Sales and marketing recruitment inPharma & Life Sciences
Recruitment for commercial roles across pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, diagnostics, medical devices, healthcare technology, laboratory services and life-science suppliers.
Recent result
Native-language Brand Manager appointed to lead a key international market.
£147bn
UK life-sciences turnover
96,848
Ireland pharmaceutical & medical technology employment, 2025
In Pharma & Life Sciences, a product can be clinically valuable, approved and even funded in principle and still be a long way from routine use.
There may still be questions around diagnosis, referral, budgets, procurement, staffing, training, service capacity or where the product actually fits within an existing pathway. Approval can make adoption possible without making it happen. That changes what strong commercial experience looks like.
Salespeople may need to understand far more than the person prescribing or buying the product. They learn how clinical, pharmacy, procurement, finance, commissioning and operational decisions connect, and where something that looks commercially promising can still become stuck.
Marketing works within the same system. It has to translate complex evidence accurately, support different audiences with different information needs and help create confidence around not only what a product does, but where and how it can realistically be used.
Live roles in Pharma & Life Sciences
All jobsNo Pharma & Life Sciences roles are advertised right now. Most of our searches never are, so register and we'll call you when the right one comes up.
Register in confidenceWhat do employers look for in Pharma & Life Sciences Sales & Marketing professionals?
Scientific credibility, stakeholder complexity, procurement, evidence and regulatory boundaries are important distinctions in this sector.
Consideration
Regulatory & Market Context
Pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, diagnostics, medical devices and healthcare technology operate under different regulatory, approval and market-access conditions. Strong professionals understand the boundaries relevant to the product and can work credibly within them.
Take these into your next interview. A free hiring checklist for Pharma & Life Sciences.
Get the checklistRoles we recruit in Pharma & Life Sciences
Sales
Sales that earn clinical confidence
Commercial Director
Leads commercial strategy across products, territories and stakeholder groups while coordinating sales with medical, regulatory, market-access and operational teams.
National Sales Manager
Leads field or specialist sales teams, setting territory priorities, coaching performance and ensuring activity remains accurate, compliant and commercially focused.
Key Account Manager
Develops complex institutional or strategic accounts involving clinicians, procurement, payers, laboratories, distributors or healthcare decision-makers.
Business Development Director
Builds partnerships, licensing opportunities, service contracts or new-market growth through evidence-led propositions and disciplined stakeholder engagement.
Medical Device or Diagnostics Sales Specialist
Explains technical and clinical value, supports evaluation and adoption, and manages the practical buying process across healthcare or laboratory environments.
What employers look for in sales
Employers may be looking for someone who can:
• Understand the whole decision system. The clinician who values a product may not control the budget, procurement process, pathway or implementation.
• Recognise the difference between access and adoption. National approval, reimbursement or a framework agreement does not automatically create local use.
• Translate evidence into commercial relevance. Clinical evidence needs to answer practical questions about patient groups, resources, budgets and service impact.
• Navigate complex accounts. Specialist and hospital environments can involve clinicians, pharmacists, procurement, finance, service managers, commissioners and other stakeholders.
• Understand local variation. Different systems and accounts can have different priorities, capacity, pathways and decision processes.
• Stay with an opportunity through implementation. In some markets the commercial work continues well beyond a positive buying or access decision.
Procurement is a good example. Winning a place on a framework can mean that an organisation can buy the product. It does not create the clinical champion, budget priority, implementation resource or workflow needed for adoption.
Marketing
Marketing that communicates value responsibly
Marketing Director
Sets portfolio and market strategy within regulatory boundaries, aligning evidence, positioning, stakeholder needs and commercial priorities.
Product Manager
Owns the commercial plan for a product or portfolio, coordinating market insight, positioning, launches, campaigns and sales support.
Market Access Manager
Develops the value case and stakeholder strategy needed to secure reimbursement, pathway access, institutional approval or broader adoption.
Healthcare Communications Manager
Creates accurate, audience-appropriate communications for healthcare professionals, patients, customers or partners through compliant channels.
Digital Marketing Manager
Plans measurable digital engagement across professional, patient or B2B audiences while maintaining approval, privacy and regulatory standards.
What employers look for in marketing
The stronger Pharma & Life Sciences marketers tend to:
• Understand the evidence properly. They know what can reasonably be claimed and where the limitations sit.
• Translate complexity without distorting it. Scientific and economic information has to remain accurate while still being understandable and relevant.
