What key pharma and life science roles actually pay across the United Kingdom - median and mean full-time annual pay pulled straight from the Office for National Statistics Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (not a private salary-survey vendor, and not scraped job ads).
Full-time gross annual pay for 18 occupations central to pharma, biotech and MedTech in the UK, ranked by median pay. Median is the midpoint - half the people in that occupation earn more, half earn less - and is the most honest "typical" figure. Mean is the average, which sits higher because a few very high earners pull it up. The jobs column is how many full-time employee jobs the ONS counts in that occupation across the whole UK economy.
| Role | Group | Median / yr | Mean / yr | UK jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Production Managers & Directors (Manufacturing)SOC 1121 | Leadership | £58,640 | £72,604 | 406,000 |
| Research & Development ManagersSOC 2161 | Leadership | £55,519 | £64,408 | 73,000 |
| PharmacistsSOC 2251 | Science & Regulatory | £53,772 | £53,942 | 41,000 |
| Engineering Project ManagersSOC 2127 | Engineering | £53,064 | £57,516 | 62,000 |
| Quality Assurance & Regulatory ProfessionalsSOC 2482 | Science & Regulatory | £50,083 | £58,472 | 118,000 |
| Engineering Professionals n.e.c.SOC 2129 | Engineering | £48,776 | £53,653 | 140,000 |
| Production & Process EngineersSOC 2125 | Engineering | £47,946 | £50,894 | 52,000 |
| Biochemists & Biomedical ScientistsSOC 2113 | Science & Regulatory | £47,892 | £53,074 | 39,000 |
| Health & Safety Managers & OfficersSOC 3582 | Science & Regulatory | £46,444 | £49,657 | 59,000 |
| Biological ScientistsSOC 2112 | Science & Regulatory | £45,382 | £52,019 | 12,000 |
| Researchers (Other Disciplines)SOC 2162 | Science & Regulatory | £44,580 | £49,461 | 12,000 |
| Quality Control & Planning EngineersSOC 2481 | Engineering | £43,592 | £46,756 | 46,000 |
| Chemical ScientistsSOC 2111 | Science & Regulatory | £39,983 | £49,758 | 15,000 |
| Science & Production Technicians n.e.c.SOC 3119 | Technicians & Operations | £36,102 | £38,987 | 131,000 |
| Quality Assurance TechniciansSOC 3115 | Technicians & Operations | £33,972 | £36,989 | 36,000 |
| Chemical & Related Process OperativesSOC 8113 | Technicians & Operations | £33,959 | £37,932 | 16,000 |
| Pharmaceutical TechniciansSOC 3212 | Technicians & Operations | £31,044 | £32,101 | 19,000 |
| Laboratory TechniciansSOC 3111 | Technicians & Operations | £28,210 | £31,258 | 53,000 |
All figures are gross annual pay for full-time employee jobs, UK-wide, ASHE 2025 provisional release. SOC codes are the UK Standard Occupational Classification 2020. Unlike our US guide (which is specific to the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry), ASHE occupation figures cover that occupation across all industries - a "Chemical Scientist" here includes chemists outside pharma. Pay in the main UK life science clusters (Cambridge, Oxford, London's "golden triangle", plus the North West and Scotland's central belt) typically sits above these UK-wide figures.
If you're negotiating or benchmarking, anchor on the median for your occupation, then adjust up for the golden-triangle clusters, specialised skills (sterile/aseptic manufacturing, biologics, cell & gene therapy, regulatory strategy) or leadership scope. Because ASHE surveys employers' payroll records rather than job ads or self-reports, these numbers are more grounded than most salary sites - but as cross-industry occupation figures they are a floor rather than a ceiling for the best-funded pharma employers.
Track what's recruiting now on the UK Clinical Trials Tracker, or benchmark against other markets with our US Salary Guide, EU Labour Cost Guide and Irish Salary Guide.
Priya Life Science (2026). UK Pharma & Life Science Salary Guide. Available at: https://priyalifescience.com/uk-pharma-salary-guide (Accessed: 12 August 2026).
Source: Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) Table 14.7a - Annual pay, Gross, Full-Time, 2025 provisional, accessed 12 August 2026. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Crown copyright. Figures are UK-wide occupation estimates, not a compensation survey commissioned by Priya Life Science, and do not constitute financial or career advice.