The pace of innovation in biotech hasn’t slowed. If anything, it’s accelerated, with breakthroughs in genomics, AI-led discovery, and therapeutic development moving faster than most hiring teams can keep up with. But as science surges ahead, the people's side of the business has hit a wall.
In 2025, the biggest hiring challenge in biotech isn’t headcount. It’s infrastructure.
Companies know they need to scale across borders — to access expertise, move faster on trials, and enter new markets. But hiring internationally has become harder to do safely. Labour laws, IP rules, trial regulations and employment classification issues have created a compliance landscape that’s fragmented and high-stakes. Getting it wrong means risk. Getting it right takes resources many teams don’t have.
This post looks at what’s really happening in global biotech hiring right now — where teams are being built, what kinds of roles are being filled, and how the most agile companies are solving for speed and compliance.
The biotech hiring market in 2025: what’s really going on
There’s a lot of noise in the market about global workforces and remote teams — but biotech hiring doesn’t follow the same patterns as tech or fintech. It’s more grounded, more regulated, and more tied to physical environments like labs, trial sites, and clinical networks.
Remote roles are limited
Fully remote roles in biotech are now rare — accounting for less than 10% of postings. While flexibility still exists in fields like data science, medical affairs, and regulatory writing, lab-based and clinical teams are overwhelmingly location-based.
Hybrid teams exist, but they’re still the exception.
Some biotech functions can now be run in a distributed way, particularly admin, IT, and product management. But for core scientific and clinical roles, hiring is still tied to geographic hubs. Cambridge, Boston, San Diego, and Basel continue to dominate.
Hiring is more selective but still urgent.
Companies have slowed hiring overall, due to tighter budgets and clinical delays. But the roles that are being filled are often mission-critical. Regulatory leads, trial designers, bioinformatics specialists and R&D project heads remain in high demand — and the consequences of a bad or delayed hire are higher than ever.
Cross-border hiring is increasing but it’s tightly managed
International hiring is no longer experimental. It’s operational. Biotech companies need a reliable partner that also provides flexibility. Companies are increasingly using Employer of Record (EOR) solutions to hire internationally without setting up legal entities. This enables fast, compliant hiring in key markets, particularly where the risk of missteps is high.
Where biotech companies are hiring now and why
Drawing on hiring data from Omnipresent’s platform — alongside broader labour market and regulatory insights. These are five of the most strategically active markets for biotech hiring in 2025. Each offers a different balance of capability, compliance, and speed.
United Kingdom
The UK continues to be one of the most popular destinations for global biotech hiring — accounting for more than 30% of international hires on the Omnipresent platform in the past year.
Companies are using the UK to fill senior scientific and leadership roles, such as Chief Scientific Officer, VP of R&D Project Management, and Associate Director of In Vitro Biology. They’re also hiring for regionally focused commercial roles, including Territory Manager for Northern Europe.
What makes the UK stand out is the combination of deep technical talent, access to EMA and MHRA regulatory frameworks, and strong legal protections for IP and employment. It’s also relatively simple to hire into, especially when supported by an EOR model that handles payroll, contracts and benefits administration compliantly.
United States
Despite its high costs and competitive hiring environment, the US remains central to biotech hiring — particularly for companies seeking market traction, trial oversight, or commercial leadership. It’s unsurprising that it came in second in our hiring data, comprising just over 18% of global hires.
Omnipresent’s data shows that most hiring in the US centres on business development roles: Head of BD, Territory Director, and Commercial Manager posts that support expansion and visibility in the world’s largest biotech market.
Rather than setting up local entities, many global companies are now using EORs to employ US-based staff quickly and legally — giving them access to the market without the drag of incorporation or cross-border legal complexity.
Portugal
Portugal is emerging as a smart alternative for biotech companies looking to build remote-capable, technically skilled teams in the EU — without the cost and complexity of larger markets. It currently comprises 9% of global hires for biotech roles and is the third most popular country in our dataset.
Hiring here tends to focus on product leadership and technical support functions. Recent roles include Senior Product Manager and specialists in computational biology and regulatory documentation. The appeal lies in Portugal’s affordability, talent quality, and simplicity of employment compliance.
It’s especially popular among scale-ups and clinical-stage companies looking to extend their operational footprint without overstretching their legal or HR resources.
Germany
Germany remains a critical part of many biotech companies’ EU strategy, not least because of its strength in diagnostics, manufacturing, and regulatory science. It’s the fourth largest country in our dataset.
Hiring here often involves commercial and operational leadership roles, such as Territory Manager for Central Europe, or regionally focused clinical operations leads. The challenge in Germany is not talent: it’s complexity. Labour laws are more prescriptive, benefits entitlements are formalised, and payroll systems can be more intricate.
That’s where EOR support becomes particularly valuable. It enables companies to access German talent without needing to untangle the compliance landscape themselves — reducing both time to hire and legal exposure.
Italy
Italy is seeing a quiet uptick in biotech hiring, especially in scientific leadership and commercial roles. Recent hires via Omnipresent include Sales Managers and Associate Directors of Analytical Development.
The country offers strong technical talent in formulation, diagnostics, and research-heavy disciplines, as well as a growing base of EU-facing commercial professionals. While employment law can be more regionally complex, hiring costs are generally lower than in northern Europe — making Italy an increasingly strategic option for companies looking to diversify their EU footprint.
Biotech’s compliance challenge: why global hiring is still high-risk
Hiring across borders may be essential — but in biotech, it’s never low-risk. The margin for error is narrow, and the cost of mistakes is high.
The most common challenges we see include:
- Misclassification and employment risk: lab-based or regulated roles often can’t be safely contracted. Misclassifying employees can lead to fines, disputes, or halted work.
- IP and confidentiality concerns: scientific and clinical roles often involve sensitive data. Without jurisdiction-specific protections, companies risk losing control over proprietary knowledge.
- Benefits, taxes and statutory entitlements: these vary significantly by country — and errors can mean backdated liabilities or local enforcement issues.
- Trial site compliance: in many regions, staff associated with clinical trials must be locally employed with documented employment status — something many companies can’t manage in-house.
- Time-to-hire and onboarding delays: internal legal teams are often not equipped to move quickly across multiple markets, leading to missed opportunities or delayed programme milestones.
For biotech companies, this isn’t theoretical. These risks have direct implications for clinical operations, fundraising confidence, IP value, and regulatory standing.
How Omnipresent supports biotech companies hiring globally
Omnipresent enables biotech companies to hire international talent without opening foreign entities — and without taking on unnecessary risk.
As an Employer of Record, we take on the legal responsibility for employment in each country, ensuring your team is compliant from day one. Our support includes:
- Legally compliant, localised employment contracts and onboarding
- Country-specific benefits, payroll, taxes and leave management
- Clear IP assignment and confidentiality protections
- Support for roles tied to regulated functions (GxP, trial sites, compliance)
- Worker classification guidance and conversion where needed
- Fast onboarding — even in traditionally slow-to-hire markets
This isn’t just about admin. For biotech companies, it’s about enabling compliant scientific and commercial progress. One clinical-stage biotech recently used Omnipresent to hire a Chief Scientific Officer in the UK, a regulatory lead in Germany, and a Senior Product Manager in Portugal — all within 30 days, without opening a single local entity.
That kind of speed and coverage is hard to replicate in-house — especially in a sector where timelines, audits, and filings don’t wait.
