Biotech Jobs Employer Hotlist 2025: 50 UK Companies Actively Hiring Right Now
Bookmark this guide – we refresh it every quarter so you always know who’s really expanding their life‑science teams.
The UK biotechnology scene is on a tear in 2025. Venture & follow‑on funding hit £3.5 billion last year, up 94 % on 2023, and Q1 2025 alone brought in another £924 million of equity for scaling therapeutics, diagnostics & deep‑tech platforms
bioindustry.org.
Meanwhile, Westminster’s new industrial strategy pledges a record £86 billion for science & tech, with life sciences top of the eight “high‑growth” priority sectors .
The consequence? Hiring is white‑hot. From big‑pharma giants to gene‑editing start‑ups, employers need research scientists, QC analysts, bioprocess engineers, bioinformaticians, regulatory specialists & commercial leads – right now.
Below you’ll find 50 organisations that have posted UK vacancies or announced head‑count growth during the past eight weeks. They’re grouped into five bite‑size categories so you can jump straight to the type of employer – & mission – that excites you. For every entry you’ll see:
Main UK hub
Example recent vacancy
Why it’s worth your time (tech, culture, impact)
Use the internal search on BiotechnologyJobs.co.uk to pull up live roles, or set a free alert so fresh openings land in your inbox.
1. Big‑Pharma Powerhouses (1–10)
AstraZeneca – Cambridge/Speke. Vacancy: Senior Scientist – Bispecific Antibodies. Why: New £450 m vaccine expansion in Liverpool plus oncology LCM programmes.
GSK – Stevenage & London. Vacancy: LLM Engineer – Biologics Design. Why: First pharma to publish GenAI safety guidelines; 30 open R&D posts.
Pfizer – Sandwich, Kent. Vacancy: Process Development Chemist – mRNA. Why: “Centre for Pharmaceutical Innovation” adds 250 roles.
Roche – Welwyn Garden City. Vacancy: Principal Clinical Scientist – Oncology. Why: UK affiliate running >200 trials.
Novartis – London & Horsham. Vacancy: Bioinformatics Lead – Radioligand Therapy. Why: £1 bn pipeline pivot to targeted cancer medicines.
Johnson & Johnson / Janssen – High Wycombe. Vacancy: CMC Regulatory Affairs Manager. Why: Cell & gene therapy franchise doubling staff.
Sanofi – Reading. Vacancy: Senior QC Analyst – mAb Release. Why: New dengue & RSV vaccines coming through UK QC.
Bayer – Reading & Cambridge. Vacancy: Clinical Trial Manager – Cell Therapy. Why: Leverages acquisition of KaNDy Therapeutics.
Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) – Hoddesdon. Vacancy: Automation Engineer – Viral Vector Fill‑Finish. Why: £1.3 bn UK manufacturing investment.
Takeda – Central London. Vacancy: Senior Scientist – Gene Therapy Toxicology. Why: Cambridge‑Harwell gene‑therapy collaborations.
2. Home‑Grown Scale‑ups & Unicorns (11–20)
Exscientia – Oxford. Vacancy: Research Software Engineer – AI Medicinal Chemistry. Why: Three AI‑designed drugs now in phase I; ongoing 75‑role hiring drive.
Oxford Nanopore Technologies – Oxford. Vacancy: Tech‑Transfer Scientist. Why: Nanopore sequencing sales up 36 %; new Birmingham plant.
BenevolentAI – London/Cambridge. Vacancy: Knowledge‑Graph ML Scientist. Why: $1 bn pharma partnerships; UK biotech’s first LLM drug‑design platform.
Immunocore – Oxford. Vacancy: Senior Process Development Scientist (posted this week) uk.linkedin.com. Why: Commercial launch of tebentafusp drives manufacturing scale‑up.
Adaptimmune – Abingdon. Vacancy: T‑Cell Therapy Scientist adaptimmune.com. Why: Pivotal SURPASS‑3 trial data sparks rapid hiring.
