Medical device RA career consulting

As some background, I have 7 years experience in the medical device industry working in regulatory. I’m currently making >$200k working at an AI/ML SaMD startup. I never thought I’d be able to make this much in my life, let alone in regulatory.

A big part of that was due to promotions, negotiating hard, and job hopping. Here’s my trajectory: Job 1 - 6 months - associate RA specialist to specialist ($70k to $90k) Job 1 - 1 year - specialist to Sr. Specialist ($110k) Job 2 - 1.5 years - Sr. Specialist ($120k) Job 3 - 8 months - Sr. Specialist ($140k) Job 3 - 2 years - RA PM ($165k) Job 4 - current - RA manager ($220k)

Another part of it is choosing a speciality (for me, AI/ML) and sticking to it. It’s so much easier to get a job when a job description is basically made for your resume vs trying to fit your resume into something more generic.

I just got my job recently but was offered 2 other jobs in the same timeframe, all in the same ballpark salary-wise. I applied for four months before landing at my current position which I think is pretty fast.

I have experience at big medical device companies and I was also employee 42 at a smaller company. LinkedIn is your friend, especially when it comes to smaller startups.

I’ve helped friends break into the medical device industry and get promotions by reviewing their resumes, doing mock interviews, and looking at jobs with them.

Now I’m hoping to expand this to a more formalized career consulting side hustle so I can help other folks break into medical device reg or get early career promotions.

Let me know if I can help you in any way. Feel free to AMA below. Thanks!