Clinical research coordinator jobs — the site-side seat every trial runs on.

Where coordinators are hired

Sites and academic medical centers hire the most coordinators, and they hire locally — the job is patient-facing. Community hospitals hire generalists and train them; physician-owned research sites hire for attitude. Remote coordinator roles exist but are usually telehealth or registry studies, and often want a clinical license. See remote CRC jobs for the ones that are actually remote.

One market deserves its own line: the I-270 corridor. Bethesda–Rockville–Gaithersburg–Frederick is one of the densest clinical research stretches in the country — the NIH Clinical Center (America's research hospital) and the NCI in Bethesda, the FDA just down the road in Silver Spring, US Pharmacopeia and long-tenured CROs like Emmes and Westat in Rockville, and vaccine and cell-therapy campuses (Novavax, AstraZeneca, Emergent) in Gaithersburg. Coordinators, trial assistants, monitors, and regulatory people all hire there, and they hire locally — worth watching this page as we bring those boards online.

What CRC jobs pay

From postings we index: of the 302 live coordinator postings, 26 advertise a range — entry bands from $54k–$140k and a median around $75k, which is thin enough that we'd rather show you the live CRC salary page breakdown than quote a number that's already drifting. The ceiling arrives when you change titles — senior CRC, research manager, or the CRA move around year two.

How to get in

The honest loop: almost every posting asks for 1–2 years of research experience. Three ways through — meet it sideways (research assistant, CTA), apply anyway when the posting says "or equivalent combination", or get referred by someone on the team. A GCP certificate makes a thin résumé readable. Our guide covers all of it: how to become a clinical research coordinator.

Questions

Do CRC jobs require a degree? Most ask for a bachelor's in a life science, nursing, psychology, or public health — but RNs, experienced medical assistants, and paramedics get hired into coordinator roles without one.

What's the difference between a CRC and a CTA? A CRC works at a site with patients; a CTA supports the study team at a CRO or sponsor — documents, tracking, scheduling. CTA is the easier entry; CRC is where most people are aiming.

What do clinical research coordinators do? They run a trial's day-to-day at the site: consenting participants, running study visits per protocol, entering data, reporting adverse events, and keeping the regulatory file inspection-ready. The hour-by-hour version: a day in the life of a CRC.

Is a clinical research coordinator an entry-level job? CRC I is the entry tier, and some sites hire degree-holders with no research background — but many postings ask for 1–2 years first, which is the wall the how-to guide gets you over.

What can I do after being a clinical research coordinator? A map, not a door: senior CRC → research manager (stay at site), the CRA monitoring path, the eTMF/regulatory-operations upgrade, or data and systems seats — the full honest version, including which moves raise pay, is in the community questions guide.