How Much Do Nonclinical Jobs Pay Physicians?
- Nisha Mehta, MD
- 7 days ago
- 10 min read
As physician burnout increases and frustrations with challenges in the current healthcare landscape mount, many members of our online physician communities are exploring potential career shifts to nonclinical careers. However, the shift to a nonclinical career comes with many questions, and many are nervous about leaving clinical medicine, what barriers may exist if they’d like to return to clinical medicine, and what pay differences may mean for their budgets and family lifestyles. In many specialties, it may not be possible to achieve a comparable salary to their clinical role, and cutting down to part time may be a better financial and life choice for physicians in higher paying specialties, assuming they still enjoy the heart of what they do. Below, we cover what nonclinical careers tend to pay, focusing on common entry level jobs for physicians, as well as what to consider when assessing a career change into a nonclinical position.
Disclosure/Disclaimer: Our content is for generalized educational purposes. While we try to ensure it is accurate and updated, we cannot guarantee it. We are not formal financial, legal, or tax professionals and do not provide individualized advice specific to your situation. You should consult these as appropriate and/or do your own due diligence before making decisions based on this page. To learn more, visit our disclaimers and disclosures.
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Factors that influence how much you make in a nonclinical job
In our how much doctors make series, we’ve seen that several factors influence salaries for physicians, such as specialty, how much doctors work, and practice environment. Similarly, different factors influence how much you may expect to make in a nonclinical career. These factors include:
Your specialty
The industry and sector the job is in
Specific nonclinical role & its responsibilities
Your current salary
Your transferable experience & credentials
Your location (local cost of living)
It’s also important to remember that when making a career pivot, you may have to take an entry-level position as you learn a new industry and/or role. That said, many nonclinical careers offer career advancement opportunities, and your initial salary may not reflect your earning potential. Unlike in clinical medicine, where outside of academia, your job title likely remains stable once you’ve hit attending or partner status, there are often tiers that along with fancier titles come salary bumps. Your roles in your first nonclinical job may shift quite a bit as you grow into the role and increase your responsibilities. Most physicians can expect compensation to increase over time as they work their way up the career ladder.
What entry level nonclinical jobs pay for doctors
Understandably, a huge part of the decision to make a career shift is the financial piece. As such, doctors in our communities often ask about what they can expect in terms of salary to assess if they financially can afford to make a change. We highly recommend doing this as you consider a career shift so that you can budget accordingly.
While salaries can range greatly given the factors above, in general, nonclinical jobs typically pay around $80,000 to $330,000 for an entry level position.
This figure may give physicians pause, especially if they are used to making $400,000+ a year. When assessing a nonclinical opportunity, make sure you’re comparing apples to apples though. For example, while you may make significantly more in your clinical job, consider that you may be working 1.5 - 2x the hours you are working at your clinical job when factoring in the hours you spend during your regular work days, on call, and charting. Also, the amount of PTO and benefits you have may differ substantially.Â
Additionally, the truth is that you may be overqualified for an entry level position in a nonclinical role, which may not require the extra fellowship training that you had, or even your medical degree. It may just be a foot in the door to a new industry, and you may have to be willing to take the short term hit to your salary (and potentially your ego). Â
Also note that the listed salary for an entry level position may also be a base salary with the potential for performance based bonuses or other incentives to significantly increase your earnings. If you’re working with a startup or privately held company, for example, you may also receive stock options as part of an overall compensation package.
Which entry level nonclinical jobs tend to pay doctors the most?
While a good job fit doesn’t rest solely on pay, compensation is a large part of what makes a potential job attractive. A $80,000 base salary for a full time job can be a tough sale for most doctors given the opportunity costs of becoming a physician. Most physicians considering switching to a nonclinical career are interested in the top range of entry level positions and want to know which industries could offer a more lateral move from their clinical career.
Nonclinical jobs that offer starting salaries in the ~$200,000 - $300,000+ range tend to be for companies in:
Biotech
Disability and life insurance
Finance, such as venture capital or private equity
Government roles, such as at the CDC or FDA
Health insurance
Informatics
Physician advising
Which entry level nonclinical jobs tend to pay doctors the least?
Nonclinical jobs that tend to pay on the lower end of the scale, especially for entry level positions, often have lower requirements to qualify. These roles often don’t require as much medical expertise, so the candidate pool of applicants may be greater and/or not limited to just physicians.
While these entry level positions may not be a great fit for a mid-career physician looking for a career change, they could be a suitable opportunity for a retired physician looking to keep busy, a physician who didn’t complete a residency, or a physician who is looking to cut back but still enjoys working or needs to make a certain amount of money to maintain their lifestyle.
And as a reminder, entry level positions don’t necessarily forecast your overall earnings potential with a new career. When assessing a job, ask what opportunities exist for career advancement, and what that track looks like in terms of experience required and a projected timeline for advancement.
Entry level nonclinical jobs that tend to pay doctors the least include:
Academia & teaching
Medical writing
Some pharmaceutical roles that don’t require a medical degree
Public health & policy jobs
While these jobs offer less in terms of pay, they may offer higher degrees of flexibility, such as opportunities to choose your own work hours and/or the ability to work remotely from home, or more part time options. They may also be less stressful than some of the non-clinical roles with higher salaries.
You may notice that nonclinical jobs with pharmaceutical companies can be both on the highest and lowest ends of salary ranges for entry level positions. This showcases an important fact we touched on above: salaries depend heavily on the specific role.