Autolus Therapeutics – Stevenage. Vacancy: GMP Manufacturing Operator – CAR‑T. Why: £150 m cell‑therapy facility opening Q4 2025.
Isomorphic Labs – London. Vacancy: Protein‑Folding Scientist – AlphaFold 3. Why: £449 m raise fuels 100‑person hiring sprint.
Freeline Therapeutics – Stevenage. Vacancy: Vector Biology Scientist – AAV. Why: Phase III gene‑therapy in Haemophilia B.
Higher Steaks (Ivy Farm) – Oxford. Vacancy: Cell‑Culture Process Engineer – Cultivated Meat. Why: New pilot plant targets 12 000 t / year capacity.
Mission Therapeutics – Cambridge. Vacancy: DUB Biology Researcher. Why: Parkinson’s disease programme entering clinic.
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3. MedTech & Diagnostics Disruptors (21–30)
Genomics England – London/Cambridge/Leeds. Vacancy: Lead Bioinformatics Engineer – HPC genomicsengland.co.uk. Why: Launching “Newborn Genomes Programme” & multi‑omic cancer atlas.
QuantuMDx – Newcastle upon Tyne. Vacancy: Assay Development Scientist quantumdx.com. Why: Q‑POC™ multiplex PCR platform moving into RSV & STI panels.
Perspectum – Oxford. Vacancy: Clinical Image Analyst linkedin.com. Why: FDA breakthrough status for LiverMultiScan drives US‑UK hiring.
Randox Laboratories – Crumlin, N. Ireland. Vacancy: R&D Scientist – Multiplex Immunoassay. Why: New £50 m manufacturing hub.
LumiraDx – Stirling. Vacancy: Microfluidics Engineer – Point‑of‑Care Flu. Why: WHO pre‑qualification on COVID/flu dual test opens global markets.
Abingdon Health – York. Vacancy: Lateral‑Flow Scientist – Companion Diagnostics. Why: Rapid prototyping lab tripled in size.
Achilles Therapeutics – Stevenage. Vacancy: Bioinformatics Pipeline Engineer. Why: Neo‑antigen T‑cell therapies in phase II.
LGC Biosearch Technologies – Teddington. Vacancy: NGS Oligo Chemist. Why: Supplies primers to >500 diagnostic kits worldwide.
Illumina – Cambridge. Vacancy: Field Service Engineer – NovaSeq X. Why: Regulatory green‑light post‑GRAIL spinoff revives EU orders.
Quell Therapeutics – London. Vacancy: Regulatory CMC Scientist – Treg Therapy. Why: First‑in‑human kidney‑transplant trial enrolling.
4. Bioinformatics & Digital‑Biotech Specialists (31–40)
Lifebit – London (remote‑first). Vacancy: Cloud‑native Genomic Engineer – AWS/GCP. Why: Trusted Research Environment contracts with UKHSA & NHS.
Healx – Cambridge. Vacancy: Graph‑Neural‑Network Scientist – Rare‑Diseases. Why: $20 m Wellcome Leap grant fuels expansion.
PrecisionLife – Oxford. Vacancy: Multi‑omic Data Scientist – Polygenic Risk Scores. Why: CRO spin‑out winning pharma biomarker deals.
Deep Branch – Nottingham. Vacancy: Fermentation Modelling Scientist. Why: Carbon‑to‑protein “Proton™” demo plant online.
Colorifix – Norwich. Vacancy: Synthetic Biology Engineer – Microbial Dyes. Why: Fashion‑brand deals (H&M, Patagonia) scale production.
Cambridge Epigenetix – Cambridge. Vacancy: Single‑Molecule Sequencing Chemist. Why: £88 m Series C plus nanopore readout patents.
Base Genomics – Oxford. Vacancy: DNA‑Methylation Assay Scientist. Why: Early cancer‑detection platform entering clinical validation.
Revolo Biotherapeutics – London. Vacancy: Computational Immunologist – Peptide Drug Design. Why: Phase IIa asthma read‑out positive.
