What does a Clinical Data Manager do?

Apply knowledge of health care and database management to analyze clinical data, and to identify and report trends. Day to day that includes work like design and validate clinical databases, including designing or testing logic checks and Process clinical data, including receipt, entry, verification, or filing of information.

What skills should a Clinical Data Manager put on a resume?

O*NET rates Critical Thinking, Active Listening, Reading Comprehension, Speaking, and Writing among the most important skills for this occupation. Name the ones that are genuinely yours and show where you used them. A resume that lists skills you do not have is weaker than one that lists fewer.

What software should a Clinical Data Manager list?

Software recorded for this occupation includes 5AM Glassbox Translational Research, Allscripts healthcare automation software, Autocoders, C#, and C++. Applicant tracking systems match on the exact product name, so write the tool as the posting writes it rather than describing it in general terms.

What other job titles cover Clinical Data Manager work?

O*NET records 15 titles for this occupation, including Clinical Data Management Director, CDM Director, Clinical Data Management Manager, and CDM Manager. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.

What qualifications does a Clinical Data Manager need?

In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 85% reported their level of education as "Bachelor's Degree". That is what current postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.

Will this resume pass an ATS for a Clinical Data Manager role?

No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer's system is configured, including ours. What you can control is that the resume parses cleanly, names the work in the words the posting uses, and does not claim anything you cannot back up.

Clinical Data Manager resume example

A resume for a Clinical Data Manager needs to show the work itself: apply knowledge of health care and database management to analyze clinical data, and to identify and report trends. Day to day that means work like this: design and validate clinical databases, including designing or testing logic checks; process clinical data, including receipt, entry, verification, or filing of information. Recruiters and applicant tracking systems both read for the tasks and tools this role actually involves, so the strongest resume names them in your own experience rather than describing the job in the abstract. Below are the tasks O*NET records for this occupation, the software and tools it uses, the titles it is advertised under, and the skills worth naming if they are genuinely yours.

Also advertised as

The same job is posted under many titles. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.

Clinical Data Management Director
CDM Director
Clinical Data Management Manager
CDM Manager
Data Management Manager
Clinical Informatics Manager
Data Deliverables Manager
Clinical Applications Director
Clinical Biostatistics Director
Clinical Data Abstractor
Clinical Data Analyst
Clinical Data Coordinator
Clinical Statistics Manager
Clinical Trials Data Coordinator
Data Coordinator

What people in this job call themselves

Titles reported by people actually doing this work, which is often not the title on the job posting.

Clinical Data Management Director (CDM Director)
Clinical Data Management Manager (CDM Manager)
Clinical Data Manager

What this work actually involves

Tasks recorded for this occupation, in O*NET's words. If your experience covers one of these, it belongs on your resume in your own words.

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.
Confer with end users to define or implement clinical system requirements such as data release formats, delivery schedules, and testing protocols.
Perform quality control audits to ensure accuracy, completeness, or proper usage of clinical systems and data.
Analyze clinical data using appropriate statistical tools.
Evaluate processes and technologies, and suggest revisions to increase productivity and efficiency.

21 tasks are recorded in total; these are the most central.

Example bullets for this role

Built from this occupation's own tasks. The brackets stay empty on purpose: we will not invent a number for you, and a fabricated metric is the fastest way to lose an interview you had already won.

Design and validate clinical databases, including designing or testing logic checks, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Process clinical data, including receipt, entry, verification, or filing of information, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Generate data queries, based on validation checks or errors and omissions identified during data entry, to resolve identified problems, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Develop project-specific data management plans that address areas such as coding, reporting, or transfer of data, database locks, and work flow processes, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].

Software used in this role

Recorded for this occupation by O*NET. An applicant tracking system matches the exact product name, so write the tool the way the posting writes it.

5AM Glassbox Translational Research
Allscripts healthcare automation software
Autocoders
C#
C++
Citrix cloud computing software
ClearTrial
Clinical trial management software
Drug coding software
DZS Software Solutions ClinPlus
Electronic data capture EDC software
ePharmaSolutions eMVR
Epic Systems
EpicCare Ambulatory Electronic Medical Records (EMR) software

57 software entries are recorded in total.

Tools and equipment

The physical equipment this occupation is recorded as using. Worth naming when a posting asks for it by name.

Handheld computers
Laptop computers
Smartphones

Skills an ATS reads for

Worth naming only if they are genuinely yours. Keyword overlap is one input to a resume's score, not a verdict.

Python
SQL
machine learning
statistics
pandas
data visualization
A/B testing
Epic
EpicCare Ambulatory Electronic Medical Records (EMR)
C#

What this job rates as most important

O*NET rates every skill for importance to this occupation. These are the highest rated, in order.

01Critical Thinking
02Active Listening
03Reading Comprehension
04Speaking
05Writing
06Active Learning
07Monitoring
08Complex Problem Solving
09Mathematics
10Coordination

Knowledge areas

The subject knowledge this occupation draws on, rated by importance.

English Language
Computers and Electronics
Customer and Personal Service
Mathematics
Medicine and Dentistry

What qualifications people in this job have

From O*NET's survey of people doing this work. This is what postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.

85%Bachelor's Degree
5%Associate's Degree
5%Post-Baccalaureate Certificate, awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Baccalaureate degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees carrying the title of Master.

What level this role is pitched at

O*NET places this occupation in “Considerable Preparation Needed”. Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.

Common questions

What does a Clinical Data Manager do?: Apply knowledge of health care and database management to analyze clinical data, and to identify and report trends. Day to day that includes work like design and validate clinical databases, including designing or testing logic checks and Process clinical data, including receipt, entry, verification, or filing of information.
What skills should a Clinical Data Manager put on a resume?: O*NET rates Critical Thinking, Active Listening, Reading Comprehension, Speaking, and Writing among the most important skills for this occupation. Name the ones that are genuinely yours and show where you used them. A resume that lists skills you do not have is weaker than one that lists fewer.
What software should a Clinical Data Manager list?: Software recorded for this occupation includes 5AM Glassbox Translational Research, Allscripts healthcare automation software, Autocoders, C#, and C++. Applicant tracking systems match on the exact product name, so write the tool as the posting writes it rather than describing it in general terms.
What other job titles cover Clinical Data Manager work?: O*NET records 15 titles for this occupation, including Clinical Data Management Director, CDM Director, Clinical Data Management Manager, and CDM Manager. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.
What qualifications does a Clinical Data Manager need?: In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 85% reported their level of education as "Bachelor's Degree". That is what current postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.
Will this resume pass an ATS for a Clinical Data Manager role?: No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer's system is configured, including ours. What you can control is that the resume parses cleanly, names the work in the words the posting uses, and does not claim anything you cannot back up.

Related roles

Occupations O*NET records as closest to this one, and worth looking at if this search is not moving.

What this page cannot tell you

No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer’s ATS is configured, including ours.
This page makes no claim about pay, demand or how many people hold this job. O*NET does not publish that here and we will not estimate it.
Keyword overlap is one input to a resume’s score, not a verdict on you. A resume that names skills you do not have is worse than one that names fewer.

If this is the job you are aiming at, the guide to tailoring a resume covers how to aim one posting properly, and building and exporting a resume here is free.

Occupation data from the O*NET 29.1 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under CC BY 4.0. O*NET is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. SpartanResume is not endorsed by USDOL/ETA.