Clinical Data Managers
Also called Clinical Data Management Director (CDM Director), Clinical Data Management Manager (CDM Manager), Clinical Data Manager, or Data Management Manager
Updated · Source: O*NET 31.0
What Clinical Data Managers do
When a new medicine is tested on real patients, you are the person who makes sure every piece of that data is clean, complete, and trustworthy.
Clinical data managers look after the information collected during medical studies, like drug trials. Hospitals and clinics record what happened to each patient. You build the database that holds all of it, set up automatic checks that flag mistakes, and chase down anything that looks wrong or missing. Then you pull the numbers into reports other people can actually use.
It is detail work with real stakes. A birth date typed wrong, a blood pressure reading in the wrong box, a form nobody filled in: all of that has to be found and fixed before anyone draws conclusions. You mix computer skills with enough medical vocabulary to understand what the numbers mean.
A day in the life
You sit at a desk in a climate-controlled office, working mostly on a computer. The morning might start with error reports from overnight checks: values outside normal ranges, blank fields, dates that do not line up. You write up questions asking the clinic staff to confirm or correct each one. Email is constant. Then you meet face-to-face with your team or with the researchers who will use the data, agreeing on what format they need and when. Afternoon might mean testing a new database before a study opens, or auditing records already entered. Some stretches are quiet and solitary. Others are all conversation and negotiation over deadlines.
This could fit you if you…
- ✓Notice small mistakes that other people read straight past
- ✓Like building orderly systems and keeping them running on schedule
- ✓Enjoy both computers and the human side of medicine
- ✓Can explain technical requirements clearly to people who are not technical
- ✓Are comfortable speaking up and taking charge when data problems need fixing
You might not like it if you…
- –Want to be on your feet or outdoors instead of sitting at a desk
- –Lose patience with repetitive checking and follow-up emails
- –Dislike chasing other people to correct their paperwork
- –Prefer work where nobody audits how you did it
How people get in
- 1Finish high school with solid math, biology, and writing, and get comfortable with spreadsheets and basic computing.
- 2Earn a bachelor's degree, the typical entry requirement. Common routes include computer science, information technology, mathematics, management science, or quantitative economics.
- 3Learn databases hands-on: practice pulling out the information you need with search commands, spotting errors, and cleaning up messy records in a class project or on your own.
- 4Pick up some health and medicine vocabulary through coursework or electives so clinical records make sense to you.
- 5Look for entry-level work near the field, such as data entry on a research study or a clinical research coordinator role, to learn how trials run.
- 6Move up by taking ownership of a study database, then a whole data management plan, which is how many people reach manager or director titles.
Who tends to enjoy it
Organizing
People who like keeping things accurate, orderly, and running on schedule.
Curious
People who like figuring things out, research, science, and solving problems.
Leading
People who like persuading, selling, starting things, and taking charge.
Official task list
Clinical Data Managers apply knowledge of health care and database management to analyze clinical data, and to identify and report trends. (O*NET)
- Design and validate clinical databases, including designing or testing logic checks.
- Process clinical data, including receipt, entry, verification, or filing of information.
- Generate data queries, based on validation checks or errors and omissions identified during data entry, to resolve identified problems.
- Develop project-specific data management plans that address areas such as coding, reporting, or transfer of data, database locks, and work flow processes.
- Monitor work productivity or quality to ensure compliance with standard operating procedures.
- Prepare appropriate formatting to data sets as requested.
- Design forms for receiving, processing, or tracking data.
- Prepare data analysis listings and activity, performance, or progress reports.
A typical day involves
Skills that matter most
- Critical Thinking
- Reading Comprehension
- Active Listening
- Speaking
- Writing
- Active Learning
What you'll need to know
- English Language
- Computers and Electronics
- Customer and Personal Service
- Mathematics
- Medicine and Dentistry
How much Clinical Data Managers make
The median pay for Clinical Data Managers in the U.S. is $120,230 a year ($57.80 an hour). Most earn between $67,240 and $199,130. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025)
Pay depends a lot on where you live: the median is highest in Washington ($163,350) and lowest in Mississippi ($69,490).
Pay by state and territory
| State | Median pay | Jobs |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $103,120 | 1,740 |
| Alaska | $84,110 | 230 |
| Arizona | $107,240 | 4,560 |
| Arkansas | $109,390 | 530 |
| California | $141,590 | 39,310 |
| Colorado | $117,400 | 6,280 |
| Connecticut | $126,340 | 1,760 |
| District of Columbia | $126,490 | 2,680 |
| Florida | $115,820 | 10,240 |
| Georgia | $104,340 | 9,260 |
| Hawaii | $102,130 | 300 |
| Idaho | $89,380 | 1,350 |
| Illinois | $106,560 | 10,520 |
| Indiana | $91,470 | 3,580 |
| Iowa | $95,830 | 2,300 |
| Kansas | $98,130 | 490 |
| Kentucky | $91,760 | 1,540 |
| Louisiana | $78,760 | 1,300 |
| Maine | $90,880 | 1,210 |
| Maryland | $136,370 | 3,340 |
| Massachusetts | $131,750 | 9,420 |
| Michigan | $100,590 | 7,360 |
| Minnesota | $128,800 | 4,020 |
| Mississippi | $69,490 | 440 |
| Missouri | $97,090 | 4,730 |
| Montana | $100,490 | 220 |
| Nebraska | $98,230 | 1,980 |
| Nevada | $98,540 | 1,680 |
| New Hampshire | $100,620 | 1,100 |
| New Jersey | $135,280 | 6,430 |
| New Mexico | $95,850 | 560 |
| New York | $130,460 | 23,970 |
| North Carolina | $119,090 | 11,430 |
| North Dakota | $81,900 | 210 |
| Ohio | $102,630 | 6,100 |
| Oklahoma | $86,310 | 1,900 |
| Oregon | $125,990 | 2,140 |
| Pennsylvania | $106,850 | 13,810 |
| Puerto Rico | $80,350 | 100 |
| Rhode Island | $102,440 | 1,160 |
| South Carolina | $91,990 | 3,750 |
| South Dakota | $96,150 | 220 |
| Tennessee | $100,330 | 2,790 |
| Texas | $122,090 | 25,860 |
| Utah | $108,090 | 4,360 |
| Vermont | $127,070 | 200 |
| Virginia | $126,430 | 8,920 |
| Washington | $163,350 | 9,600 |
| West Virginia | $85,090 | 390 |
| Wisconsin | $106,680 | 4,370 |
Where to study for this
College programs that commonly lead to this career, and how many US colleges offer each.
- Computer Science 1,091 colleges
- Information Technology 783 colleges
- Management Science 407 colleges
- Mathematics 1,482 colleges
- Econometrics and Quantitative Economics 314 colleges
- Business Analytics 212 colleges
- Statistics 226 colleges
- Data Science 320 colleges
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Source: O*NET 31.0 Database (USDOL/ETA), occupation 15-2051.02, used under CC BY 4.0 and modified by Whittle. Pay: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025), SOC 15-2051. Outlook and entry education: BLS Employment Projections 2025–35. Program links: NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. How we build these pages.