What is the difference between a Medical Director and a Clinical Director?

A Medical Director oversees all functions of a medical facility, including checking on patients and prescribing treatments or medications. A Clinical Director, however, oversees the day-to-day operation of clinical research or community health programmes.

Who does a Medical Director report to?

A Medical Director usually reports to the Chief Medical Officer of their organisation.

How can you make your Medical Director job description stand out?

To make your Medical Director job description stand out, use a concise job title and specify the exact location of the job. Also, indicate the perks or benefits your company provides to entice potential candidates. Also, highlight your company’s culture and how the position will contribute to the company’s goals. Include some visual or graphics as well.

Medical Director Job Description [Updated 2025]

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A Medical Director, or Clinical Director coordinates teams in various types of healthcare facilities, including residential care units, hospitals, urgent care clinics and nursing homes. Their primary duties include ensuring efficient operation of the facility, recruiting and managing Nurses, Physicians and other staff and managing the facilities’ budget.

Medical Director job duties and responsibilities

Medical Directors coordinate medical staff teams in a variety of medical facilities. Their duties and responsibilities include:

Developing and implementing policies and procedures
Overseeing the activities of a group of Physicians, including the credential and recruitment processes
Showing positive interpersonal relations in dealing with supervisors and fellow employees
Participating in various administrative and clinical staff meetings
Managing the number of activities related to the delivery of clinical services and medical care, such as utilisation review, cost management, medical protocol development and quality assurance
Acting as the medical expert in dealing with non-medical facilities and vendors that work within the organisation
Working directly with providers to train them on the care processes and determine what must be done to improve overall care quality

Hire your next Medical Director today

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Hire your next Medical Director today

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Medical Director Job Description Examples:

Example 1

Associate Medical Director - Urgent Care Services - Suffolk GP Federation CIC
Our clinical leadership team is expanding and we are looking for forward-thinking clinical leaders to join our Urgent Care team.
We are recruiting a new substantive full-time Associate Medical Director for our Urgent Care services. These include ED Streaming at both hospitals, GP+, Out of Hours, ambulance crew advice line and new services such as the Urgent Treatment Centre at Ipswich.
What's the role?
The post will combine clinical leadership, mostly from Riverside in Ipswich, with working in our services across the county. This will include one weekend shift every 4 weeks and also being on the on-call rota. It is a great opportunity for a GP who shares the Fed’s vision.
You'll provide visible clinical leadership across our Urgent Care Services and will play a key role in developing and leading the service.
Is it for me?
We'll make sure you are fully inducted, its important to us that you feel safe and supported in your role. Your development is important to us; we want to invest in you.
Management experience is not essential but you will need a strong interest in leadership, wish to develop a medical director career and work with a great team of clinicians and managers. Our preference is for someone who has experience of working within the Suffolk system, who might already work in our services, has SystmOne expertise and is either a trainer or prepared to become one.
What we can offer you:

A strong ethos of flexible working, to help us maintain (or reclaim) that work/life balance
Agile working, enabling us to work from a variety of bases, interacting with your teams at the most appropriate location
Innovative teams who strive in forward thinking, with a voice that is heard
A visible and supportive management team, with operational support that ‘get it’
Excellent IT teams & support giving us first class equipment and ‘no wait’ responses
A commitment to personal development, training and leadership opportunities, with service-managed training budgets
Cycle to work scheme
Death in service cover
Competitive salaries with annual benchmarking
27 days holiday (plus bank holidays) on starting, rising to 29 days (plus bank holidays) after 5 years’ service
Blue light card employer – Access to the discount service with thousands of discounts online and on the high street

To arrange an informal chat please contact [website] and she will put you in touch with our clinical leadership team.

