Medtech executive search

Retained search across medical devices and diagnostics, from development and regulatory through manufacturing and commercial. Vice president to C‑suite.

Key roles we place ↓

Overview

What we do in Medtech

Metric Bio places senior and executive leaders across medical devices and diagnostics, from early development through commercial scale. That covers device manufacturers, IVD and diagnostics businesses, and the companies that supply them. Searches are retained and run from vice president through C-suite.

Regulation sets the pace in Medtech more than in most of life sciences. A company moving a Class III device through submission and a diagnostics business preparing for a new framework are both hiring against a deadline they do not control. Most of the early work in these searches goes on deciding which experience actually transfers, because on paper a lot of it looks the same.

Roles

The roles we place in Medtech

VP Research & Development Device and diagnostic development leadership through launch.
Head of Regulatory Affairs Submissions, FDA relationships and approval strategy.
VP Quality Quality systems, design control and post market surveillance.
VP Operations Manufacturing, supply chain and site leadership.
Chief Commercial Officer Sales, marketing and market access across territories.
Head of Clinical Affairs Clinical evidence, trials and post market studies.
Director of Engineering Design, systems and sustaining engineering leadership.
VP Market Access & Reimbursement Payer strategy, health economics and coding.
Chief Technology Officer Technology strategy across a device or diagnostics portfolio.

+ many others

Within this sector

What Medtech covers

Medical Devices

Class II and Class III device leadership, from development through manufacture.

Diagnostics & IVD

Assay, instrument and laboratory diagnostics leadership.

Regulatory & Quality

The leadership that carries submissions, audits and post market obligations.

Commercial & Market Access

Sales, marketing and the reimbursement work that decides whether a product sells.

Market

Hiring in Medtech right now

Dealmaking is shaping Medtech hiring. Acquisitions have picked up while venture funding stays tight, so more companies are buying growth than building it. That puts a premium on leaders who have integrated an acquisition, scaled operations after one, or taken a new technology to market.

Regulatory and quality leadership is where competition is sharpest. The FDA’s move to the Quality Management System Regulation has changed what a quality system has to show, and AI enabled devices need software regulatory experience that few people have yet. The strongest candidates are rarely on the market, so most of these hires are made through a confidential approach.

Our advice is to define the role by what it has to deliver, weigh potential alongside direct experience, and start early, before the need becomes urgent.

Common questions

Medtech hiring questions

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

How long does a Medtech 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 Medtech 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 submission, or a quality lead preparing for an audit. What matters is whether it is a hire you cannot afford to get wrong.

Do you cover diagnostics as well as devices?

Yes. In practice they behave as separate markets, because assay and instrument development is a different discipline from device engineering and the candidates rarely move between the two.