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Biotech Compensation Analysis

90 biotech companies, 3,700+ data points

About this project

During the 2022 Founder-led Biotech Summit, Pillar VC and Pave partnered to produce a community-generated biotech compensation dataset for benchmarking across the entire industry.

Together we collected over 3,700 data point from 90 biotech companies. Below is our analysis.

Jump to the data

Data Summary

Companies

90

Companies submitted data

Data Points

3,715

Roles across 90 companies

1-25 employees

58

Early-stage

25-50 employees

18

Mid-stage

50+ employees

24

Later-stage

Didn’t have a chance to submit your data? You can still contribute here.

Biotech Salary Benchmarks by Function

Show roles
$50k
$100k
$150k
$200k
$250k
$300k
$350k
$400k

  • C-Suite + 4 sub items

    $256,000
    $410k

  • CMO

    $441,000
    $460k

  • CSO

    $250,000
    $393k

  • CTO

    $215,000
    $275k

  • CEO

    $199,300
    $345k

  • Principal Scientist

    $190,000
    $208k

  • Legal

    $172,000
    $250k

  • Product

    $152,000
    $180k

  • IT

    $151,000
    $181k

  • Sales

    $150,000
    $175k

  • Regulatory

    $145,000
    $190k

  • Marketing

    $140,000
    $175k

  • Finance/accounting

    $140,000
    $175k

  • Other

    $132,000
    $183k

  • Operations

    $130,000
    $180k

  • Engineering + 4 sub items

    $130,000
    $160k

  • Software/Computational

    $132,000
    $162k

  • Mechanical/Electrical

    $125,000
    $155k

  • Process/Clinical Deve

    $120,000
    $148k

  • Robotics/Automation

    $120,000
    $147k

  • Scientist + 13 sub items

    $130,000
    $155k

  • Medical Director

    $311,000
    $333k

  • Genetics/Sequencing

    $190,000
    $236k

  • Biology

    $170,000
    $210k

  • Chemistry

    $155,000
    $190k

  • Process/Clinical Dev

    $155,000
    $186k

  • Protein

    $150,000
    $170k

  • Software/Comp

    $150,000
    $185k

  • Discovery

    $140,000
    $173k

  • Vaccine/Immunology

    $130,000
    $162k

  • In Vivo

    $115,000
    $165k

  • R&D

    $99,000
    $130k

  • Pharmacology

    $80,000
    $161k

  • Molecular/Cell

    $65,000
    $105k

  • Talent/HR

    $125,000
    $172k

  • Lab/Clinical + 3 sub items

    $95,000
    $150k

  • Genetics/Sequencing

    $70,000
    $71k

  • R&D

    $65,000
    $117k

  • Molecular/Cell

    $48,000
    $49k

  • Research Associate + 3 sub items

    $78,000
    $88k

  • Biology

    $110,000
    $120k

  • Chemistry

    $72,000
    $73k

  • Process/Clinical Dev

    $44,000
    $69k

Company Composition

Employees

1-10 employees

C-Suite 31.9%
Scientist 31.3%
Other 9%
Research Associate 7.6%
Engineering 6.9%
Operations 3.5%
Lab/Clinical 2.8%
Sales 2.8%
Marketing 2.1%
Product 1.4%
Principal Scientist 0.7%

10-25 employees

Scientist 34.9%
C-Suite 14.1%
Research Associate/Analyst 11.8%
Lab/Clinical 9.5%
Other 9.5%
Engineering 6.3%
Operations 2.6%
Regulatory 2.3%
Sales 2.3%
Principal Scientist 2%
Product 1.7%
Recruiting/Talent/HR 1.2%
Marketing 0.9%
Finance/Accounting 0.6%
IT 0.3%

25-50 employees

Scientist 36%
Engineering 15.3%
Research Associate/Analyst 13.5%
Other 11.3%
C-Suite 6.7%
Product 3%
Lab/Clinical 2.6%
Marketing 2%
Sales 2%
Operations 1.7%
Principal Scientist 1.7%
Recruiting/Talent/HR 1.5%
Regulatory 1.5%
Finance/Accounting 0.9%
IT 0.2%
Legal 0.2%

50-100 employees

Scientist 25.7%
Other 15.7%
Lab/Clinical 14.2%
Regulatory 11.9%
Engineering 9.7%
C-Suite 6%
Research Associate/Analyst 3.4%
Finance/Accounting 3%
Sales 3%
Operations 2.2%
Product 1.9%
Recruiting/Talent/HR 1.5%
IT 0.7%
Legal 0.4%
Marketing 0.4%
Principal Scientist 0.4%