Job Type: £108,000.00 per year

Example 2

An outstanding new job opportunity has arisen for a dedicated Consultant Psychiatrist & Deputy Medical Director to work in an exceptional private hospital based in the Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex area. You will be working for one of UK’s leading health care providers

This is a private hospital which provides a recovery focused service treating a wide range of mental health problems

**To be considered for this position you must be fully GMC registered and on the specialist register for general adult psychiatry & be MBBS qualified or equivalent**

Your key responsibilities include:

· Work as part of a multidisciplinary team (MDT)

· Take overall responsibility for patient treatment plans in conjunction with the MDT

· Assess referrals & undertake mental state examinations of service users

· Undertake appropriate investigations, diagnosis & treatment

· Participate in ward rounds & clinical audits

· Lead the implementation of risk assessment, risk management & embed clinical governance

· Supervise reports for Mental Health Act tribunals & managers’ hearings & attend hearings

· Participate in the 1 in 6/7 telephone on-call rota

The following skills and experience would be preferred and beneficial for the role:

· Experienced & knowledgeable in adult psychiatry & mental health diagnosis

· Knowledgeable of the Mental Health Act and Code of Practice, along with the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and Code of Capacity

· A first-rate communicator who can interview, assess & treat patients & write clear, comprehensive medical notes

· Committed to continued professional development

· Able to work as part of a multi-disciplinary team

You will receive an excellent salary up to £90,000 per annum. This exciting position is a Part Time role working 24 hours a week. In return for your hard work and commitment you will receive the following generous benefits:

· Generous annual leave entitlement that increases with length of service

· Study leave & support with CPD opportunities

· Opportunity to undertake further learning and development

· Medical indemnity cover

· Company paid life assurance scheme

· Contributory pension scheme

· Most of our sites provide free meals on shift

· Cycle to work scheme

· Access to the NHS Discount Scheme

· Smart Health Toolkit, providing fitness programmes, nutrition consultation & health checks

· Relocation package will also be considered

Reference ID: 6278

To apply for this fantastic job role, please call on 0121 638 0567

Job Types: Part-time, Permanent
Part-time hours: 24 per week

Salary: Up to £90,000.00 per year

Benefits:

Company events
Company pension
Cycle to work scheme
Employee discount
Employee mentoring programme
Free parking
Health & wellbeing programme
Life insurance
On-site parking
Store discount

Schedule:

Day shift

Work Location: In ID: 6278

Example 3

Medical Director, Medical Affairs- UK/EU

Contract Type: Permanent

Job description

Our client company is a fast-growing and mission-driven technology company pioneering the next wave of drug discovery in order to bring novel, effective treatments to rare disease patients around the world. By using the next-generation AI platform we built to attack the drug discovery problem in a massively parallel, hypothesis-free way. If you’re driven by scientific discovery, we invite you to join us.

The Role
This role sits within Medical Affairs team & requires a highly strategic individual who is able to think out of the box in developing ideas. The candidate will get involved early and consistently across the product life cycle, bringing an understanding of the patient’s unmet need, prescribers behaviors and what the healthcare environment is likely to be when the product comes to the market.

Role Responsibilities

The Medical Affairs Director responsibilities include but are not limited to

Working closely with the Health Economics & Patient Outcomes Manager, Medical Directors Clinical Development, Regulatory Affairs, Partnerships and Commercial teams to create optimal patient outcomes plans that can be integrated into our clinical development programmes in order to support patient access, pricing and reimbursement
Working closely with the Digital Health Lead, Health Economics & Patient Outcomes Manager and Tech teams on Real World Data generation and utilisation
Provide input to the disease selection process.
Provide input into the Target Product Profiles for our disease programmes
Works with the Partnerships team to foster relationships with Key Opinion Leaders.
Attend & present in medical/scientific meetings and conferences.
Provide medical affairs insight and expertise in the evaluation of new business opportunities, including in-licencing opportunities. & into life-cycle planning.
Review & approve (as final signatory) materials intended for external use (website information, press releases, etc).
Work with the Medical Directors Clinical Development and Preclinical teams on publications.
Contribute to the development and implementation of medical education, including training of staff on the Code of Practice.

