Tech sales vs medical sales: pay, seats, degrees and the ways in, side by side

Tech sales and medical sales are the two careers most people weigh when they want a well-paid sales job, and the postings on this board show the trade-off plainly. US sales postings at software, AI, cloud, cybersecurity and fintech companies state a median of $170,000 a year; at medical device, drug, diagnostics and health services companies, $125,000. Tech hires from far more employers, posts more seats as remote and rarely asks for a degree; medical sales asks for a degree in most postings and puts sellers in front of clinicians in the field. This guide compares the two on pay, seats, requirements and the ways in.

On 2 November 2026 this board had 20,304 open sales roles at 961 tech companies and 4,727 at 102 medical companies; 9,859 and 2,885 of them were open to US candidates. A role counts by what its employer sells, never its title. Every pay figure is the midpoint of each posting's own range on a full year's scale (base or on-target earnings, as the posting states it), one per posting after repeats of the same title at the same company are merged, and the median across the US postings.

Contents

1. Side by side
2. Pay by kind of seat
3. What the seats are
4. Requirements: degrees and years
5. Getting in
6. Which one to choose
7. How these figures were counted
8. Quick answers

1. Side by side

The tech sales jobs and medical sales jobs pages list every open seat with today's figures.

2. Pay by kind of seat

Tech pays more for most seats, and the gap is widest for account executives and sales engineers. Medical leads in two places: account management, where drug companies' specialty account managers post high, and the first seat: medical entry seats (associate reps and therapy development reps among them) post a median of $94,000, against $78,000 for tech's. Many medical device postings state only the base salary, with commission on the territory on top, so the medical figures understate total pay more often than the tech figures do; the guide Medical device vs pharmaceutical sales explains why.

3. What the seats are

• Tech sales is a team sport: sales development reps book the meetings, account executives run the deals, sales engineers handle the technical side and customer success keeps the customer, often over video calls. The companies with the most open seats were Salesforce (673), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (425), Palo Alto Networks (419), Databricks (284) and Cisco (252).
• Medical sales is mostly field selling: six in ten seats are territory reps who visit surgeons, medical practices, hospitals and labs, and most of the rest manage accounts. The companies with the most open seats were Stryker (458), Abbott (380), Medtronic (234), Johnson & Johnson (222) and Amgen (196).

4. Requirements: degrees and years

Both markets name a median of five years of experience when they name any. The big difference is the degree: fewer than one in five tech postings whose requirements were read named a degree, against almost four in five medical postings, highest at drug companies. Medical postings also often name experience close to the buyer (medical device or clinical experience); the Sales jobs without a degree guide shows the share by industry.

5. Getting in

• Into tech: the usual first seat is sales development, open to people from other jobs, with promotion to account executive after one to two years for those who hit their numbers. The guide How to get into tech sales covers the path, and the remote SDR jobs page lists the remote first seats.
• Into medical: device makers hire associate sales representatives who support a senior rep before taking a territory, and some drug companies hire associate territory reps; most ask for a degree, and many prefer a record in B2B sales first. The guides How to get into medical device sales and How to become a pharmaceutical sales rep cover each.

6. Which one to choose

• For the higher ceiling and remote work, tech: its account executives and sales engineers post far higher medians than medical's ($166,500 and $197,200 against $124,950 and $130,000), and almost a third of its seats are remote.
• Without a degree, tech: most of its postings name none.
• For in-person work with clinicians and a product that treats patients, medical: most seats are in the field, and a clinical or science background helps.
• Starting out, compare the first seats: a medical entry seat posts more than a tech one ($94,000 against $78,000 in medians), but medical entry seats are fewer and more often ask for a degree.

7. How these figures were counted

• Tech is every employer whose field is AI and data, cloud and developer tools, cybersecurity, business software, industry software or fintech; medical every employer whose field is medical devices, drugs and biotech, diagnostics and lab, or health services, read from each company's own careers system on 2 November 2026 and checked every hour.
• The pay: the midpoint of each posting's own range on a full year's scale, one per posting after repeats of the same title at the same company are merged, and the median across the US postings. "Up to" figures are left out.
• Entry seats: sales development seats and seats whose title names entry level, trainee, associate (not associate director), junior, intern or graduate. Degrees and years: from the requirement lines read from each posting (2,193 US tech roles and 244 medical roles had them that day).

8. Quick answers

Does tech sales pay more than medical sales? In posted pay, yes: US tech sales postings state a median of $170,000 a year and medical sales postings $125,000 (2 November 2026), though many medical device postings show only the base salary.

Is it easier to get into tech sales or medical sales? Tech: it has more employers, more remote seats and rarely asks for a degree (19% of postings read), while 78% of medical postings read name one.

Which pays more for a first sales job? On this board, medical: entry seats in medical sales posted a median of $94,000 against $78,000 in tech (2 November 2026), but there are far fewer of them (360 against 946).

Is medical sales more stable than tech sales? The board cannot measure stability; it shows that medical postings come from fewer, larger employers (102 against 961).

Where can I see these jobs? The tech sales jobs and medical sales jobs pages list every open seat with the pay it posts.