101-200 employees

Scientist 26.6%
Other 16.7%
Engineering 10.4%
Lab/Clinical 8.1%
Research Associate/Analyst 7.9%
Regulatory 4.5%
Sales 4.3%
C-Suite 4.2%
Finance/Accounting 3.7%
Product 2.8%
Recruiting/Talent/HR 2.8%
Marketing 2.1%
Operations 1.7%
Principal Scientist 1.5%
IT 1.3%
Legal 1.3%

200+ employees

Scientist 28.3%
Other 18.4%
Engineering 11.6%
Regulatory 6.5%
Lab/Clinical 5.3%
Finance/Accounting 4.7%
Marketing 4.6%
Research Associate/Analyst 3.8%
Recruiting/Talent/HR 3.1%
Principal Scientist 2.5%
Product 2.3%
C-Suite 2.2%
Legal 1.9%
IT 1.8%
Sales 1.5%
Operations 1.4%

Scientist Salary by Level

By Capital Raised
$50k
$100k
$150k
$200k
$250k
$300k
$350k
$400k

  • Executive Director

    $328,000
    $363k

  • Senior Director

    $242,000
    $274k

  • Director

    $210,000
    $225k

  • Principal Scientist

    $190,000
    $208k

  • Associate Director

    $180,000
    $190k

  • Senior Scientist

    $146,000
    $158k

  • Scientist II

    $135,000
    $140k

  • Scientist

    $129,000
    $140k

  • Scientist I

    $112,000
    $120k

  • Associate Scientist

    $95,000
    $101k

  • Executive Director

     
    Awaiting more data

  • Senior Director

     
    Awaiting more data

  • Director

     
    Awaiting more data

  • Principal Scientist

    $165,000
    $168k

  • Associate Director

     
    Awaiting more data

  • Senior Scientist

    $150,000
    $151k

  • Scientist II

    $135,000
    $140k

  • Scientist

    $120,000
    $140k

  • Scientist I

    $95,000
    $125k

  • Associate Scientist

    $61,000
    $70k

  • Executive Director

     
    Awaiting more data

  • Senior Director

    $230,000
    $240k

  • Director

     
    Awaiting more data

  • Principal Scientist

    $155,000
    $155k

  • Associate Director

     
    Awaiting more data

  • Senior Scientist

    $135,000
    $150k

  • Scientist II

    $115,000
    $140k

  • Scientist

    $125,000
    $130k

  • Scientist I

    $105,000
    $110k

  • Associate Scientist

    $61,000
    $70k

  • Executive Director

     
    Awaiting more data

  • Senior Director

     
    Awaiting more data

  • Director

    $195,000
    $210k

  • Principal Scientist

    $97,000
    $190k

  • Associate Director

    $118,000
    $182k

  • Senior Scientist

    $103,000
    $146k

  • Scientist II

    $140,000
    $158k

  • Scientist

    $130,000
    $160k

  • Scientist I

    $120,000
    $123k

  • Associate Scientist

    $120,000
    $120k

  • Executive Director

     
    Awaiting more data

  • Senior Director

    $234,000
    $242k

  • Director

    $210,000
    $231k

  • Principal Scientist

    $165,000
    $175k

  • Associate Director

    $158,000
    $180k

  • Senior Scientist

    $140,000
    $155k

  • Scientist II

    $130,000
    $139k

  • Scientist

    $107,000
    $132k

  • Scientist I

    $101,000
    $114k

  • Associate Scientist

    $87,000
    $102k

  • Executive Director

     
    Awaiting more data

  • Senior Director

    $260,000
    $288k

  • Director

    $215,000
    $231k

  • Principal Scientist

    $218,000
    $228k

  • Associate Director

    $187,000
    $200k

  • Senior Scientist

    $147,000
    $165k

  • Scientist II

    $126,000
    $137k

  • Scientist

    $140,000
    $158k

  • Scientist I

    $107,000
    $115k

  • Associate Scientist

    $85,000
    $89k

  • Executive Director

     
    Awaiting more data

  • Senior Director

     
    Awaiting more data

  • Director

     
    Awaiting more data

  • Principal Scientist

     
    Awaiting more data

  • Associate Director

     
    Awaiting more data

  • Senior Scientist

    $180,000
    $200k

  • Scientist II

    $140,000
    $145k

  • Scientist

     
    Awaiting more data

  • Associate Scientist

    $94,000
    $95k

  • Scientist I

    $85,000
    $85k

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Biotech hiring checklist & resources

The Founder-led Biotech community put together a hiring checklist specifically focused around biotech companies. Additionally, we’ve curated a set of resources

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