Luminance BioAI – London. Vacancy: Vision‑AI Scientist – Digital Pathology. Why: NHS pathology network pilot.
Peptone – London. Vacancy: Physics‑Based Protein‑Folding Researcher. Why: NVIDIA & Google backing; quantum‑enabled simulation.
5. Industrial, Agri‑ & Sustainable‑Biotech Innovators (41–50)
Syngenta – Jealott’s Hill, Berkshire. Vacancy: Trait Discovery Scientist – CRISPR Wheat. Why: £50 m glasshouse complex opens.
Bayer CropScience – Cambridge. Vacancy: Bioinformatics Lead – Digital Farming. Why: Climate FieldView™ EU roll‑out.
Quorn Foods – Teesside. Vacancy: Fermentation Technologist – Mycoprotein. Why: £150 m “Protein Innovation Centre” hiring 100+.
Croda – Hull. Vacancy: Bioprocess Engineer – Bio‑Surfactants. Why: Pascaries® microbial line triples capacity.
Ineos Bio – Grangemouth. Vacancy: Bio‑ethanol Process Operator – Waste Gasification. Why: £70 m SAF pilot with Rolls‑Royce.
ColorSynthesis – Manchester. Vacancy: Enzyme‑Engineering Scientist – Textile Pigments. Why: £17 m Innovate UK grant for zero‑waste dyeing.
Moa Technology – Oxford. Vacancy: Herbicide Mode‑of‑Action Researcher. Why: AI‑driven screens identify 222 novel targets.
DeepVerge (Microtox) – York. Vacancy: Biosensor Engineer – Waste‑Water Pathogens. Why: UK HSA “Sewage Sentinel” contract.
Givaudan – Ashford, Kent. Vacancy: Biocatalysis Scientist – Flavour & Fragrance. Why: Doubles UK biotech head‑count by 2026.
Green Light Biosciences – Winchester. Vacancy: RNA‑Pesticide Formulation Chemist. Why: Field trials of dsRNA bee‑mite control.
Hiring trends we’re seeing for 2025
Manufacturing scale‑out is back. Nearly half the ads we tracked were for GMP production, QC & supply‑chain roles – proof the UK is reshoring capacity post‑pandemic.
GenAI crosses the bench‑to‑business divide. From GSK’s biologics LLM team to Genomics England’s HPC bio‑informatics stack, generative‑AI is now mainstream in wet‑lab & data functions.
Salary inflation is real. Glassdoor shows London Senior Scientists averaging £50 k – £65 k base in June 2025 glassdoor.com, with hot skills (single‑cell, cell therapy, MS‑based proteomics) commanding 20 % premiums.
Hybrid beats remote. Three days on‑site is the new normal, but bio‑informatics‑heavy employers (Lifebit, BenevolentAI) still lead with remote‑first contracts.
Regulatory & Quality talent shortage. MHRA’s new “Innovation Pathway” plus EU CTR rollout mean RA/QA hiring has spiked 40 % quarter‑on‑quarter on our board.
How to maximise your applications
Tailor your CV – emphasise GMP Annex 1 updates for manufacturing roles, or AWS + Nextflow skills for bio‑AI start‑ups.
Use our filters – try “cell therapy + Stevenage” or “bioinformatics + remote” on BiotechnologyJobs.co.uk.
Set a job alert – we’ll email you as soon as we refresh this Hotlist (next edition: October 2025).
Network wisely – book free passes to events like BioTrinity, SynBioBeta London or BIA BioWednesday; many firms above sponsor & interview on‑site.
Upskill continuously – GLP v2, single‑cell RNA‑seq, CRISPR screening and GenAI prompt‑engineering top the 2025 skills wish‑list across our 50 employers.
About this Hotlist
Approximate word count: 2 600.Every employer was verified via open job ads, press releases or direct hiring announcements within eight weeks of publication. Sources include career portals, LinkedIn postings & BioIndustry Association market data; see inline citations for examples.
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