug Safety Specialist job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 1030 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 $140,812.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $140,812.
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 $89,760.
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 | 50.29% |
| Master's Degree | 28.54% |
| Doctoral Degree | 31.84% |
| Other | 3.01% |
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 | 18.29% |
| 3 to 5 years | 59% |
| 6 to 8 years | 19.76% |
| 9+ years | 2.95% |
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 (57.57%)
- Communication (40.87%)
- Operations (34.47%)
- Research (24.08%)
- Verbal Communication Skills (22.82%)
- Writing (22.23%)
- Problem Solving (21.75%)
- Detail Oriented (18.16%)
- Microsoft Excel (17.57%)
- Microsoft Office (16.99%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- Regulatory Affairs (31.22%)
- Reconciliation (17.96%)
- Auditing (17.37%)
- Pharmacovigilance (75.47%)
- Pre-Clinical Development (27.35%)
- Patient Safety (26.64%)
- Detection Theory (38.5%)
- MedDRA (21.6%)
- Marketing (25.59%)
- Safety Standards (22.07%)
- Pharmaceuticals (51.41%)
- ARISg (5.99%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Medidata Rave (4.93%)
- Informed Consent (11.97%)
- Regulatory Process (5.52%)
- Regulatory Documents (6.1%)
- Clinical Experience (7.98%)
- Workflow Management (6.22%)
- Adverse Drug Reactions (3.29%)
- Data Entry (4.69%)
- Data Management (21.48%)
- Systems Engineering (6.22%)
- Data Analysis (13.03%)
- Biostatistics (16.08%)
- Medical Devices (10.8%)
- Adjudication (8.33%)
- Biology (17.61%)
- Quality Improvement (4.34%)
- Corrective And Preventive Action (CAPA) (8.1%)
- Clinical Practices (2.23%)
- Epidemiology (10.92%)
- Data Mining (7.39%)
- Biopharmaceuticals (6.34%)
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) (6.69%)
- Clinical Pharmacy (4.81%)
- Clinical Trials (41.9%)
- Clinical Research (15.38%)
- Public Health (7.39%)
- Regulatory Compliance (5.52%)
- Functional Safety (13.5%)
- Life Sciences (16.2%)
- Legislation (12.56%)
- Electronic Data Capture (EDC) (6.57%)
- Oncology (17.37%)
- Standard Operating Procedure (14.79%)
- Microsoft Project (7.51%)
- Drug Development (14.79%)
- Case Report Forms (5.87%)
- Medical Terminology (2.35%)
- Electronic Medical Record (7.04%)
- Risk Analysis (14.79%)
- Machine Learning (6.46%)
- Risk Management (16.78%)
- Hospital Pharmacy (1.17%)
- SAS (Software) (6.34%)
- Nursing (10.45%)
- Material Safety Data Sheet (4.93%)
- Project Management (22.3%)
- Safety Monitoring (6.57%)
- Translational Medicine (11.97%)
- Neurology (12.09%)
- Process Improvement (21.01%)
- Statistics (7.75%)
- Regulatory Requirements (14.08%)
- Scientific Literature (9.39%)
- ICH Guidelines (13.5%)
- Templates (9.15%)
- Triage (9.04%)
- Effective Communication (3.05%)
Distinguishing Skills
A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.
- Postmarketing Surveillance (1.41%)
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 (35.74%)
- Detection Theory (50.31%)
- Patient Safety (34.82%)
- MedDRA (28.22%)
- Pharmaceuticals (67.18%)
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
- Scientist/Associate Director
- Pharmacovigilance Manager
- Clinical Safety Specialist
- Scientist
- Systems Consultant
- Safety Scientist
- Safety Specialist
- Monitoring Specialist
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.
- Clinical Trial Manager
- Director of Clinical Research
- Clinical Project Manager
- Biostatistics Manager / Director
- Clinical Research Manager
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
- Beacon Hill Staffing Group (145)
- Johnson & Johnson (100)
- Sumitomo Pharma (100)
- Thermo Fisher Scientific (34)
- Merck & Co. (20)
- Amgen (13)
- Medasource (10)
- King & Spalding (9)
- Baptist Health (9)
- Bristol-Myers Squibb (8)
North Carolina
- Thermo Fisher Scientific (15)
- United Therapeutics Corporation (2)
- Bavarian Nordic (2)
- Johnson & Johnson (2)
- Beacon Hill Staffing Group (2)
- Sumitomo Pharma (2)
- Life Technologies (2)
- Catalyst Clinical Research (2)
- LifePoint Health (1)
- King & Spalding (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.