associate scientist

scientist

senior scientist

clinical research associate

programmer analyst

Management/Leadership:  I can only speak of the area lead for the west coast ClinOps department.  If you happen to fall under this area, you have the worst probability of being happy as this area is run by an individual that lacks integrity and has no compassion for others and runs it in a dictatorship style that is unchallenged.  Management/leadership in general is probably the weakest area with regards to the ClinOps department.  There is high levels on non-transparency which leads to overall distrust.  HR puts a lot of effort into hiding these details and would not even communicate.  Feedback was non-existent, as in they didn't want to hear the truth.

Workplace Culture:  As you may have heard, this company had massive layoffs which left a really feeling.  The culture was somewhat been tainted by that.  I do not recommend if you have an issue to go to HR, and to avoid them at all costs.  They are not there to help you, support you, or in any way try to resolve an issue you may bring to them.  They are there to be used as a tool to carry out the directives of leadership / management.  Lastly, avoid at all costs going to the HR employee relations team as they are nothing more than corrupt individuals who look only to find loopholes and ways to coverup the leadership team.  They may be in the belief that conducting corrupt investigations in right, but hopefully someone will see that it is not in the best interest of the company.  Extreme lack of non-transparency, to the point where they have put great efforts into hiding cases and shutting down feedback.

The most enjoyable part of the job:  To give credit where credit is due, PPD has the best training with regards to CRAs, considered the gold standard with the CRA academy and Clinical foundations program.  They invest a lot of money into these new CRAs to make sure they are proficient.  They also provide you with a mentor.  Such investment of time and effort into their new CRAs is something great that I enjoyed during my initial training.

The hardest part of the job:  The amount of effort needed to disprove allegations that are made against you.  Either from leadership, management, coworkers like CTMs / fellow colleagues.  They ask for constructive criticism to conduct the year end, but then try to use this against you at a later time when they need to justify their actions, even if the allegations were disproven in the past, the area lead will disregard this fact and use it against you to support her decisions.  So the hardest part of the job was really dealing with some unethical people, which occurrs everwhere, but this was by far the most I had to deal with and the energy it took out of me.  I won all those battles disproving such allegations (which took a great deal of time, energy and effort), and was promoted yearly, but at the end it was too much to deal with when HR began taking an unethical stance with the area lead's lack of integrity and actions.

In my interview for this position I specifically asked how easy it is to move within/upwards in the company. The response I received was that the management team goes out of their way to expose you to experiences that will assist you in finding the right position for you within PPD. In reality, they do the exact opposite, trying to ensure you remain in the same position you were hired into. Many times I have sought assistance in gaining exposure to other roles (i.e. quality monitoring, pharmacovigilance, etc), but have been told "we just don't have time" and "we need to meet client needs, so we can't facilitate that." I understand they "need to meet client needs," but 1) I was told that this exposure would be easy to accomplish and 2) they fail to meet the needs of their employees and then wonder why the turn over rate is so high. Each day I dread coming to work because I know I will be greeted with new emails outlining even more work that I am responsible for. The policies that are in place are vague, at best, and management frequently sends out emails to clarify employee responsibility, only to send out another email two hours later contradicting their earlier statements (this is not an exaggeration; this happened twice last week, alone). It is a very difficult environment to work in, since you are never clear what your responsibilities are and they are continually adding more for nurses and pharmacists to do. Lately, they have even started taking away break and lunch times, forcing employees to attend work-related meetings and deeming them "working lunches" or "working breaks." I personally don't consider it a working lunch/break unless the meal is paid for by the company (which it isn't) and you receive continuing education credit applicable towards your licensure (which you never do). They also interrogate you if you take a bathroom break that doesn't fall within your designated break time. When I first started working here I enjoyed it because the workload was manageable and I was grateful to only have 8 hour shifts (versus the 12+ hours I was used to in the hospital). Now that the novelty of the 8 hour day has worn off and they have added a lot more work that nurses and pharmacists are responsible for, there are no enjoyable aspects of my job. My coworkers are great and make for excellent support, but no amount of good company from coworkers could make this role worth it.

Some of PPD's greatest hits of 2018:

- Dissolution of the quality control department.
- Discontinuation of the company parties and events.
- Reduction of rolled-over PTO from 4 weeks to 2 weeks.
- Implementation of an emergency communication system AFTER there was a workplace shooting down the road.
- Implementation of a "suggestion box" to combat poor retention, only to be unmanned and ignored a couple of months later.
- Silenced exits of a director and managers.
- Ran out of parking spots and refused to implement any bike or bus commuter benefits.
- Expected employees to drive into work after damaging floods that made national news.
- A mandatory raise for the lab to combat poor retention, which either shows how little the lab was getting paid or how little the company values all of the other departments.

The overall message that the executives send to the employees is this:

- You are dispensable and what you think doesn't matter.

The previous VP cared about her employees. We all knew we had low pay compared to other pharma companies in the area, but we accepted it because of the company culture and flexibility.