• Communicate differently to different audiences. Clinicians, payers, procurement teams, patients and other stakeholders do not need the same information.
• Understand the access environment. Positioning can be commercially strong and still fail if reimbursement, pathway or implementation barriers have been ignored.
• Think about launch as more than a campaign date. Evidence, market access, field readiness, stakeholder understanding and implementation can begin long before formal launch.
• Work effectively across functions. Marketing frequently sits alongside Medical, Regulatory, Market Access, Sales and Commercial teams.
Marketing in this sector is not simply about making technical information sound attractive. It has to communicate specialist value without oversimplifying it or stepping beyond what the evidence supports.
Restrictions on claims make precision more important, not Marketing less strategic.
Same CV. Different Capability.
Pharma & Life Sciences is particularly good at producing similar-looking CVs from very different commercial environments.
Two Key Account Managers may both show hospital accounts, clinical relationships and product growth.
One may work with an established portfolio inside clear access and prescribing pathways; another may operate in a specialist therapy where they need to understand clinical evidence, formulary, funding, referral barriers and several stakeholders before adoption is possible.
The title is the same, but the scientific, stakeholder and access complexity can be very different.
Professional A
Key Account Manager
- Works within clear access and prescribing pathways
- Builds strong clinician and account relationships
- Drives uptake in a well-understood market
Professional B
Key Account Manager
- Manages complex specialist accounts
- Maps clinical, funding and referral barriers
- Works through implementation before adoption becomes possible
- Coordinates pharmacy, finance and service stakeholders
We find out which one you need. Brief a role
Case study
Pharmaceutical business needed a Brand Manager for a niche product in an international market.
The product required careful positioning, so we focused on professionals who could understand its real-world value and communicate that effectively across markets. The search produced several strong professionals with relevant international experience.
Native-language Brand Manager appointed to lead a key international market.
The Pharma & Life Sciences Economy
€211bn
Ireland pharma & medtech sales of goods, 2025
THE UK PICTURE:
The UK Life Sciences sector generates around £147 billion in turnover and employs approximately 360,000 people. Pharmaceutical manufacturing generated £20.4 billion in real-terms GVA in 2023, while pharmaceutical exports were worth £24.7 billion in 2024. (UK Government)
THE IRISH PICTURE:
Ireland has an exceptionally large Life Sciences sector. Medical and pharmaceutical exports reached €138.6 billion in 2025, representing 53.2% of all Irish goods exports. Around 100,000 people work across pharmaceuticals, biopharma and medical technology. (Central Statistics Office; IDA Ireland) Commercial conditions vary considerably. A medicine, specialist therapy, diagnostic platform or medical device can involve very different evidence requirements, customers, access routes and buying processes.
Building your Sales & Marketing career in Pharma & Life Sciences
Progression often means moving from understanding the product towards understanding more of the system around it.
SALES
Sales careers may begin in medical sales, territory management, business development or individual accounts before progressing into key accounts, strategic accounts, commercial leadership or roles with greater exposure to Market Access.
In some environments that progression means managing larger customers or territories.
In more complex specialist markets, it can mean something different: becoming better at mapping accounts, understanding patient pathways, identifying where access is blocked and coordinating several stakeholders around the same commercial objective.
Experience across primary care, secondary care, specialty, diagnostics, medtech and distributor-led markets can therefore develop quite different judgement.
Senior commercial professionals increasingly need to understand both the opportunity for the product and the practical conditions required for adoption.
MARKETING
Marketing careers can begin across Brand, Product, Digital, Communications or individual therapeutic areas.
With greater responsibility comes more involvement in launch strategy, evidence, positioning, market access, stakeholder understanding and cross-functional planning.
A more senior marketer may be working well before promotional materials are required, helping the organisation understand the market, anticipate access barriers and decide what evidence or education different audiences are likely to need.
Marketing also works closely with Medical Affairs, Regulatory, Clinical Development, Sales and Commercial leadership, with structured approval and longer planning cycles forming part of the working environment.
That experience is difficult to infer from a title alone.
For employers
For employers, we look beyond the obvious company, therapeutic area and job-title match and spend time understanding the products, stakeholders, evidence, access environment and commercial responsibility behind someone's experience.
Discuss a Sales or Marketing HireFor professionals
For professionals, we help make sense of the experience you have built, what you have actually learned to navigate and where that could be valuable next.
Register Your InterestHiring in Pharma & Life Sciences? Most briefs take one 20 minute call.
Book the call