Becoming a medical science liaison is one of the pharmaceutical industry roles for physicians seeking nonclinical career opportunities that we’ve covered. As this position often doesn’t require being a MD/DO, starting salaries for these jobs tend to be on the lower end, starting around $125,000 - $175,000 for entry level positions. Similarly, medical communications positions with pharmaceutical companies, like medical writing, often don’t require an advanced medical degree for entry level positions, so they tend to pay in the $100,000 - $175,000 range.Â
Other nonclinical positions, such as clinical development lead and medical director roles, tend to pay much higher for entry level positions, closer to the $180,000 - $250,000+ range. Many physicians on our communities who work in pharma point out that it’s getting harder to start at a medical director level position as the demand for nonclinical positions increases, particularly if you don’t have relevant background experience.
How much do specific nonclinical jobs pay for physicians?
While it would be difficult to cover salary ranges for all possible nonclinical career opportunities suitable for doctors, below we highlight some of the most popular nonclinical fields for physicians, along with salary ranges based on what we’ve seen in our communities. Of course, outliers exist in every situation, and looking at the specific job requirements is key to ensure you’re comparing apples to apples.
Academia & Teaching:Â While salaries can depend heavily on the institution/employer, these roles tend to pay lower than other industry roles, averaging around $80,000 - $150,000.
Healthcare Consulting: Roles with consulting firms can often pay in the $180,000 - $250,000 range.
Health Insurance: Roles such as utilization management and medical director roles can range from $180,000 - $230,000+ for entry level positions.
Healthtech (Digital Health & AI): Roles such as digital health product lead, chief medical officer, and AI consultant can often range from $180,000 - $250,000+.
Insurance Medicine:Â Roles for physicians in insurance medicine typically pay in the $175,000 - $300,000 range, depending on experience.
Medical Writing & Communications: Entry level positions, such as medical communications specialist, often range around $100,000 - $180,000. As a reminder, this is for entry level positions. Some physicians report making $200,000+ a year, depending on the specific role. Regulatory writing jobs, for example, tend to pay more.
Pharmaceutical & Life Sciences: Many jobs pay in the $150,000 - $300,000 range, though pay can vary greatly depending on the role and the specific requirements. Drug safety jobs, for example, may or may not require candidates to hold a MD/DO license, depending on the level of the job. For physicians, pay can often be around $200,000 - $300,000+, while other drug safety jobs that don’t require a MD/DO license can pay significantly less.
Public Health Jobs:Â While they tend to be on the lower end of the salary range for nonclinical careers, there can be a large variance depending on who you work for. Some positions may start as low as ~$90,000, while others may start closer to $200,000, depending on the specific job requirements and credentials required.
As a reminder, opportunities for bonuses and equity options can exist on top of these base salaries, which can greatly increase overall annual earnings.
Is it worth taking a pay cut to shift into a nonclinical career?
For many physicians, shifting to a nonclinical career will require some reduction in pay, even if it’s a temporary cut while you adjust to a new role and build up your new skillset within your new field.
Physicians who look at shifting from a clinical setting to a nonclinical role often do so because they feel stuck and burned out in their current job, or because they’re entering a new phase of life where they need something different. This doesn’t always mean that taking a pay cut and changing careers is the right solution. It may be a case of a specific clinical role being a bad fit for the work/life balance you’re trying to achieve, or just needing to cut back in the role (and in many cases part time clinical jobs can still pay more than full time non-clinical jobs, depending on your specialty).
If you’re interested in exploring other clinical job opportunities as well, we have resources to help.
Explore:
In other situations, a shift to a nonclinical career may be worth the growth opportunity or the ability to have a much higher level of flexibility. Physicians must weigh their personal, financial, and career goals to determine if the shift is worth it for them.
How do I know if I’m being offered a fair starting salary?
We are huge advocates of salary transparency, which is why we offer a physician salary and compensation database as a free resource to all our physician members. While the vast majority of the data in our database is for clinical jobs, some members have included their nonclinical compensation information as well.
When transitioning to a new industry, it can be helpful to network and make connections with others who are established in the roles you’re either applying for or for a role you’re hoping to advance into. They will have firsthand knowledge of what to expect from the position and will be able to provide you with an idea of what the day-to-day in a new role might look like, as well as potentially be able to provide insights into what salaries are common in their industry and locality.
Depending on the nonclinical role, you may be able to get an idea of what to expect in terms of a general salary range, such as those included above, but searching online, though you’ll want to make sure you assess your specific credentials for the role versus the candidate requirements to help assess what might be a fair offer.
A contract review attorney may also be able to help you assess an offer to determine what you should negotiate for.
We recommend almost all physicians have their employment agreements reviewed by a qualified contract review attorney. Having a contract or employment proposal reviewed for a nonclinical job, especially your first one in a new career, can be beneficial as well to help you navigate the transition into a new industry, especially if part of your salary is offered via equity.
Conclusion
Transition to a nonclinical career can be rewarding for physicians looking for new opportunities. Some roles can offer salaries competitive to clinical jobs, such as consulting and medical director positions, while others such as medical writing and public health roles, may require a pay cut but can often offer higher flexibility in return. The best future career path depends on each doctor’s personal goals and career objectives. By leveraging your medical expertise and years of experience, many doctors have successfully transitioned into fulfilling and lucrative second careers in nonclinical roles.
Additional nonclinical career resources for physicians
Explore related career resources: