Medical Editor
What this job does:
Reviews, corrects, and refines scientific and medical documents—including journal manuscripts, conference posters, pharmaceutical marketing materials, and clinical reports—ensuring accuracy, clarity, and compliance with style and regulatory requirements. Conducts copy editing, cross-checking data in tables and figures against source documents, verifying references, and coordinating with medical writers and legal/regulatory teams through review cycles.
This job is similar to these lab/research tasks:
Meticulous attention to detail in manuscripts and grants, verifying data integrity across figures and tables, peer review experience, deep familiarity with scientific style conventions
Typical starting salary range
$68k to $105k
Salary estimate represented as 25th to 75th percentile. Gathered from recent job postings, Glassdoor.com, and Salary.com
Daily task breakdown
- Copy editing, proofreading, and formatting documents (35%)
- Fact-checking and source verification (25%)
- Coordinating with teams and managing review workflows (15%)
- Journal/congress submission support (15%)
- Other: maintaining style guides, mentoring, process improvement (10%)
Skills you'll use in this job:
Copy editing and proofreading; AMA Manual of Style expertise; medical and scientific terminology; fact-checking and source verification; reference management (EndNote); Microsoft Office; Adobe Acrobat Pro; regulatory knowledge (FDA/EMA); MLR review process familiarity; journal submission processes; Veeva Vault or digital submission platforms; PubMed literature searching; attention to detail; project management; managing multiple deadlines
Talk about these PhD skills in your resume and interview:
Talk about your meticulous attention to detail in writing manuscripts and grant proposals, your ability to verify data integrity across figures and tables, your experience with peer review (as a reviewer or responding to reviewers), and your deep familiarity with scientific style conventions.
Alternative job titles to search:
Scientific Editor; Senior Medical Editor; Associate Medical Editor; Medical Copy Editor; Manuscript Editor; Publications Editor; Editorial Specialist; Medical Communications Editor; Section Editor; Clinical Editor; Managing Editor (Medical/Scientific); Healthcare Editor
*Note:
-Job titles are inconsistent between companies. Try various keywords.
-PhDs tend to undershoot seniority level. Target higher than you think.
