Medical device reps sell equipment, instruments and supplies to hospitals, surgery centers and practices, are often in the room when the product is used, and are often paid commission on top of a base salary. Pharmaceutical reps explain prescription medicines to physicians, close no sale themselves, are measured on prescriptions written, and are usually paid a salary plus a bonus.
Updated November 2, 2026
Both are field sales jobs in medicine, and they differ in what you sell, who decides to buy, how a sale is counted and how you are paid. Here they are side by side, with biotech and diagnostics alongside, from the postings on this board right now.
Counted from every listing on this board, read from the employers’ own careers pages twice a day. Each role is filed under one industry, by what it sells; an employer that sells in two industries counts in each where it has roles open.
Live roles by industry. Every live listing, by the industry it is filed under.
| Industry | Live roles | Employers with roles open |
|---|---|---|
| Medical device | 3,401 | 257 |
| Pharmaceutical | 2,826 | 176 |
| Biotech | 1,271 | 69 |
| Diagnostics | 695 | 66 |
Source: MedSales Radar, live US medical sales postings, as of November 2, 2026.
Of the four industries, medical device has the most live roles right now (3,401), and diagnostics the fewest (695).
These are advertised figures: the base salary ranges employers publish in their own postings, as the midpoint of each range, not a survey of what people earn. Hourly rates and ranges that are on-target earnings are left out of the base.
Advertised base pay by industry. Annual base salary ranges published in live postings, as the midpoint of each range.
| Industry | Median base | Middle half | Postings with a base range | Share stating a base range | Median base, 0–2 years asked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medical device | $95,000 | $76,550 – $120,000 | 2,018 | 59% | $80,000 |
| Pharmaceutical | $152,500 | $130,000 – $180,168 | 2,345 | 83% | $130,000 |
| Biotech | $166,250 | $130,541 – $187,500 | 1,068 | 84% | $122,759 |
| Diagnostics | $130,000 | $109,750 – $170,000 | 381 | 55% | $92,000 |
Source: MedSales Radar, live US medical sales postings that publish an annual base range, as of November 2, 2026.
Of the four industries, biotech has the highest median advertised base right now ($166,250), and medical device the lowest ($95,000). For roles asking zero to two years, pharmaceutical has the highest median right now ($130,000), and medical device the lowest ($80,000).
Base salary is not the whole pay, and the industries build pay differently. A device or diagnostics rep is often paid a base salary plus commission on what they sell, so the base is only part of it. A pharmaceutical or biotech rep is usually paid a salary with a bonus tied to the territory’s prescriptions, often with a company car or a car allowance. Compare a device base with its on-target earnings, not with a pharmaceutical salary alone.
The medical sales salary guide breaks the same postings down by product line, call point, experience and state.
On-target earnings are base plus commission when the rep reaches plan, as the employer states them. A median is shown only where enough postings state one. Commission and bonus count the postings that name them as part of the pay.
How pay is described, by industry. Shares of each industry’s live roles whose posting states each part of the pay.
| Industry | State on-target earnings | On-target earnings, median | Name commission | Name a bonus or incentive plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medical device | 7% | $166,940 | 33% | 48% |
| Pharmaceutical | 0% | Too few to show | 4% | 52% |
| Biotech | <1% | Too few to show | 18% | 73% |
| Diagnostics | 14% | $187,500 | 35% | 27% |
Source: MedSales Radar, live US medical sales postings, as of November 2, 2026.
Of the four industries, diagnostics has the largest share of postings stating on-target earnings right now (14%), and pharmaceutical the smallest (0%). For commission, diagnostics has the largest share of postings naming it right now (35%), and pharmaceutical the smallest (4%).
The years are the employer’s own figure, the least a posting asks for. A posting that asks for experience in words but gives no number is counted under no figure stated.
Years of experience asked, by industry. Shares of each industry’s live roles, by the least experience the posting asks for.
| Industry | A year or less | 2–3 years | 4–5 years | Six years or more | No figure stated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medical device | 22% | 41% | 21% | 7% | 8% |
| Pharmaceutical | 16% | 36% | 27% | 13% | 9% |
| Biotech | 22% | 25% | 22% | 23% | 7% |
| Diagnostics | 11% | 47% | 25% | 9% | 9% |
Source: MedSales Radar, live US medical sales postings, as of November 2, 2026.
Of the four industries, biotech and medical device are tied for the largest share of roles open to a year of experience or less right now (22%), and diagnostics the smallest (11%). At the other end, biotech has the largest share asking for six years or more right now (23%), and medical device the smallest (7%).
Beginners are hired under titles that rarely say “entry level”: associate sales representative, associate territory manager, associate clinical specialist. The break-in guide lists them, and each industry’s entry-level page lists its roles open to a year of experience or less.
Read how to break into medical sales for the titles, or open an industry’s entry-level roles: medical device, pharmaceutical, biotech and diagnostics.
The first column is the share of postings with a description that mention a degree at all. The rest are shares of those: how firmly the degree is asked for, and the subjects named, where a posting names one. A posting can name more than one subject.