Fast forward to the end of 2018 and PPD has grown extensively, but at the expense of the employees.

Entire departments are dissolved on a whim with almost no warning. Good managers, who were well-liked and respected, are let go without any announcement or acknowledgement of the contributions, despite being part of the company for over a decade. They're not even allowed to send a goodbye email to their direct reports.

Other good employees are hitting the exits like there's a fire. Even when people are content with the culture, they end up leaving for better pay, better benefits, or a higher position. Expect pay increases that are at or below COLA. Expect the employee's share of costs to significantly increase each year during open enrollment. Expect external applicants to be hired over internal promotion.

If quality assurance wasn't required by regulators, it would be interesting to see if PPD would even keep that department.

So who should apply to PPD? Probably anyone who can't get a job anywhere else. I'm serious.

This job has its ups and downs. I was thrilled when I first started, especially because of the promised advancement opportunities and the support from managers. However, that enthusiasm faded quickly. It turns out that advancing here depends more on constantly being in your manager's face than on your actual work performance. Building relationships with managers seems to matter more than individual contributions. If you're someone who prefers to let their work speak for itself, you might want to think twice about this place.

Many of those in higher positions rely more on their employees for answers rather than their peers. It feels like the company has the wrong people in management roles, and the environment can be quite toxic. It often reminds me of high school—if you're not part of the "in" crowd, your value seems to diminish. The job itself isn’t difficult, but you’ll often be left to figure things out on your own due to poor management.

I leave work every day feeling overwhelmed and stressed, often in tears. There's no real work-life balance here; the job consumes you. As a mother, I wouldn’t recommend this place unless you have a strong support system. The company seems to care more about meeting deadlines and making profits than about its employees. Despite having lab experience, this has been the most stressful lab environment I’ve encountered. Since Covid, advancement opportunities have stalled, and after two years, I've only been offered lateral moves. Bonuses are scarce, and although overtime isn’t allowed, you’ll be pushed to work without breaks. I wish this company valued its employees more, but it seems that the larger a company gets, the more it loses touch with worker welfare.

The only thing I have enjoyed here are the people and their personalities but outside of that, the depression and anxiety I've gotten from this job is unbearable.  

PPD has a great commitment to job work/life balance. If needed my hours could be flexible and I truly felt I did not have to choice between work and my family. I felt that I had many opportunities for transitioning laterally as well as advance. Even when I had my two children (only 13 months apart) I never feared losing my job and never feared consequences for taking time off post partum. I also enjoyed the diverse group of individuals that I worked with throughout my time there.

I was able to adjust my arrival and departure times each day depending on my needs. On most days for the majority of my day I was able to work independently and complete my work without interruption. Deadlines for when work was to be completed was fair (and flexible depending on the circumstances). 

There was a tendency for certain areas to have managers who micromanaged their staff and focused more on negative outcomes versus positive and negative. However, both of these items were being addressed and seemed to be making improvement. 

I became very close with my colleagues and had the opportunity to get to know diverse individuals and cultures. Although there were numerous individuals in my department, we all worked together daily and therefore  many relationships were formed. 

The hardest part of the job was the commute to and from work (especially if you lived outside of the city) and at times feeling like your concerns were generally not being heard (or that nothing was being done in response to them). Dealing with micromanaging of management and limitation to explore my skills as an individual was also difficult. 

For the most part, I loved the environment that I was in. I loved being in the lab and I felt that (on most days) my workday went by quickly. I enjoyed the people I was around and I enjoyed what I was doing knowing that it was helping to make a difference.

Worse company I've ever worked for in my 20+ years in Pharmaceuticals. Amazing the FDA hasn't closed this place down yet. Adverse events are routinely overlooked and the frequency of changes in SOPs and reporting guidelines make it easy for employees to confuse what is and isn't a product complaint or an Adverse event. It's a sham and a shame to say the least. They purposely create more cumbersome and complex procedures to complicate the workflow in order to justify increases in staff and billable hours to milk their clients for more money. Big pharma must be loaded because no one has caught on to this except PPD and some of the smarter employees. However, management is fully aware of these tricks. In the Medcom department, statistics and metrics and manipulated to paint a pretty picture or ask the client for more money depending on the order of the day. They encourage the use of IM which employees use to discuss personal issues and send rude and oftentimes inappropriate messages. If someone were to check the nature of some of these communications, as someone from their IT department once put it, 80% of management and staff would be terminated. The degree of micromanaging in some projects makes it very difficult to perform your job efficiently and they treat everyone like you are in preschool. Giving them cookies and non-compensatory tokens to avoid any actual pay increases. They hire you to work on one or 2 products and by the 4-6 months they start to pile on more and more without any increase in pay. I could say so much more, but I don't want to waste more time on this place. It will steal your soul if you let it.

After graduating from NC State, I started with PPDi a year after graduation and this was my first corporate job.  I have the desire for continued growth and advancement. Within my first 4 years of the company I was promoted into a new role and was one of the youngest managers within my department once I transitioned into that role. 

