The pharmaceutical and life sciences industry has been undergoing a transformation driven by rapid technological change, demographic shifts, regulatory complexity, and globalisation over the last five years. This shift is especially visible in areas like data science, clinical development, regulatory affairs and digital trials, where the pace of progress demands both depth and flexibility. As organisations respond to faster product cycles and increasingly specialised needs, pharma companies are not behind. Capability-based hiring is becoming central to how they build and manage their teams.
To support this, many companies are deploying focused hiring teams for specific functions such as clinical operations, safety monitoring, and product launch support. These teams, often structured through modular partnerships, allow organisations to access niche talent and expertise at speed without having the need to have a long-term Talent acquisition team. This approach has helped reduce time to hire by 33 per cent and cost to hire by 36 per cent, which is especially valuable when hiring delays risk impacting regulatory timelines or market readiness.
RPOs and Embedded Talent Partners Are Enabling Agility
Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) firms and embedded talent partners are playing a growing role in helping pharma companies stay responsive to shifting demands. By acting as integrated extensions of internal HR teams, these partners are improving hiring speed, ensuring consistency in experience and enabling access to global candidate pools. Their involvement is especially effective in supporting high-growth or expansion markets, where internal teams may not have the capacity or reach.
New Talent Pools Are Emerging in Tier 2 and 3 Cities
Digital infrastructure and hybrid work models have opened access to wider talent pools. Companies are now hiring from tier 2 and 3 cities to meet the demand for roles in clinical research, pharmacovigilance and quality assurance. These regions offer a stable and often cost-effective talent base.
In markets like India and across Southeast Asia, smaller cities are producing job-ready candidates across various life sciences functions. Companies are investing in onboarding processes and digital tools that make it easier to integrate remote hires into core teams. This approach reduces cost pressures, diversifies operations, and builds resilience across delivery locations.
Niche R&D Roles
Scientific innovation is driving demand for specialised roles in precision medicine, real-world evidence, synthetic biology and drug-device combinations. These profiles require rare cross-disciplinary expertise and are limited in availability across global markets.
To meet this need, organisations are moving beyond passive recruitment. Passive recruitment focuses on engaging professionals who aren't actively job hunting but may be open to the right opportunity. It involves reaching out to experienced candidates with in-demand skills, often through targeted outreach or executive search, especially for senior or specialised roles. This effort is supported by stronger employer positioning in research and academic networks.
R&D hiring has become highly strategic. Lead times are longer, expectations are higher and the opportunity cost of vacant roles is significant.
Talent Development Is Becoming a Business Priority
Pharma companies are placing greater emphasis on internal talent development. In functions such as digital trials and data-focused research, upskilling existing employees is proving both practical and cost-efficient. Organisations like BMS and Sanofi are equipping scientists with data competencies and enabling transitions into adjacent roles. This reduces dependency on constant external hiring and strengthens long-term capability from within.
Workforce Planning Is Moving Upstream
As recruitment becomes more data-enabled, companies are strengthening their workforce planning capabilities. Rather than reacting to attrition or growth cycles, hiring teams are anticipating talent needs aligned with evolving clinical and commercial strategies. Scenario-based planning is helping align hiring with business development timelines, reduce mismatch and improve execution speed. This makes recruitment more predictive and better integrated with overall business planning. 58 per cent of recruiters and HR decision-makers understand how strategising is driving the results and thus, already use tools, including AI, to augment their current recruitment technology stack, further supporting these forward-looking approaches.
Automation and Analytics Are Making Recruitment More Predictable
Recruitment is becoming more data-driven. With hiring cycles under constant pressure, companies are turning to automation to handle routine tasks and using analytics to guide decision-making.
Screening tools, virtual interview platforms and candidate matching systems are helping improve quality and consistency. Predictive analytics supports workforce planning by modelling future demand based on business scenarios and clinical timelines.
Today, 65 per cent of companies report using artificial intelligence in hiring decisions. These tools have helped reduce recruitment costs by up to 30 per cent and saved recruiters an average of 15 hours per week.
The global AI recruitment market is currently valued at $661.56 million, with enterprise adoption expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.78 per cent between 2023 and 2030. Metrics such as time-to-offer, 12-month retention and cost-per-hire are being used as critical indicators of hiring effectiveness. These measures enable talent teams to continuously improve delivery outcomes and stay aligned with business objectives.
APAC in Global Talent Strategy
Asia Pacific continues to shape the global pharmaceutical hiring landscape. The region has seen significant growth in manufacturing, R&D investments and early-stage partnerships. As a result, local hiring activity has become a strong indicator of global industry momentum.
A study of 900+ pharma companies across 14 countries in APAC revealed that firms with strong innovation scores also showed higher talent maturity and hiring capability. These companies were more effective at linking workforce planning to development strategy.
A leading pharma company alone posted 10,170 jobs in Q2 2024, accounting for 38 per cent of total pharma hiring activity across the region. This level of activity reflects how APAC markets are becoming hubs for specialised talent development and scientific advancement.
Evolving Organisational Design
As pharma hiring becomes more decentralised, companies are rethinking how recruitment teams are structured and governed. Central talent acquisition hubs are now being supplemented with regional or business-unit-aligned recruiters who understand local needs. This distributed approach allows organisations to respond faster to role-specific requirements without sacrificing process consistency.
To manage complexity, companies are building shared frameworks that define hiring principles, candidate experience standards and data practices across teams. This balance between autonomy and alignment is essential for companies that operate across multiple therapeutic areas, product types and geographies. It also strengthens accountability at the hiring manager level, which supports better planning and ownership of workforce outcomes.
What’s Shaping How Pharma Attracts Talent?
Top talent in pharma is not just chasing salaries. They are drawn to companies where the work has meaning, the culture is authentic, and the path ahead is clear. For candidates in scientific and digital roles, who often have multiple options, these factors influence where they choose to invest their time and skills.
Pharma companies are responding by refining how they communicate their mission, culture and career development pathways during the hiring process. Employer brand presence across digital platforms, transparency in interview timelines and personalised candidate engagement have become important differentiators. This shift has helped increase acceptance rates in critical functions where delays or offer declines can set back key milestones.
The Next Phase
Hiring in the pharmaceutical sector is moving toward a more structured, strategic, and insight-led approach. Companies that once relied on fixed job roles and centralised processes are now building systems that respond to variable demand, geographic expansion and advanced scientific needs.
Skills-based evaluation, modular hiring models, internal development, and workforce planning are now central to recruitment strategies. These are not temporary adjustments. They are defining the next phase of workforce planning in pharma.
Roop Kaistha, Regional Managing Director-APAC, AMS, Singapore