Degrees asked, by industry. The first column is of postings with a description; the rest are of those that mention a degree.
| Industry | Mention a degree | Require one outright | Experience can substitute | Prefer one only | Business named | Life sciences named | Health professions named |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medical device | 96% | 31% | 45% | 17% | 16% | 11% | 10% |
| Pharmaceutical | 95% | 72% | 10% | 5% | 14% | 18% | 3% |
| Biotech | 96% | 53% | 33% | 11% | 35% | 33% | 9% |
| Diagnostics | 86% | 56% | 20% | 14% | 29% | 38% | 6% |
Source: MedSales Radar, live US medical sales postings with a description, as of November 2, 2026.
Of the four industries, pharmaceutical has the largest share of degree-mentioning postings that require one outright right now (72%), and medical device the smallest (31%). For a life sciences degree, diagnostics has the largest share of postings naming one right now (38%), and medical device the smallest (11%).
What degree you need for medical sales breaks the same counts down by call point, product line and state.
The call point is where the rep sells, read from what each posting says about the job. A role can name more than one setting, so a column can add to more than the whole.
Where the roles sell, by industry. Shares of each industry’s live roles that name each setting; a role can name more than one.
| Setting | Medical device | Pharmaceutical | Biotech | Diagnostics |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Physician office | 23% | 74% | 68% | 27% |
| Hospital / IDN | 30% | 25% | 30% | 37% |
| Operating room | 39% | <1% | 0% | 0% |
| Cancer / infusion center | <1% | 10% | 12% | 31% |
| Cath lab / EP | 14% | <1% | <1% | 1% |
| Lab / pathology | 1% | <1% | 0% | 34% |
| C-suite | 2% | 2% | 2% | 8% |
| Pharmacy | <1% | 3% | 2% | 0% |
Source: MedSales Radar, live US medical sales postings, as of November 2, 2026.
The settings each industry’s roles name most right now: medical device, operating room and hospital / IDN; pharmaceutical, physician office and hospital / IDN; biotech, physician office and hospital / IDN; diagnostics, hospital / IDN and lab / pathology.
A device rep’s week follows the procedure schedule in operating rooms, cath labs and surgery centers. A pharmaceutical or biotech rep’s follows clinic hours in physician offices and infusion centers. A diagnostics rep sells to the lab that runs the test and to the physicians who order it.
What a call point is sets out each setting and what a week in it looks like.
Each figure is the share of an industry’s live roles whose posting states it. A posting that says nothing is not counted as a no: silence about on-call work is not a promise of none. Remote means worked from home with no field territory; a field rep who lives in the territory is home-based, not remote. Travel over half the time is a posting that states a figure above half.
Remote work, travel and hours, by industry. Shares of each industry’s live roles whose posting states each one.
| Industry | Remote | Travel over half the time | Overnight travel | Weekend work | On-call work | Company car | Car allowance or mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medical device | 1% | 28% | 27% | 14% | 11% | 4% | 7% |
| Pharmaceutical | 2% | 25% | 55% | 8% | <1% | 15% | 3% |
| Biotech | <1% | 19% | 33% | 15% | 0% | 1% | <1% |
| Diagnostics | 2% | 31% | 19% | 8% | 0% | 3% | 13% |
Source: MedSales Radar, live US medical sales postings, as of November 2, 2026.
Of the four industries, medical device has the largest share of postings stating on-call work right now (11%), and biotech and diagnostics are tied for the smallest (0%). For overnight travel, pharmaceutical has the largest share of postings stating it right now (55%), and diagnostics the smallest (19%). For remote work, diagnostics and pharmaceutical are tied for the largest share of remote roles right now (2%), and biotech the smallest (<1%).
Device jobs that cover procedures can bring early starts and on-call rotations, because cases do not keep office hours. Pharmaceutical and biotech jobs keep closer to clinic hours, with overnight travel where a territory is large or spread thin.
A device rep calls on the clinicians who use the product, such as surgeons, interventional cardiologists and the nurses and techs in the operating room or lab, and on the people who buy it: purchasing staff, department managers and a hospital’s value analysis committee.
A pharmaceutical or biotech rep calls on prescribers, physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants, and on the office staff who handle samples and prior authorizations. In specialty and rare disease the prescribers are fewer and the conversations go deeper into the clinical detail.
A diagnostics rep calls on lab directors, pathologists and lab managers, and on the physicians whose orders decide which tests are run.
In device and diagnostics a sale is a purchase order or product used in your accounts, and you can see it. Prices are usually set by contracts the hospital or its health system has signed.
In pharmaceutical and biotech sales nobody buys from you. A physician writes a prescription, a patient fills it at a pharmacy, and the result comes back to your company through third-party prescription data, weeks later. Whether a patient’s insurance covers the medicine decides as much as the physician does.
Products used up in every case, such as catheters, surgical staplers, glucose sensors and test kits, are won and kept a case at a time. Capital equipment, such as surgical robots, imaging systems and lab analyzers, is bought rarely, through budgets and committees, and one sale can take months.
A medicine is sold by being remembered: repeated calls on the same prescribers, a launch built from nothing or an established product defended against the alternatives.
Tightly limited in all four. A medicine may be promoted only for what the FDA approved it for, and a device only for what it was cleared or approved for, from approved materials, and what you may give a physician is limited by law and by industry codes.
Two guides describe the work in depth: what a territory manager does in medical sales for device and diagnostics, and what a pharmaceutical sales rep actually does for pharma.
Neither career is better in general. Read a few postings in each, then the two guides that describe the work in depth.