How to hire biotech scientists in the UK

Three markets, not one sector

Biotech hiring goes wrong most often at the first step, when a role is scoped as "a scientist" without deciding which part of the pipeline it sits in. Discovery bench work, computational biology and clinical development draw on different training, sit in different buildings, and are advertised to audiences that do not read each other's job listings.

Beyond those, the sector splits by modality rather than by seniority, and the specialist titles have their own distinct markets: Cell Therapy Scientist, Gene Therapy Scientist, Protein Engineer, Genomics Scientist and Bioprocess Engineer among them. Modality experience transfers far less readily than employers expect, so advertising by the specific one is usually more effective than a general title.

Laboratory roles are bound to a building

This is the constraint that most distinguishes biotech from the rest of technology hiring, and the one most often underestimated by teams whose previous hires were software. Wet-lab work cannot be done remotely. Your candidate pool for a bench role is, with very few exceptions, the set of qualified people who already live within commuting distance of your site or are willing to move house.

UK biotech concentrates heavily around Cambridge, Oxford and the corridor between them, with substantial clusters in Stevenage, London, Manchester and central Scotland. If your site is in one of those, you are competing hard but from a real local pool. If it is not, relocation is not an edge case in your process — it is your process, and the advert needs to treat it as such by saying what support exists rather than leaving candidates to ask.

What the market is paying

Ranges vary more by modality and by regulated status than by job title, which makes cross-company comparison unusually difficult for candidates and unusually easy to get wrong when budgeting. The figures below are what employers are advertising on this board, which is a firmer basis than sector survey averages that blend discovery and manufacturing.

Say whether the work is regulated, and say it early

Regulated experience is the single largest filter in this sector, in both directions: candidates who have it look for roles that use it, and candidates who do not will skip an advert that demands it. Requiring it when the work does not call for it is one of the most expensive mistakes available to a biotech hiring manager, and it is made constantly. There is more on which standard applies to what, and what each one costs you, in GxP experience and what it costs to ask for.

Be straight about funding and contract type

A large share of biotech work is grant-funded or tied to a programme with a defined end, and candidates in this sector have usually been on the wrong end of that at least once. They are not put off by a fixed term — they are put off by discovering it late. An advert that states the term, the funding position and what happens if the programme continues will out-convert one that stays quiet and hopes.

1. 1

   State the contract type in the advert

   Permanent, fixed-term or programme-funded, with the length. Candidates plan around this and will find out anyway.

2. 2

   Say what the realistic path is

   If fixed terms at your organisation usually convert or extend, say so and say how often. If they do not, say that instead — it costs you fewer candidates than being vague.

3. 3

   Price the insecurity

   A two-year post competing against permanent roles in the same cluster has to offer something in exchange, whether that is money, modality experience or named equipment.

Before you publish

Where to look first

Comparable adverts in the same cluster are the fastest way to calibrate both the range and the language before writing your own.