Is there a "glass ceiling" for industry/big pharma biostatisticians without a PhD?

[aboynamedkafka]

Hey everyone!

I am a recent graduate from a Masters in Statistics programme and I am currently working as a research assistant at a university hospital.

After trying out research for the past few months, it has perhaps (thankfully) come to my attention that I may not actually have the sheer intellectual rigor and ability for a PhD in biostats/stats.

As such, I have been thinking of making my next career move as an industry biostatistician. And so like all academic/professional decisions i've made in the past, I am again trying to conceive of a future trajectory where there is the potential for excellence and to at least have the chance to be the very best at what I do.

Looking at job openings for biostatisticians across all levels of seniority, I believe that I do make the cut for an entry-level position. However for high senior-level positions (i.e Asc Director/ Director/ Snr Director), most postings are either looking for : 1) PhD preferred or 2) PhD with (x) or Msc with (x + 4/5) years of experience.
 
And so if I have not misrepresented the current employment situation, I would love to ask the statisticians/biostatisticians of this forum if there truly exists a "glass ceiling" for individuals with only an Msc OR can an individual with an Msc still obtain high-level leadership/ management positions (of course with sufficient talent and hard work)?

Any advice on this matter would truly be greatly appreciated and I look forward to hearing from you all!       

[bayessays]

No personal experience, but I think it's been pretty hard to advance recently with an MS in pharma because there are so many PhD graduates and they'll usually just hire those if available. Take this with a grain of salt though if someone with first hand experience chimes in.

Data science is a route where you can have great career success with an MS and make more money doing almost the same thing. I'd recommend looking into that.