I have managed up to 25 direct reports at a given time and have learned a variety of skills during my 8 years with PPDi. I have learned how to manage and communicate with different clients, work directly with executive management, and play an integral part in being a customer advocate.  I am passionate in working in the health care industry and really enjoy working with people. I thrive working in a team environment and have an excellent worth ethic if working on my own. I have learned to be extremely flexible due to the evolving changes within my program and the department. Prioritizing my day has helped me excel in my role and ensures that deadlines are met not only for internal clients but our external clients as well. 

A typical day is 9-12 hours of working on various tasks that keep me extremely busy to where the day goes by very fast.  I enjoy working in a fast paced environment with a variety of tasks. The hardest part of the job is work life balance - there is often not enough time in the day to complete all the daily responsibilities which has me working from home frequently just to stay caught up. 

I am looking for a new opportunity that will allow me thrive in different environment that will allow me to continue to grow and advance with a new career. I am dedicated, flexible, and always willing to take on a challenge.

I have never had a more competent supervisor than my current ones. I have been recognized by them as needing a promotion for my skill and quality of work and was also reviewed to meet or exceed expectations in all metrics of performance review. HR refused my promotion. HR was also rude and disconnected when my wife's employer took her and my child off of their health coverage when my wife went from full-time to part-time after the birth of my child. A person in HR then tried to blame me for not understanding a qualified event, which it was. My wife and child did get health coverage and we all were covered every day of the year, but the experience was very stressful for a new father, and HR tried to put the blame on me. Overall, my opinion of the work environment, team mates, supervisors are all excellent. The compensation for 10 years of analytical experience is borderline fair to poor, and HR stifling my hopes to a reasonable compensation package with the promotion proposed by my supervisors plus the difficulties I had with HR over the health coverage make it interesting to look for other opportunities. It is really too bad, because the work environment and the biopharmaceuticals management team / cGMP group are both excellent. There are a wide variety of methods, techniques, software, and instruments that you can learn to use. The work can be challenging and some of it is with impressive technologies, which for the cGMP field is pretty good.

I worked in the Sample Management department as a Sample Coordinator and my experience was fine when I first started working there but after a while it became the most appalling place I've ever worked at. First off the manager is very rude and she doesn't like when people voice their opinions on issues going on in the department. She disliked some of the employees for no reason, she always talked to her employees with an attitude,she doesn't like change for the better in her department, it's her way or no way, basically her management skills are very poor and I don't know how she got promoted to this position. Also the supervisors are lazy, unorganized and unprofessional. At least five people have quit in this department in the year in a half that I've been there, that should speak volumes for sample management and to corporate. There is no room for growth in this department and I wouldn't recommend anyone working there... Now I will talk about the co-workers and work in general. Co-workers are fine for most part, had a few slackers and some that are very drama-filled, the work is very easy and gets repetitive and old after a while. Hardest part of my job was dealing with the unprofessionalism of management, favoritism, at times work load, organization and work schedule and I didn't enjoy anything but the pay while working here... Just want to make this clear that my issues in the Sample Management department does not affect this company as a whole because PPD isn't a bad company and I probably would work for this company again just a different department.

It’s a good job. The workload can get hectic and overwhelming at times, but we have a great team and generally have fun while we work. There is room for advancement in a multitude of directions. So long as your work gets done, you’re free to learn new skills and focus on career development in your downtime. As a chemist I’m currently working on a side project to learn some programming and make some monotonous paperwork I’m responsible for easier. Or just chill and take a breather when you’ve had a rough day or week. Management is generally lenient. I’ve done plenty that would have probably gotten me fired from other jobs, and I’m pretty sure I’ve been late every day so far this year without a word mentioned to me.

That said, the budgets have been cut since the Thermo acquisition and it is noticeable. A lot of the money PPD gave us to invest in morale was cut out completely, and I’ve heard rumor of layoffs. Management can also be hit or miss. I’ve worked under both insanely incompetent management and some amazing management in my time here, and a bad boss can make it difficult. And the parking really sucks. I spend a good ten minutes looking for parking on second shift every day, and that’s on a good day. The pay is better than poverty wages, but not the best by industry standards especially at lower levels. On the upside, we have more PTO than industry standards and good benefits. Current pay scale (13Jun2023)
Assistant Sci: $20/hr
Associate Sci: $24/hr
Scientist: $27/hr
Sr. Scientist: $70K

If you’re willing to work and enjoy the science, PPD isn’t a bad place to work. It isn’t perfect, but so far the best lab job I’ve had in my career.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Associate scientist 3 salaries reported	$21.48 per hour
Scientist 14 salaries reported	$25.64 per hour
Senior scientist 17 salaries reported	$70,093 per year
Clinical research associate 12 salaries reported	$79,917 per year
Programmer analyst 69 salaries reported	$66,842 per year

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