Research and Development Manager
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
A Research and Development Manager is responsible for day-to-day management their organization's research and development department(s). Responsible for ensuring that the department meet the organization's objectives for researching and developing new products or technologies and improve existing products.
Job Outlook
There were 211 Research and Development Manager job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 5677 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Research and Development Manager industry, which includes the Research and Development Manager career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2016:
Salary
Many new Research and Development Manager 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 $167,110.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $157,838.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Research and Development Manager postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $145,552.
Education and Experience
Posted Research and Development Manager 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 | 75.57% |
| Master's Degree | 50.27% |
| Doctoral Degree | 22.12% |
| Other | 2.52% |
Posted Research and Development Manager 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 | 4.85% |
| 3 to 5 years | 34.34% |
| 6 to 8 years | 34.83% |
| 9+ years | 25.98% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Research and Development Manager 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.
- Leadership (59.54%)
- Management (56.35%)
- Communication (50.91%)
- Research (41.34%)
- Problem Solving (33.57%)
- Innovation (33.29%)
- Planning (31.55%)
- Operations (31.2%)
- Timelines (21.01%)
- Influencing Skills (20.59%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- Pharmaceuticals (24.72%)
- New Product Development (40.57%)
- Project Management (50.46%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Lifecycle Management (9.06%)
- Process Improvement (9.93%)
- Technical Documentation (7.8%)
- Scenario Planning (7.29%)
- Research And Development (28.36%)
- Milestones (Project Management) (8.91%)
- Risk Management (8.02%)
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) (7.28%)
- Life Sciences (11.17%)
- Information Sciences (7.07%)
- Marketing (14.87%)
- R (Programming Language) (12.97%)
- Finance (16.46%)
- Project Planning (5.48%)
- Commercialization (17.26%)
- Procurement (9.6%)
- Computer Science (6.48%)
- Contingency Planning (9.11%)
- Continuous Improvement Process (12.77%)
- Change Management (4.79%)
- Pre-Clinical Development (7.09%)
- Clinical Trials (7.7%)
- Biotechnology (15.98%)
- Biology (7.57%)
- Biopharmaceuticals (11.17%)
- Business Development (10.91%)
- Data Analysis (8.8%)
- Chemistry (12.71%)
- Auditing (6.12%)
- Accounting (9.54%)
- Artificial Intelligence (9.93%)
- Quality Management Systems (13.75%)
- Medical Devices (18.11%)
- Workflow Management (9.04%)
- Supply Chain (7.74%)
- Food Science (7.85%)
- Regulatory Affairs (11.02%)
- Office Equipment (7.41%)
- FDA Regulations (8.37%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Research and Development Manager skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Regulatory Manager
- Project Manager
- Program Manager
- Research and Development Tax Manager
- Ad Operations Manager
- Regulatory Affairs Manager
- Financial Planning and Analysis Manager
- Product Development Product Manager
- Research and Development Software Engineer
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.
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Research and Development Manager jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- Grifols (362)
- Deloitte (165)
- PricewaterhouseCoopers (126)
- Amgen (94)
- Pfizer (79)
- Accenture (71)
- ADP (64)
- Abbott Laboratories (63)
- Southwest Research Institute (62)
- Bausch Health (58)
North Carolina
- Grifols (16)
- Thermo Fisher Scientific (13)
- Hitachi (10)
- Soelect (8)
- PricewaterhouseCoopers (7)
- ABB (7)
- Kelly Services (6)
- BASF (6)
- ADP (6)
- Reckitt (4)
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!
- Agriculture Data Science Graduate Certificates
- Animal Science Master's Degrees
- Forest Biomaterials Master's Degrees
- Renewable Energy Assessment Undergraduate Certificates
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.