Biotech executive search

Retained search for biotech companies building their own leadership, from a first clinical program through commercial launch. Research, development, operations and commercial, from vice president to C‑suite.

Key roles we place ↓

Overview

What we do in Biotech

Metric Bio places senior and executive leaders inside biotech companies, from a first clinical program through commercial launch. These are the businesses that buy from CDMOs and CROs, and they are hiring the people who will run that relationship from the other side. Searches are retained and run from vice president through C-suite.

A biotech hires differently at every stage. The head of manufacturing who gets a company through Phase 2 is not usually the person who will run commercial supply three years later, and hiring for the second when you need the first is expensive. We start from where the company actually is rather than where the org chart says it is going.

Roles

The roles we place in Biotech

Chief Scientific Officer Research strategy and pipeline leadership.
Chief Medical Officer Clinical development, regulatory strategy and medical affairs.
VP Manufacturing Internal and outsourced supply, clinical through commercial.
Head of Biometrics Biostatistics, programming and data leadership across the clinical program.
VP Clinical Development Program design and delivery across the pipeline.
Head of Quality GxP quality across research, clinical and supply.
VP Commercial Launch planning, market access and the first commercial team.
Chief Business Officer Partnering, licensing and corporate development.
Chief Operating Officer Operational leadership through funding rounds and scale.

+ many others

Within this sector

What Biotech covers

Clinical Stage

Leadership for companies moving a first asset through the clinic.

Commercial Stage

Launch and post launch leadership across supply, access and field teams.

Technical Operations

Manufacturing, CMC and the management of outsourced supply.

Platform & Discovery

Research leadership in companies built around a technology rather than one asset.

Market

Hiring in Biotech right now

Funding has been harder to raise, and biotech hiring has changed shape because of it. Boards are hiring later, hiring fewer people, and expecting each one to carry more. A VP who would once have arrived with a team behind them is now expected to do the work as well as lead it.

That has made track record matter more than title. The people who get hired are the ones who have been through the specific transition the company is facing, whether that is a first IND, a first approval or a first commercial launch. Everyone else is a harder sell to a board watching runway.

For a hiring plan it means starting earlier than feels comfortable. The candidates worth having are usually mid program somewhere and will not move quickly, and a company that opens the search once the need is urgent has already lost the ones who would have been best.

Insights

Biotech leaders, in their own words

Marie Leblanc · Biosynth · CDMO Career Stories Podcast

All episodes →

Common questions

Biotech hiring questions

The questions clients ask most often before briefing a biotech search.

How long does a biotech leadership search take?

We work to seven days to a shortlist on most briefs. How long the search takes after that depends on the role and on notice periods, so we set out a realistic timeline with you at the start.

Do you work retained or contingent?

Retained. Our biotech consultants have spent years building relationships in this market, so most shortlists start from people we already know, and talent mapping, backed by our marketing reach, covers the rest of the market so nobody credible gets missed. Retained is what lets us give that kind of time to one brief.

Do you place below vice president?

Our focus is vice president and above, but we do take on director and senior manager searches where the role is critical, such as a head of regulatory affairs approaching a first submission, or a manufacturing lead running outsourced supply. What matters is whether it is a hire you cannot afford to get wrong.

We are pre-revenue. Will senior people take the risk?

Often, yes, if the story holds up. The people worth hiring at this stage tend to be motivated by the science and the equity rather than the base, and they will do their own diligence on the runway and the data before they talk to you seriously. Our job is to get that information in front of them early. The candidates who walk away at offer stage usually walk away over something they could have been told in week one.