We’re looking for someone who has:

A strong desire to help patients with rare diseases.
Outstanding creative thinking; always challenging current paradigms.
Excellent leadership skills.
Able to effectively work cross-functionally in a fast-paced and dynamic environment.
Able to prioritise and manage multiple projects.
Strong verbal and written communication skills.
Proficient in standard office software suites.
Able to work effectively with remote teams.
An interest in the use of technology in generating patient outcomes.
Willing to travel both nationally and internationally.

Skills, Experience, and Qualification:

We are looking for a driven and talented individual with the ability to multi-task:

Medical degree (MB BS or international equivalent).
If UK-based, registered with the General Medical Practice, preferably maintaining a license to practise through Revalidation.
Substantial experience in a similar role in the biopharmaceutical/pharmaceutical industry.
Strong understanding of quality of life measures, health economics and patient outcomes research.
Experience leading medical advisory boards
Rare diseases experience is a significant asset.

Job Type: Full-time

Schedule:

8 hour shift

COVID-19 considerations:
All customers are required to wear a face mask, click and collect available, common surfaces are sanitized regularly, vaccination requirements, etc.

Education:

Bachelor's (required)

Experience:

Medical Affairs: 10 years to work in UK (required)

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What does a Medical Director do?

Medical Directors are Physicians who oversee the day-to-day operations of long-term healthcare facilities. Working closely with management, Medical Directors coordinate a range of interdisciplinary teams to implement the facilities’ systems, policies and agenda. They are also responsible for the oversight and implementation of the quality evaluation and performance improvement programme. Medical Directors usually work in hospitals, but they also work in a variety of other healthcare environments. They spend much of their day sitting but may move or stand to attend conferences, tour the medical facilities and oversee staff.

Medical Director skills and qualifications

Medical Directors need a range of skills and qualifications to perform their duties effectively. A successful Medical Director will have various prerequisite skills and qualifications that include:

Excellent leadership skills
Strong interpersonal skills
Superb problem-solving, judgement and cognitive skills
Ability to enter information in the healthcare facility’s system and compile data or reports as requested
Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Strong command of various computer software programs such as Microsoft Office
Maths and science skills
Presentation skills

Medical Director experience requirements

Medical Directors must have 10 years of experience in clinical medicine and at least five years of experience in hospital administration. Candidates who are experienced with computers, electronic medical systems and web-based programs have an added employment advantage. Experience in other related fields such as Therapists, Doctors and Nurses, is a plus. Candidates can also move into Medical Director roles if they have management experience from other sectors.

Medical Director education and training requirements

Medical Directors must hold a bachelor’s degree in medicine or surgery. They must also complete the two-year Foundation Programme, be registered with the General Medical Council (GMC) Register, obtain a Certificate of Completion (CCT) and pass the United Kingdom Medical Licensing Assessment (UKMLA). Some healthcare facilities accept a candidate who is a General Practitioner (GP) or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO), others prefer candidates who are specialists such as Cardiologists or Gastroenterologists. Some facilities may require candidates to be a member of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP) or the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS).

Medical Director salary expectations

According to Indeed Salaries, the average salary of a Medical Director in the UK, is £94,566 per year. This figure varies depending on several factors, including experience, geographical location and company.

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Medical Director Job Description: Top Duties and Qualifications

Medical Director job duties and responsibilities

Medical Director Job Description Examples:

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Find your next great Medical Director on Indeed

What does a Medical Director do?

Medical Director skills and qualifications

Medical Director experience requirements

Medical Director education and training requirements

Medical Director salary expectations

Job description samples for similar positions

Medical Director job description FAQs

Hire your next Medical Director today

Job Description Examples

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Medical Director Job Description: Top Duties and Qualifications

Medical Director job duties and responsibilities

Medical Director Job Description Examples:

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

Find your next great Medical Director on Indeed

What does a Medical Director do?

Medical Director skills and qualifications

Medical Director experience requirements

Medical Director education and training requirements

Medical Director salary expectations

Job description samples for similar positions

Medical Director job description FAQs

Hire your next Medical Director today

Job Description Examples

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