How To Become A Medical Officer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a medical officer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Medical Officers are senior physicians who handle all aspects related to patient care within their departments. They supervise routine procedures, act as health assistants, and investigate any potential issues. They are also involved in medical research services and manage clinical experiments. They also conduct managerial roles and practices related to risk assessment. They even ensure that patient safety is maintained to the highest expectations.

Medical officers should show comprehensive clinical expertise and experience in a comparable management role in order to achieve success. An accomplished Medical Officer will be someone who can align their medical knowledge with best practices in health administration. Doing so, they typically earn around $33,763 to $243,386 per year, depending upon their experience.

A medical officer's position requires a four-year degree and the successful completion of training at an accredited medical school. You should also have a current license to practice medicine in the state that you are working in. Further educational qualifications can include specialty practices certifications and either two-year or four-year business degrees.

ScoreMedical OfficerUS Average

Salary

7.1

Avg. Salary $90,615

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

7.1

Growth Rate 28%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.6

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.72%

Asian 8.04%

Black or African American 11.75%

Hispanic or Latino 14.49%

Unknown 4.27%

White 60.73%

Gender

female 39.15%

male 60.85%

Age - 47

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 47

Stress Level

7.1

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.8

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

4.9

Work Life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a medical officer

Explore medical officer education requirements

Most common medical officer degrees

Bachelor's

57.8 %

Doctorate

18.2 %

Master's

11.1 %

Start to develop specific medical officer skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	20.38%
Public Health	16.51%
Infectious Disease	7.97%
Diagnosis	7.23%
Direct Patient Care	4.35%

Complete relevant medical officer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New medical officers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a medical officer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real medical officer resumes.

Gain additional medical officer certifications

Medical officer certifications can show employers you have a baseline of knowledge expected for the position. Certifications can also make you a more competitive candidate. Even if employers don't require a specific medical officer certification, having one may help you stand out relative to other applicants.

The most common certifications for medical officers include Internal Medicine and Surgery.

More About Certifications

Research medical officer duties and responsibilities

Lead efforts to support and continually improve the coordination and delivery of oncology services using evidence base guidelines.
Perform emergency and elective surgery for both obstetrics and gynecology cases.
Provide guidance to industry, stakeholders, and other experts within FDA on clinical issues and clinical trial designs.
Enter and scan patient history, current medical conditions, medications, immunizations and labs into the novel EHR system.

Prepare your medical officer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your medical officer resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a medical officer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Medical Officer Resume templates

Build a professional Medical Officer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Medical Officer resume.

Apply for medical officer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a medical officer job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do medical officers rate their job?

-/5

5 Stars

4 Stars

3 Stars

2 Stars

1 Star

Medical Officer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Aug 2019

Pros

Dealing with people making directions good salary

Cons

I don’t like mostly sitting