Want to Be a Clinical Product Manager? Here’s Exactly What Employers Are Looking For
💡 10 insights to land your first clinical product role
Clinical Product is a new discipline and it’s changing fast. Recent job descriptions (JDs) hint at the direction of travel. I analysed eight clinical product manager (CPM) job postings from healthtech and healthcare organisations in the UK, spanning from entry-level to VP, to help you land your next role.
Ten Tips to Help You Land Your Perfect CPM Role
Here are the top nine takeaways you can use to help you land your next role:
1. Clinical background is becoming the norm
Six out of eight JDs explicitly required clinicians, and where optional, it was strongly preferred. Clinical product is no longer “a product manager who understands healthcare.” It’s becoming a role that expects lived clinical experience.
💡 Tip for applicants: If you have direct clinical experience, show it off in your CV and interviews, not just your qualifications but how you’ve translated clinical insight into product or service improvements. If you don’t, highlight adjacent experience (e.g. shadowing clinicians, working in regulated teams, user research with patients) and be ready to show how you would bridge the gap.
2. Governance and safety are no longer bolt-ons
Every JD included responsibility for risk, incident handling, or regulation. In some cases, the CPM was also expected to act as the Clinical Safety Officer.
💡 Tip for applicants: Do clinical safety and/or risk management training (e.g. NHS DCB 0129/0160 course, or an introduction to ISO 14971 for SaMD). Even a short course shows you’re proactive about governance. In interviews, be ready with an example of how you’ve factored safety, risk or compliance into a product decision.
3. Evidence beats engagement
Instead of DAU, MAU, or retention, success was defined by:
Pathway KPIs
Clinical outcomes
Evidence-generation studies with hospitals
The north star is shifting from “make people click more” to “prove this works in the real world.”
💡 Tip for applicants: In interviews, frame your impact in terms of outcomes, not outputs. Instead of “we shipped feature X,” say “we reduced waiting times by Y%” or “increased adherence by Z%.” Show you think in terms of evidence, not engagement metrics.
4. Breadth is extreme, sometimes unrealistic
Some JDs listed 20+ responsibilities: strategy, safety, incident investigation, regulation, even quality assurance and regulatory affairs (QARA). CPMs are often asked to be strategist, operator, regulator and coach all at once.
💡 Tip for applicants: Before accepting a role, ask explicitly what’s in vs. out of scope. In interviews, probe: “Who owns clinical governance?” or “Do you have a separate QARA function?” It shows maturity and helps you avoid an impossible remit.
5. Career ladders are emerging
Across job ads, a progression became clear:
Entry-level CPM (early-career clinician)
Senior CPM (pathway/service lead)
CPM/CSO hybrid (startup scale-up)
Head of/Director of Clinical Product
VP Clinical Product
For the first time, you can see a pathway to grow in this profession.
💡 Tip for applicants: Ask about progression during interviews. “Where have previous CPMs moved on to?” or “Is there a pathway from CPM to Director here?” Signals you’re serious about building a career, not just taking a job.
6. Authority vs accountability tension
Many roles made CPMs accountable for outcomes (KPIs, safety, adoption) but gave no formal authority (line management, budget). This gap is one of the biggest risks for role satisfaction and effectiveness.
💡 Tip for applicants: In interviews, clarify what authority comes with the accountability. For example: “Who holds accountability for governance, risk or safety?” or “Do CPMs have budget for user testing?” This shows you’re thoughtful about how you’ll actually deliver.
7. Transparency is inconsistent
One JD listed the salary band openly. The others used “competitive” or “market-rate.” For a profession that’s still forming, opacity is a barrier and can deter underrepresented applicants, who are disproportionately disadvantaged by pay secrecy. And if we’re going to build great healthcare, we need a workforce that truly represents the populations we serve.
💡 Tip for applicants: If pay isn’t listed, ask early. Phrase it neutrally: “Can you share the banding so I can confirm we’re aligned?” It saves wasted time and sets expectations.
8. Tone reveals a lot about culture
Corporate JDs emphasised values, trust, and support.
Startups leaned on hustle, ambiguity, bias to action.
Regulated software companies emphasised evidence, compliance, safety.
The JD tone is often a proxy for the lived culture of the organisation.
💡 Tip for applicants: Read between the lines. If a JD mentions “bias to action” three times, expect ambiguity. If it highlights “values” and “trust,” it’ll feel more corporate. In interviews, ask culture-probing questions: “What happens here when a project fails?”
9. A move from building features to building ecosystems
Clinical product managers are expected to design entire care journeys rather than focus on isolated features. This means thinking about how diagnostics, prescribing, follow-up, governance and safety fit together into a scalable whole. Employers are looking for CPMs who can join the dots across patients, clinicians, operations and technology to create cohesive healthcare systems.
💡 Tip for applicants: In interviews, zoom out. Don’t just describe a feature you delivered, explain how it fit into the wider journey, what it meant for patients, and how it impacted clinicians, operations and compliance. Demonstrating that you think in ecosystems will set you apart.
10. AI is starting to reshape expectations
A number of roles called out LLMs, conversational AI, or “digital twins.” Clinical product managers are increasingly expected to understand both the promise and the risk of AI in healthcare delivery.
💡 Tip for applicants: Even if you’re not technical, learn the basics of AI in health. Keep up to date with new guidance, know the risks and be ready to discuss how you’d balance innovation with safety. Some free resources:
Take the course on Fairness and Responsibility in Human-AI interaction in medical settings, by The Alan Turing Institute
Read Good machine learning practice for medical device development, by the International Device Regulators Forum
Join Clinical AI Interest Group, by The Alan Turing Institute
What this means for you
For candidates:
Do additional training on clinical safety and risk management
In interviews, speak in outcomes, not outputs
Watch out for over-loaded job descriptions
Clarify how important functions are resourced, and whether authority matches accountability
Push for transparency on pay and progression
Talk in systems, not just features
Start building literacy in AI
For employers:
Be clear which responsibilities belong in the role, don’t collapse Product, Ops, Regulatory and Safety into one
Invest in progression and transparency to attract the best talent
Test your JDs with practising CPMs: Is what you’re asking actually achievable?
Side note: If you’re hiring for a clinical product role, include someone with clinical product experience in the panel. That’s the only way you’ll know if the candidate matches what you’ve written in the JD. (If you’re a HealthTech founder or leader and struggling to find this person, feel free to reach out; I’ll help if I can.)
Final Thoughts
Clinical Product is no longer a fuzzy add-on. It’s becoming a profession in its own right, with clear career ladders and defined expectations.
For candidates, that means more clarity on what skills and experiences to build. For employers, it’s an opportunity to design roles that are ambitious, realistic and set the standard for a discipline that’s rapidly maturing.
🤝 Work with me | 📅 Attend an event | | ✍️ Send a message
Made with ❤️ for better, safer HealthTech.