2024 Medical Device – Field Clinical Specialist Salary Survey Results
From the desk of Preston Snow, Director of Recruiting at Gateway Recruiting –
Welcome to our First Annual Medical Device – Field Clinical Specialist Salary Survey!
Gateway Recruiting is a leader in Medical Device recruiting and has been recognized for the last 6 years by Forbes as a Top Professional Recruiting firm.
My name is Preston Snow, the Director of Recruiting at Gateway Recruiting. I want to express my gratitude to everyone who participated in our very first Annual Medical Device – Field Clinical Specialist Salary Survey. With over 700 participants in this year’s report, we are enthusiastic to continue increasing participation and become the standard compensation data in this vertical for years to come.
For decades, we have conducted salary surveys across our other markets to gather critical industry insights, and we are now pleased to extend this initiative to our Field Clinical Specialist network. We deeply value the essential role you play in bridging cutting-edge technology with life-saving patient care. Through this survey, we aim to provide actionable data on salary trends, benefits, and job satisfaction – empowering you with a clearer understanding of your field and supporting your continued impact on healthcare.
The medical device – field clinical specialist employment market seems to be leaning more toward hiring additional headcount rather than just replacing talent, but it’s a bit of a mixed bag depending on where you look. The industry’s been growing steadily – think aging populations, more chronic diseases, and tech advancements like robotics and AI pushing demand for devices. This naturally drives a need for more field clinical specialists to support new product launches, train clinicians, and manage increasingly complex tech in the field. Companies aren’t just swapping out old roles; they’re often adding to their teams to keep up with market expansion and innovation.
That said, there’s always some replacement happening – turnover is a constant in any therapeutic field. Field clinical specialists might make a move for better pay, career progression, or less travel; especially since the role often involves being on the road or in operating rooms at odd hours. But the bigger focus right now appears to be growth. Companies are scaling up to handle new territories or product lines, not just filling vacated spots. If you squint at job boards or industry chatter, you’ll see more postings for new positions than you’d expect if it were purely a replacement game.
It’s worth noting that some companies might be playing it cautious – tight budgets or regulatory hurdles can slow hiring down to a trickle, making it look more like replacement than expansion. But the broader trend, especially with bigger players, points to headcount growth to meet demand.
Additional insight into continued hiring expansions:
- The medical device M&A landscape from late 2024 into early 2025 has been active, though not a dramatic “ramping up” – more of a steady pace with some standout deals. Strategic moves driven by innovation, market consolidation, and positioning for growth in a tech-centric healthcare landscape are creating new opportunities, often requiring additional headcount to integrate acquired technologies or expand into new markets.
- Companies are hungry for growth, and M&A offers a faster path to secure market share or cutting-edge tech than internal R&D alone. Larger firms frequently acquire smaller innovators – think diagnostics or wearable tech – to fill portfolio gaps, which in turn fuels demand for field clinical specialists to support new product launches, train healthcare providers, and manage expanded territories.
Thank you again for your contribution to this salary survey. Please feel free to circulate this, as next year we look forward to getting an even larger data set to provide the most accurate snapshot of the market to our network.
If you ever need help with hiring for your organization (Full-time or Contract), please feel free to contact me. If you are ready to make the leap and start a career search, please reach out as well. We have supported the Medical Device vertical for 15+ years and will always be here to support your career goals.
Cheers to our first survey and thank you for your continued support of Gateway Recruiting!
CLICK HERE TO VIEW AND DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE COPY OF THE 2024 MEDICAL DEVICE – FIELD CLINICAL SPECIALIST SALARY SURVEY RESULTS
We greatly value your feedback on this report and welcome any suggestions for the next year. At Gateway Recruiting, we are incredibly grateful for the continuous support we receive from our clients and candidates. It is this unwavering support that has established us as the preferred and leading choice in Medical Device Recruiting.
Whether you are seeking to hire a full-time employee or a contractor this year, we encourage you to reach out to us via email at Info@GatewayRecruiting.com. We are here to assist you every step of the way!
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