Research operations, compliance, and oversight; Experimental design and methods

Study Director

What this job does:

Owns regulated studies end to end, writing protocols, coordinating execution, ensuring Good Laboratory Practice (GLP)-quality documentation, reviewing data, and delivering formal study reports that can stand up to audits.

This job is similar to these lab/research tasks:

Write protocol-like experiment plans and define endpoints; pre-specify analysis plans; run weekly data reviews like lab meeting QC; track deviations and resolve root causes; coordinate work across collaborators; summarize results into clear go/no-go recommendations

Typical starting salary range

$114,317 to $209,566

Salary estimate represented as 25th to 75th percentile. Gathered from recent job postings, Glassdoor.com, and Salary.com

Daily task breakdown

- Study planning and protocol development (design, endpoints, schedules, responsibilities) (25%)
- Study execution oversight (team coordination, Contract Research Organization (CRO)/vendor management, timeline control) (25%)
- Data review, interpretation, and report authoring (20%)
- Compliance and quality (GLP alignment, deviations, documentation, QA interactions) (20%)
- Other: client communication, budgeting, and team leadership (10%)

Skills you'll use in this job:

Study design and protocol authorship; GLP-quality documentation habits; leadership and accountability; risk management and issue resolution; vendor/CRO coordination; clear technical reporting; comfort with audits and quality systems

Talk about these PhD skills in your resume and interview:

Frame your PhD as owning end-to-end study execution with accountability for rigor and documentation. Translate projects into protocol ownership, deviation handling, QC checkpoints, and final report delivery under review.