As a leader of a biotech firm, you’ll know that scaling your teams is an ever-present challenge, as need to balance team growth, while sticking to a budget that can feel constricting.

The pace of innovation, the need for specialised expertise, and the unpredictable nature of R&D make every hiring decision you make critical, especially during the early stages of growth.

Leaders and hiring teams need to carefully plan their hiring strategies to ensure that talent acquisition aligns with their organisation’s growth trajectory and existing skills gaps.

Two Approaches to Hiring Milestones

This guide will explore two approaches founders can use as benchmarks when making hires for biotech organisations:

  • Scaling based on product development milestones
  • Scaling based on investment rounds

Both strategies have their advantages, and understanding how they intersect can help leadership teams navigate the complex process of growing their biotech teams.

Why Timing is Everything

Hiring the right people at the right time is crucial for success; hire too early, and you risk burning through capital; but if you wait too long, you may delay critical development or miss market opportunities. This guide will help biotech leaders like you, understand when to make key hires to ensure you can scale your biotech organisation efficiently and strategically.

Letting Development Lead Hiring

First, we’ll look at some typical milestones for hiring you can follow based on the development of your biotech products, looking at what hires are needed at each stage from conception to mass-market rollout.

1) Establishing The Founding Team

The journey of a biotech organisation often begins with a strong founding team. These early leaders set the company’s vision, drive R&D, and build the initial strategy. At this stage, having a skilled CEO, Chief Science Officer (CSO), and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) or other technical founders is essential to provide direction and build investor confidence.

2) Initial Hires to Begin Development

Once the vision and strategy are in place, it’s time to bring in scientific and technical staff to initiate product development. Research, analysis, and key science functions will be vital in turning the initial concept into a tangible product. Their work forms the backbone of your product pipeline.

3) Expansion as Development Shows Progress

As product development advances, it’s important to expand your team to include clinical teams (or secure a partner to outsource clinical trials), as well as regulatory and legal functions. With a complex regulatory landscape in biotech, having compliance officers, quality assurance specialists, and legal consultants is crucial to navigate the product’s development safely and efficiently.

4) Hires As Development Nears Completion

As the product nears completion, the focus for new hires should shift towards building operations and commercial functions. Hiring operations managers, logistics teams, business development professionals, and marketing staff will be key to preparing the product for market launch.

5) Creating Teams for Product Launch

For a successful product launch, you’ll need additional hires to scale distribution, marketing, and commercial efforts. This phase is critical, as it requires a strong commercial sales team, compliance specialists, marketing experts, and customer support staff to ensure the product reaches the market effectively and maintains a competitive edge.

6) Scaling for Product Maintenance

After launching, maintaining the product’s quality and compliance is essential. Customer support, distribution and product managers will play an ongoing role in ensuring the product meets regulatory requirements and customer expectations.

7) Reinvesting in R&D To Develop New Products

As your organisation grows and your first product stabilises, it’s time to reinvest in R&D. Expanding the R&D function with additional product development managers, innovation officers, and scientists will allow you to diversify your offerings and explore new market opportunities.

Letting Investment Lead Hiring

Now, we’ll look at how biotech organisations can let investment stages lead their hiring decisions, showing how your strategies should change as your organisation receives funding.

1) Pre-Seed Investment

At the pre-seed stage, the focus is on the core team. With limited capital, hiring is typically confined to essential technical specialists who can move the initial concept forward. Founders may also take on multiple roles, driving early-stage development while seeking seed funding.

2) Seed Investment

With seed funding secured, it’s time to expand the team to accelerate product development. This is the phase where you build key science and research functions, while also bringing in regulatory consultants to lay the groundwork for later stages of product testing and development.

3) Series A

After securing Series A funding, organisations should further expand to support clinical trials, product development, and market preparation. Critical hires at this stage include clinical functions, regulatory and compliance officers, and professionals in marketing and business development. It’s important to understand, at this stage of funding, investors may push to install an experienced CEO to oversee the organisation.

4) Series B

As you approach Series B funding, the focus shifts to scaling your product and penetrating the market. This stage typically requires operational hires like supply chain specialists, commercial teams, and operations managers to ensure your product can reach customers efficiently.

5) Series C

With Series C funding in place, the company is likely preparing for rapid growth and international expansion. At this stage, it’s important to bring in legal, compliance, and market-specific experts to support your entry into new regions and manage the complexities of international business.

6) IPO

When a biotech company is preparing for an IPO, the focus shifts to financial management, corporate governance, and investor relations. Hiring a Chief Financial Officer (CFO), investor relations specialists, and a robust legal team will ensure that the company is ready to meet the demands of going public.

Aligning Hiring with Key Milestones

Scaling a biotech organisation requires careful alignment between hiring and the organisation’s growth milestones. Whether you’re letting product development or investment stages lead your hiring strategy, making the right hires at the right time can determine the success of your organisation.

If you’re a biotech leader ready to scale your teams, whether you’re expanding your R&D division, bringing in new regulatory functions or scaling your business development, HLX Life Sciences can help you connect with the specialised talent needed to take your company to the next level.

Contact us today to learn more about our tailored recruitment services for the life sciences industry.